Backdated Rentals

Organizations often find the need to enter data for contracts that have occurred in the past. CloudERM caters for this requirement via backdated rentals.

Backdated rentals are essentially rentals that are created on CloudERM with a start date-time in the past. Backdated rentals can be of two types:

1. Partially Backdated: Rentals with a start time in the past (at the time of creation), but an end time in the future.
2. Fully Backdated: Rentals with start and end times, both in the past at the time of creation.

Partially Backdated Rentals

These rentals, when created, are treated as backdated rentals and and can be identified so via a helper icon adjacent to the order number on the rental row. Hovering over this icon informs the user what type of backdated rental it is.

After creation, these contracts are pretty much treated as normal contracts, except for one change in detail.

When starting a normal contract, the system assumes that the time of opening the contract is the actual start time for the rental.

However, for backdated rentals, the system assumes that the user inputted start time is the actual start time for the rental.

The remaining flow in terms of contract progression remains the same.

Fully Backdated Rentals

Similar to Partially Backdated Rentals, these rentals can also be identified via a slightly different helper icon adjacent to the order number on the rental row. Hovering over this icon informs the user what type of backdated rental it is.

Fully Backdated Rentals do not follow the usual rental flow. Instead, they are directly processed into a closed contract. The system assumes that the user inputted start and end times are the actual rental duration, and invoices are generated against the contract as per that rental duration.

INFO

When a quote's start and end dates are both in the past, a warning appears before you save — "Both dates are in the past. Once saved, this quote is fully backdated: it can only be closed as a backdated contract and can no longer become a reservation." (Shown to users with the rental backdating permission.) An existing saved quote can also be moved into the past on a later edit; saving it that way likewise turns it into a fully backdated quote.

Setting Exact Dispatch and Off-Rent Times

A fully backdated quote's promotion button reads Convert To Backdated Closed Contract. Clicking it opens the Confirm Status Change dialog as usual, but for users who hold the rental backdating permission, this dialog also includes two extra fields:

• Actual Dispatch
• Actual Off-Rent

Both are date-time fields, pre-filled with the quote's planned window (the earliest planned dispatch and latest planned return across the quote's asset lines). Each is optional and applies to the whole order — leaving a field untouched, or clearing it, keeps every asset on its own individually planned date instead of overwriting it with a single order-wide value.

Neither time can be set in the future, and Actual Off-Rent cannot be earlier than Actual Dispatch (or, if Actual Dispatch is left blank, earlier than the quote's planned dispatch time). Click Confirm Times to apply the times and continue the conversion, or Cancel to back out — Confirm Times stays disabled until the entered times satisfy these rules.

Without the rental backdating permission, these fields are not offered, and the quote is closed using its planned dispatch/return dates instead.

This dialog is available wherever the quote can be promoted — the Rentals table, the Order View Popup, the Progress Summary popup, and the customer's Transactions table.