Dates & Miscellaneous

DATES AND MISCELLANEOUS WINDOW

This window shows the actual opening date and time of the contract as well as the opening DBR date. In addition, miscellaneous charges can be added to the contract.

This window is also used for the rebilling (Multi-month rentals) feature of CARS+ (fields 6 and 7). USER NOTE: For clients that use the CARS+ Payments Service (WorldPay or Windcave) the multi-month logic can be configured to pay off the closing contract each month with the client's credit card and seek an authorization for the estimated charges for the next month. Contact Thermeon Customer Support if you wish for this feature to be turned on as it is turned off by default. This feature can either seek a pre-authorization for the estimated charges or create a credit card deposit for the estimated charges at the start of each billing cycle. If you desire to take deposits, the renters credit card must be entered both in the Main Window of RA Open and in the C subwindow when opening the first RA in the series.

To access the Dates and Miscellaneous Window, type G (RET) at the "OPTION:" field on the main window.

The window will then display:

OPTION: __________ DATES & MISC
1 Open Date/Time/Loc 08-31-01/1134A/TUS 7 Est miles per period *
2 Open DBR Date/Time 08-31-01/1134A Previous Linking RA# *
3 Form control # * 8 Prevent Close *
4 Post Status/Code/Comm */E/* 9 Airport Comm *
Transmit dates */* Ghost RA *
Invoice/Preprint */* 10 Note to be Acted on *
5 Itinerary Days * 11 FPO opt2 *
6 Days in billing cycle * Estimate Printed *
Start Date/odom/fuel */*/* Invoice # */*
Brand ID * Lease # */*

The Data fields are as follows:

1. OPEN DATE/
TIME/LOC

These fields show the actual check-out date/time and location of this rental agreement. The default date/time during the data entry phase is the date/time at which this screen was first accessed. When the RA is saved, these fields will be reset with the exact time at which the contract was printed. The default location is the location in the Terminal Record or the temporary location entered through the use of the Change Location program.

If it becomes necessary to edit any of these fields, you must use the Edit Opening Fields program.

2. DBR DATE/TIME

These fields indicate the DBR date and time that will be assigned to this rental agreement. When the RA is saved, these fields also get updated with the date and time that the RA is printed (on batch entered RAs the OPEN and DBR date/times might be different).

3. FORM CONTROL #

This field is not accessible on the on-line version of the RA Open program. On the on-line program, your system can be configured to ask for a forms control number after the RA has been printed.

Systems can also be configured to require a forms control number from Batch RA Open.

4. POST STATUS

This field indicates whether a closed RA has been posted to the Accounts Receivable files. The possible responses are:

* = RA is in the process of being opened.
N = RA has not been posted to the A/R files.
Y = RA has been posted to the A/R files.

CODE

This indicates which G/L Posting Table from the CARS+ Control File will be used when posting the revenue distributions to the A/R files.

The default for this field is the Posting Code on the Vehicle's Inventory Record.However, a Posting Code attached to the RA Type will supercede the one from the Inventory Record.

COMM

This field indicates whether a posted RA has had commissions posted to the Accounts Payable files.

TRANSMIT DATES

There are 3 fields on this line:

First field: For rental operations which electronically transmit their closed RAs to a central processing center, the first field contains the date that this RA was included in a batch file for transmission.

Second field: The second field is the sequence number for the transmittal. Each time the data is transmitted, the sequence number is incremented.

Third field: The third field is a date the RA was sent to the vehicle tracking system (CARRent for Hertz locations.) The following unique dates may appear on some RAs:

Special Dates	Meaning
01-03-00	This date appears when one of your RAs was involved in a one-way rental to a foreign location and the customer paid cash at the foreign site. The Batch Close program would queue a rental of this type up for transmission but the DRB program would not send the RA because it is the closing location's responsibility to DRB that rental. The date "01-03-00" indicates the RA was not transmitted.
01-04-00	This date appears when a closed RA is queued for transmission but its DBR date is prior to your system's EDRB Start Date (Edit Misc Control Fields). The date is set by the DRB Processing program and indicates that the RA was found to be ineligible for transmission.
01-05-00	Sending of the EDRB has been disabled for the pick up location.
01-07-00	Sending of EDRB has been disabled for the vehicle class.

INVOICE/
PREPRINT

These are display only fields. A "Y" in these fields will indicate if the RA has been invoiced or was preprinted.

5. ITINERARY DAYS

This field is part of the Chauffeur logic. Refer to the chapter Overview - Chauffeur Logic for more information.

6. DAYS IN
BILLING CYCLE

Anything entered in this field will invoke the multi-month rental logic. See the Appendix on Overview - Multiple Invoiced Rentals for details.

Note: Access to this field is controlled by a field in the user's Edit User Access record. Users who have not been give the authority to create multi month rentals will find that their cursor does not access this field. This same field also grants the ability to edit these fields on existing RAs.

If a contract is designated as a Multiple Invoiced rental, this field cannot be edited.

For Long Term Rentals, two additional display only Y/N fields will appear on line 6:

The first field displays a "Y" if this rental is currently defined as a Long Term Rental.

The second field will display a "Y" if when the last time this contract was closed and cloned by the Longterm Invoiced Rentals program, the system was unable to get a new credit card authorization for the credit card on the rental.

START DATE /ODOMETER/FUEL

These display only fields are only used by the system on multi-month rentals. Displayed here will be the original check out date, odometer and fuel tank reading from the very first RA in the chain of closed and cloned rental agreements which are part of a multi-month rental.

BRAND ID

For systems that are set up to handle multiple brands, the specific Brand ID from the Reservation used to open the RA will display.

Reservations interface programs can set set to populate this field with a two-character Brand ID and it will show on any reservation received through such an interface.

Although the Brand ID field in Reservations is accessible, it is not accessible from RA Open. However, adding a CDPID with a Brand ID can change it.

7. EST MILES PER PERIOD

See the Appendix for details on multi-month rentals.

PREVIOUS LINKING RA#

See the Appendix for details on multi-month rentals.

8. PREVENT CLOSE

To flag a RA to prevent it from being closed, enter a “Y” (Yes) in this field. Upon pressing (RET) the Notes Sub-window will display and the cursor will be in the Option Field of the Notes Sub-window. Enter an explanation why the RA was flagged with prevent close.

When the contract is retrieved to the RA Close screen or the Batch RA Close screen, the user will be warned that the contract has been prevented from closing and the close will not be saved. Prevent Close RAs are also identified on the Vehicle Due In Report.

Once this field has been set to “Y”, it can be changed back to “N” in the following ways:

1. Use the Edit Opening Fields program.

2. A field in the Edit User Access File controls if the user can remove the Prevent Close flag from RA Open. If the user's record allows it, access is allowed to the field to remove the "Y" that prevents the close.

Other values in this field:

A = Appraisal needed. This means that a Damage Report has been done but the entry is incomplete and awaiting an appraisal. Manual changes to this field are blocked - the change to remove the "A" from this field must be done in the Damage Entry screen.

I = Incomplete voucher. This means that an incomplete insurance voucher was entered in the Insurance Subwindow. Incomplete vouchers can be either completed or deleted in the Edit Vouchers program.

Multiple Invoice Rentals:The Prevent Close flag is recognized by the Multiple Invoiced Rentals program. The program skips those RAs that are otherwise queued up for cloning. Therefore, in order for a Multiple Invoice RA to be cloned, the Prevent Close flag cannot be set to "Y".

9. AIRPORT COMM

This Yes/No field indicates whether or not the contract is designated as an airport arrival contract. This field is accessible only from the Edit Opening Fields program. Changes to the flag must be made from there.

GHOST RA

This display only field will display a "Y" if this RA is making use of the tour Ghost RA logic wherein the rates are invisible to both the driver/renter and the rental agent. At this time, this logic is used only by Canadian Hertz locations.

10. NOTE TO BE ACTED ON

Entering a Y" in this field will automatically bring the Notes subwindow up to the screen. It marks the note as an "action item" which will appear on the "Notes for Action Report".

Until the "Y" is removed from this field, the RA cannot be closed. When an attempt is made to bring the RA to the Closing screen, the following message will display there and the RA will not be loaded:

FIRST REVIEW NOTES AND REMOVE NOTES FLAG ON RA OPEN

11. FPO OPT2

CARS+ supports an alternative Pre-Paid Fuel Option than the one turned on, on the Main Window or RA Open. This alternate method is described in the Chapter on Edit Fuel Rates. Enter:

Y = Yes, the customer has accepted the alternate Pre-Paid Fuel Option

N (or blank) = No, the renter did not elect to take the alternate Pre-Paid Fuel Option.

EXAMPLE Press (RET)

ESTIMATE PRINTED

This display only Yes/No field indicates if at the time of originally opening the RA the rental agent printed a separate estimation of charges form prior to saving the rental agreement.

INVOICE #

These display only fields show the Location that printed the Brazilian Nota Fiscal (Tax Invoice) and the Nota Fiscal number for this RA.

LEASE #

These display only fields are used only on Leasing contracts. Displayed here will be the Location Code of the location that signed the original lease contyract with the customer along with the Lease number.