Rental

TrackAbout Module
Module Name:	Rental
Short Description	TrackAbout Rental automates and streamlines the management of rented or leased portable assets.
Supported In:	TAMobile 5, TAMobile 6 Rugged, TAMobile Android, TAMobile iOS, TAMobile 6 Desktop
Business Process:	Asset Management
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Overview

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.

Contract TrackAbout Support or your TrackAbout Sales representative to get started.

How Does it Work

To get set up with the Trackabout Rental module, you will work closely with Trackabout Support and Development personnel. There is quite a lot of preparation and testing that will go into making the Rental module just what you need it to be.

Below, you will find information about the different features of the Rental Module, as well as extensive information about how to set up and test the Module for your use.

Conversion

The first part of your rental project will likely be converting information from your current rental system into TrackAbout.

Information on conversion from another rental system to TrackAbout can be found here: Rental Conversion

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. Rental Classes are thus at the core of how rent is calculated.

Click here for more information on Rental Classes

Rental Rates and Methods

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.

More information about Rental Methods and Rental Rates can be viewed here: Rental Rates and Methods

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 are rolled up to the Rental Class level as needed.

There are three categories of Rental Rates in TrackAbout: Standard Rate, Bracketed Rate and Customer Specific rate. When multiple rates are assigned, TrackAbout uses the following sequence to determine the correct rate to calculate rental:

Typicaly, starting from the top, Standard Rates are the highest rate charged for rental. As more specific rates are applied, the rental charged is usualy discounted.

Asset Type Settings

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 like this:

Rental Class // Category :: Group :: Type

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. 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.

Asset Agreements (Leases)

Asset Agreements are an agreement between you and your customer to not charge a customer rent for a specific type and quantity of assets for a specified amount of time. This has the effect of reducing a customer’s monthly rental by the quantity of assets on the asset agreement.

For more info on Asset Agreements, see Asset Agreements.

Customer-Owned Offsets

For more information about Customer Owned Offsets go to Customer Owned Asset Agreements

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. See Flat Fees for more information about setting up and editing Flat Fees.

Sales Tax

TrackAbout processes sales tax data imported from the existing accounting system. Click here for more information on Sales Tax

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.

Rental Calculation Methods

Trackabout provides a variety of ways to calculate rental. These methods can be viewed in more depth on the Rental Rates and Methods page.

Rental Bill Configuration

There are several options for configuring how Rental Bills will be created and displayed through Trackabout. See the information on Rental Bill Configuration for more information.

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.

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.

Click here for more information on Rental Bill Hold and Release

Generating and Reviewing Rental Bills

Many clients opt to create personalized Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to guide them through the steps of generating, reviewing, and exporting rental bills from Trackabout. Please review the page Generating Rental Bills for information about the process of creating and reviewing rental bills.

Integration

The TrackAbout Rental Module was built to integrate with existing business systems.

Standard API (Application Programming Interface)

If creating a new integration, TrackAbout recommends using our standard APIs available here:

https://www.trackabout.com/api/docs

You will likely want to:

Pass in customer information via the Customers APIs
Pull back rental information via the Rental APIs

Optionally you may also want to

Pass in item/product information via the Classifications APIs
Exchange orders to and from TrackAbout via the Orders APIs
Get the balances of assets at a specific customer via the Customers/Balances API

TECSYS Integration

TrackAbout is partnered with TECSYS (http://www.tecsys.com) to provide a total solution to gas and welding distributors.

Here is a link to more information on TECSYS Integration

Generic Integration

TrackAbout can also export flat files that can be picked up via TrackAbout hosted FTP or SFTP sites and imported into a business system.

Contact TrackAbout support for more information on other integrations

Rental Troubleshooting

See page Rental Troubleshooting