Creation of various tariff types enables easy control and identification of the rates that are charged to various different groups of customers. When Hire groups are created, different scales of rental charges may be set against each tariff type that is created against the hire group.
The tariff type also allows the control of where a certain tariff posts into the vehicle accumulator table, (which is found on the marketing vehicle record), which VAT code it attracts, the type of charge that is made, which charge code is used to locate and analyse revenue for the tariff type in the transaction log file and, finally, whether it is defined as a long term rental code.
To access tariff types:
From the Master Menu, select the Vehicle rentals option and Company you require.
The VEHICLE RENTALS menu is displayed.
Select Miscellaneous options.
The MISCELLANEOUS OPTIONS menu is displayed.
Select the Tariff types option.
The Tariff types form is displayed.
The Tariff type form is displayed when the Tariff types option is selected from the MISCELLANEOUS OPTIONS menu. From this form you can create and maintain tariff types.
Code: The tariff type code may be one or two characters in length and may be any character in the range 0 to 9 or A to Z.(Upper case and lower case characters are seen as different codes.)
Description: An up to 15-character description of the tariff type.
Tariff Type: The single-character charge type, which must be one of the following:
R: Rental
S: Service
M: Maintenance
L: Long term
The R and L options are used for rental tariffs which are to be charged to the customers. The S and M options are used to hire the vehicles internally. This is important because, when the vehicle is hired on one of these latter types (typically a Workshop Tariff), the marketing vehicle rental details record recognizes that the vehicle is not available for hire; this enables utilisation reports to be more specific in their analysis in that the vehicle was not utilised for given dates because it was in the workshop for service or repair.
Longterm type: This is an extremely important field for the Long Term Invoicing option. When Long term invoicing is run this process first looks to the Tariff Type field within an agreement. If this is set to L then the long term invoicing routine knows to include the agreement in its calculation. However, the next stage of the calculation is to determine what type of long term invoices are to be generated. If Weekly long term invoices are to be produced then the system looks to include only those agreements which have a tariff containing a Longterm type of W. The full list of codes are as follows:
Transaction log code: This is a four-character code that is used to identify this type of tariff charge in the transaction log file. It is user-definable and is not validated once it is entered. It is useful if the selected code conforms to a structure e.g. WLRT to denote Weekly Long Term Rental; this enables more specific analysis of revenue to be achieved within the Transaction log enquiry option.
Minimum days to invoice: Only applicable to long term tariff types. It is provided to allow for 28 day invoicing and to prevent creation of monthly invoices for only a few days hire. If set to 28 days, the Long Term Invoicing option only considers an agreement for invoicing if it is 28 days old or more at the time of invoice generation. Unless the tariff type is a 28 day invoicing tariff then this field should contain a zero value so that all weekly or monthly charges are to be considered each time long term invoicing is run.
Only invoice minimum hire: Used in conjunction with the Minimum days to invoice field. If, for example the Minimum days to invoice field is set to 28 to enforce 28 day invoicing and the Only invoice minimum hire checkbox is ticked then an invoice is generated for 28 days only and not, for example, 28 days plus an additional 3 days. If, as in this example, the agreement has not been invoiced for 31 days then the system only invoices 28 days in this invoice run and the final three days are only generated once the final invoice is produced.
Vehicle accumulator: This is the vehicle accumulator slot number where the charges generated by this tariff type are posted in the vehicle statistics table stored against the vehicle record in the marketing system. The results of the posting can be seen in the rental stats of the rental details record.
The only codes that may be selected here are those which are specified as Sale type codes, or No postings. The codes set up for Expense are not be available for selection.
When setting up tariff types it is expected that the accumulator code for rental sales will be chosen (typically 1).
VAT code: The default VAT code that applies to the tariff type e.g. S
The system required that you create certain tariff codes for specific purposes. You will need the following as a reasonable minimum when you are setting up your system.
Standard Tariff: This is for normal rentals.
Internal Tariff: Used to hire to employees.
Workshop Tariff: Used when the vehicle is serviced or repaired.
Reserve Tariff: Used to reserve a vehicle for a workshop booking swap.
Long Term Tariff: Used for long term rentals.
On entry to the Tariff types option from the Miscellaneous menu a standard file maintenance form is displayed.
To create a new tariff type:
Amend: Select the required tariff using the Next/Previous buttons. After this, the Amend button may be pressed to allow editing of the selected tariff type code.
Note: Users should be careful about amending this, or any other type of code if it is already in use on the system. Agreements which have already been created will not react to changes in the long term invoice type for example; it only affect agreements created after the change. It is sometimes better to check to see if the tariff is being used on any agreements before changes to its set-up are considered.
See the previous section for a description of the individual fields. Users are cautioned not to amend any information which may have been used on a current rental agreement. If information is amended or deleted the affected agreements may not function correctly.
This option enables the deletion of unwanted tariff types. Please be careful when taking this option. Existing agreements that currently use a tariff that has been deleted will not function correctly. On selection of the option, the form prompts for input of the tariff type to be deleted. Use the Next/Previous buttons to find the required tariff type code.
Once the required tariff type is found the Delete button can be pressed. This deletes the selected tariff type record.
Note: A thorough check should be made to ensure that the tariff type is not included in any current hire group codes or is still in use on an open hire agreement.
COMMAND BUTTONS:
Exit: Returns to the MISCELLANEOUS OPTIONS menu.
Help: Displays context-sensitive help using the default browser.
Cancel: Aborts any current edits.