At the time of RA Open, a rental can be secured by getting a pre-authorization on a credit card for the estimated charges. This pre-authorization places a hold on that amount, "reserving it" until the rental is closed. But an authorization is not good forever; it has a "life". The life span of an authorization is defined in days in the Edit Card Definitions file. Once this period of time has been expended, the unused authorization expires and can NOT be used when the rental returns.

When opening a RA, CARS+ will not allow the user to open a RA with an authorization if the RA has a return date that is more days than the auth's life span. For example, a 21 day rental secured by a credit card whose authorizations are valid for only 14 days cannot be opened. Either the renter must secure the rental with another form of payment or agree to use the FOP as a deposit for the estimated charges.

A 12 day rental can be secured by a card whose authorizations are only good for 14 days. CARS+ will allow the rental because it believes the authorization will still be valid at the time of return. But what if the renter keeps the vehicle for three additional days? When the vehicle finally returns, the original 12 day authorization will have expired, and there is no guarantee of being able to obtain a new authorization for 15 days.

Therefore, tracking the "life" of pre-authorizations is critical. CARS+ provides the following reports to aid you in that task:

• VEHICLES DUE IN REPORT - This report can be run to see all open rentals whose authorizations have ALREADY expired and thus is "under secured".

• AUTH EXPIRATION REPORT - This report lists all open RAs whose authorization is DUE to expire within the next few days. (User can enter the number of days.)

USER TIP: Pre-authorizations that are about to expire should be converted to a deposit before they are lost. Then a new authorization can be obtained for the additional charges beyond the deposit if required. Use this report as a worksheet of authorizations that must be converted into deposits.

User tip: Use the program Convert RA Auths to Deposits to easily convert an auth to a deposit.

To access the Auth Expiration Report, type EXPIRE (RET) at any menu "OPTION:" field or the appropriate line number on the Daily Procedures Menu.

The screen will then display:

OPTION: __ AUTH EXPIRATION REPORT 1 Location ALL 2 Expire Lag Days 1 3 Print/Display P 1BEGIN 2 3ERASE 4 5BACKUP 6 7HELP 8

Enter data as follows:

1. LOCATION	For the RA open location, enter: "ALL" to include all locations. Up to 6 alphanumeric characters to select RAs opened at a single location.(Press RETURN to accept your default location.) A Group Name representing several locations (see the Chapter Edit Group Names for a discussion on location groups). Remember, the first character of a Group Name is the plus sign "+".(See the User Tip regarding Groups under Field #6 below.) EXAMPLE: Press (RET) Note: User access may limited the locations for this report. If access is restricted and an attempt is made to run the report for a location or location group outside of the allowed parameters, the following message will be displayed at the bottom of the screen and the selection will be ignored: RESTRICTED REPORT LOCATION
2. EXPIRE LAG DAYS	Enter the number of days into the future for to report expiring authorizations. Examples: 0 = for authorizations that will expire today. 1 = for authorizations that will expire today and tomorrow 2 = for authorizations that will expire today or during the next two days EXAMPLE: Type 2 (RET)
3. PRINT/ DISPLAY	Enter 1 alphabetical character to select whether to print a hard copy on a printer, send it a e-mail, or display the report on the terminal screen. P = Print a hard copy of this report on your terminal's assigned printer or send as an e-mail. See the Edit Terminal Records chapter for instructions on how to assign printers and send e-mails. D = Display this report on your terminal screen. See the General Data Entry Instructions Chapter on how to control the screen display. EXAMPLE: Type D (RET)

The screen will then display:

OPTION: __ AUTH EXPIRATION REPORT 1 Location. ALL 2 Expire Lag Days 2 3 Print/Display P 1BEGIN 2 3ERASE 4 5BACKUP 6 7HELP 8

The data is shown in the following columns:

RA#
Expected return date/time
FOP Code
Authorization number
Authorization amount
Date this authorization will expire
Renter's name
Renter's phone number
Renter's cell phone number