Promoting A Rental Order

Promotion Button

Right clicking on an open sales order row brings up the action menu that features several action buttons. Within these actions button, is the promotion button that features a yellow icon and a title describing the promotion action.

This button will appear disabled (greyed out) if promoting the order is restricted. Hovering over the button will display a note listing the reason for restriction. The note also allows navigating to the issue where it can be resolved. Once all pending reasons for promotion restriction are resolved, the button will be enabled.

Alternately, orders that can be promoted to the next stage will appear green on the Transactions Table and will sport a green button on the right side of the row that can be used to promote the order.

Continue below to learn more about the rental process and rental order promotion flow.

The process of renting out an asset to a customer begins with generating a quotation for a customer. A quotation contains all information regarding the customer, assets to be rented, rental duration, and delivery charges.

Promoting a Quote To A Reservation

When a user confirms a quotation, it needs to be promoted to a reservation.

To promote a Quote to a Reservation, head to the Transaction Page via the Left Navigation Menu and click on the Quotes Tab. Right click on an order row to bring up the action menu. Promotion Button will appear as below:

Clicking the button will display a prompt to the user, to confirm promotion. On confirming the prompt, the quote will be promoted to a reservation.

The promoted quote will be removed from the Quotes Tab, and will instead be visible in the Reservations Tab now.

Note: If Non-Validated Assets settings are disabled then quote will not be promoted to reservation against an invalid asset and corresponding warning will be shown.

Credit-limit check on conversion

Converting a rental quote — to a reservation, or, for a fully backdated quote, straight to a backdated closed contract — runs a credit-limit check: the customer's full exposure (their open accounts-receivable balance plus committed open orders, including this quote's projected value) is compared against their credit limit. If the customer would be over their limit, the outcome follows their credit-limit policy (the same Warn / Block policy shown on the A/R Over Credit Limit report):

• Warn — a "Credit Limit Exceeded" notice is shown (the amount over, and total exposure vs limit), and you can acknowledge it (Reserve Anyway, or Convert Anyway for a backdated closed contract) to proceed with the conversion.
• Block — the conversion is stopped, with a message that the customer is over their credit limit, unless you hold a permission that lets you override the block — in which case you get the same Warn treatment instead.

The check is re-run on the server when the quote is actually converted, so it remains the final authority. Note that this check runs at the quote-stage conversion only — once a reservation is dispatched (promoted to an open contract), the customer's exposure is no longer re-checked at that step.

Promoting a A Reservation To An Open Contract

Once assets are reserved, they need to go through an inspection process to ensure they are ready for dispatch.

Once all assets in a reservation have been inspected and are ready for dispatch, the reservation needs to be promoted to an open contract.

Asset Availability Restrictions

If an asset on an rental order has any pending work orders or is currently Out of Service, the system will disallow promotion.

When a restricted action is attempted, the user will be informed of blockers if any.

Status Indicators

Icons will be displayed on the affected rental order row to indicate the restriction status.

When hovering over these icons, a tooltip will display the relevant message.

Note: Assets must be cleared of pending work orders and returned to active service status before dispatching or starting a contract.

To promote a Reservation to an Open Contract, head to the Rentals Page via the Left Navigation Menu and click on the Reservations Tab. Right click on an order row to bring up the action menu. Promotion Button will appear as below:

Clicking the button opens the Confirm Status Change dialog with an Effective Date Picker for setting the dispatch time (see Setting the effective date). On confirming, the reservation promotion process will start in the background.

Setting the effective date

When dispatching (starting a contract) or off-renting/closing a contract, the confirmation dialog includes an Effective Date Picker that offers two ways to set the effective time:

• Pick a day & time — a calendar grid (the current week plus the next two full weeks; past days are hidden and today is marked TODAY) together with quick-pick hour pills split into an AM row and a PM row. A live summary line previews the chosen time; click Confirm Scheduled Time to apply it.
• Use the current time — an exact date-time field (Effective Time (optional)). Clicking it opens a calendar/time popup where you pick the date and time and click OK to commit the pick, then click Confirm Current Time to apply it. Leaving it empty uses the moment of the status change (the server default).

The dialog's wording adapts to the step — Dispatch for a reservation → open contract, and Off-Rent for an open → closed contract. For the off-rent step, a warning banner shows the constraint "Latest Dispatched Date: … Off-Rent can't be earlier than this.", and the picker enforces that lower bound. Setting a past effective date requires the rental backdating permission; without it a past date cannot be picked ("You do not have permission to set a past date").

If the reservation belongs to an On Account customer, the reservation will be immediately promoted to an Open Contract. However, if the reservation belongs to a Pay On Open customer, an invoice will be generated against this reservation first. If auto payment is enabled for the customer, the invoice will be automatically payed and the reservation will be promoted to an open contract. In case auto payment is disabled for the customer, the generated invoice will first need to be payed. On invoice payment, the reservation will be automatically promoted to an open contract. Learn more about Invoice Payment here.

The promoted reservation will be removed from the Reservations Tab, and will instead be visible in the Open Contracts Tab now.

In specific cases, where payment restriction needs to be bypassed for a Pay On Open Customer, users with relevant permissions can also view an additional button at this stage, seen as below:

Clicking the button will display a prompt to the user, to confirm promotion while bypassing payment restriction. On confirming the prompt, the reservation promotion process will start in the background and will complete without waiting for confirmation on invoice payment.

Note: If Non-Validated Assets settings are disabled then reservation will not be promoted to open contract against an invalid asset and corresponding warning will be shown.

Promoting an Open Contract To A Closed Contract

Once a Reservation is promoted to an Open Contract, all assets within the Open Contract are dispatched to the customer. Once the customer has used assets per their requirement, assets are off-rented. An Open Contract is automatically closed once all dispatched assets have been off-rented.

Off-Renting Assets

To off-rent an asset on an Open Contract, head to the Transaction Page via the Left Navigation Menu and click on the Open Contracts Tab.

Clicking an order row opens up the Dispatches Popup, which displays a table of all assets dispatched to the customer against that contract.

Right clicking on a dispatch row opens up the action menu.

Clicking on the Update Status option opens up the Dispatch State Change Form.

The asset's state can be changed to Off Rent from the drop down menu available on this popup. Finally click on the 'Update Status' button to save changes.

Once all assets have been off-rented against an Open Contract, it will automatically be promoted to a Closed Contract.

Asset Availability Restrictions

If an asset has any pending work orders or is currently Out of Service, the system will apply the following restrictions to that specific row:

• The asset row will appear greyed out
• Off-Rent Assets button will be disabled (greyed out)
• Promotion actions will be disabled

Assets that are still In Transit (being delivered) likewise cannot be off-rented or closed until the delivery leg completes. When you hover the disabled promotion button, the restriction reads "Promotion is disabled because following assets are still in transit:" followed by a list of the affected assets. For an open contract that has in-transit assets, the promotion (close) action is moved to sit below the Edit Rental Dates and dispatch actions in the menu — so the contract isn't accidentally off-rented before its assets have arrived — and the row is tinted for attention.

When a restricted action is attempted, the user will be informed that the asset either has pending work orders or is currently out of service.

Status Indicators

Icons will be displayed on the affected rental order row to indicate the restriction status.

When hovering over these icons, a tooltip will display the relevant message, such as:

• This asset has pending work orders
• This asset is currently out of service

Note: Assets must be cleared of pending work orders and returned to active service status before closing contract

Alternatively, an Open Contract can be directly promoted to a Closed Contract via the promotion button, labelled Off-Rent Assets.

Clicking the button opens the Confirm Status Change dialog with an Effective Date Picker for setting the off-rent time (see Setting the effective date). On confirming, all dispatched assets against the Open Contract will simultaneously be marked off-rented and the Open Contract will be promoted to a Closed Contract.

The promoted contract will be removed from the Open Contracts Tab.

Note: If Non-Validated Assets settings are disabled then open contract will not be promoted to closed contract against an invalid asset and corresponding warning will be shown.

Promoting a Closed Contract To A Completed Contract

A closed contract is not visible as a singular entity on the platform. Instead assets in a Closed Contract are visible on the Closed Contracts Assets Tab on the Transactions Page.

Once assets are off-rented, they are returned to business. The business then sends these assets in for an off rent inspection. Once an off rent inspection is completed, assets are automatically marked as released. A failed inspection will mark the asset out of service and create a work order against the asset (unless work orders are disabled for your organization, in which case no work order is created — see Allow Work Order Creation). A successful inspection will return the asset into the asset rental pool. Once all assets against a contract are released and all invoices against the contract paid, the contract is marked completed.

Updating Asset State On A Closed Contract Asset

To send an asset to Off-Rent Inspection, head to the Transactions Page -> Closed Contract Assets Tab, and right click on a dispatch that is Off-Rent to open the action menu.

Click on the Send To Inspection option on the action menu to update the dispatch's status.

Alternately, to update asset state on a Closed Contract Asset, click on an asset row to open up the Dispatches Popup.

Each dispatched asset row displays the current status of the asset, and features a pencil icon against the displayed status that allows editing the dispatch's status.

Clicking on the status edit icon opens up the Dispatch State Change Form.

The asset's state can be changed from the drop down menu available on this popup. Finally click on the 'Update Status' button to save changes.

Once all assets have been released against a Closed Contract and all invoice paid for, it will automatically be promoted to a Completed Contract.

Note: A closed contract that still has open work orders, pending off-rent inspections, or unpaid invoices cannot be completed yet. Until those are resolved, the contract's row is tinted red and its completion action is disabled — hovering over it explains what is still outstanding.