Rental Rates and Methods

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Tiered-Rate Rental

NOTE: By default, this feature is NOT enabled.
Tiered-Rate Rental allows rental rate assignment based on tiers. As an example, a cylinder Rental Class may have a rate of $55 for customers with an asset count between 0 and 2, another rate of $50 for an asset count between 3 to 10 and a final tier of $44 for 11 assets or more.
Tiered Rates can be created and applied at all levels, i.e. Standard, Bracket, and Customer Specific Rates.
The rates page displays current default rates and then can be overridden by the new desired/custom rate.
If you do not want to use Tiered Rates, no changes are needed on your part. However, the capability is available on your system to use anytime you wish. Contact TrackAbout Support to enable this rental-rate model.

Standard Rates

Standard Rates are intended to be the List Prices for rental. This is typically the most that any customer would be charged for rental. By default, new customers will fall into the Standard-Rates-table rates until they are moved to a Rate Bracket or they have Customer-Specific Rates added for them. Standard Rates:

• Are the default rates for all customers. Any rates not overridden in Bracketed or Customer Rental Rate Tables will default to the values in the Standard Rental Rate Table
• Are set at the Rental Class level. Rates may not be set on asset Types.
• Are configured from the Rental Menu
• Do not expire
• There can be only one Standard Rate table
  

• The Edit Standard Rate screen functions just like the Edit Rate Bracket screen.

Rate Brackets

Rate brackets allow for the creation of different rental rate levels for customers. Multiple customers can be assigned to a single bracket. It is can be easier to manage a few rate brackets than to manage a special price for every customer that needs something other than the standard price. You might create a rate bracket for customers of a certain size or industry or for new customers. For instance, a rate bracket could be created for customers with 50 to 100 rental assets on site. Similarly, a rate bracket could be created for a customer segment, such as small retailers. Once a rate bracket is created you can then assign customers to this bracket from the Rental Rates section of the Customer Detail View screen.

Rate Brackets:

• Group similar customers under the same non-standard set of Rental Rates
• Are set at the Rental Class level. Rates may not be set on Asset Types
• Are configured from the Rental Menu
• There is no limit to the number of Rate Brackets, there can be many or none
• A customer may be assigned to only one Rate Bracket
• Customers are not automatically assigned to a rate bracket by TrackAbout
• For departments (ie ship-tos or child accounts), the Rate bracket is always inherited from the parent - even when the child is set as Billed Separately.

• The Edit Rate Bracket screen functions just like the Edit Standard Rates screen

Customer-Specific Rates

Customer-Specific Rates are set for the individual customer and are used when a customer needs special pricing outside of the pricing specified in the Rate Brackets. This is commonly thought of as 'contract pricing'. A customer may be in a bracket and also use Customer-Specific Rates. Unlike Standard Rates and Rate Brackets, Customer-Specific Rates may be set on either the Rental Class or Asset Type level. There can be only one Customer-Specific Rate table for each customer. If a customer has departments, these departments automatically use the Customer-Specific Rates of their parent. However, Customer-Specific Rates may be set on the individual departments independently of their main parent account should there be a need to charge them a different rate than the parent customer. But if the department is set to Bills With Parent, then the department uses the parent's rates and any customer-specific rates set on the department are ignored.

Customer-Specific Rates:

• Are special rates for individual customers
• Are set at the Rental Class or Asset Type level
• Take precedence over the Standard Rental Rate table, and over any Rate Brackets assigned to the customer
• Are ignored if set on a department when the department is set to Bills With Parent.
• Are configured from the Customer Detail screen
• Are effective immediately
• The Edit Customer Rate screen functions just like the Edit Rate Bracket screen.
• Customer Specific Rates and Rate Brackets can be assigned from the Rental Rates section of the Customer Detail View screen

Clicking on Create New or Edit Details for Customer-Specific Rates opens a screen which has a "Review Rates On" date field. This is the date by which the rates should be checked. This is not an expiration date. If the date passes the rates will continue to be in effect. This "Review Rates On" date is the date by which someone should review the rental rates. The idea is that periodically the rates should then either have their ‘"Review Rates On" date extended or these customer-specific rates should be removed. TrackAbout is currently developing a report which will list all the Customer-Specific Rates which are set to be reviewed within a selected time frame.

Audit Trail of Rate Changes

Audit Trails track changes at each different level of rate tables. Any time a user makes a rate change, information about this change is stored, including the date, person who made the change, and old values of the rates that were changed.

• Clicking the 'View Audit Trail' link in Standard Rates, Rate Bracket or Customer Specific Rates displays a history of rate changes.