Our philosophy of business is probably not very different than your own and certainly matches that of most well run rental operations. It can be summed up in the following sentence:
RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ACCURACY OF A TRANSACTION LIES WITH THE INDIVIDUAL CLOSEST TO THE TRANSACTION.
Everyone is responsible for the accuracy of their own work. In practical terms, this philosophy works itself out in the daily procedures outlined below. The primary responsibility for accuracy of all data entered is placed on counter agents or other data entry clerks. (In reality, who else is in a better position to recall the actual transaction and determine if it is reported correctly?) To expect an accounting clerk days later to verify the accuracy of a transaction is both time consuming and sometimes impossible. Counter agents MUST be held responsible for their own work. This means that management must give agents time away from the counter to audit their work at the end of their shift.
Actually, what this all boils down to is Garbage In, Garbage Out. If there is no consistent effort to check that correct transactions are being entered into the system, your A/R Open Item File, Financial Reports, management reports, etc. will be worthless. To expect the accounting department to clean up counter mistakes is placing a terrible burden on a department that is usually over worked and desperately hoping that automation will simplify their lives.
From experience we have found that to ignore this simple concept will result in:
1. The need to hire accounting personnel to serve as auditors.
2. Delays in billings and receivables, causing cash flow problems.
3. General dissatisfaction on the part of all employees towards the system.
If you stop to think about it, the procedures presented are not much different from the manual procedures you used prior to automating. At that time, your agents balanced their drawers and your managers prepared a handwritten DBR and accounted for all the RAs. These steps still need to be done even with a computer system. However, the system makes these tasks easier. Instead of manually writing a DBR, the manager audits a computer printed report. Instead of writing out a manual proof of cash sheet, the agent compares his receipts against the Drawer Balance Report.
CARS+ is a powerful tool. It can increase the speed and accuracy of your business. But like any tool you must learn to use it properly. Just as you wouldn't use a sledge hammer to pound a finishing nail into fine furniture, CARS+ must be used in light of its design philosophy. It is the responsibility of upper management to communicate and enforce a commitment to the basic CARS+ philosophy. With management and employees working together, CARS+ will be the tool it was meant to be.
By definition, Daily Procedures are the steps necessary to process and post all rental transactions to the various Accounts Receivable files. Other tasks such as examining reservation manifests and Due Back reports are also done daily but as they do not affect the processing of rental transactions, they are outside the scope of this chapter.
The following is a step by step procedure for the close out of daily business. This outline will make reference to programs found on various menus both in the Rental module and the Accounting modules of CARS+. For detailed instructions on using these particular programs, refer to the specific chapter relating to that function.
The Daily Procedure can be executed at any time after the close of a business day. These steps can be followed that evening, the next morning or several days later. The critical issue involved in processing a day's work is the sequence of steps. Many customer support problems can be traced directly to either failure to perform these steps or not performing the steps in the proper order.
This section is divided into the following subsections:
A. Rental Agent Responsibilities.
B. Location Manager's Responsibilities.
C. Accounting Department Responsibilities.
Actual division of responsibilities may vary depending on your company size. But the fact remains that each of these tasks should be done, even if one person does it all.
A. RENTAL AGENT RESPONSIBILITIES
The following tasks must be completed by each rental agent prior to the end of his or her shift.
1. COMPLETE ALL DATA ENTRY. The first task of a rental agent is to verify that all counter transactions have been entered into the system.This includes:
a. Hand written RAs.
b. Foreign RA check-ins.
c. Petty Cash transactions.
d. Vehicle movements.
e. Vehicle exchanges
f. Drop box RAs (vehicles returned after hours)
2. DRAWER BALANCING REPORT. If drawers are assigned to individuals, at the end of a shift each rental agent should print a Drawer Balancing Report and use it to account for all payments that have been received. The following should be checked:
a. The Cash Total should match the drawer receipts. If the two do not balance, a notation about the drawer being over or short should be made on the report.
b. All credit card charges should be accounted for. A comparison should be made between the credit card charges for the day and the Drawer Balance Report. If there is a problem, it also needs to be noted on the report.
If a single drawer is assigned to the location, this audit still needs to be performed by at least daily.
If corrections need to be made, see the chapters on RA Open, Close, Edit Vouchers, Edit Opening Fields, Edit Closed RA, Edit Petty Cash Entry in this manual for further instructions.
Because the Drawer Balancing Report plays such a crucial role in the daily procedures, each rental agent should run a report prior to beginning his shift. The purpose of this report is to verify that no transactions are already entered into the drawer by mistake. The parameters of this report should be the beginning and ending times of the agent's shift.
3. RE-READ CLOSED RAs. We suggest that each agent also re-read their closed RAs looking for errors of omission. This check need not center on calculation errors, the computer does not make any! Instead, look for omissions such as:
a. Sales tax charged to a non-taxable customer.
b. A cleaning fee needs to be added which was discovered after the RA had been closed.
c. A charge for minor damage needs to be added.
d. A corporate discount is missing.
e. Gas charge audit. As an aid to doing this audit, agents can use the Fuel Charge Audit Report on the Daily Procedures Menu.
If any problems are found, they need to be noted for correction. Because rental agents generally do not have access to the programs used to edit contracts, these notations must be passed on to the Location Manager.
4. PASS THE PAPERWORK ON. The agent's final task is to pass the following to their manager:
a. Annotated Drawer Balance Report
b. File copies of all closed RAs with notes of any changes required.
B. LOCATION MANAGER'S RESPONSIBILITIES
As a general rule, the following tasks are usually done mid-morning on the following day.
1. CORRECT RA PROBLEMS. Using the notes provided by the rental agent audit, the manager should correct any RA problems. This should be used as a time to identify reoccurring errors a particular agent is performing and prompt some remedial training.
2. EXAMINE THE OPERATIONS DBR. The location manager should then examine the Operations DBR for the day being closed. For extremely busy locations, a DBR may need to be done for each shift. The following audit steps should be applied to the DBR:
a. The number of transactions listed should match your copies of the printed RAs.
b. Examine the A/R column in the Closed RA Section of the report. Look for the following possible errors:
*any amount that seems excessively large
*forced charges (balance due in the A/R Column but no Bill-To #)
*any negative balances in the A/R Column (refunds due)
c. In the Closed RA Section, look for data printed in a column that is never used (such as the fourth coverage) or one that requires a closer audit (such as Customer Service Adjustment).
d. Look for amounts that are either excessively large or small in the T&M column. This can be done by noting the length of the rental and the rate that was quoted and then comparing them with the Time and Mileage charges. Don't do the math, just check for reasonableness of the figures.
Remember, if you are involved in Wholesale rentals, not all Time revenue is reported on the Operations DBR.
e. Look for asterisks "*" in both the RA Closed and RA Open Sections. See the chapter on the Operations DBR for definitions of asterisks.
f. In the Open RAs Section, look for any RAs that are still in HOLD or WAIT status.
g. Re-run the Reservation Manifest for the day in question and compare the no-shows on the manifest with the RAs that were opened. If a match is found, use either the Edit Opening Fields or the Batch RA Open program to link the reservation to the RA.
If any additional errors are discovered they need to be corrected. The goal of the Location Manager should be to produce the cleanest DBR possible.
3. OTHER SELECTED DAILY REPORTS. Review of the following other reports are suggested for daily operational management needs:
a. Vehicle Due In - look for overdue vehicles and those without sufficient credit card authorization.
b. Customer Satisfaction Report - see who is giving Customer Service Adjustments at close and why.
c. Special Documents Report - make sure all vouchers and coupons have been collected and entered correctly.
d. Rate Exception Report - see who is editing rental rates.
e. Questionable RAs Report - look for RAs that the computer believes should be closed.
f. Status Exception Report - look for discrepancies between the number of open RAs and On-Rent vehicles.
g. Vehicle Status Report - look for vehicles which have had no current movement.
h. Res Name Variance Report - look for counter agents who may be attaching the wrong reservation to contracts.
C. ACCOUNTING DEPARTMENT RESPONSIBILITIES
1. ADJUST FOR DRAWER OVERAGE/SHORTAGE. Using the Batch Petty Cash Entry program, accounting needs to adjust the computer's cash balance to match that of the bank deposit. If a correction was made, reprint either the Drawer Balance Report or the Cash Receipts Report which should now match your bank deposit. In addition, the credit cards settled should match the Drawer Balance Report credit card sections.
2. PRINT THE ACCOUNTING DBR. Because a detailed audit of the Operations DBR has already been done, the audit steps on this report focus on the data that is unique to the Accounting DBR.
a. Check again the A/R Due column in the RAs Closed section (this is your last chance to protect your A/R Open Item file).
b. Examine the revenue splits due to the owner of any foreign vehicle which you rented.
c. Look for any insurance or wholesale revenue.
Again, any errors need to be corrected.
3. POST THE ACCOUNTING DBR. After all edits have been made, post the Accounting DBR. The printed report, which is in effect the Sales Journal, should be placed in a binder or filed. If emailed, save on a computer that is backed up each day. (See the section "Reports to Save" later on in this chapter.)
4. PRINT THE SETTLEMENT REPORT. For customers making use of Electronic Draft Capture (electronic submission of credit card transactions), print the Settlement Report after the settlement program has run. It is critical that this report be run daily. This is your only method on CARS+ to check if the credit cards you have collected are being successfully "banked" with your credit card provider. If transactions do not have a settlement date printed on this report call the Thermeon Customer Support department immediately. Failure to call Thermeon in a timely manner may result in significant delays in your ability to receive credit for this money. This report must also be checked for those transactions that CANNOT be settled through CARS+ and must be manually settled through some other means.
GENERAL NOTES
Not all of the above steps must be done at the conclusion of each business day. With the date span capability of the posting program, one or more day's work can be processed days later. But until you are thoroughly familiar with the accounting system, it is best to process one day at a time through all steps prior to processing multiple days.
IMPORTANT! A detailed DBR must be kept for
historical reasons -whether a paper copy or a file copy on a PC. Not saving a detailed DBR is the same as throwing away a journal or ledger
book in a manual accounting system. These reports are the only way to trace the computer transactions. The pdf files can be stored on a
The general rule for keeping reports is that they should be saved in accordance with the laws governing the retention of accounting records if they are:
a.) reports of transactions posted to the accounting records; or
b.) used as a basis to do manual accounting entries
CARS+ Reports
Journals: These reports are journals that show transactions posted to the accounting records. VERY IMPORTANT TO SAVE!
Accounting DBR
Sundry Invoice posting reports
Small Amount Write off report
Other Reports:
Drawer Balance Report. You may choose to attach the bank deposit receipt for cash, checks, and traveler's checks deposited. For credit cards, attach the settlement print out from the point of sale terminal (if not using CARS+ EDC).
Month end Deposit Reconciliation Report - used to verify the balance in Customer Deposit G/L account
Vehicle Depreciation Report - used as a basis for the depreciation G/L entry
Vehicles Sold Report - can be used as a basis for a G/L entry
Vehicles Purchased Report - can be used as a basis for a G/L entry
Fleet Value Report - used to verify balance in fleet asset account(s)
Extra Revenue Report (or Extra Revenue Report 2 or Employee Performance Report) - used as a basis for computing rental agent sales commissions
Vendor Commission Report - used as a basis for paying travel agent commissions
Accrual Report - used as a basis for end of month or end of year revenue accrual G/L entry
Operations reports:
Operations DBR - this should be filed by the location
Vehicle Status Report - although not used for accounting purposes, it is sometimes useful to save the most current month's reports for research and reference purposes.
Accounts Receivable Reports:
Journals: These reports are journals that show transactions posted to the accounting records. VERY IMPORTANT TO SAVE!
Cash Receipts Journal
Sales Journal
Other Accounts Receivable Reports
A/R Detailed Aging Report prior to purging the open item file
Purge Open Item File report
A/R Aging Report after purging the open item file
A/R Distribution to G/L Report
This outline explains in general terms the steps necessary to close out a month. The purpose and operation of these programs are not discussed here. See the appropriate chapter for this information.
GENERAL COMMENTS
HOW DIFFICULT IS CLOSING A MONTH? Closing a month is simple and places few restrictions on your daily operations. Most of the work can be done at your leisure and according to your own procedures. Some of the steps mentioned below are optional depending on how you wish to use the system. With few exceptions, it is up to you to decide what will be done and when.
THE STEPS IN CLOSING A MONTH
There are no special end-of-year tasks in the CARS+ software. The only difference between closing out your last month of a year and a regular month-end is how you execute the Period End Closing program on the A/R menu.
General Ledger Module: Prior to performing the year end close, you may want to have the G/L data copied into another company. Contact Thermeon's Customer Support Dept. to have your G/L data copied.