Per Unit Hire Rates

Overview

Certain hire contracts have a requirement to charge by units (rather than duration), such as the hire of a Skip or Truck on a ‘per load’ basis, or the servicing of toilets owned by a 3^rd party.  In these cases, an agreed ‘per unit’ hire rate is agreed, and the charge is dependent on the units used.  These units may be entered either periodically during the lifetime of the hire, or at the end of hire. Syrinx supports the entry of ‘per unit’ hire charges on hire contracts, and has screens to allow the entry of units used, and to review the units entered prior to invoicing.  

Configuration

To configure the feature you must first run a patch file (provided by POR Support) that adds the additional entry to the ‘charge periods’ drop-down used in contract entry.   Secondly, you need to use the ‘Set Role Privileges’ screen in Syrinx Configuration to grant access to the two menu items – ‘Invoicing.Enter Charge Units’ and ‘Invoicing.Review Charge Units’ - to the role(s) that will manage this feature. 

System Setup

When entering units to be charged against your contracts, you can also enter ticket numbers that can optionally be displayed on the invoice.  To indicate that the ticket numbers are to be displayed on the invoice, use the ‘Additional Conten’ tab on Syrinx SP Configuration\System Options\Invoicing:

You also need to consider how to set up the bulk hire items that will be used for these hire charges.  For example, you could add a new hire category:

And then add bulk hire items into that category where you can also define the ‘Per Unit’ for the item:

You could then set the hire nominal code at the category or stock item level as appropriate.   You should also go to the ‘Amend Hire Stock Items’ screen, and query the bulk items in this category, and set the default Hire Period to the new charging code:  

If this is done, then after picking the stock number on a new contract, the system will set the ‘per unit’ charge period against the hire item record automatically.

Contract Entry

To hire an item out on a ‘per unit’ charge, you pick the new code from the ‘Period’ drop-down list:

In the example above, the standard weekly rate for the two toilets includes 1 service per fortnight, but we are charging for any additional toilet services that may be required at £40 per service.

In the example below, we have a contract that is simply for the servicing of toilets supplied by another hire company:

Entry of Units to Charge

To enter the units to be charged, use the ‘Enter Charge Units’ menu option on the ‘Invoicing’ menu.  You must enter the contract number, the date of the charge, optionally a ticket number, and the quantity to be charged:

The other fields on the screen can be used to provide override values or additional info related to the charge.  The ‘Fleet No:’ field can be used to allocate the income from the ‘charge unit’ item to a different hire item on the contract for instances where the charge unit is related to the hire of a physical item.

If there is more than one ‘per unit’ item on the contract, then the ‘Stock No’ drop-down can be used to pick the stock number that the units relate to.

You then press the ‘Confirm’ button to confirm the units on the system, and the screen is cleared ready for more units to be entered.

The confirmed entries are displayed in a list below the data entry boxes:

This ‘confirmed entries’ list is retained for the login session; i.e. if you exit then re-enter the screen, the list will show those entries added during the session.

Each charge entry is allocated a unique reference number that is displayed in the right hand column. If the units are being entered from manual paper tickets, then you may want to write this number on the paper ticket to record the fact that it has been processed.

 An ‘Amend’ button can be used to amend or delete a record that has been entered in error.

Reviewing Charge Units prior to Invoicing

Before creating a new batch of invoices, it is recommended that the ‘Review Charge Units’ screen is used to check that all contracts have the expected units recorded against them.  You can first optionally enter some search criteria:

..and then use the browse buttons to review the charge units that have been entered on each contract:

This lists all charge units entered on each contract.  The ‘Add Units’ button can be used to enter any missing units, and the ‘Delete’ button can be used to remove any entries as required.  If a contract has no units entered, then this is shown as follows:

The Contract tab shows addition information about the contract:

..and the ‘Service’ tab contains information about the ‘Contract Servicing’ for this hire contract:

Batch Invoicing

When a batch of invoices is created, the system looks for any charge units that have yet to be invoiced, and that are dated up to the batch’s ‘invoice to’ date, and adds a line to the invoice for the total number of units to be charged:

After the batch is confirmed, the ‘review units’ screen shows the units as invoiced, so that you can review all the units entered, and differentiate between those that have or have not been invoiced:

Off Hire Contract

When a contract is off hired, the bottom of the Off Hire screen has a Units button:

This can be used to open the ‘Review Charge Units’ screen for that particular contract.  If no charge units have yet been entered for the contract, then the button opens the ‘Enter Charge Units’ screen, pre-populated with this contract number.

If the off hire is processed without any units having been entered on the contract, then a warning is issued for batch invoiced contracts:

..and an error is issued if the contract is being invoiced at off hire:

Cash Hires

For cash hires, the units to be charged are entered in the same manner as for account customers.  At off hire, the Cost of Hire screen adds up and displays the total number of units to charge:

Initial Units to Charge

If there is always a minimum number of units to be charged for a particular item, then this can be recorded on the Misc tab of the ‘Amend Hire Stock Items’ screen:

When the hire contract is confirmed, the system will automatically create charge units for the given number.