Reserve rental inventory

To reserve an item, complete the following steps:

1. Select the Reservation command from the Navigator menu to open the Rentals window to the Reservation tab as shown in Figure 1.
   
   The default clerk is the person who logged in. However, if you have the option Ask for clerk number when creating new invoices enabled, a clerk must be selected and will ask for a password if the option Ask for clerk password when creating and editing invoices has been enabled in the Clerk Options of the Setup Wizard in the Reservations tab before the [Reserve], [Complete] or [Estimate] buttons are available.
   
   If the clerk's security option to Add/Edit Work Orders was disabled, [Complete] button will be disabled, the same thing with the [Estimate] button that will be disabled once the security option to Add/Edit Estimates was also disabled. If in the case that the option to Add Invoices was disabled, regardless if both Add/Edit Work Orders and Add/Edit Estimates were enabled, [Reserve], [Complete], and [Estimate] buttons will be disabled.

Figure 1: The Rentals window

2. Check to see if the item is available on the dates the customer requires by entering information in the Start Date and the Duration (or end date) text box. When an item in the rental categories list is selected, clicking on the Schedule tab will display a visual representation of possible conflicts.
3. Click on the category you wish to view. If the Display Full Category Status check box is checked, the Availability column fills automatically when expanding a category. This setting is remembered between sessions.
4. Select the item the customer wishes to reserve by manually locating it in the list or use the Part Search option. Enter part or all of the item and press the enter key, or use the [Search] button to launch Part Find. Selecting an item will open the appropriate category and highlight the quantity field for the selected item.
   
   There may be a delay while the availability of rental items are calculated and displayed in the associated Availability column. The example in Figure 3 shows that there are 2 Audi 9000's available for the time period selected. The Dodge Ram Crew Cab, however, shows 'Insufficient Stock'. Optionally, double-click the item or select the Schedule tab to view the detailed rental bookings for the selected item (including conflicts).
   
   You also have the option to show/hide rental stocks from other departments.
   
   Tick on the Show items from other departments checkbox beside the Department drop down as shown on Figure 2.

Figure 2: Rental Reservation: Show rental stock from other departments checkbox

Note: By default, the system will only list the items that have stock in the currently selected department.

5. To reserve the item, click on it and enter the quantity to reserve as shown in Figure 3.

Note: When reserving multiple serialized units (through rentals), the items on this reservation list shows one line per unit and a quantity of one and carry to the associated invoice. If you try to change that quantity, you get a warning and the quantity remains at one.

Figure 3: Reservation Example

Note: The Status bar along the bottom of the Reservation tab displays the rental rates for the part selected in Figure 3.

6. Enter the customer name in the Account field or click [...] to open the Find Customer window and search for the correct customer record.
   
   If you select a specific customer before selecting the part, the rates displayed reflect that customer's price schedule for that customer record. The status bar is shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: The Status bar with Rental Rates

7. Click [Reserve] on the Toolbar to create a pending reservation. Selected items now appear in the Reservation queue in the grid at the bottom of the Reservation tab.
   
   If the [Hide Reservations] button is visible, the item(s) with reservations currently pending are displayed at the bottom of the window. If the [Show Reservations] button is visible, click it to show the item(s) with reservations currently pending.
   
   At this point you can exit the Rentals window and this reservation appears next time you enter the window, however the inventory is NOT RESERVED until you complete the reservation.

Completing Reservations

Item reservations are found in the Reservation queue. There are three ways to clear items in this queue that are pending (meaning you have reserved them but haven't placed them on an estimate or work order yet):

1. Delete all the items in the queue. Delete an item in the queue by selecting the item row and pressing CTRL-DELETE on your keyboard. Optionally, click [Exit] and before the window closes, a dialog box appears that asks if you want to delete pending reservations.

2. Click [Complete]. This moves pending items in the Reservation queue to a work order and changes the items' status to 'Reserved'. When you close the work order, you do not need to set the item (s) status to 'OUT'. You can open the invoice from the Current Rentals tab and change the status when the customer comes to pick up the items.

Note: When adding items to existing work orders, you only need to select an item and click [Reserve] to automatically add it to the work order ([Complete] is not necessary because the invoice already exists).

3. Click [Estimate]. This action creates an estimate for the pending items in the Reservation queue, and clears the reservation information. This means that the items are NOT reserved. The rental cost for each item is calculated based on the start and end dates that you specified, and the calculations are shown in an item comment for each rental item on the estimate. This allows you to create a proposal for the customer before actually reserving an item. If the customer comes to pick up the items the estimate must be converted to a work order.

Note: To use this feature an invoice sub-type must be defined and assigned to the estimate to indicate that rental items on the invoice should not affect the reservation pool.

Alternatively, after you select the customer, clerk and unit:

1. Navigate to the Schedule tab
2. Left-click and drag the cursor over the time blocks
3. Click [Yes] on the pop-up box.
   
   Once done, the part will now appear in the reservation listing at the bottom of the tab.

4. Click [Complete] to complete the invoice.

You can now proceed to get current day rentals ready for pick up and rent the items out.

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