Note: The Loan Vehicle Diary can be accessed from various modules of Autoline, Showroom, Vehicle Stock Books, Workshop within Point-of-Sale, and Bodyshop Estimating.
There are two facilities in My Desktop for working with demonstrator vehicles. These are:
Demonstrator booking: Used to book vehicles for demonstrations and add new loan vehicles
Authorise demonstrator: Used to approve bookings or re-schedule to resolve overlaps. This option is only accessed through CRM, and is not available from the Point-of-Sale modules.
From within the Point-of-Sale, Workshop, and Bodyshop Estimating modules, a facility to book Courtesy vehicles using the same process as demonstration bookings exists.
Courtesy Vehicles: Used to book courtesy bookings. Enables costs to be calculated and recorded against these vehicles
Select the Demonstrator booking option from the Tools menu to display the Loan vehicle Diary form in CRM and Vehicle Stock Books. From Showroom, you can access it by clicking the demo-booking 
button. You can also click the 
button, allowing an immediate demonstration to be carried out on the quote vehicle. The following menu options and toolbar buttons are available, and will vary according to where you are accessing the loan vehicle form from:
Menu Icon Description File > Create vehicle Allows you to search for a vehicle and create onto the Loan vehicle diary File > Exit Returns to the previous form View > Filter... Displays the Loan Vehicle Search Filters form. This allows the list of Loan vehicles to be filtered according to: Registration Number - If the registration does not exist on the Loan Vehicle Diary form, the Quick Vehicle Search form is displayed - Vehicle type; Vehicle group; Branch; Franchise; Model; Transmission; Fuel type, and Active vehicles only? The options available for each are automatically generated based on the branch set for the current user ID. The filter settings are re-set upon exit from the Loan Vehicle Diary Form. View > Period > Daily Displays the Loan vehicle in days. This can be set up as a default for each user in User Access Control, and is recommended for demonstrator bookings. View > Period > Weekly Displays the Loan vehicle in weeks. This can be set up as a default for each user in User Access Control, and is recommended for Courtesy bookings. View > Period > Monthly Displays the Loan vehicle in months. This can be set up as a default for each user in User Access Control. View > View > Vehicle/Group/Branch/Type (If installed) This option allows the Loan vehicle diary to be viewed by Vehicle, Group, Branch or Type (If installed). View > Unit > Bookings/Hours This option allows the Loan vehicle diary to be viewed by Bookings or Hours. Demonstrators > This vehicle This option is only available from the Showroom CRM module, and allows a demonstration to be immediately started. It is displayed only if there is a current CRM vehicle record and a customer has been loaded. Help > Help Displays this help page
BOOKING SUMMARY:
The Booking summary section of the form contains the diary grid, together with further fields for navigating and displaying loan vehicle bookings over time. Each row of the diary grid displays bookings for one loan vehicle. If the number of vehicles exceeds the number of rows in the grid, a scroll bar is displayed.
Click the ellipsis button ... in the Date field to move to any day using a pop-up calendar.
Enter a registration number to display one vehicle in the Loan vehicle grid.
KEY:
The Key displays vehicles in the grid that are booked in:
turquoise - not available in the Point-of-Sale modules
red - the booking has started
yellow - the booking has been approved
cerise - the booking overlaps
dark blue - the booking has been completed
Tip: The customer details for a courtesy car booking can now be displayed when you hover over the booking in the grid. (If installed)
GRID:
Depending on the view of the grid (Daily, Weekly, or Monthly), the following options are available to change the view of the grid:
Click the single left arrow
to view the previous two hours, the previous day, or the previous two weeks, in the Loan vehicle grid.
Click the double left arrow
to view the previous day, the previous two weeks, or the previous month, in the Loan vehicle grid.
Click Today's date
to view the Loan vehicle diary for Today.
Click the double right arrow
to view the next day, the next 2 weeks, or the next month, in the Loan vehicle grid.
Click the single right arrow
to view the next two hours, the next day, or the next two weeks, in the Loan vehicle grid.
Group: Displays the Loan Vehicle Groups of the vehicle. If the option is ticked in Locations this displays groups when first entering the loan vehicle diary. Each group of vehicles can then be drilled into. This is useful for large fleet companies.
Description: Displays the vehicle description
Days: Displays the days for which the Courtesy vehicle has been booked out, and is used for Insurance purposes. This option is not used in CRM, Showroom or Vehicle Stock books.
Regno : Displays the loan vehicle registration number
[Book]: Displays only on the Daily view. This option is not available from Point-of-Sale, and allows for a Sales executive booking or, if a Customer is loaded, a Now booking to be booked, started and completed.
The grid then displays different options on how you are viewing the grid. Daily displays the hours in the grid, Weekly displays in days and Monthly displays the whole month's bookings.
Tip: The customer details for a courtesy car booking can now be displayed when you hover over the booking in the grid. (If installed)
Any bookings against a customer are displayed in a grid at the bottom of the Loan Vehicle Diary. This will be headed Loan Car bookings for [Customer name]:
Date: Displays the date on which the Loan vehicle went out
Time: Displays the time at which the Loan vehicle went out
Stock number: Displays the stock number of the Loan vehicle
Description: Displays the registration number and description of the Loan vehicle
WIP [Status]: Displays the WIP number and WIP status. This information will only be populated when a Courtesy booking in Point-of-Sale has been created.
SO co: Displays the Point-of-Sale company number. This information will only be populated when a Courtesy booking in Point-of-Sale has been created.
Actioned: Displays the date and time when the booking was started
Completed: Displays the date and time when loan vehicle was returned
Cancelled: Displays the date when a loan vehicle was cancelled. This option deletes the booking from the grid.
Note: Within the Point-of-Sale module, a Courtesy Vehicle can only be booked if a customer has been loaded.
The tasks that can be carried out using this form are listed below:
To book a loan vehicle for a customer:
Note: Bookings can only be created for a customer by loading the customer's record first, typically by searching or via the My Customers tab within CRM, Showroom or Point-of-Sale modules. A customer booking cannot be made from the Vehicle Stock books module.
Navigate to the date on which the loan vehicle booking is to occur.
(Bookings cannot be backdated.)
Right-click a time slot in the diary grid, in the row corresponding to the vehicle chosen for the loan vehicle booking.
A context menu is displayed.
Select Customer booking.
If a time slot was selected that has already been booked, the Booking Selection form is displayed. Click the Create new booking option.
The Customer Demonstration Vehicle Booking form or, from within the Point-of-Sale module, the Courtesy Car Booking form, is displayed.
Edit the following fields, as necessary:
Note: The Customer details and Actual details sections of the form cannot be edited at this stage.
You can enter further details about the driver, such as driving licence and insurance information, by selecting Driver from the menu bar, or clicking the 
toolbar button.
To create the booking, select Create from the File menu, or click the 
toolbar button.
If the selected start- or end times overlap with an existing booking, a warning is displayed. To create the booking anyway, click Continue. To adjust the current booking, click Re enter.
For ordinary users within CRM, this is the end of the process. The booking is displayed in the diary grid, colour-coded light blue to signify that it is booked but must be authorised by a user with a sufficiently high priority level. Any such user can authorise a booking, but an electronic mail is also automatically sent to the address specified for the branch to which the booked vehicle is assigned. This is typically the person in charge of authorisation. When a booking has been authorised in the Loan vehicle diary, the grid displays the booking in Yellow.
For users with the priority to authorise, the booking is authorised automatically and colour-coded. The New Contact Form, or Wizard is displayed if a contact code has been specified in System Parameters for confirming demonstrations.
Use the contact form, if displayed, to create a contact and follow-up for the booking. See the instructions in the New Contact Form or New Contact Wizard sections of these help files. Most fields are filled in automatically by the system.
Tip: If the demonstration is booked to take place soon, it may occur before the follow-up date. Depending on your company's working practices, you may wish to set the contact code for the follow-up to XXX to prevent it from being added to your diary in the My Tasks tab, especially if your system is set up to create further contacts when the demonstration is completed.
Note: You can cancel or exit at this stage to create the booking without an associated contact. A warning will be displayed, but only the information entered in the contact form will be lost, not the booking itself.
To create a sales executive booking:
This option is only available from CRM, Showroom, or Vehicle Stock-Books modules and not applicable to Point-of-Sale modules.
Navigate to the date on which the demonstration is to occur.
(Bookings cannot be backdated.)
Right-click a time slot in the diary grid, in the row corresponding to the vehicle chosen for the booking.
A context menu is displayed.
Select Sales exec booking.
If a time slot was selected that has already been booked, the Booking Selection form is displayed. Click the Create new booking option.
The Sales Executive Demonstration Vehicle Booking form is displayed.
Edit the following fields, as necessary:
Note: The Actual details sections of the form cannot be edited at this stage.
To create the booking, select Create from the File menu or click the toolbar button.
If the selected start- or end times overlap with an existing booking, a warning is displayed. To create the booking anyway, click Continue. To adjust the current booking, click Re enter.
The booking displays in the diary grid in turquoise. It is booked, but must be authorised by a user with a higher priority level equal to, or greater than, the value set in System Parameters. Any such user can authorise a booking, but an electronic mail is also automatically sent to the address specified for the branch to which the booked vehicle is assigned. This is typically the person in charge of authorisation.
Note: From within the Showroom CRM module, when a customer and CRM vehicle record has been loaded, a button displays, allowing an immediate demonstration to be started.
To start a demonstration immediately:
Note: The immediate booking facility only exists for customer bookings, and hence is only available if a customer record has been loaded first, typically by searching or via the My Customers tab. Access to this feature is also determined by a user priority setting in System Parameters.
Click a cell in the pink column of the diary grid (containing the text Now) in the row corresponding to the vehicle chosen for demonstrating.
The Customer Demonstration Vehicle Booking form is displayed.
Edit the following fields, as necessary:
Answer the questions in the Customer details section of the form by clicking on each line to toggle the Yes/No field. Up to five questions can be set up for each company in System Parameters. The rest of the Customer Details section cannot be edited at this stage.
You can enter further details about the driver, such as driving licence and insurance information, by selecting Driver from the menu bar or clicking the toolbar button.
To create the booking and start the demonstration, select Start from the File menu, or click the toolbar button.
If the customer's driving licence has not been entered, a warning is displayed. To create the booking anyway, click OK. To enter the licence details, click Cancel and follow the instructions in Step 5 above.
If the selected start- or end times overlap with an existing booking, a warning is displayed. To create the booking anyway, click Continue. To adjust the current booking, click Re enter.
The New Contact Form, or Wizard is displayed if a contact code has been specified in System Parameters for confirming demonstrations.
Use the contact form, if displayed, to create a contact and follow-up for the booking. See the instructions in the New Contact Form or New Contact Wizard sections of these help files. Most fields are filled in automatically by the system.
Tip: Depending on your company's working practices, you may wish to set the contact code for the follow-up to XXX to prevent it from being added to your diary in the My Tasks tab, especially if your system is set up to create further contacts when the demonstration is completed.
Note: You can cancel or exit at this stage to create the booking without an associated contact. A warning will be displayed, but only the information entered in the contact form will be lost, not the booking itself.
The booking is displayed in the diary grid, colour-coded red (Started).
When the demonstration is finished, you must complete the booking.
To amend an existing booking:
Note: Except for users with the priority level to be able to authorise, the only type of booking that can be amended is an approved booking created by the same user. These bookings are colour-coded yellow.
Click a booking.
The Booking Selection form is displayed.
Select the booking to be amended, by clicking on the corresponding line.
The Customer- or Sales Executive Demonstration Vehicle Booking form is displayed or, from Point-of-Sale, the Courtesy Car Booking form.
The following changes can be made:
To cancel the booking, select Cancel booking from the File menu, or click the 
toolbar button.
To re-schedule the booking and/or change any other details:
Select Re-schedule from the File menu or click the 
toolbar button.
The Re-schedule mode is activated. A tick is displayed next to the option on the File menu, and the toolbar button is toggled on (it will have a shaded, or recessed, appearance).
Warning: If the Re-schedule mode is not activated, the booking will be started when you click the toolbar button.
Edit the Time out and Return time fields in the Booking details section of the form, and/or change any other editable fields on the form.
Select Save from the Tools menu or click the toolbar button.
If the booking overlaps with another booking, a warning is displayed. To save the booking anyway, click Continue. To adjust the current booking, click Re enter.
The Loan vehicle diary is updated.
Note: If a contact (and follow-up) was created when the booking was originally created, this will not be changed if the booking is re-scheduled, nor deleted if the booking is cancelled.
To resolve a conflict between overlapping bookings:
Click a cerise (overlap) time slot.
The Booking Selection form is displayed.
If the booking has a blank cell in the Actioned column, it can be amended. Click one of these and follow the instructions above for re-scheduling a booking.
To start a previously booked demonstration:
Click a yellow (Approved) booking in the diary grid.
The Booking Selection form is displayed.
Select the booking to be started, by clicking on the corresponding line.
The Customer- or Sales Executive Demonstration Vehicle form is displayed, or, from Point-of-Sale, the Courtesy Car Booking form.
If the booking being started was created as a customer booking, you can enter further details about the driver, such as driving licence and insurance information, by selecting Driver from the menu bar or clicking the toolbar button.
Select Start from the File menu, or click the toolbar button.
If the customer's driving licence has not been entered, a warning is displayed. To create the booking anyway, click OK. To enter the licence details, click Cancel and follow the instructions in Step 3 above.
If the booking overlaps with another booking, a warning is displayed. To start the booking anyway, click Continue.
The Loan vehicle diary is updated with the previously selected booking now displayed in red (Started).
When the demonstration is finished, you must complete the booking.
To complete a demonstration:
Click a red (Started) booking in the diary grid.
The Booking Selection form is displayed.
Select the booking to be completed, by clicking on the corresponding line.
The Customer, or Sales Executive, Demonstration Vehicle Booking form or, from Point-of-Sale, the Courtesy Car Booking form, is displayed.
Edit the following fields, as necessary:
If the booking being completed was created as a customer booking, you can enter further details about the driver, such as driving licence and insurance information, by selecting Driver from the menu bar or clicking the toolbar button.
Select Complete from the File menu, or click the toolbar button.
If the booking overlaps with another booking, a warning is displayed. Click Continue.
If the booking being completed was created as a customer booking, the New Contact Form or Wizard is displayed if a contact code has been specified in System Parameters for the completion of demonstrations (and unless Loan vehicle diary has been accessed via the Point-of-Sale module).
Use the contact form, if displayed, to create a contact and follow-up for the booking. See the instructions in the New Contact Form or New Contact Wizard sections of these help files. Most fields are filled in automatically by the system. When the contact is saved, another contact form or wizard may be displayed, this time for setting up a Customer Satisfaction follow-up.
Note: You can cancel or exit at this stage to complete the booking without creating associated contact(s). A warning will be displayed, but only the information entered in the contact form will be lost, not the booking itself.
The Loan Vehicle Diary is updated with the previously selected booking displayed in dark blue (Completed).
To print the details of a booking:
Click any existing booking in the diary grid.
The Booking Selection form is displayed.
Select the booking to be completed, by clicking on the corresponding line.
The Customer- or Sales Executive Demonstration Vehicle Booking form is displayed, or, from Point-of-Sale, the Courtesy Car Booking form.
Select Print from the File menu, or click the 
toolbar button.
An Autoline Standard DVB, KLS, or KLR, is sent to the currently configured printer.
To add new vehicles to the list of available Loan vehicles:
Note: Access to Loan vehicle creation is determined by user priority. The priority level required is set in System Parameters.
Click Create vehicle , or select File > Create vehicle from the top tool bar.
The Search form is displayed. Only CRM vehicles at S or D status can be created as new loan vehicles.
The Create Loan Vehicle form is displayed.
Follow the instructions in the Creating and Amending Loan Vehicles section of these help files.
To amend the details of existing loan vehicles:
Note: Access to loan vehicle amending is determined by user priority. The priority level required is set in System Parameters.
Click the vehicle description of the vehicle you require to amend.
The Save Demonstration Booking Vehicle form is displayed.
Follow the instructions in the Creating and Amending Loan Vehicles section of these help files.
