Rentals Contracts
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      Auto Send Rental Contracts

      Rental contracts can be automatically sent as a batch to the customer at the end of the day or sent individually from the rental contract.  

      • Batch:  EBMS will  automatically send a rental contract to a customer's office whenever a document is created or based on a specific step such as the rental check out.  This option is available from the Rental menu by enabling the Show on Menu option.  

      • Individually: Rental contracts can be sent individually from the contract menu using hot keys.  Review CRM > Send Now Tool for instructions to send individual documents.

      • Scheduled Event:  Copy the URL link and configure the Task Scheduler App as described in [Main] Technical > Automate using Task Scheduler App.

      Complete the following steps to configure the Auto Send mode before attempting either of these options.

      Creating or Changing an Auto Send Mode

      Complete the following steps to setup a send mail mode. Refer to step 6 to view or change existing Auto Send proposal mode settings.

      1.  Select File > Auto Send Options > Auto Send Modes from the main EBMS menu to open the following list:

      2. Click the New button to create a new Auto Send Mode as shown below.  Continue with step 6 if the mode has already been created.

      3. Each Auto Send Mode requires a unique Key Id. This Key ID should be a simple descriptive code that does not include spaces or symbols.  

      4. Select the Rental Send Mode option as shown above.  

      5. Enter a short Description of the auto send mode type. This description should clearly describe the mode process. Note that this text is used as the EBMS menu label. Click OK to continue.

      6. Open the following dialog by selecting the Rental Auto Send Mode and click the Properties button.

      7. Configure the Send Mode Properties as shown below:

      8. Enable the Show on Menu option to display the Rental Auto Send mode on the EBMS > Rental menu.  Disable this option if Auto Send is launched using the Task Scheduler App.

      9. Click on the Edit Query button to select the group of rental contracts to be sent as shown below:

        The query example shown above will send all sales invoices with a Status greater than reserved (check out or later) that have not been previously sent. Review [Main] Technical > Set Query Options for more details on creating query expressions.  Click the OK button to save.

      10. Click the View Queried List to view all rentals that will be sent based on the current query setting as shown below:

        1. The Current Queried List lists all proposals that match the query and that have not been previously sent. The Send Date within the proposal must be blank to be included in the query.

        2. Click the Purge button to populate the Send Date for all rentals listed, removing them from the query. Use the Purge button to remove past contracts from the query. A purge is often required when a new query is created. Click the Close button.

      11. Enable the Send Future-dated documents option to send all documents when they are created even if they are dated in the future.    Otherwise Auto Send will wait to send till the document date arrives.

      12. Enable the Document will be printed if customer has no Auto E-mail/Fax entry option to print documents for customers without the settings required to email a rental contract.  Review the following Customer Configuration setting for instructions on setting these options within a customer record.   

      13. Select one of the following Mark as sent after Send Now or Printing options:

        1. Select Always to mark a document as sent after the Send Now Tool is used to auto send a document.

        2. Select Ask To to prompt the user after the Send Now Tool is used to send a document.

        3. Select Never to resend the document after Send Now Tool is used.  This option is useful if the user is sending a rental document using Auto Send but the document needs to be resent to the designated email in the auto send batch.

      14. Maintain the default values within the Fields to Assign settings since they are advanced settings.

      15. Enter the desired rental contract form into Report Settings.  Click Advanced to configure the exported PDF Attachment Name.

      16. Review CRM > Auto Send > Auto Send Additional Documents to include other reports to this E-mail.  

      17. The Minimum Report File Size setting: This feature allows you to stop any sends on export files that are below a certain file size. This value should be set at about 10K less than the average exported pdf file size to prohibit blank reports to be sent as an attachment.

      18. Enable the Attach a copy of the document when auto sending E-mails option to include a easy to print PDF copy of the proposal.  Disabling this option will only communicate with the customer without a copy of the document.  Note that no files will be attached to the email if this option is disabled.  

      19. Disable the Export generated PDF's to the temp directory  option to record a copy of the document to the shared Export Folder identified in the File > Auto Send Settings > General tab.  Enable this option only if the documents should be copied to the computer's temporary directory.

      20. The URL can be used to schedule the sending of the documents daily without requiring the user to launch the utility.  Review [Main] Technical > Automate using Task Scheduler App for instructions to use the URL address.

      21. Click on the Contract Priorities tab.

      22. Select the Auto Send recipient which can be derived from the Bill To Customer or the Ship To Customer.

      23. Enter the contact Title and Information for each recipient option.  Review CRM > Auto Send > Contact Priorities for configuration details on these important recipient settings.

        1. Most of the Title options are contact types within the Contacts sub-tab of the customer's General tab with the following exceptions:

        2. The (Bill TO Contact) is the email that is recorded within the Contacts tab within the rental contract.  

        3. The (Deliver To Contact) option will send the email to the contact listed on the Contacts tab of the contract.

      24. Click on Advanced for additional settings:

        1. Configure the Mark as unsent options to change the status after a document has already been sent.  For example, the When modifying a reserved contract is set to Yes the system will reset the Auto Send date when the contract document is modified.  

        2. Enable the For multiple sends to one contact, send one E-mail with multiple attachments option to group proposal attachments an individual customer into one E-mail. A separate E-mail will be generated for each document if this option is disabled.

        3. Enable the Use Summary (after multiple sends, a summary E-mail is sent) option to send a summary after a group of E-mails have been sent to a single customer.  The normal recipients (to: and cc: according to the contact priority list) get the summary, as well as the summary recipient.  The only time a summary is not sent, is if a single invoice being sent and the Always Send is enabled.

        4. Disable the Always Send Summary (summary is sent even to single E-mails) option if a summary is not required if the customer only received one e-mail. This setting has no effect if the previous Use Summary option is disabled.  Click OK to save.

        5. Set the PDF Attachment Name created by the reports configured in the Send Mode Properties.   User defined file names can be set for each of the corresponding reports set in the main property tab described previously in this section.  

      25. Complete one of the following methods to launch the process to auto send a batch of proposals:

        1. By selecting Sales > Auto Proposals from the main EBMS menu if the Show on menu is enabled

        2. Automatically send using the Task Scheduler App:  Use the URL text located at the bottom of this dialog to configure the Task Scheduler App.  Review [Main] Technical > Automate using Task Scheduler App for instructions to send rentals on a daily basis.

      26. Click on the E-mail Settings tab as shown below:

        The E-mail Settings determine the details of the e-mail document that will be automatically sent.

        1. The recommended From Address is to match the From Address entered within the File > Auto Send Options > General tab.  This address can be a noreply address if no response is desired from the Auto Send e-mails.

        2. Use the BCC Address to send a copy of all e-mails to the employee/department so the accounting staff and verify the successful sending of the proposals.

        3. Enter an appropriate Subject line for the e-mail broadcast.

        4. Enter the appropriate Body Text using HTML or plain text syntax. The keywords list located at the bottom of the dialog can be used within the e-mail body.  Note that line break tags (<br>) may cause extra lines in the E-mail.

        5. The Test E-mail settings is a simple feature that can send a single test e-mail to a specified e-mail address as shown below.

          Review the Test Mode section for details on testing the e-mail creating and reviewing the e-mail result.

      Customer Configuration

      Contact information must be set up for all the customers before documents are sent. Go to Sales > Customers from the main EBMS menu and open a customer record. Click on the Contacts tab to view the contact list as show below. Enter a contact Title that matches the setting within the Contact Priorities dialog. Additional contacts can be added to this tab that are not related to any Auto Send modes.

       

      The Auto Send module will only use e-mail and fax contact information.

      Review CRM > Auto Send > Test Mode for a way to put the system in test mode to determine if your setting options are setup properly.  

      Auto Send a Batch of Contracts

      Launch the Auto Send feature by selecting Rental > Auto Send Rentals from the main EBMS menu. This option is listed on the menu if the Show on Menu option is enabled.  When the process is launched, it will cycle through the quotes that are to be sent  based the settings described in the previous section. A progress bar showing the status of the send process will appear and can run unattended, as no user input should be necessary.

      As the system handles each rental contact, it will export a report in PDF format to the Export Folder. This PDF file will then be attached to an e-mail or fax and sent to the customer. The PDF attachment can be disabled (not recommended) if the content of the quote is inserted directly into the main e-mail body. Go to the E-mail Settings tab of the Auto Send Mode dialog to review these options. Go to File > Auto Send Options > Auto Send Modes and select the Rentals mode to confirm that the Attach a copy of the document when auto sending E-mails option is enabled as shown below:

       

      If the customer record does not contain any Contact Types which match the entries in the Contact Priorities list, the system will either ignore the contract or  print it, depending on your setup in General Settings.

      Auto Send Status

      Select View > Auto Send Status from the rental contact menu to view the status of the Auto Send:

      The system will mark the item with the date, time, and a message with the results after the Auto Send process is completed. This useful information gives the user details about the handling of a document by the Auto Send system. Simply eliminate the Send Date value from the document to send it again.