Company Rate Parameters


System Maintenance Menu -> Configure System Settings -> System tab -> Company & Divisions -> Company Parameters -> Rate Parameters

The tunable company wide Rate Parameters can be accessed from the window in the Company Parameters.

Rate Settings
For general information on how product rates are setup refer to Rate Structures.
ALLOW RATE LEVEL CHANGE ON CONTRACTS
Check this box to allow operators to override a customer's "Special Rate Level" in the Rental Period window on the header of a contract and worksheet.
Rates can still be adjusted in the product detail line.

Uncheck this box to prevent the "Special Rate Level" from being overridden on contracts and worksheets in the Rental Period window.

Note: This parameter is turned off and disabled if the Multi-Tier Pricing feature is enabled for the company.


INDEFINITE RENTAL PERIOD DEFAULTS TO 28 DAYS
An optional "Indefinite" flag can be set in the Rental Period window on the header of any rental document, to indicate that the 'Due Back' date is unknown.
An Indefinite rental period ensures that return requirement transactions are not written for the products on the document and so the rental products will remain "unavailable" until they are actually returned.

This Indefinite Rental Period Defaults To 28 Days parameter controls the default 'Billing period' that is used in the Rental Period window, when the due back for a document has been flagged to be "Indefinite".

Check this box to always use a 28 day rental billing period for Cycle Billing of "Indefinite" documents.
Uncheck this box to retain the default rental period defined in the Divisional Rate Parameters for the billing period.


ALLOW FLAT RATE RENTALS
Uncheck this box if your firm does not bill using a flat rate total for rentals on contract.

Check this box to allow a flat rental rate to be entered for the total rentals on specific contracts, to be charged at each interim billing until the contract is finally returned at zero rates.

Flat Rate Process Flow:
When this feature is enabled, the optional Flat Rate total rental charge for the rental equipment on a contract can be entered in the Contract Summary and Totals by clicking on the FLAT RENTAL button.
All rental equipment on the contract will be re-assigned a Flat Rate proportionally using a ratio of the regular rate but this can be adjusted manually on the document details.
The Billing Day assigned to the Contract is automatically changed to 'F' for Flat Rate, and will always be excluded from the regular Cycle Billing Edit run unless the run is specifically generated for 'Billing Day Code' F.
The Contract is meant to be Cycle Billed at the Flat Rate as many times as required, and when it is closed in Rental Return, it will be returned at zero rental charge.

RENTAL CAP PROCESSING
A Rental Cap dollar amount can be assigned to each product in the Rental Information window of the Rental Inventory to be used as a maximum amount to be charged for any rental of the product.
When the processing is active, all customers will respect Rental Caps unless flagged otherwise in the "Billable Settings" in the Additional Info window of the Customer Information.
The "Allow Rental Cap" flag for each customer can also be updated by the Customer Export/Import utility.
Specific Sites for customers that respect the Rental Cap, can remove the limit by setting the Site flag to ignore the Rental Cap in the Additional Info window of the relevant Site Information.
When a Rental Cap has been assigned to a product it prints on the spreadsheet output of the Cycle Billing Edit Report for information purposes regardless of whether the cap has been applied.

Uncheck this box if your firm does not use a rental maximum amount.
The related fields and windows will not be active in the customer information, site information, product file, or on the document.

Check this box to activate the Rental Cap processing.

Using the Rental Cap on the Document:
This maximum rental amount is saved on each rental product detail of the contract, reservation, quote, etc, and can be accessed in a window on the "Time Due" field in the Each window on the document, where it can be over-typed as required.
The equipment will NOT be billed above this maximum Rental Cap for customers and sites that are flagged to respect the limit.
The rental calculation window on the rental return indicates when the cap has been reached.

When the processing is first activated, the Update Rental Cap Price utility can be run to update any rental equipment that does not yet have a Rental Cap value in Rental Inventory.


RECALCULATE RATES WHEN CHANGE CONTRACT DATES
This prompt controls the rate re-calculation when dates on the contract are changed in Change Contract Date Out/Date Due so that the rental period dates and the requirements are updated for the outstanding rental items.

Check this box so that when the dates are changed, the rates are always recalculated to reflect the new rental period.
The Recalculate flag will be checked and cannot be changed in the Change Contract Date Out/Date Due utility.

Uncheck this box to prompt the operator whether to recalculate the rates in the Change Contract Date Out/Date Due utility.
The Recalculate flag will default to No, but can be changed in the utility if required.


PROMPT FOR DEFAULT RATE CODE
Uncheck this box to suppress the prompt for a special Default Rate Code during rental document entry.

Check this box to prompt for a Default Rate Code during Contract, Reservation, or Rental Quotation entry. This is useful for firms that have irregular rates setup, such as W - "Weekend Rate" that are to be used instead of the daily rate at set times.

Example Setup and Use of the Weekend Rate:
Set the Weekend Valid From Day/Time and the Valid To Day/Time for each division, in the Weekend Rate Settings of the Divisional Rate Parameters.
When entering the document header information, select Default Rate Code "W" and these Start and End weekend times will be displayed.
Then when adding products within this time period, the rate code "W" - Weekend Rate will be used instead of the regular daily rate.
If the product does not have that rate code, the regular rates will be used instead.

Note: If the window on Unit Price is opened the rental rate is re-calculated, and cancels the Default Rate Code so that the standard rates are then used instead.


RENTAL RATE OVER-RIDE PROMPTS FOR ALL RATES
Uncheck this box to use the standard method of calculating rates by ratio, when the rate is over-ridden.
This means when a rental rate is over-ridden on a document, the rate calculation uses a ratio of the rate over-ride to adjust each rate level proportionately, for this product detail on this document.
This includes all the Base Rates too.
These new rates can be viewed in the window on the Each or Unit Price field.
Ratio Rate Over-Ride Example:
Using a Daily Rate of $10 and a Weekly Rate of $40, and the Daily rate is over-ridden to $8 from $10.
The weekly rate is also automatically re-calculated at a ratio of 10:8 so the Weekly rate becomes $32 instead of $40.

Check this box to trigger the prompt whether to Override All Rates For This Product? during product entry when a rate is over-ridden.
The operator's options on the document would then include:

  • Over-Ride All Rates to apply the rate over-ride to all rental rates for this product on this document.
    (i.e. apply the ratio calculation explained above).
  • Over-Ride Current Rate to cause only a single Rate Code and the corresponding Base Rate to reflect the over-ride rate for that product detail on that document.

    Example of Only One Rate Code Over-Ride:
    If only the Daily rate was over-ridden and the equipment stayed out for a week, then the regular Weekly rate would apply, instead of a cheaper weekly rate based on the ratio calculation.
  • Apply as a Flat Rate to assign a flat cycle billing amount on a rental product detail line, using the Rental Rate code of 'F'.

    Cycle Bill Flat Amounts:
    When the contract is cycle billed this product will always be billed for this flat amount.
    Only the flat amount prints as a rate on the Quote, Reservation or Contract. Other rates will be blank.
    At Rental Return, if the product has any billing, it will be returned at zero amount, but if the product has never been cycle billed, then it will be billed at the regular rate instead of the Flat Rate.

    Note: When a product is given a Flat Rate, it bills that rate every interim billing and even if it is "Off-Rent" it will attempt to bill it in Bill a Single Contract where it can be edited if not required.
    The exception being, it will not bill an "Off-Rent" Flat Rate rental in Cycle Billing as this executes a batch billing run that is less convenient to edit.


SUPPRESS 0 RATES ON DOCUMENT
This parameter controls how Product or Group Rates, including Special Rates, with a zero charge are used when the product or group is put on a document.

Uncheck this box to always include any zero dollar rental rates on the document, using them for no-charge billing.
A rental rate of zero is accepted on the document, but needs to be confirmed by re-typing in the 0 value.

Check this box to ignore any zero dollar rates when the product or group is put on a document.
This provides the ability to maintain two different rate structures for the same product or group by using Special Rate Codes.

Example using Suppress 0 Rates on Document to bill "standard" rates:

        Standard Rates for the Product or Group:
        CODE  DESCRIPTION  TO HOURS  RATE HOURS  RATE
        1     DAILY        72        24          10.00
        2     WEEKLY       504       168         60.00
        3     MONTHLY      9999      672         200.00
        4     DAILY        9999      24          0
        
When a rental document is created with no special rate level assigned, the Standard Rates in this structure are applied and Rate Code 4 for the zero Daily rate is not copied to the document, resulting in only the standard Daily, Weekly and Monthly Rates.

When a rental document is created and a rental product uses special rates, one of the two Daily rates can be assigned the special rate.
Note that the critical difference in the two Daily rate codes is the To Hours.
Both Daily rate codes are required in the standard rate structure even though one is for zero dollars, because each Rate Code must already exists as a Standard Rate Code for the product or Group before it can be used in the Special Rates setup.

Example using Special Rates with Suppress 0 Rates on Document to create a "By Date" rate only:

        Special Rates "By Day" for the same Product or Group:
        CODE  DESCRIPTION  TO HOURS  RATE HOURS  RATE
        1     DAILY        72        24          0
        2     WEEKLY       504       168         0
        3     MONTHLY      9999      672         0
        4     DAILY        9999      24          9.00
        
When the same product or group is put on a rental document that is assigned Special Rates "ByDay", Rate Codes 1,2,3 for the zero rates in this structure are suppressed, resulting in a document with only the Rate Code 4 Daily rate of 9.00

The first Daily Rate Code 1 could not be used for the "By Day" special rate structure because the To Hours of 72 would limit it to just 3 days.
The zero rate records are required in this Special Rates structure for Rate Codes 1,2,3 because if any existing Rate Codes for the product or Group are not assigned a Special Rate, then the standard rate would still apply for that code.

Exceptions:

  • Seasonal Rate:
    Even if Suppress 0 Rates on Document is checked and activated, zero dollar Seasonal rates for a rental product will NOT be suppressed on a Seasonal Contract.
  • Meter Rate Charge:
    Even if Suppress 0 Rates on Document is checked and activated, rates will NOT be suppressed where the rental rate is zero but the meter rate is not zero in the product or Group rate structure.
    This provides the ability to bill meter rates by rental period on equipment that only charges by meter usage and not for the rental time.

    Note: In this type of rate structure where there are meter rate charges and zero rental rates and it is important that all rate codes in the rate structure have zero rental rates, as the rate optimization process will always choose the lesser rental rate and would always choose the zero rate over any rental charge.

It is also important that the rate structure includes a rate with a To Hours of 9999, or the rates will expire and cause invalid rate errors.


ENABLE MULTI-TIER PRICING

Check this box to enable multi-tiered rates and pricing optional for all customers.
The 'Tier 1, 2 & 3' columns for tiered special rental rates are included in the spreadsheet output of the Aged A/R Summary Report as setup for each customer in the Multi-Tier Custom Special Pricing window.

Uncheck this box if your firm does not use this complex pricing formula and prefers to use the Standard Special Pricing only.

Note: The Allow Rate Level Change On Contacts parameter is turned off and disabled when the Multi-Tier Pricing feature is enabled.


ENABLE DISCOUNT % BY SPECIAL RATE LEVEL
There are two approaches for calculating the Special Rates for products and/or groups:
  1. This Special Rate formula uses a discount percent of the standard rate, to calculate each rate for the product and/or group.
    To activate this method setup the percents to discount for products and/or groups in the Product / Group Special Rate Discounts table and activate this Enable Discount % By Special Rate Level feature.
  2. To use the Special Rate method that applies a straight dollar amount over-ride on the Rate to be charged for each applicable rate code, refer to Product Special Rates or Group Special Rates.
    This method does not require this Enable Discount % By Special Rate Level flag to be activated.

Cylinder Settings
Sometimes a container is required for the sale of a product such as gas or propane or water.
This feature can be used to sell the consumable product according to the capacity of the container selected, tracking the cylinders or bottles at each customer site, and to bill monthly for the rental of the containers.
This process is available to both On Account and Cash customers even though the rental of the cylinders is always billed On Account through the Cycle Billing.
Use Rental Inventory to setup multiple cylinders, tanks, bottles, and container products for varying sizes and volumes, and assign each container to handle a specific consumable sales product in the Make/Model and Re-Order Information of the rental product by capacity.
In Sales Inventory set the price of the consumable product by unit such as gal, kg, or lb, as the price charged uses the container capacity times the price per unit of the sales item.
The containers that apply to the sales product can be viewed in the Contained in Cylinders window of the Sales Inventory.
e.g. CYL40 and CYL100 for the different cylinder sizes used to sell Propane.
The Cylinder Entry utility is used to manage the cylinder transactions, including:

The tunable parameters controlling the cylinder process include:

CYLINDER CONTRACT CYCLE BILLING DAY CODE
Leave this field blank if cylinder billing/tracking is not done in this company.
The cylinder options in the Counter Menu will then be suppressed in the menu tree in the navigation pane.
Products using containers can still be sold standard invoices, but container quantity will not be tracked.

To activate the Cylinder Billing feature, enter a unique alpha Cylinder Cycle Billing Day Code specifically setup in Cycle Billing Days for cylinder billing.
e.g. CY
All cylinder contracts generated from Cylinder Entry will automatically be assigned this Cycle Billing Code to enable monthly billing of cylinder rentals for Cash and On Account customers.

Restrictions on Cycle Billing Day Code:
This Cylinder Cycle Billing Day Code cannot be 'F' which is reserved for Flat Rate, nor can it be assigned as the Seasonal Cycle Bill Day Code.
This unique Cylinder Cycle Billing Day Code cannot be assigned manually to a standard contract.

Note: This field cannot be changed, once there are any open cylinder transactions.


CYLINDER CONTRACT MONTHLY RATE CODE
Enter the 'Rate Code' which will define the dollar amount charged for the rental of the cylinders or containers each month in Cycle Billing Edit.
The average number of containers out during the month on each contract will be billed at this rate for the month.
Each cylinder contract identified by the unique Cylinder Cycle Billing Day Code can only be billed once a month on the last day of the month.

Note: When a cylinder rental is billed, only the amount for this 'Rate Code' applies and any other rate structure records are ignored.


MULTIPLE CONTRACTS PER SITE
This parameter controls how the containers are tracked on contracts for customers:

Uncheck this box to allow only 1 contract per customer site, for tracking cylinder rentals.
The contract will be updated as cylinders are shipped and returned, so that all monthly cylinder charges for this site will be billed on one invoice generated from Cycle Billing.

Check this box if more than one contract is allowed per customer site for cylinder rentals.
When cylinder transactions are entered in Cylinder Entry the contract # to be updated can be selected, and cylinders out on a contract must be returned on that same contract, as each contract will be invoiced separately for monthly billings.


CYLINDER DELIVERY TICKET COMMENTS
The comments can be setup to print at the bottom of each cylinder delivery ticket according to the customer's language preference, as outlined in Cylinder Delivery Ticket Comments.

This could be useful to explain the cylinder rental terms, or to indicate where customer signatures are required.


OPTIONAL SITE "ORDERD PLACED BY"
This flag controls whether the "Order Placed By" field is a mandatory field when the Site Information is captured on a new Cylinder Contract created in Cylinder Entry.

Check this box if the "Order Place By" field should be optional in Cylinder Entry.
Uncheck this box if the "Order Place By" field should be a mandatory input field.


Note: The Unbilled Revenue Report, Unpaid Revenue By Site, and the Utilization capture do not reflect potential cylinder revenue because of the formula used to predict contract revenue.

Event Settings
There are two levels of Event Location management:
PROMPT FOR EVENT CODE
Uncheck this box if the Event Location management processing is not required for your firm globally or by site.

Check this box to activate the Event Location management processing company wide.
Event management processing can be turned off for specific divisions in the Additional Pop-Up Windows of the Divisional Contract Parameters.

If events are activated by site, also set the default flag to open the Site window on the contract, to ensure that site delivery details are added.
The default can be set in the Additional Pop-Up Windows of the Divisional Contract Parameters.

Using Event Codes to Determine Dates and Rates on a Document:
When Event Code processing is activated, the operator will be prompted for the job location and event after the "Ship To" or site information is entered on a document, as outlined in Location and Event Information.
If an event code and locality are entered on a rental document, the document dates default from the event date range, and all rental products entered on the document are assigned a flat rate code of "E" for Event.
Dates and times in the Rental Period window will reflect the Event period.

Determining the Flat Event Rate:
Products charging the Event Rate will display a Rate Code of 'E' in the product detail and the flat rate will be calculated as follows:

  • The event rate is the charge at the product's regular rate for the "Event Rate Code" defined in Global Job Events, multiplied by the Rate Factor set for the event.
    This Factor allows rate flexibility according to the length of the event.
  • If the regular product rate structure does NOT include a Rate record corresponding to the "Event Rate Code", the flat rate amount for Rate Code 'E' (Event) from the product rate structure applies, and the Factor is NOT applied.
    Note: Generally the Rate Code "E" should not be setup with a value in the To Hours field as this could limit the effectiveness of the rate code.

  • If the regular product rate structure does NOT include either that "Event Rate Code" defined for the specific Event or the code 'E' for Event, then the regular rate processing applies and Event processing does not apply to this product.

Note: If the document detail dates are changed then the regular rate processing applies unless the rate is over-typed with "E" for Event.


Tracking Job Costs by Event Code:
When Event Management processing is activated and a job is assigned to a document, when the billing invoice is posted the job codes are included as part of the G/L transactions posted to the General Ledger, so that event expenses and revenues can be tracked and analyzed.

Event codes can be assigned and are used in the following actions:


ENFORCE EVENT CODE BY SITE
This flag only applies if Event management processing has been activated by the Prompt for Event Code parameter.

Check this box to only allow the Events processing by specific customer Site as setup in Customer Site Information.
Job Events can be added for a Site on-the-fly at document entry if required and expiry dates on the Event can be modified from the document.
This flag also de-activates the use of Global Job Locations and Global Job Events.

Uncheck this box to utilize both Events by Site as setup in Customer Site Information and also Global Event processing as setup in Global Job Locations and Global Job Events.


MATCH EVENT DETAILS WITH DEFAULT CONTRACT DATES
This flag only applies if Event management processing has been activated by the Prompt for Event Code parameter.

Check this box if your firm requires that when the dates are changed in the Rental Period window on an existing contract header, then the Date Out and Date Due for all Event rental product details having a rate code of "E" on that document, will also be updated to use the new dates.
The rate calculations are not changed as they remain at the Event rates.
Note: Products with dates that did not match the "old" dates or that have a rate code other than "E", will not be updated.

Uncheck this box if Event rental product detail dates should NOT be changed automatically, when the dates in the document header are changed.


Seasonal Rates
Seasonal rates can be assigned to relevant products in the rate structure of the Rental Inventory that would apply when the document is flagged as Seasonal in the Rental Period window.
Seasonal rental periods can also be setup by Group to generate a single billing per season at the appropriate seasonal rate.
This would be useful for seasonal rentals such as heaters, where a different charge could apply to the different seasons according to demand and usage.
In the Rate Information window for the appropriate Group, a maximum of four seasons can be defined based on the starting date, to apply to products in that Group and to the Group itself.
Contracts that are flagged for Seasonal Billing in the Rental Period window, will always use the "Current" calculation when calculating rental revenue on the Unbilled Revenue Report.
Note: Contracts that are flagged for Seasonal Billing can be manually put "Off Rent" but zero hours will always be calculated to eliminate conflicts with the seasonal billing process.
This includes the Off Rent hours generated by Delivery and Pickup Tickets.
The prompts to activate this feature are:
RENTAL RATE CODE
Enter a special rate code, or select one from the drop-down list to activate the Seasonal Pricing feature.
Once defined the Seasonal Rental Rate Code becomes unique so that when it is assigned as the Special Rate in the Rental Period window on a document header, all rental products and Groups added to the document default to the Seasonal Rate code.
e.g. S for Seasonal Rate

Only a special rate code setup in the Company Default Rates table with no To Hours and no Rate Hours values, can be selected to bill the seasonal rates.
A zero dollar rate on a Seasonal Contract for a Seasonal rental product is not suppressed even if the option to Suppress 0 Rates on Document is activated above in the "Rate Settings" for the company.

If the Rental Rate Code is changed or removed a warning is triggered with the number of documents that will be affected and how the billing will be changed.
If the change to the Rental Rate Code is accepted, an audit record written to the Deletion Log.

Note: To enter a Counter Worksheet for seasonal rentals, the customer information must first be entered to capture the Seasonal Rental Rate Code in the Rental Period window, before the product details can be entered to allow seasonal rates.


CYCLE BILLING DAY CODE
Enter the Seasonal Billing Day Code or select it from the drop-down list, to flag seasonal contracts and enable seasonal billing to be generated by batch from Cycle Billing Edit.

This should be a unique alpha Billing Day Code setup in the Cycle Billing Days specifically for Seasonal contracts.
e.g. S for Seasonal Billing Day

Note: This Seasonal Cycle Billing Day Code cannot be 'F' which is reserved for Flat Rate, nor can it be assigned as the Cylinder Contract Cycle Billing Day Code.


DEFAULT MARKETING COMMENT
Enter an optional Marketing Code or select one from the drop-down list, as setup in the Marketing Codes, to print the related comments on resulting seasonal invoices.

Note: If your firm uses the Alternate Language feature as activated in the Company Miscellaneous Parameters, then the comments for the Marketing Code should include text for both languages, as the same code will always be printed.


Finished?
Click OK to accept the settings and exit the Rate Parameters window.
Note: Any changes made to these parameters will not be applied until the Company Parameters are accepted.
Topic Keyword: GLCN90F (3835)
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