Rental Conversion

This page lists information on converting from another rental system to the TrackAbout Rental Module.

Data Files

Customer Rental Rates

This is a list of all special or contract rental rates for customers. The data that is needed:

Field	Example	Format	Notes
Customer Number	123456	Text, Max 30 char	This is the full customer number. It can contain numbers, letters and special characters
Asset Type	AC100	Text, Max 400 char	This can be whatever is used to organize rental. This is typically a size or part number. Like "HP" for High Pressure or "AR300" for the part number AR300.
Rental Method	Daily	Text, Max 100 char	Daily, Monthly, Peak Daily. Any native codes from accounting system can be used to represent these different rental methods – just indicate to TrackAbout what each code represents. For instance "8" might indicate daily rental.
Rate	0.20	Numeric. Supports 3 points after the decimal	If this rate is 20 cents a day then this field would be 0.20. It's fine, but not necessary to have the extra zeros in this rate like the one before the . or after the 2 in this case. It's also ok to have a dollar sign in here ($) but it is not needed.
Review/Expiration Date	01/01/2015	Date in MM/DD/YYYY format	This is a date at which these rates will be set to be reviewed. Note that in TrackAbout the rates never really 'expire' but a date is stored after which someone should review the rates. If you do not wish to use this feature then set the date to 12/31/2050
Notes	Rates negotiated by Steve	Text, Max 2000 chars	Any special notes or comments on this rate. Leave blank if not used

Customer Balances

This file contains the current asset balances/counts for customers. Typically this is the data for the start/end of a month.

Field	Example	Format	Notes
Customer Number	123456	Text, Max 30 char	This is the full customer number. It can contain numbers, letters and special characters.
Product Code	AC100	Text, Max 52 char	This is commonly called the Item Number, Part Number, Stock Number or Gas Code in some systems. If this code is broken into two parts, both parts are needed here.
Current Balance	5	Integer	Number of assets of this type with this customer. Negative balances are ok for Exchange type assets.

Indicate in the name of the file the date that this file is accurate. This is typically the start or end of a month. So a good name for this file would be CylinderBalances_EndofFeb2010.txt

If a customer has multiple Product Codes, then repeat the Customer Number on each line. So a simple example might look like:

123456  AC100  5
123456  OX100  3
129999  AC100  2
131212  NI300  2
131212  OX100  1

Leases (Asset Agreements)

This is for information on Leases or Cylinder Agreements with customers. These are more generically called Asset Agreements in TrackAbout. This is for any agreement where the customer doesn't pay rental on a given kind of asset for a given amount of time.

NOTE: If an agreement has multiple lines, there will be a row for each line of the agreement with the agreement header info repeated on each line.

Field	Example	Format	Notes
Asset Agreement Type	LEASE	Text	If all you have are leases, then put the word "LEASE" in this column. If you have more types of agreements, contact TrackAbout Support to set this up.
Customer Number	123456	Text, Max 30 char	This is the full customer number. It can contain numbers, letters and special characters
Agreement Number	123456-1	Text, Max 50 char	A unique number to identify this agreement. If no number is availible, leave this field blank.
Original Start Date	06/01/2005	Date, MM/DD/YYYY	If this agreement has been renewed and you still have the original start date, we'll take that here. If it is not know, then leave this field blank.
Start Date	01/01/2009	Date, MM/DD/YYYY	Current start date of the agreement.
End Date	12/31/2009	Date, MM/DD/YYYY	Current end date of the agreement.
Renewal Term in Months	12	Integer	If this agreement is renewed, this is the amount of time it will renew for. So it should be 12 for a 1 year lease.
Auto-Renew	Y	One character. Y= Yes, autorenew. N=No, do not autorenew.	Today this is just a flag that is shown to the user on a renewal report. When the agreement is nearing expiration a user will see this agreement compared to the customer's current balance. One of the fields is this "AutoRenew" field. If you don't have this concept in your system, then just set all agreements to either N or Y depending on whether or not you allow renewal without talking to the customer.
Notes	Call John Doe with any questions	Text, Max 2000 char	This is for any notes stored with this agreement.
Asset Type	AC100	Text, Max 400 char	An indicator for what kind of asset(s) this line covers. This is typically a size or part number. Like "HP" for High Pressure or "AR300" for the part number AR300.
Quantity	2	Integer	If this line covers 2 assets then the value here is a 2. If the agreement has many lines, this is just the quantity for this one line.
Rate Per Asset	50.0	Number with 2 places to the right of decimal	How much it costs PER ASSET for this line. If this line covers 2 cylinders for a year at $50 each for a total of $100 then the value in this field will be 50