Time Periods

Time Periods Window

The Time Periods window (Figure 1) in the Setup Wizard is used to define the time periods you have specific rates for.

Rental Time Periods work in conjunction with the Rental Rules to define your Rental Rates for your Rental Inventory Parts.

Figure 1: The Time Periods window

The purpose and/or function of the controls on the Time Periods window are detailed in Table 1.

Control	Purpose and/or Function
The Period Tree	The Periods are displayed in an expandable and collapsible tree in the upper left portion of the Time Periods window. In the example in Figure 1 the tree has four branches. You can change the order in which the Periods are listed in the tree and in turn the order they are listed in the Inventory Rental Rates tab, via the right-click popup menu, as shown below By using the Move Up and Move Down menu items you can sort the tree as desired.
Show Inactive Rental Rules	Check this box to display any inactive Time Periods in the Periods tree.
[Add]	Click [Add] to add a new period to the tree. System Five opens the dialog box shown below. Type in the name for the new Period and click [OK]. The name is limited to 20 characters. You can also Add Periods from the tree by right-clicking on the tree and selecting Add from the popup menu, as shown below.
[Remove]	Click [Remove] to remove the currently selected Periods from the tree. If the [Remove] button is disabled, the currently selected Period has been used and therefore cannot be removed. You can also Remove Periods from the tree by right-clicking on the tree and selecting Remove from the popup menu, as shown below.
Active	This check box controls the Periods status. Only Active Periods are considered by System Five. The ability to make a Periods Inactive provides a method of hiding the Period when it is no longer required or wanted. You cannot remove a Period once it has been used.
Invoice Column	This check box controls whether or not the selected rate is available in the Invoice Designer. Enable this option for each of the desired time periods if you want the invoice to show the invoice rates in column format for the different rental periods selected. Once this option has been enabled, the time periods will show as items available for selection in the [Items] tab of the Invoice Designer. Setting this option will also prevent the rate from being added to the available rates printed in the Invoice Line Comments. This option can also be used to remove individual rates when printing rate lists in the *Invoice Line Comments. The Invoice Column* check box also controls whether or not the rate for the period is available to be added to the Select grid in the Part Find window.
Name	This box contains the name of the Periods. The name of a Period is limited to 20 characters. You can modify the name as required.
Period	This is a drop down list of the possible periods that can be used in System Five. The drop down list is shown below. Using one of the Period items you can then set the Length of the Period based on the Period selected. If you want a Week Period, then you would choose the Day(s) Periods and set the Length to 7. Month(s) can be hard to deal with as the length varies from month to month. It is suggested that you create a Month (4 Weeks) Period that is 28 days in length to ensure that your Rental Rates remain consistent across the various calendar months.
Length	The Length box defines how many of the selected Period are contained in the Time Period you are creating or modifying. Fractions can be used for the Hour(s), but only whole numbers for Day(s) and Month(s). Do use Hours to define a portion of a day. Do use 7 Days to define a Week.
Limit to one use only	This will give you the ability to specify a Time Period as limited to one use only. (This provides another method for specifying a weekend rate.) For example, you can set a weekend rate to only be valid on Fridays as a daily period of 3 days.
Use as default for Rental Utilization Report	This lets you specify the Rental Rate to be used in dollar Rental Utilization calculations.
Use the Base Period in rental rates using "B: % of Base Period"	Much like the default rental utilization check box, this check box tells System Five what Rate Period to use as the 'Base' period. See also Rental Rate option
Applies To
Months of the Year	The 12 months of the Year are listing, you can select the Months that Time Period applies to. Typically you would select all of the Months unless you have special Time Period requirements for different times of the Year. Right-click in the list and a popup menu appears, as shown below. Use this menu to select or clear all of the check boxes in the list with one mouse click.
Days of the Week	The 7 days of the week are listed, you can select the days that Time Period applies to. Typically you would select all of the days unless you have special Time Period requirements for different days of the week. *Days of the Week* check boxes are only active for the *Period* type of hours or days. A good example of an exception would be a Weekend Rate. You can create a Daily Period that includes all Months of the Year, Hours or the Days, but only Monday through Friday from the Days of the Week. Then create another Period called Weekend that includes the same Months and Hours, but only the Saturday and Sunday Days of the Week. Right-click in the list and a popup menu appears, as shown below. Use this menu to select or clear all of the check boxes in the list with one mouse click.
Hours of the Day	The 24 hours of the day are listed, you can select the hours that Time Period applies to. Typically you would select all of the hours unless you have special Time Period requirements for different times of the day. *Hours of the Day* check boxes are only active for the *Period* type of hours. Right-click in the list and a popup menu appears, as shown below. Use this menu to select or clear all of the check boxes in the list with one mouse click.

Table 1: The Time Periods window controls

Considerations when establishing rental time periods

When calculating the rental charge for a specific item, System Five will consider every active time period that has rate set for the item. If the item's price for a time period is set to zero then it will not be considered. When setting the rental date and time for an item on an invoice, System Five will compare the item's rental contract length against every possible combination of valid rates to arrive at the best final price in the customer's favor. In order to do this, System Five looks at the Period and Length settings. The Name field can be set to anything and has no effect on how System Five will calculate the final rate.

A Simplified example:

There is a Day rate, which is valid every day of the week, has a Period of Day(s), a Length of 1 and is priced at $100.00.

There is a Weekend rate, which is valid only on Friday, has a Period of Day(s), a Length of 3 and is priced at $150.00.

There is a Week rate, which is valid every day of the week, has a Period of Day(s), a Length of 7 and is priced at $350.00.

There is a Month rate, which is valid every day of the week, has a Period of Month(s), a Length of 1 and is priced at $800.00.

A customer rents an item on Wednesday afternoon and returns it on Friday morning. The total time out is less than 2 Days so the customer will be charged $200.00 for 2 Day rates.
A customer rents an item on Friday afternoon and returns it on Monday morning. The total time out is less than 3 days so the customer is charged $150.00 for 1 Weekend rate.
A customer rents an item on Friday afternoon and returns it on Monday afternoon. The total time out exceeds 3 days so the customer is charged $250.00 for 1 Weekend rate plus 1 Day rate.
A customer rents an item on Friday afternoon and returns it on Saturday morning. The total time out is less than 1 day so the customer will be charged $100.00 for 1 Day rate.
A customer rents an item on Friday morning and returns it on Saturday afternoon. The total time out is over 1 day so the customer will be charged $150.00 for 1 Weekend rate.
A customer rents an item on Monday afternoon and returns it on Thursday morning. The total time out is less than 3 days so the customer will be charged $300.00 for 3 Day rates.
A customer rents an item on Monday morning and returns it on Thursday afternoon. The total time out is over 3 days so the customer will be charged $350.00 for 1 Week rate.
A customer rents an item on Monday morning and returns it the following Monday afternoon. The total time out is just over 7 days so the customer will be charged $450.00 for 1 Day rate and 1 Week rate.
A customer rents an item on Monday morning and returns it 16 days later on Tuesday afternoon. The total time out is just over 16 days so the customer will be charged $800.00 for 1 Month rate.

Considerations for weekend rates and No Charge days

The System Five rate calculation brain will always select the best price for the customer based on all the active rental rates and rules. This can sometimes be an issue with Weekend Rates that either charge the same amount as daily rates, or span more than one weekend without an active seven day (weekly) rate. The solution can vary based on the desired rate structure.

The simplest and most convenient solution to allow a No-charge Day for all rental items is to setup a Non-Chargeable Day. If only some rental items are subject to a no-charge day, however, then a Weekend Rate must be used. The above examples assume there is a weekly rate and that weekend rates are always higher than daily rates. When the desired outcome is a no-charge day, where the rate for a two day rental is equal to a one day rental, then it becomes necessary to establish multiple day rates, as shown below.

An example for rate setup with a Sunday No Charge day using a Weekend Rate:

A Saturday rate, which is only valid on Saturday, has a Period of Day(s), a Length of 2 and is priced at $100.00.

A Friday rate, which is valid only on Friday, has a Period of Day(s), a Length of 3 and is priced at $200.00.

A Thursday rate, which is valid only on Thursday, has a Period of Day(s), a Length of 4 and is priced at $300.00.

A Wednesday rate, which is valid only on Wednesday, has a Period of Day(s), a Length of 5 and is priced at $400.00.

A Daily rate, which is valid Monday thru Saturday, has a Period of Day(s), a Length of 1 and is priced at $100.00.

A Weekly rate, which is valid every day of the week, has a Period of Day(s), a Length of 7 and is priced at $450.00

An alternative naming convention for Saturday, Friday, Thursday and Wednesday would be Weekend, Three Day, Four Day and Five Day. These alternate names are used in the following examples.

A customer rents an item on Wednesday afternoon and returns it on Friday morning. The total time out is less than 2 Days so the customer will be charged $200.00 for 2 Daily rates.
A customer rents an item on Friday afternoon and returns it on Monday morning. The total time out is less than 3 days, including Sunday, so the customer is charged $200.00 for 1 Three Day rate.
A customer rents an item on Friday afternoon and returns it on Monday afternoon. The total time out exceeds 3 days, including Sunday, so the customer is charged $300.00 for one Three day rate plus 1 Daily rate.
A customer rents an item on Friday afternoon and returns it on Saturday morning. The total time out is less than 1 day so the customer will be charged $100.00 for 1 Daily rate.
A customer rents an item on Friday morning and returns it on Saturday afternoon. The total time out is over 1 day so the customer will be charged $200.00 for 2 Daily rates.
A customer rents an item on Monday afternoon and returns it on Thursday morning. The total time out is less than 3 days so the customer will be charged $300.00 for 3 Daily rates.
A customer rents an item on Monday morning and returns it on Thursday afternoon. The total time out is over 3 days so the customer will be charged $400.00 for 4 Daily rates.
A customer rents an item on Monday morning and returns it the following Monday afternoon. The total time out is just over 7 days, including Sunday, so the customer will be charged $550.00 for 1 Daily rate and 1 Weekly rate.
A customer rents an item on Wednesday morning and returns it on Monday morning. The total time out is less than 5 days, including Sunday, so the customer will be charged $400.00 for 1 Five Day rate.
A customer rents an item on Wednesday morning and returns it on Monday Afternoon. The total time out is more than 5 days, including Sunday, so the customer will be charged $450.00 for 1 Weekly rate.

Overnight Rental Rate

The Overnight period type allows you to select the days that the period applies, and the start and end times for the period on each of the selected days.

Example:

Pick up after 3:00 PM

Return before 8:00 AM the following day

Maximum 4 meter hours

Equivalent to 70% of daily rental rate.

In this case, a special rate applies to rental of items if the contract begins after 3:00 PM any day, and is returned before 8:00 AM the following day. If the rental item is not returned before 8:00 AM then regular rental rates apply for the duration of the rental.

Meter Allowance: If the maximum hour allowance for the overnight rental is exceeded, an average charge is applied and will be based on the rental contract rate used to calculate the hourly rate for exceeded hours.

Weekend Rental Rate

This period type allows you to define the Start day and time and the End Day and time for a rental period. With Weekend Rental Rates, the in and out times and the day needs to be set.

Example:

Pick up after 3:00 PM Friday

Return before 9:00 AM Monday

Max 8 hour meter

Equivalent to a Single day rent charge

In this case, a special rate applies to the rental of items if the rental period begins after 3:00 PM and is returned before 9:00 AM Monday. This weekend rate is equivalent to a day rental and will be applied to equipment rentals that are taken any time after 3:00 PM on Friday, as long as the equipment is returned before 9:00 AM, Monday. If the equipment is not returned by 9:00 AM, regular rental rates apply for the duration of the rental.

Meter Allowance: If the maximum 8 hour allowance for the weekend rental is exceeded, an overage charge is applied and will be based on the rental contract rate used to calculate the hourly rate for exceeded hours.