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Rental
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Rental Classes
Flat Fees
Bill Configuration
Asset Agreements
Rental Rates & Brackets
Tax Regions and Exceptions
Daily Rental Calculation Method
Rental Run
- Billing Period
- Hold and Release
- Delivery Methods
Equipment Rental
Customer Owned Offsets
Data Loading
- Legacy Codes
- Comparison to Legacy Rental Run
Converted Rental Document
Rental Module
Version 1.0.2
01/02/2008
Introduction.........................................................................................................4
Security................................................................................................................5
To Add or Edit a Role......................................................................................6
Changing Permissions ...................................................................................8
Rental...................................................................................................................9
Rental Classes.................................................................................................9
Rental Class Groups.....................................................................................10
Rate Table Levels..............................................................................................10
Standard Rates..............................................................................................10
Rate Brackets ................................................................................................12
Customer-Specific Rates..............................................................................13
Audit Trail of Rate Changes.............................................................................14
Rental Calculations...........................................................................................15
Asset Type Descriptions ..................................................................................16
Asset Type Replacement Price ....................................................................17
Asset Agreements ............................................................................................18
Flat Fees ............................................................................................................20
Minimum Billable Amount................................................................................24
Options when rental bill is below minimum:...............................................24
Customer-Owned Offsets.................................................................................25
Sales Tax ...........................................................................................................27
Tax Categories...............................................................................................27
Tax Region.....................................................................................................28
Tax Exemptions.............................................................................................29
Rental Bill Hold and Release............................................................................30
Setting a Hold for a Customer......................................................................30
Reviewing Bills Which Are Held...................................................................30
Marking a Bill as No Longer Held ................................................................31
Billing Addresses..............................................................................................33
Rental Calculation Methods.............................................................................34
Daily Rental....................................................................................................34
End of Month Balance Rental.......................................................................34
Generating and Reviewing Rental Bills ..........................................................35
Create Rental Billing Period .........................................................................35
Check Rental Billing Period Prerequisites..................................................35
The Rental Billing Period Dashboard ..........................................................35
Generating Rental Bills.................................................................................36
Review Rental Bills .......................................................................................38
Rental Bill Configuration..................................................................................41
Sequential Number Generation....................................................................41
Payment Terms..............................................................................................42
Multiple Delivery Channels...........................................................................42
Rental Bill Formatting Options.....................................................................42
Example Bill...................................................................................................43
Form and Envelope.......................................................................................44
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
Rental Summary Detail .................................................................................44
Transactions..................................................................................................45
Total Value Message.....................................................................................46
Serialized Asset Balance ..............................................................................46
Marketing Message .......................................................................................47
Lease Summary.............................................................................................47
Equipment Summary ....................................................................................47
Miscellaneous Summary ..............................................................................47
Include Remittance Tear Off On First Page.................................................48
Rental Bill Hold and Release............................................................................49
Setting a Hold for a Customer......................................................................49
Reviewing Bills Which Are Held...................................................................49
Marking a Bill as No Longer Held ................................................................50
Minimum Billable Amount................................................................................52
Initial Data Loading...........................................................................................53
Overview ........................................................................................................53
File Formats...................................................................................................53
Limiting File Size...........................................................................................53
Data Transfer .................................................................................................54
Files for Integration.......................................................................................54
Product Codes ...........................................................................................54
Payment Terms..........................................................................................55
Tax Regions ...............................................................................................55
Standard Rental Rates ..............................................................................55
Rate Brackets.............................................................................................55
Customer List.............................................................................................56
Customer Balances ...................................................................................57
Custom Rental Rates.................................................................................58
Asset Agreements .....................................................................................59
Order List File ............................................................................................60
Additional Information ..............................................................................61
Copyright 2007, TrackAbout, Inc.
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
Introduction
TrackAbout’s Rental Module brings new ease of use in managing the complex
agreements between packaged gas distributors and their customers. With
TrackAbout Rental, you can easily configure customer leases, rental rates by
size or categories of customers, and manage prices globally across all your
customers all through an intuitive, web-based interface.
Copyright 2007, TrackAbout, Inc.
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
Security
Security in TrackAbout is accessed through “TrackAbout Config”, and selecting
the “Access Control” menu option.
Once in the Access control page, you will be able to navigate either to the
“Permissions” tab, or the “Roles” tab.
Permissions in TrackAbout refer to access granted to a user to perform some
kind of operation.
Permissions in TrackAbout generally fall into one of four categories:
1. Perform a function – user will be able/not able to perform a specific
function in TrackAbout
2. View – user will be able to view information, but not add new information,
or modify existing information
3. Modify – User will be not able to add new information into TrackAbout (for
example asset agreements, rental brackets, or customers), but will be able
to modify already existing information
4. Create/Add new – User will be able to create new information in
TrackAbout (add new product codes, rental classes, or asset agreements,
for example)
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
Roles in TrackAbout are collections of permissions based around the functions
that particular users will perform. Truck drivers, for instance, will have a
significantly different level of access than the cylinder administrator, or manager
of a particular branch. Users must have at least one role, but may have more
than one role.
A user’s permission to perform some function, add, modify, or view will be
the highest privilege allowed by his or her combination of roles. Example:
truck drivers would not be allowed to modify asset agreements, but perhaps
branch managers would be. A user assigned the role of both branch manager,
and driver, would be allowed to modify asset agreements.
To Add or Edit a Role
Navigate to TrackAbout Config/Access Control:
Select the “Roles” tab, and click “Add a new role” in the top right hand corner.
To edit an existing role, click the blue edit link to the left of that role’s name.
Copyright 2007, TrackAbout, Inc.
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
Whether you edit, or add a role you’ll be presented with the following options:
Role Name – some name meaningful to those within your organization—job titles
might be a good guide for role names.
Role Description – a description that might help a later user select the
appropriate role for a user.
Internal Users – most user roles will fall into this category. User roles of this type
can be assigned to any location, and can potentially see/interact with assets or
data of any of your business’ locations.
Location Restricted Internal Users – Users who, for security or privacy
reasons, have their ability to see data and history limited to one or a few
branches. These types of roles will be most common to TrackAbout Customers
with large number of medical gas or equipment customers.
Follow-On Users – users who are customers of our customers, or who view
data through their own login to the TrackAbout website.
Give full Access to all features/Do not give full access to all features
If you opt to not give the role access to all features, individual permissions will
have to be assigned at the permissions screen.
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employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
Once you’ve finished setting the options for the role, hit “Save role” at the bottom
of the page. Note that even if you give a particular role access to all features,
you may still edit individual permissions in the permissions area of the site.
Changing Permissions
Permissions for each role can be changed from the permissions tab.
Permissions can be granted or rescinded for each role by single left clicking
within the checkbox beneath the column for that role. When you complete any
changes, scroll to the bottom of the page and single left click on “Save Changes”.
Copyright 2007, TrackAbout, Inc.
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
Rental
Rental Classes
A Rental Class is a grouping of asset types. The Standard Rate Table is
organized by Rental Classes, which determine the way asset Types are normally
rented. Therefore, Rental Classes are at the core of how Rent is calculated.
There is no limit to how many Rental Classes can be set. There can be many
asset Types in each Rental Class. However, each asset Type can only be in one
Rental Class. For example, an “Industrial, Large” Rental Class could be created
for setting rates and rental methods on all 200- and 300-size industrial cylinders.
To create, view, and edit Rental Classes:
- From the blue navigation bar, click on Rental �
Rental Classes .
Each Rental Class is assigned to a Rental' Billing' Period' Type . This allows for
different Rental Classes to be billed on different cycles. For example, customers
may be billed once a month for cylinder rental, but more frequently for equipment
rental. However, even if different Rental Classes are billed on the same cycle,
assigning them to different Rental' Billing' Period' Types allows their rental bills
to be run separately. Contact TrackAbout to setup the different Rental Billing
Period Types.
Every Rental Class has an Accounting' Code which gets reported back to the
Accounting system. This is typically the General Ledger (GL) or Charge Code
from the accounting system.
Each Rental Class is assigned to a Tax' Category to determine how it is taxed.
Contact TrackAbout to setup the different Tax Categories.
Rental Classes can also be used for displaying a less-detailed Rental Bill. There
is an option to configure TrackAbout such that the Rental Bill displays one line for
every Rental Class, as opposed to displaying one line for every asset Type.
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
Rental Class Groups
Currently, Rental Class Groups are not in use. Rental Class Groups will be used
in the future for permissions and reporting. Permissions will offer the ability to
allow a person to change the rates for one Rental Class Group, but not for
another. There will be the ability to run reports based on Rental Class Groups.
Each Rental Class will be in one and only one Rental Class Group. There will be
a many-to-one relationship between Rental Classes and Rental Class Groups.
Rental Class Groups could be set for different kinds of things, such as Cylinders,
Equipment, Vessel Tanks, etc.
To create, view, and edit Rental Class Groups:
- From the blue navigation bar, click on Rental �
Rental Class Groups .
Rate Table Levels
Rental Methods and Rental Rates can be set at a few different levels in the
TrackAbout Rental Module. This is done to give maximum flexibility in setting up
the rental system while making it as easy as possible to manage.
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
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
To get to the Standard Rates table, where Standard Rates can be viewed and
edited:
- From the blue navigation bar, click on Rental �
Standard Rates .
- For every Rental Class in the Standard Rates Table, a rental method can be
selected: No' Rent ,' Daily , Weekly , or Monthly .
- NOTE:' A' Weekly' method' can' only' be' used' for' Equipment,' not' for'
cylinders.
- Once the rental method has been selected, a rate is set for that method.
- Standard Rental Rates Table changes will be effective immediately. They will
be used in the next rental calculation.
- Users must have special permission for editing the Standard Rates Table.
- There is an audit trail of any changes made to the Standard Rates Table.
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
Rate Brackets
Rate Brackets allow for the creation of different rate levels for customers. It is
easier to manage a few Rate Brackets than to manage a special price for every
customer that needs something other than list price. A Rate Bracket could be
created for customers by size or industry or both. For instance, a Rate Bracket
could be created for customers with 50 to 100 rental assets onsite. Similarly, a
Rate Bracket could be created for a customer segment, such as small retailers.
Rate Brackets:
- Group together similar customers into the same pricing
- Are set at the Rental Class level. Rates may not be set on Asset Types.
- Are configured from the Rental Menu
- There can be an unlimited number of Rate Brackets, or there can be none
- Each customer may be assigned to zero or one Rate Bracket.
- Customers are never automatically assigned to a Rate Bracket by
TrackAbout.
To create, view, and edit Rate Brackets:
- From the blue navigation bar, click on Rental � Rate
Brackets .
To assign a customer to one of the Rate Brackets that has been created:
- In the Customer Detail View, go to the Rental section.
- Click on the Change link beside Rental Rate Bracket.
Copyright 2007, TrackAbout, Inc.
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
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.
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 configured from the Customer Detail screen
- Are effective immediately
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 working on a
report which will list all the Customer-Specific Rates which are set to be reviewed
within a selected time frame.
Copyright 2007, TrackAbout, Inc.
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
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.
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
Rental Calculations
Rental is calculated at the Asset Type level. The rates may be set at the Rental
Class level, but all calculations inside TrackAbout are done at the Asset Type
Level and then they can be rolled up to the
Rental Class level as needed.
The sequence in which different levels are
checked is indicated in the diagram shown. First,
Asset Type settings are checked for the
department or customer. Then Rental Class
settings are checked, first for the Department,
then for the Customer, and then for the Bracket
(if the customer is in one). Finally, Standard
Rates are used if no other rate applies. The first
rate encountered will be used for this Asset
Type.
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
Asset Type Descriptions
TrackAbout classifies assets in a three-level hierarchy of Category , Group , and
Type . Most TrackAbout customers have a fourth level of classification, Product
Code that falls below the asset type. The asset classification scheme, from least
to most specific is
Category
Group
Type
Product Code
The rental invoice displays these asset type descriptions under the Rental
Summary section of the invoice. How the asset description is displayed is
dependent upon whether the Description' on' Rental' Bill field is populated in the
Edit Type page of the asset classification.
If the Description' on' Rental' Bill field is left blank, the Item field on the rental
invoice will display the asset description as the category, group and type
separated with a colon between each setting.
If the Description' on' Rental' Bill field is populated with text, the Item field on the
rental invoice will display the asset description exactly as the text is entered.
Copyright 2007, TrackAbout, Inc.
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
Asset Type Replacement Price
TrackAbout allows a customer to assign a dollar value to an asset type. This
value is referred to as the replacement cost.
This replacement cost is calculated by the asset end count on the rental invoice
multiplied by the replacement cost for the asset type and a total value of assets is
generated. This value can be found near the bottom of the TrackAbout rental
invoice.
- NOTE:
The text that is displayed on the rental invoice showing
the replacement cost can be edited per the customer’s
request. At this time, a TrackAbout representative must
make this change.
Copyright 2007, TrackAbout, Inc.
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
Asset Agreements
Asset Agreements are an agreement between you and your customer to not
charge a customer rent for a specific type and quantity of asset. This has the
effect of reducing a customer’s monthly rental by the quantity of assets on the
asset agreement.
- NOTE:
Asset Agreements are commonly called leases , cylinder
agreements , cylinder deposits or prepaid rent .
These asset agreements are setup on a per customer basis and are found in the
rental section of a specific customer.
- Navigate to a specific customer using
the Quick' Search � Customer
shortcut
The asset agreements are found under the Rental section and Other' Billing
Methods. This is where the asset agreements are created and/or edited.
The data for an asset agreement originates from your existing accounting
system. This data needs to be exported from your existing system and then
imported into TrackAbout. The import process will be done by a TrackAbout
representative as a user interface for this process does not currently exist.
TrackAbout has the ability to create different kinds of asset agreements for
different customers.
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
Each asset agreement
lists different fields that
can be set and
configured based upon
a specific customer.
TrackAbout can configure the options for asset agreements to complement your
current method of handling leases. The following is a list of the secondary fields
that can be used with each of the asset agreements shown above.
- Customer
- Start Date
- Duration
- Renewal Option
- Payment Terms
- Purchase Order
- Accounting Invoice Number
- Agreement Assets
- Total Cost
- Tax
- Notes
- Agreement Documents
The original data is exported from your existing system and imported into
TrackAbout. There is currently no user interface to configure these fields, but
TrackAbout will handle the import.
In the process of setting up different types of lease agreements, TrackAbout can
create a word template for the lease agreement customer to sign. This will
simplify the process of setting up lease agreements.
A single lease agreement can include both Rental' Class and Asset' Type levels.
TrackAbout must configure which billing period types support asset agreement
renewals. In this way, asset agreement renewals can be placed just on one kind
of rental billing.
Copyright 2007, TrackAbout, Inc.
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
Flat Fees
TrackAbout allows for adding a flat fee for each customer in addition to, or in
place of, regular rent. There are several ways to apply flat fees, such as using flat
fees for hazmat or delivery charges, or for flat negotiated rental rates.
Flat fees are set in the Flat Fees section of Rental. In the Flat Fees screen, there
is a link to Add New Flat Fee.
- Name – This is a name
visible by the TrackAbout
user. This name is never
seen by the customer.
- Name Shown on Bill –
This is the name the
customer will see when
they receive their rental
bill.
- Accounting Code – Used for reporting. This is typically the General Ledger
(GL) or Charge Code from the accounting system.
- Type – Several options are accessible via the drop-down list:
o Single Surcharge – Applies one flat
rate for the entire bill
o Replaces All Rental – This fee will be
charged in lieu of any rental which may
be calculated for the customer. This
might be used in cases where a
customer has negotiated a flat rental every month regardless of their
quantity of rental assets.
o Per Each Asset of Type – Applies a flat fee for each asset of given asset
type(s) or of given rental class(es). For example, if this flat fee is set for
asset type Acetylene, and the customer has a balance of ten Acetylene
assets, this fee will be charged ten times. The charge is based on the
customer’s balance at the end of the rental billing period.
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employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
o Per Asset Type – This fee is charged once for given asset type(s) or of
given rental class(es), regardless of how many of that type of asset the
customer has. For example, if this flat fee is set for asset type Acetylene,
the customer will be charged one set amount for Acetylene, whether they
have one asset in this asset type or one-hundred assets in this asset type.
The customer is charged this flat fee if there are any of this asset type on
their balance at the end of the billing period.
- NOTE:
The following three Flat Fee Types only apply to
equipment rental.
o Equipment Recurring Charge – A charge which will show up on every
rental bill for that asset.
o Equipment Delivery Charge – This fee will show up only on the rental bill
which includes the delivery, which is the first rental bill for that asset.
o Equipment Return Charge – This fee will show up only on the rental bill
which includes the return, which is the last rental bill for that asset.
For the flat fee types of Per' Each' Asset' of' Type and Per' Asset' Type ,
after the flat fee has been saved, there is a link to Add' New' Asset' Type
and a separate link to Add' New' Rental' Class . Clicking on these links will
open the Add' Flat' Fee' Asset' Type window or the Add' Flat' Fee' Rental
Class window, respectively. Multiple asset types and/or rental classes
may be added.
If Single' Surcharge , Per' Each' Asset' of' Type , or Per' Asset' Type has
been selected from the Type drop-down list, three other options are
available:
▪ All Customers With Rental Charges – Any customer with a positive
dollar amount on their rental bill will be charged this flat fee in addition
to the rental.
▪ Specific Customers with Rental Charges – This flat fee will be
applied only to selected customers, and only if those selected
customers have a positive dollar amount on their rental bill. Customers
will be charged this flat fee in addition to their rental.
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employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
▪ Specific Customers whether or not they have Rental Charges –
This flat fee will be charged only to selected customers, regardless of
whether or not they have incurred any rental charges for the month.
If Per' Each' Asset' of' Type has been selected from the Type drop-down
list, a field in which to enter the Maximum' Amount' Per' Bill will appear. If
the total flat fee calculated in any given month is more than the Maximum
Amount Per Bill set here, then TrackAbout will limit the flat fee charges
per bill to the amount in the maximum field.
If Equipment' Recurring' Charge , Equipment' Delivery' Charge , or
Equipment Return Charge has been selected from the Type drop-down
list, the Accrues' Revenue' to' Asset option will become visible:
When a check mark is placed in the box in front of this option, all revenue
from this flat fee is tracked to this specific asset.
- Tax Category – The Tax Category is used to determine if the Flat Fee is
taxable. Some Tax Regions exclude some Tax Categories from sales tax.
The choices from the drop-down list come
from Accounting. They are set up in the
database and are not set up from the
website. Contact TrackAbout with a list of
Tax Categories which need to be set up.
- Rental Billing Period Types – Select to which Rental Billing Period
Type(s) this flat fee applies. For example, Cylinder Rental or Equipment
Rental .
Once the Flat Fees are created, extra setup will need to be performed to ensure
that specific customers either are or are not charged the different Flat Fees. If the
Flat Fee applies to all customers, then by default all customers will be charged
this fee and specific customers can be exempted from the Flat Fee. If the Flat
Fee is set to apply to specific customers, then by default no customers will be
charged this Flat Fee but specific customers can be set to be charged this flat
fee. In either case, the customer setup is completed from the Rental section of
the Customer' Detail' View . Here, a link to Edit flat fees opens the Assign' Flat
Fees page.
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employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
In this page, flat fees which apply to all customers may be disabled and other flat
fees can be enabled for this customer. Furthermore, a' Custom' Rate and/or a
Custom Maximum Amount Per Bill may be set for this customer only. This rate
and/or maximum would override the rate and/or maximum set in the Add' New
Flat Fee screen.
In the Rental > Flat' Fees screen, there is a link to View' Customers which have
been assigned to each flat fee.
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
Minimum Billable Amount
There may be instances when the costs of processing, printing, and mailing a bill
are more than the amount being billed. In these situations, it may be decided that
rental bills below a certain dollar threshold will be handled differently to ensure
that the charges on all bills are worth the costs of billing. In TrackAbout, this
threshold is called a Minimum Billable Amount. If it is determined that a minimum
billable amount will be used, contact TrackAbout to configure the options.
Determine the dollar amount to set as the minimum. If the minimum is set at $0,
the effect is that there is no minimum. Consequently, the customer would always
be billed when there are rental charges, even if the rental charges for the month
are $.01.
Options when rental bill is below minimum:
- Do Not Bill Ever – If this option is selected, the customer will never be billed
for rental amounts which fall below the set minimum for the month. Below
minimum bills will be forgiven.
- Round Up To Minimum And Bill Customer – Given this option, bills which
fall below the minimum will be rounded up to the minimum and the customer
will be billed for the minimum amount. In this scenario, the rental bill will show
the customer’s rental for the month plus an additional fee that looks like a flat
fee. This additional fee is added to make up the difference between what the
customer was actual charged for rental and the minimum billable amount. So,
for example, if the customer is charged $2 for the month, and the minimum
billable amount is $5, there will be a flat fee of $3 added to the bill to bring the
bill up to the minimum.
If this option is chosen, TrackAbout will need an accounting code for the flat
fee that’s added, as well as a tax category for this fee.
- Do Not Bill And Roll Into Next Bill – This option will cause bills which fall
below the minimum to be rolled into the subsequent month. For example, if
the minimum billable amount is $5 and the customer’s rental is $3 for
January, that $3 will be rolled into February.
This $3 amount will show up on the February rental bill as Previous' Unbilled
Balance . It will look like a flat fee with no detail included on the bill.
Furthermore, the amount that is rolled over will not appear in the accounting
integration until it is actually billed.
It is possible that unbilled amounts may be rolled into another year, as
below minimum amounts in December will be rolled into January.
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
Customer-Owned Offsets
The customer-owned offset is the quantity of cylinders that a customer owns and
has donated to the distributor’s pool of cylinders in return for no longer having to
pay rent for that quantity of cylinders. These assets are now treated just like any
other asset.
Although each customer can have a customer-owned offset, these offsets can
only be assigned to customer’s that bill separately. Credits will not accrue for
months in which this customer has fewer cylinders on their balance than the
number they own.
When rental is calculated, any customer owned offsets in place at the end of the
rental billing period are used for the entire rental billing period. For monthly
rental, this just offsets an equivalent number of assets. For daily rental, the
numbers of days in the rental billing period are multiplied by the number of
customer owned offsets and the customer gets this many rental days without
charge.
TrackAbout has the ability to enable or disable this feature through the client
configuration based upon a customer’s choice to show / hide this feature. When
this feature is enabled, the customer-owned offsets can be found in the Rental
section of the Customer' Detail page.
Customer-owned offsets take on three attributes:
- Rental Class or Asset Type
- Customer
- Quantity
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
A customer-owned balance can be altered in one of two ways:
- Person changes this customer’s customer-owned offset manually from the
TrackAbout website.
- TrackAbout detects a product code on a ticket that indicates the sale of a
tank to the customer. This product code will have to be mapped to the
rental class it represents.
One of the many benefits to TrackAbout rental is tracking these customer-owned
cylinders. There are some accounting systems that do not track customer owned
cylinders at all.
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
Sales Tax
TrackAbout processes sales tax data imported from the existing accounting
system.
Tax Categories
TrackAbout will work with customers to setup' Tax' Categories . Tax categories
indicate how each billable item is taxed. All of the rental methods must be
assigned to a tax category.
- NOTE:
Rental methods include Daily' Rental and Monthly
Rental .
Assigning the rental methods to a tax category allows daily rental to be charged
tax differently than monthly rental.
Other billable items that can be charged on a rental bill must also be put into a
tax category as part of its configuration. These include Rental Class, Flat Fees
and Asset Agreement Types.
- NOTE:
TrackAbout must setup the Asset Agreement Types.
Examples of Tax Categories include, but are not limited to:
- Cylinder Rental
- Demurrage
- Hazmat Fees
- Delivery Charges
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
Tax Region
TrackAbout allows for the creation of many tax' regions within the configuration.
These tax regions are typically created via an import of data from the existing
accounting system.
Each tax region contains the appropriate state, county and city tax rates.
Depending on the configuration of the integration of the existing accounting
system, a single blended rate may be used. Each tax region also requires an
appropriate Charge' Code or General' Ledger' Code to properly report data back
to the accounting system.
During the accounting integration, every customer is typically assigned to a tax
region. This can be viewed and edited from the Rental section of the Customer
Detail screen.
- NOTE:
In some cases, the ability to edit the tax region in
TrackAbout may be disabled so that the data is forced
to come from the accounting system.
Copyright 2007, TrackAbout, Inc.
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
Tax Exemptions
TrackAbout allows for the ability to mark certain tax categories in a particular tax
region as tax exempt. This takes into account that one state may be tax exempt
while another is not.
TrackAbout also allows for each individual customer to be marked as tax exempt.
- NOTE:
This setting can be viewed and set from the Rental
section of the Customer Detail page.
- NOTE:
This data normally comes from the import of data from
the accounting system.
Copyright 2007, TrackAbout, Inc.
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
Rental Bill Hold and Release
Some customers’ bills may require special handling each month. For example,
there may be a need to review a particular customer’s bill before mailing. Another
customer’s bill may be printed locally and hand delivered, or a customer may
require a special purchase order number to be verbally given each month for
their rental. The TrackAbout Rental Module allows a hold status to be placed on
customers that require any kind of special handling each month. Placing
customers on hold will cause their bills to go into hold status. Held bills can then
be easily reviewed and released from hold as part of a rental run.
- NOTE
TrackAbout will automatically put a bill in a hold status when a'
customer’s address is missing.
Setting a Hold for a Customer
A Hold is set from the Rental section of the Customer' Detail' View .
After selecting a Hold' Status of Held , the Hold
Reason drop-down list will appear. Contact
TrackAbout to create a customized list of hold
reasons.
A Notes field allows for entry of more
detailed information about this specific
hold. These notes will be displayed in the
rental bill review screens of TrackAbout,
but will never be shown to the customer.
Reviewing Bills Which Are Held
After rental bills have been generated from the Rental' Billing' Period
Dashboard , it is possible to see bills that are held and not held.
Copyright 2007, TrackAbout, Inc.
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
Bills that are held will not proceed to the next step in the rental run process until
they are released from hold. Specifically, this means that clicking on Create' File
For Printer button will not create a print output file for the bills in the Hold Count
column. Therefore, the status of these bills will not change to Printed .
Each non-zero number in the Hold' Count column is a link to the Bill' Review' –
List screen. This screen lists a summary of the Rental Bills which have been
held, including their Hold' Status and Hold' Notes .
Each item in the Rental' Invoice column is a link to the Bill' Review' –' Individual
Bill , which shows the actual invoice. The invoice
shows that the bill is on hold with the Reason .
However, the Hold' Notes do not appear in the
Bill Review – Individual Bill screen.
Marking a Bill as No Longer Held
From either the Bill' Review page where multiple rental invoices are listed, or the
Bill Review detail page where one rental bill is shown in detail, it is possible to
remove a hold on a rental bill.
Do this by choosing Release' Hold from the drop-down list in the Action' for' this
Bill field and then clicking the Go button.
When viewing bills in the individual view, selecting Release' Hold and clicking the
Go button will update the hold status of the bill and then refresh the page. If the
form at the top of the Bill Review page is set to show just held bills, then this will
cause the bill to be no longer shown on this page because it is no longer held.
The result is that when working in the individual view as bills are released from
Copyright 2007, TrackAbout, Inc.
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
hold, they typically disappear from the screen. These bills can still be viewed by
changing the selection criteria at the top of the Bill Review page.
This Release Hold action removes the hold just on the selected bill(s), but does
not remove the hold status from the customer. This means that the rental bill
created for the next rental run will again go into this hold status. Removing the
hold status for a customer is done from the Rental section of the Customer
Detail View .
Copyright 2007, TrackAbout, Inc.
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
Billing Addresses
Customer billing and shipping address are typically set in TrackAbout from a data
import from a business/accounting software system. There are four ways which
billing addresses can be set for a customer:
- Set the Billing Address to be the same as the Shipping Address .
- Set a special Billing Address for each customer as well as a Shipping
Address.
- Pull the Billing Address from the Parent Account.
- Pull the Billing Address from another customer in TrackAbout that is not the
Parent.
Contact TrackAbout if any billing addresses appear to be incorrect.
Copyright 2007, TrackAbout, Inc.
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
Rental Calculation Methods
Daily Rental
Daily rental is calculated based on a Customer’s asset balance for each day of
the rental billing period. A Customer’s daily asset balance can be determined one
of several ways:
- Start of Day – Use asset count from the start of the day.
- End of Day – Use asset count from end of the day.
- Max of Start and End of Day – Use the largest number of the first two options.
- Assets Tied Up – Use count of assets that the Customer had for any fraction
of the day. Therefore, Customers would be charged for both assets on the
day of an even exchange.
TrackAbout support staff can configure TrackAbout to calculate rental based on
the desired method of determining customers’ asset balances.
It is also possible to set a default Daily Rental Calculation Method for all
customers and an override per specific customer. In this way, a more aggressive
rental calculation can be tried, and if any customers complain, they can be
switched back to the old way.
In the' Rental section of
the Customer' Detail
View , the Daily
Calculation Method
may be changed for an
individual customer.
End of Month Balance Rental
This method of calculating rent takes the asset balance at the end of the last day
of the billing period and multiplies it by a monthly rental rate to determine rental.
The starting balance and transactions throughout the month have no effect. The
balance at the end of the billing period (commonly the last day of the month) is
the sole determining factor. For example, a customer could have 100 assets for
most of the billing period. If all the assets are returned before the end of the
billing period, then no rent is charged for any of the assets for that billing period.
Copyright 2007, TrackAbout, Inc.
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
Generating and Reviewing Rental Bills
Create Rental Billing Period
Customers are charged rent within a Rental Billing Period. The first step to
creating a Rental Billing Period is to select a Rental Billing Type. TrackAbout
should have already been contacted to set up Rental Billing Types to allow for
different Rental Classes to be billed on different cycles. For example, customers
may be billed once a month for cylinder rental, but more frequently for equipment
rental. However, even if different Rental Classes are billed on the same cycle,
assigning them to different Rental Billing Period Types allows their rental bills to
be run separately.
After a Rental Billing Type has been selected, the date range for the Rental
Billing Period is chosen. The first time a Rental Billing Period is created within
TrackAbout, the Start Date and End Date for that Rental Billing Period may be
any dates. However, for any Rental Billing Period created after the first one, the
Start Date must be the very next day after the previous Rental Billing Period
ends. TrackAbout allows for neither overlapping of Rental Billing Periods nor
breaks in time between Rental Billing Periods.
Check Rental Billing Period Prerequisites
Once the Rental Billing Period has been created, the Check Rental Billing Period
Prerequisites page will open. This page lists and describes the prerequisites
which must be passed before rental bills can be generated. For example,
TrackAbout checks to make sure that all assets are classified and that all invoice
records delivered before the end of the Rental Billing Period are verified. For any
prerequisites which have failed, there is a link to a page where these problems
can be corrected. The prerequisites can then be re-checked. Continue opens
the Rental' Billing' Period' Dashboard .
The Rental Billing Period Dashboard
The Rental' Billing' Period Dashboard is where rental bills are generated,
reviewed, and sent to the printer and to accounting. It is very important to work
through this page from top to bottom. After rental bills have been sent to the
printer and to accounting, it is too late to go back and regenerate them, or to
review them. While it is possible to contact TrackAbout to unlock these bills after
they’ve been sent, it is much easier to carefully review the rental bills before
sending them.
Copyright 2007, TrackAbout, Inc.
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
Generating Rental Bills
The top section of the Rental' Billing' Period' Dashboard is where rental bills are
generated.
The Rental' Billing' Period' Name gives the Rental Billing Period Type (for
example, Cylinder' Rental ) and the date range for the Rental Billing Period.
The To' Generate table shows a count of all customers in TrackAbout.
TrackAbout will attempt to generate a rental bill for every customer. Many
customers will not need a rental bill, but the system will try to generate one for
every customer.
The option is given to generate all rental bills for the Rental Billing Period, or to
generate rental bills for select customers only. If rental bills are to be generated
only for certain customers, enter those customers’ IDs in the field provided before
hitting Generate' For' Below' Customer' IDs .
A summary of the rental bills will then appear in the Generated section of the
Rental Billing Period Dashboard .
There are several Process' States listed. When TrackAbout Rental is first
implemented, it is determined what the minimum rental dollar amount should be,
and how to handle situations where rental is below that minimum.
Copyright 2007, TrackAbout, Inc.
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
- Above Minimum – These are rental bills whose dollar value is above the
minimum that has been set.
The choices of how to handle rental bills that fall below the minimum are:
- Will Not Bill
- Below Minimum Will Roll Forward
- Below Minimum But Rounded Up
- No Rent – These are customers for which there are no rental charges.
Generating a “bill” for every customer for every billing period ensures that no
customers who should receive a bill are missed.
As bills are generated, some will fall into a Hold state. Rental bills can be Held for
a variety of reasons. For example, they may be held because they’re missing
information, such as the mailing address. Or, the customer may have their bills
held for some special handling or reviewing. See more information on Bill Holds.
Copyright 2007, TrackAbout, Inc.
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
Review Rental Bills
Clicking on any of the blue links will give more detailed information. For example,
clicking on the blue' 10 in the screen above will open a page where all of the Not
Held rental bills which are above the minimum can be viewed. Regardless of
which link is clicked, the Bill' Review page will open. Initially, the Bill' Review
page will display only those bills which correspond with the link that was clicked.
However, the top of the Bill' Review page gives the option to change the
selection of bills to be viewed:
Display Results
This page has three different display modes:
Summary displays a brief summary of the rental bills.
Individual Bills shows the detailed bills one at a time on the page. There is an
option to scroll through to subsequent bills.
Copyright 2007, TrackAbout, Inc.
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
List displays a list of the rental bills like the following:
The columns in this table are:
- Select – Clicking on a box in this column will put a
check mark in the box and select that row. Once the
desired rows have been selected, an' Action' for
Selected Bills can be chosen from the drop-down
list, and the Go button hit to initiate that action:
- Locked – After rental bills have been sent to the Printer and/or Accounting,
they are marked as Locked and cannot be changed.
- Pull – This is a flag on the Rental Bill to tell the third-party printer not to print
this bill. For example, there may be a Customer for whom it is preferable to
fax the rental bill.
- Rental Bill State – Displays whether or not the bill is above the set minimum.
- Hold Status – Displays either Not Held or, if the bill is held, displays the
reason for the hold.
- Hold Notes – Displays any reasons which may have been entered on the
Customer for holding rental bills.
- Rental Invoice – Shows the Rental Invoice number in the form of a link.
Clicking on this link will open the actual invoice.
- Customer – Clicking on the customer link in this column will open a separate
Customer Detail View window.
- Rent – Shows the dollar amount of rental on each invoice.
- Flat Fees – Displays the dollar amount of flat fees on each invoice.
- Tax – Gives the amount of tax being charged on each invoice.
- Total – Sums the Rent, Flat Fees, and Tax.
From the List of bills in the Bill' Review page, a Rental' Invoice link can be
clicked on to see details about a particular invoice.
Copyright 2007, TrackAbout, Inc.
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
After bills have been reviewed in the Bill' Review page, the final section of the
Rental Billing Period Dashboard offers the opportunity to proceed:
Selecting Create' File' For' Printer creates a file with rental invoice details that
can be used for printing. Once invoices have been sent for printing, those rental
invoices are marked as Locked in TrackAbout. The Sent' to' the' Printer link
opens a page where those invoices can be seen.
Choosing Send' to' Accounting sends the rental information to your
accounting/business system. Invoices sent to accounting are marked as Locked
in TrackAbout. The Sent' to' Accounting link opens a page where those invoices
can be seen.
After the rental invoices for the selected Rental Billing Period have been
reviewed and sent to the Printer and/or Accounting, click on Close' Billing
Period . The billing period must be closed before any subsequent billing periods
can be created.
Copyright 2007, TrackAbout, Inc.
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
Rental Bill Configuration
Sequential Number Generation
TrackAbout allows for sequential number generation of all rental invoices.
A rental invoice number can be configured with several different parameters.
These parameters must be set by a TrackAbout representative and include:
- Invoice number length
- Invoice number prefix
- Invoice number starting number
The invoice number length defines the number of digits to use for the invoice
number when generating rental bills. This length does not include the invoice
number prefix defined. The resulting invoice number will be zero padded to the
defined length. For example, if the current invoice number is 123, and the defined
length is 8, the resulting invoice number will be 00000123.
The Invoice number prefix defines the prefix to use when generating the rental
bill invoice number. This prefix is used for all the rental billing period types that
are defined in the database.
- NOTE:
Currently there are only two rental billing period types:
Cylinder Rent and Equipment Rent.
The invoice starting number defines the number to use as the first invoice
number when there are no previously generated invoice numbers.
The complete invoice number will be the defined prefix plus a zero-padded
number of the defined length using the first unused sequential number from the
starting invoice number.
Copyright 2007, TrackAbout, Inc.
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
Payment Terms
Payment Terms describe how long a customer has to pay for an invoice. For
instance, a common value for payment terms is “Net 30”. This indicates that a
customer has 30 days to pay the net balance of the invoice.
TrackAbout will use the payment terms imported from the existing accounting
system for the rental invoice. If no payment terms were specified during the
import, TrackAbout will use the default payment term specified by the client.
Multiple Delivery Channels
TrackAbout offers multiple delivery channels for rental invoices. These channels
include:
- Mail – All rental invoices will be mailed directly from SourceCorp.
- Fax – All rental invoices will be faxed directly from SourceCorp
Channels currently under development:
- Email –currently not available
Please contact TrackAbout to request customized rental invoice delivery.
Rental Bill Formatting Options
Rental bills are currently printed with the same basic settings for all customers.
TrackAbout plans to build enhancements moving forward which will allow for
customer specific settings. Feel free to contact TrackAbout regarding any
configuration settings on a customer-by-customer basis.
SourceCorp is the company that TrackAbout has partnered with to run, print and
send the rental bills.
- NOTE:
SourceCorp is an industry leader in outsourced printing
and invoice delivery. TrackAbout customers have
reported very favorable reviews of SourceCorp and
TrackAbout is happy to have them as a partner.
It is possible to use a different printing company or to print out rental bills locally.
Please contact TrackAbout for more information on these options.
Copyright 2007, TrackAbout, Inc.
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
Example Bill
The following is an example of a TrackAbout rental bill. The following sections
will explain each part of the rental bill in greater detail.
Copyright 2007, TrackAbout, Inc.
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
Form and Envelope
SourceCorp will need paper and envelopes to use for printing. This paper
includes the logo image and text that is shown in the upper left hand corner of
the rental invoice. These graphics are pre-printed on the paper that is used by
SourceCorp to do the rental runs. The paper and envelopes can be provided by
SourceCorp or an existing customer form and envelopes can be used.
If a remittance tear-off is used then special paper is needed for this first page
with the tear-off that has a perforation 1/3 of the way down the page.
SourceCorp can include a return envelope with a window so the remittance tear-
off shows the return address.
Rental Summary Detail
The Rental Summary section of rental bills can be displayed by rental class or by
asset type. In the TrackAbout rental module all rental is calculated by asset type.
The asset type is roughly equivalent to the part number. Each asset type is in
one rental class. The display of the rental bills can be by asset type or can be
rolled up by rental class.
Summary by Asset Type
Summary by Rental Class (with the same data as above)
Note that the first two lines from the asset type summary are rolled up into one
line on the rental class summary.
If a customer has leases, ownerships or special rates setup by asset type then
the display will break out a separate line for each of these rows by asset type
even if the general setting is to rollup by rental class.
Copyright 2007, TrackAbout, Inc.
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
Basically, if the choice is to rollup by rental class then TrackAbout will try to
display by rental class. If the asset types in that rental class have different rates,
leases or ownership quantities then the separate asset types will be shown.
Transactions
In addition to a summary that shows the total quantity shipped and returned,
TrackAbout can also show more detail on the transactions or deliveries
throughout the rental period.
The transactions can be shown intermixed with the summary:
The transactions can be shown as a separate section
The transactions can be shown as a separate section with barcodes and serial
numbers shown for each asset delivered or returned.
Showing the transactions gives customers more information about how their bill
was calculated. The only negatives are that more detail can lead to more phone
calls and more detail means more cost in printing extra pages for this detail.
Copyright 2007, TrackAbout, Inc.
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
Total Value Message
A' Total' Value footer can be shown at the bottom of the bill that indicates the total
value of assets in a customer’s possession.
- NOTE:
This footer is an optional field and the text can be
Configured to tailor a customized message.
Serialized Asset Balance
The Serialized Asset Balance section shows the serialized assets on the
customers balance at the end of the rental period.
- NOTE:
This is also an optional field on the rental bill.
The remaining options are not configurations that require decisions, but are
rather for general information:
Owned Column in Summary
- NOTE:
This column is only shown when a customer has at least
one owned asset. The idea is that there is no reason to
advertise to customers that they can buy their cylinders
and stop paying rental on them.
Copyright 2007, TrackAbout, Inc.
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
Marketing Message
The Marketing Message section allows for a marketing message to be displayed
on all rental invoices during printing. This message can be changed from the
website as often as needed.
Lease Summary
The Lease Summary section is shown whenever there is a renewing lease for a
customer. New leases are billed through order entry and renewing leases are
billed through TrackAbout.
Equipment Summary
The Equipment Summary section is used to show rental for rental equipment.
Miscellaneous Summary
The Miscellaneous Summary section is not used today, but was designed in the
integration with SourceCorp should it be needed for any items on the rental bills.
Copyright 2007, TrackAbout, Inc.
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
Include Remittance Tear Off On First Page
The Include Remittance section of the invoice is shown at the bottom of the first
page of the invoice below a perforation. The end customer can tear off this
section of the bill and return it with the payment.
- NOTE:
The remittance tear-off is optional.
The benefit of this is to speed up collections by having a paper that gives the
correct invoice number for the payment. The disadvantage is that it takes up 1/3
of the page and can force more of the invoices to span a second page.
- NOTE:
The barcode on the left of the tear off is the invoice
number.
Copyright 2007, TrackAbout, Inc.
48
All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
Rental Bill Hold and Release
Some customers’ bills may require special handling each month. For example,
there may be a need to review a particular customer’s bill before mailing. Another
customer’s bill may be printed locally and hand delivered, or a customer may
require a special purchase order number to be verbally given each month for
their rental. The TrackAbout Rental Module allows a hold status to be placed on
customers that require any kind of special handling each month. Placing
customers on hold will cause their bills to go into hold status. Then these held
bills can be easily reviewed and released from hold as part of the rental run.
- NOTE
TrackAbout will automatically put a bill in a hold status when a'
customer’s address is missing.
Setting a Hold for a Customer
A Hold is set from the Rental section of the Customer' Detail' View .
After selecting a Hold' Status of Held , the Hold
Reason drop-down list will appear. Contact
TrackAbout to create a customized list of hold
reasons.
A Notes field allows for entry of more
detailed information about this specific
hold. These notes will be displayed in the
rental bill review screens of TrackAbout,
but will never be shown to the customer.
Reviewing Bills Which Are Held
After rental bills have been generated from the Rental' Billing' Period
Dashboard , it is possible to see the break down of bills that are held and not
held.
Copyright 2007, TrackAbout, Inc.
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
Bills that are held will not proceed to the next step in the rental run process until
they are released from hold. Specifically, this means that clicking on Create' File
For Printer button will not create a print output file for the bills in the Hold Count
column. Therefore, the status of these bills will not change to Printed .
Each non-zero number in the Hold' Count column is a link to the Bill' Review' –
List screen. This screen lists a summary of the Rental Bills which have been
held, including their Hold' Status and Hold' Notes .
Each item in the Rental' Invoice column is a link to the Bill' Review' –' Individual
Bill , which shows the actual invoice. The invoice
shows that the bill is on hold with the Reason .
However, the Hold' Notes do not appear in the
Bill Review – Individual Bill screen.
Marking a Bill as No Longer Held
From either the Bill' Review page where multiple rental invoices are listed, or the
Bill Review detail page where one rental bill is shown in detail, it is possible to
remove a hold on a rental bill.
Do this by choosing Release' Hold from the drop-down list in the Action' for' this
Bill field and then clicking the Go button.
When viewing bills in the individual view, selecting Release' Hold and clicking the
Go button will update the hold status of the bill and then refresh the page. If the
form at the top of the Bill Review page is set to show just held bills, then this will
cause the bill to be no longer shown on this page because it is no longer held.
The result is that when working in the individual view as bills are released from
Copyright 2007, TrackAbout, Inc.
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
hold, they typically disappear from the screen. These bills can still be viewed by
changing the selection criteria at the top of the Bill Review page.
This Release Hold action removes the hold just on the selected bill(s), but does
not remove the hold status from the customer. This means that the rental bill
created for the next rental run will again go into this hold status. Removing the
hold status for a customer is done from the Rental section of the Customer
Detail View .
Copyright 2007, TrackAbout, Inc.
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
Minimum Billable Amount
There may be instances when the costs of processing, printing, and mailing a bill
are more than the amount being billed. In these situations, it may be decided that
rental bills below a certain dollar threshold will be handled differently to ensure
that the charges on all bills are worth the costs of billing. In TrackAbout, this
threshold is called a Minimum Billable Amount. If it is determined that a minimum
billable amount will be used, contact TrackAbout to configure the options.
Determine the dollar amount to set as the minimum. If the minimum is set at $0,
the effect is that there is no minimum. Consequently, the customer would always
be billed when there are rental charges, even if the rental charges for the month
are $.01.
When a minimum billable amount is actually used, there are three options:
- Do Not Bill Ever – If this option is selected, the customer will never be billed
for rental amounts which fall below the set minimum for the month. Below
minimum bills will be forgiven.
- Round Up To Minimum And Bill Customer – Given this option, bills which
fall below the minimum will be rounded up to the minimum and the customer
will be billed for the minimum amount. In this scenario, the rental bill will show
the customer’s rental for the month plus an additional fee that looks like a flat
fee. This additional fee is added to make up the difference between what the
customer was actual charged for rental and the minimum billable amount. So,
for example, if the customer is charged $2 for the month, and the minimum
billable amount is $5, there will be a flat fee of $3 added to the bill to bring the
bill up to the minimum.
If this option is chosen, TrackAbout will need an accounting code for the flat
fee that’s added, as well as a tax category for this fee.
- Do Not Bill And Roll Into Next Bill – This option will cause bills which fall
below the minimum to be rolled into the subsequent month. For example, if
the minimum billable amount is $5 and the customer’s rental is $3 for
January, that $3 will be rolled into February.
This $3 amount will show up on the February rental bill as' Previous' Unbilled
Balance . It will look like a flat fee with no detail included on the bill.
Furthermore, the amount that is rolled over will not appear in the accounting
integration until it is actually billed.
It is possible that unbilled amounts may be rolled into another year, as below
minimum amounts in December will be rolled into January.
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
Initial Data Loading
Overview
This document describes the files used in integrating TrackAbout and the
accounting system. These files are created in the accounting system and sent to
TrackAbout for comparison to TrackAbout data.
The files described in this document are used for electronic integration in one
direction, from accounting to TrackAbout. If there is more control over the
accounting system and it would be beneficial to integrate in the other direction,
TrackAbout can do that, as well. TrackAbout does this today with some clients.
File Formats
TrackAbout accepts these kinds of ACSII text files:
- XML
- Tab delimited
- Comma delimited with quotes around any data elements that might contain
commas
- Fixed width
- “Off the shelf” reports that are formatted more for printing than electronic
usage. For this type of data, TrackAbout would need to build a custom parser.
TrackAbout is flexible and willing to work with any data. The sequence of
columns or fields does not matter as long as it is consistent. It is also alright to
have “junk” fields that TrackAbout will ignore. This may allow for the use of an
“off the shelf” report rather than having to create a customized report. Even if
custom programming is required, TrackAbout is able to read reports in just about
any format.
Limiting File Size
Ideally these files would not contain information on customers or products that
are not tracked in TrackAbout. This extra information can be ignored if it is in the
file, but the file size will typically be much smaller if this data is prevented from
getting into the files in the first place. A smaller file size means less waiting time
for the TrackAbout administrator when s/he compares the two systems. This is
not worth a huge amount of effort, but it is nice to have if it can be done relatively
easily.
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
Data Transfer
Files can be transferred in a variety of ways. Some methods currently being used
are:
- Post the files to TrackAbout using a page on the TrackAbout website. The
user browses to a file and then uploads it.
- TrackAbout can setup a password protected FTP site where files can be
exchanged.
- A URL is obtained from TrackAbout where one can HTTP post files.
- TrackAbout can setup a web service to exchange data.
During a discussion with TrackAbout, it will be determined which of these
different methods will work.
Files for Integration
Product Codes
This is a listing of the various items that are rented. This file should contain the
following elements:
- Part number
This is what the accounting system might call item number, part number,
stock number, gas code, or product code.
- Long description
- Classification
This is how part numbers are grouped for Rental. This can be one field or
multiple fields (e.g., size, type.) and contains any attribute that dictates
how the item is rented.
- Whether or not the part numbers are Exchange Types.
Exchange Types are assets which are not normally rented. In this
scenario, Customers bring in an empty tank and are given a full tank. If the
Customer does not have an empty tank, they buy a tank. Ownership is
irrelevant, and balances are allowed to go negative. If the Customer has
received more assets than they have returned, then rent is charged.
If it is possible to screen out product codes that are no longer used, it would
remove clutter and speed up the process of classifying them. However, if it is not
possible to filter out non-tracked product codes from the Customer Balances and
Order List files (below), then these codes will be needed in the Product Codes
file.
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
Payment Terms
The Payment Terms file will contain a listing of all possible payment terms. Once
these Payment Terms are set up and defined in TrackAbout, they can then be
referenced upon import of the Customer File. There can be an unlimited number
of Payment Terms. The columns in this file are:
- Code
- Name to show on bill
- Days until payment is due
Tax Regions
If your company charges sales tax is charged on rental, then Tax Regions must
be setup in TrackAbout. Below are the fields that are supported for Tax Regions:
○ Tax Region Code
○ State Rate
▪ If only one rate is used rather than state/county/city, put that
one rate in here
○ County Rate
○ City Rate
○ GL/ChargeCode
▪ This is used for reporting tax from this tax region back to
accounting
○ Is Cylinder Rental taxable
Could be many fields, e.g.:
▪ Is cylinder rent taxable?
▪ Is equipment taxable?
Standard Rental Rates
This could just be a screenshot or some other simple list to be manually keyed
into TrackAbout. This list should indicate how rental rates are organized (e.g.,
Liquids, Spec Gas, High Pressure, etc.) and what the ‘list price’ rates are for
each of these Rental Classes.
Rate Brackets
Rate Brackets are an attempt to group together similar customers into the same
pricing. For example, a Rate Bracket may be created for customers by size or
industry or both. If any customers are in a special level pricing bracket (“Rate
Bracket”), include a file of those pre-defined brackets.
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
Customer List
This file needs to be sent to TrackAbout as part of the initial Rental setup.
Additionally, the Customer List file should be sent to TrackAbout every month
prior to doing rental in order to collect changes, such as tax regions, etc. For
TrackAbout clients who use TECSYS, the Customer List file will never need to be
re-sent.
This is a listing of Customers for whom transactions are being tracked and items
are being rented. This file should contain the following columns:
1.
Customer Number
2.
Customer Name
3.
Parent Customer Number
○ This is the Bill To account number. If it is the same as the Customer
Number, leave this field blank.
4.
Customer Name (Used as first line of address)
○ This can be the same as column 2 above.
5.
Address Line 1
6.
Address Line 2
7.
City
8.
State
9.
Zip
○ Can be 5- or 9-digits, with or without the dash
10.
Payment Terms Code
11.
Tax Region Code
12.
Tax Exempt
○ 1 is tax exempt, 0 is not tax exempt (or vice versa) Just indicate
which way it’s stored.
13.
Branch That Gets Credit for Rental (if applicable)
14.
Fax
15.
Customer’s Rental Purchase Order Number
16.
Rate Bracket (if applicable)
Among possible changes to this format, any fields can be blank. Some examples
of other variations of this format are:
- It is possible to add a field for territory or salesman, which could then be
printed on rental bills. (That’s the only place this particular field is used in
TrackAbout.)
- There could be separate Bill To and Ship To addresses. Can either get Bill To
address from parent account, or can put 2 separate addresses in this file (ex:
Bill To Line 1, Bill To Line 2, Ship To Line 1, Ship To Line 2.) Just be sure to
indicate which is which.
- Can also show Country as a final line in addresses
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
Customer Balances
This file contains the current asset balances of customers. This is the current
balance as of the most recent data available in the accounting system. Typically
this is made by taking the starting monthly balance and adjusting it for any asset
transfers released for billing so far this month. Or it can be just the data for the
start/end of a month.
If the scope of the TrackAbout project is being limited to just a couple of
customers or a couple of part numbers to start, this file can be limited to just
those customers or part numbers. If the query cannot be limited to just the Rental
items, then TrackAbout can be setup to ignore the non-rental part numbers. In
that case, the ignored part numbers need to be part of the Product Code file
(above).
Here are the fields in the file:
1. Customer ID
If this is in two parts, both parts are needed here. Two columns are
fine if this is the case.
2. Customer Name
If this is a department or a jobsite of a large customer, provide the
name of the jobsite or department, not the name of the main
customer account
3. Product Code
This is also called Gas Code, Part Number, Item Number, or Stock
Number in some systems. If this code is broken into two parts, both
parts are needed here.
4. Current Balance
Also indicate as of what date this file is good.
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
Custom Rental Rates
This is a list of all special or contract rental rates for customers. The data that is
needed:
- Customer Number
- Type of asset
○ This can be whatever is used to organize rental (size, part number, etc.)
○ This can span multiple columns for size, part number, etc.
- Rental Method
○ Daily or Monthly
○ Can use any native codes from accounting system to represent these
different rental methods – just indicate to TrackAbout what each code
represents
- Rate
- Expiration date (optional)
○ Do the custom rental rates expire?
- Notes (optional)
○ Any special notes or comments on this rate
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
Asset Agreements
To properly calculate rental, TrackAbout needs information on leases which are
more generically called Asset Agreements in TrackAbout.
- NOTE
If an agreement has multiple Rental Classes or Asset Types
then the agreement will be on multiple rows in the file. For
instance, if the agreement covers 3 Rental Classes, then there
will be 3 columns in the file for this agreement that are
identical except they will have different value for Rental Class
Id, Quantity, and Rate Per Asset.
- Columns
1. AssetAgreementTypeId
An example of options is:
○ 1 = Lease
○ 2 = Deposit
○ 3 = No Charge
○ 4 = Temporary No Charge
2. Customer Number
○ If a customer does not exist in the db with this customer number,
then create a new customer with this customer number
3. AgreementNumber
4. OriginalStartDate (Optional)
5. StartDate
6. EndDate (Optional)
7. Duration in Months
8. AutoRenew (“Y” or “N”)
9. PaymentTermsId (Optional)
10. Notes (Optional)
11. Type of assets covered (This can be one or more columns of data)
12. Quantity
13. RatePerAsset
TrackAbout can adjust the format, and can skip fields which are not necessary.
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.
Order List File
This file is used to make sure that deliveries stored in both TrackAbout and the
accounting system match.
TrackAbout users normally make 2 of these reports with the same output format.
Daily Orders
One is run daily and lists orders that recently had their returns keyed in.
This typically means it is bringing over orders that have been “released” or
“selected” for billing, but not yet “posted” in a nightly batch. These orders
are typically still editable by the user if a mistake is found in the accounting
data.
Monthly Orders
This report is run monthly prior to doing rental and lists all of the deliveries
for the current month. This is run to make sure that nothing was missed
when running the Daily Orders report.
- Limiting to Cylinders
It is preferable if this file could be limited to only those items for which
TrackAbout is calculating Rental. Making this limitation right in these queries
will reduce the file size and the hassle of dealing with unnecessary part
numbers. If the query cannot be limited to just the Rental items, then
TrackAbout can be setup to ignore the non-rental part numbers. In that case,
the ignored part numbers need to be part of the Product Code file (above).
- Here are fields typically in this file:
1. Customer Number
If the customer number is in 2 parts, then both parts are needed here.
Two columns are fine in this case.
2. Customer Name
3. Order Number
If both an invoice number and an order number are used, send over
the order number. This needs to be the number on the paper used by
drivers for deliveries.
If the order number is in 2 parts, then both parts are needed here. Two
columns are fine in this case.
4. Ship Date
If the Ship Date is not available, then send over the closest date
possible, usually the Invoice Date.
5. Product Code (also known as Item Number or Part Number)
6. Product Code Description (optional)
7. Deliver/Ship Quantity
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The quantity of containers delivered, not the volume of product inside
the containers.
8. Return Quantity
9. Parent Customer Number (optional)
If this is a child or Ship To account of a customer with multiple
accounts, include the customer number of the parent account or Bill To
account. This will maintain customer parent/child relationships in
TrackAbout.
10. Customers Purchase Order Number (optional)
11. Branch (optional)
This is the branch, location, or warehouse from which the shipment
was sent.
12. Employee ID (optional)
If who made the delivery is tracked, that information can be sent over,
as well. This is not who keyed in the order, but who actually gave the
assets to the customer.) This is usually some kind of an employee
code or ID number.
Additional Information
Job Sites, Departments, Divisions
For the files listed above, if customer IDs are in 2 parts, (like a parent ID and a
job site ID or department ID), they can be sent to TrackAbout in two separate
columns or joined together in one column. Joining the 2 parts of the ID together
is possible if there is a separator or if the customer numbers are always the same
length.
For example, for this customer:
Customer : J&J Contractors (10022)
Job Site: Union Station (55)
The file can contain:
- Two columns of 10022 and 55
- One separated column: 10022-55
- One joined column: 1002255
But this last option is only allowed if all of the base customer
numbers are the same length. “10022” has 5 digits. If there are any
customers with 3- or 4-digit numbers, then this joined format cannot
be used.
Also, if a Customer Name is included for this row in the report, send the job site
name: “Union Station”
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All information contained within this document is proprietary to TrackAbout, Inc. and intended for use only by
employees and Licensed users of TrackAbout.