PURPOSE
The Edit Posted RAs program allows changes
to closed and posted RAs. This provides the ability to correct reports and RAs after rental transactions
have been posted. There is a limit to the edit one can do, options CANNOT be removed from a contract once they are posted. The most that can be done is to edit their charge down to zero.
EXPLANATION
Most posted RA's normally do not require changes since ample opportunity is provided to correct mistakes prior to posting. However, mistakes are sometimes discovered after posting or subsequent charges or credits need to be issued to the customer, and thus some method must be available to make corrections and adjustments. The Edit Posted RAs program works in a similar manner to the Edit Closed RAs program.
After posting, transaction data resides in two places, 1) the original RA from which the posting was made, and 2) accounting and related records which were created or updated by the posting process. This program allows corrections to the original RA, and flags those changes so that they will appear on the day's Accounting DBR. In this manner, the changes are posted to the accounting records or related files. Therefore, transactions involving a RA may appear on more than one Accounting DBR. For instance, the closing data will be on the Accounting DBR on the RA's closing DBR date. Corrections made after posting will be on the Accounting DBR as of the day the corrections were made.New payment entries can be made and these changes will appear in the Deposit/Payment File. Charges appearing on any of the windows can be changed directly or through the Incident Entry feature of CARS+.
Incident Entry: If the operation is using the Incident Entry feature of CARS+, many of the changes must be made through the Incident Entry screen rather than in the fields directly. Refer to the chapter in this manual titled Appendix - Incident Entry for further details in how to use the Incident window.
A field in the User Access File, to grant a user restricted access to the Edit Close RA program. A user with restricted access is limited to only the following functions:
The level of access is controlled by the "Restrict Access" Field on the Edit User Access record. Whether a user has full edit access or restricted access the following basic program instructions apply.
RESTRICTIONS to this Program: Some operations may wish to limit the
ability of some employees to make edits to posted RAs through this
program. The fields "Allow RAEDIT Edits" and "Restrict EDITCLOS" in the User Access File controls this ability. If either of these fields are set properly,
edits to posted RAs via this program will not be allowed. These fields
control other features as well. Please refer to the manual chapter Edit User Access File for complete details.
To access the Edit
Posted RAs program, type EDITPOST (RET) at any menu "OPTION:" field, or select the appropriate line number on the
Rental Accounting menu.
See the chapters on RA Close and Edit Closed RA for instructions on how each field operates.
PROCEDURES FOR EDITING POSTED RAs
RA revenue records are stored a file called the RA Charge File. In that file resides a separate row of data for each charge on every RA. That is, there is a separate record for time revenue, another one for LDW, another one for SLI, another for the additional driver charge, another for taxes, another for fuel, etc. Furthermore, each individual record in the RA Charge File for a RA has its own DBR date and can be posted separately. New entries (edits made through this program) are posted as they occur -- even though previous records for that particular RA are already marked as posted. These edits to posted contracts are shown on the Accounting DBR on the day they are made AND are posted via the Accounting DBR. Therefore, a single contract can appear on multiple Accounting DBRs.
The following examples are used to illustrate this concept in regard to editing a posted RA.
RA # 1234 closes April 30 and is posted May 2 with the following charges on the contract:
Time 100.00
Fuel 10.00
Add’l Driver 10.00
LDW 30.00
Tax 15.00
Total 165.00 paid by VISA
Example 1 – Correct LDW charge; credit VISA
On May 6, a correction is made to the RA because the wrong level of LDW was charged. The LDW charge should have been $25.00; not $30.00. The correction to LDW also means that the tax was reduced by $.50 (assuming a 10% tax rate). A credit must be processed on the customer’s VISA for $5.50.
Procedure:
A. Edit the posted RA - correct the LDW charge and enter a negative payment for $5.50.
B. If not on EDC within CARS+, process a credit of $5.50 on your point-of-sale terminal.
The edit to the RA will be reported on the May 6 Accounting DBR. When the DBR is posted, the G/L accounts involved will be debited or credited as follows:
|
|
Debits |
Credits |
|
LDW Revenue |
5.00 |
|
|
Sales Tax |
.50 |
|
|
Visa Bank Account |
|
5.50 |
For those customers on EDC, the credit on the VISA will be picked up from the edit to the posted RA once the May 6 DBR is posted.
Therefore, it is possible that the same RA may appear on several Accounting DBRs - in bits and pieces as it gets edited subsequent to its first posting..
Example 2 - Direct Bill RA
Same Example #1; but assume RA is direct billed instead of paid by VISA. A credit is due to the bill-to customer's account receivable.
Procedure:
A. Edit the posted RA - correct the LDW charge and enter a negative payment for $5.50.
The edit to the RA will be reported on the May 6 Accounting DBR. When the DBR is posted, the G/L accounts involved and the individual A/R account will be debited or credited as follows:
|
|
Debits |
Credits |
|
LDW Revenue |
5.00 |
|
|
Sales Tax |
.50 |
|
|
Accounts Receivable/ Direct Bill Customer |
|
5.50 |
The entry will post as a credit to the bill-to customers' account.
Example 3 – Changing a payment
Payments that are posted cannot be deleted or edited. Therefore, to change a payment, do a reversing entry to back out the incorrect payment. Then make a separate entry for the new payment.
Note that payments (whether positive or negative) will be dated with the current date/time so that they will be reported and posted with the day’s DBR. When the payment should be back-dated, the Batch Receive RA Payments program can be used to assign the date/time/location/drawer to payments.
Important note for clients using EDC payment services: Once a new authorization has been obtained for these additional charges, save the RA. if these fields are edited or deleted, the authorization(s) will be released, voided and cancelled.
Example 4 - Assess a cleaning fee
On May 8 it's discovered that a cleaning fee of $35.00 was never placed on the RA. The RA is updated through Edit Posted RA and the cleaning fee plus tax of $3.50 (total $38.50) is added on and charged to VISA.
Procedure:
A. Edit the posted RA to add on the cleaning fee & tax.
B. Enter a new payment for $38.50 in the Payments subwindow.
C. If not on EDC within CARS+, process a charge of $38.50 on your point-of-sale terminal.
The edit to the RA will be reported on the May 8 Accounting DBR. When the DBR is posted, the G/L accounts involved will be debited or credited as follows:
|
|
Debits |
Credits |
|
Visa Bank Account |
38.50 |
|
|
Clean up Fee |
|
35.00 |
|
Sales Tax |
|
3.50 |
Accounting DBR
Therefore, the contract will appear on 3 Accounting DBRs:
DBRA of April 30 when the RA originally closed and posted:
Time 100.00
Fuel 10.00
Add’l Driver 10.00
LDW 30.00
Tax 15.00
Total 165.00 paid by VISA (or direct billed)
DBRA of May 6 for the LDW adjustment:
LDW ( 5.00)
Tax ( .50)
Total ( 5.50) Credit on VISA
DBRA of May 8 for assessment of cleaning fee:
Clean up fee 35.00
Tax 3.50
Total 38.50 paid by VISA
Changing the direct bill party on RAs with a balance due
To change the bill-to party on a posted RA, use the Edit Opening Fields program.
When a posted RA has a posted tour or insurance
voucher, edits (including Customer Service Adjustments) can be made only on the
out of voucher charges. Fields that may change the value of the voucher cannot be edited, and
the voucher itself cannot be edited. The return date can be edited to an earlier or later date, but the voucher will not recalculate. Only the renter's portion will be affected.
DBR Date and Closing Date: On RAs with one or more insurance voucher the closing date cannot be changed to a later date/time than that of the DBR date/time. For other RAs, the closing date may be changed to a date/time later than the DBR date if necessary.
Recalculating Sales Tax
Once the sales tax field has been
manually edited on a RA, it will never be recalculated - even if rates are
edited or additional options are added. Once edited, it MUST continue to be manually edited if any changes are
made to the charges on the contract. If an RA has had the sales tax manually edited, the message "MANUAL TAX CALC" will be displayed when loading the RA on to the screen.
REPORTING CHANGES
Changes to the RA and Deposit/Payment Files made through this program will be reflected in all reports that read these files, including:
DBRs (both types)
Rental Agreement Summary Report
Vendor Commission Report
Employee Performance Report
Source Analysis Report
Cash Receipts Report
Voucher Invoicing
plus many others
Obviously, posted RAs should be edited before critical reports are created.
VEHICLE HISTORY:
Each RA automatically creates a Vehicle History record which is completed when the RA is posted. Information included in the History record is the Time and Mileage Revenue and the Gross Revenue on the RA. When a posted RA is edited, the Vehicle History record is updated.
For example, assume a posted RA originally earned $500 in Time and the total was $575. Then the posted RA was edited and the Time was changed to $480 and the total was then $552. When the edit to the posted RA is posted, the Vehicle History record will be changed to $480 and $552 respectively. (The edit corrects the original record; it does not create a second record.)
ADVISORY MESSAGE
When vehicles are placed in a status other than 'available' when they return from a rental (this is controlled in the Location record), and the vehicle is still in that status when the closed RA is brought up on the screen, the following message will display:
VEHICLE IS FLAGGED AS DIRTY - PULL UNIT.