Mass Fax/Email

This article will go over how to set up a customer’s record to automatically email, fax, or print their closed contracts during the end-of-day process. This assumes the fax function is already set up. 

Please note that Point of Rental uses your email service to send emails. It does NOT store emails. You can set up a blind carbon copy (bcc) to have a copy sent to your inbox.

Mass Fax/Email automatically delivers invoices and statements to your customers by email, fax, or mail. The invoicing is automated, removing counter staff from the process and ensuring timely delivery. You can manually generate and print invoices on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis and even set invoices to auto-generate and send the same day that a contract is closed. Customers can also access this information through their web portal.

Topics in this article include

• Determine how your customers will receive invoices

• Configuring Mass Fax/Email

• Defining Mass Fax/Email Settings

• Manual Invoicing

Determine how your customers will receive invoices

Here's how to get there

Expert: Program Menu > File Maintenance > Customer File > Account tab
Elite: Configuration Gear > File Maintenance > Customer File > Account tab



Under the Account tab, in the customer record, you can set the Invoice Send By option to Email, Fax, Printer, or None. You may also set up a default contract format for the customer, but this is not normally necessary. Invoices will not be automatically generated if the Invoice Send By is set to None.

• Emails are sent to the address in the email field and any contact with a department of Accounts Payable.
  
  
• Faxing will only be sent to the main fax number in the customer record. When Store 1 does their End of Day procedure, Point of Rental will print, fax, or email an invoice for all contracts that closed that day and have a balance due.
  
  
• Customers marked as None in the Invoice Send By field will be skipped.
   

Please note that customers grouped by Contract Send To in the Customer Income by Grouping report will show all customers set to Email, Fax, Print, or None. If you're using Expert, go to Customer Reports > Customer Income Menu > Customer Income by Grouping. 

Configuring Mass Fax/Email Settings

Here's how to get there

Expert: Program Menu > Configuration > Reports and Notifications > Mass Fax/Email Settings
Elite: Configuration Gear > App Configurations > Reports and Notifications > Mass Fax/Email Settings

1. Select Email Setup.
   
   
   
2.  The Email Options screen will appear.
   
   
   
   
3. In the Options section, select the Store for which you are setting up the email. If the "Use Default Email Setting" box is checked, the program will send emails using the default email settings set up for that store. If unchecked, you can enter a different email address.
   
   
4.  Define your email method. Contact your IT administrator or email provider to determine which option your email service uses. 
   • MAPI - (Least common) This is an older email method. If you are using a MAPI email settings, then your email needs to be properly configured on the terminal processing End of Day.
   • SMTP - (Most common) If you are using SMTP, then the global settings need to be set up correctly.
     
     
5. Create your email signature. This allows you to enter a personalized signature line which the customer will see when receiving an email. See the image above for an example. 
   
   
6. Define your email settings.
   

   Email Address	This will be the email address from your email provider (Yahoo, Gmail, Google, Outlook).
   Email Password	This will be the email password from your email provider (Yahoo, Gmail, Google, Outlook).
   SMTP Server	This will be the SMTP assigned to your email account (setup).
   SMTP PORT	This will be the SMTP number assigned in the port field in your email account.
   Graphic File Name	You can place a logo on your server and enter the path to the logo here (PORDRIVE:\por\mylogo.jpg). The logo will appear below the signature text. The drive letter depends on where the Point of Rental program is installed.
   Reply to Address	Enter a reply address for your emails. If you encounter issues, you may need to ensure your email provider's security settings allow the "reply to" email addresses to be different from the global email that sent the message from POR.
   Display Name	Enter a name to be displayed in the body of the email.
   Blind Carbon Copy	This allows a copy of the email to be sent to a designated email address during the End of Day processes. When invoices are generated and sent out through the End of Day processes, a copy of the invoice will be sent to a specified email address. This is a good way of verifying customers have received their invoices.

Defining Mass Fax/Email Settings

Fax Cover - Defines the fax cover page to use.

Printer - Defines the printer to use.

Default Format - Defines the invoice format to use for Mass Fax/Email.

Sender - Type in your company name here.

Fax Delay - Unless instructed by a Point of Rental support person, leave the Fax and Email Delay set to zero.

Email Delay - Unless instructed by a Point of Rental support person, leave the Fax and Email Delay set to zero.

Use Customer Format - You can choose to use the customer's default contract format if desired.

Include Finance Charge - You can choose to include finance charges.

Auto generate at End of Day - This automatically generates the outgoing Mas Fax/Email after End of Day.

Include Credits - Checking this box will include payment credits. Unchecking the box will not include payment credits. Credit Adjustments from contracts will always be included because they are related to a contract. 

Subject - Defines the Mass Fax/Email subject using freeform text and Special Fields from the contract.

Special Fields - This will allow you to pull information directly from the contract into the subject and message fields. Typically this is used in conjunction with freeform text.

The terminal closing at store 1 should have its email program open and minimized prior to the End of Day procedure. By looking at the fax log you can see what was faxed or not. The invoices that are printed will be on the end-of-day printer defined for this terminal.

Manual Invoicing

You can manually print/send invoices. To learn more about this process, see the article Invoices.  You can get there by following the below path for your product:

• Expert: Program Menu > Accounts Receivable > Print\Fax\Email Invoices
  Elite: Left Menu> Accounting > Print\Fax\Email Invoices

Please note, if your software is set to Transaction mode in one of Elite's accounting API integrations, the closed contracts will automatically get a billed date and not appear when this program is run unless the box to 'Include invoices previously billed' is checked.  This is because users set to this mode have chosen to run their A/R out of their external accounting program and would run invoices from that platform rather than from within Elite.