Introduction
A branch is a company name you trade under. Each branch has its own logo, contact details, bank account and registration numbers, and its own payment settings. Every pickup location belongs to one branch. A booking uses the branch of its pickup location for its paperwork, for its customer portal and for online payment.
You manage branches on the screen headed Branch. It opens with a table of your branches, with the columns Name, Phone number, Email, Is active, Company and City, a filter above each column and a New button. At the end of each row are two icons: a pencil to open the branch and a bin to delete it. Opening a branch shows a second screen, also headed Branch. It has a column of company details on the left, the branch address on the right, and four tabs underneath: Logo, Customer portal, Financials and Misc.
You come here when:
- You have just started with the app and the list still holds a branch called Example branch.
- You want customers to pay online, or to scan a QR code on their invoice to pay.
- The Contact tab of the customer portal is empty, and customers ask where to park.
- You are opening a second company, for example a van rental next to your car rental, with its own name and bank account.
Terms used on this screen
| The screen says | It means |
|---|---|
| Branch | A company name you trade under. Each rental location belongs to one branch. |
| Accept payments | Whether customers of this branch can pay online, through a link or a QR code |
| Invoice display QR | Whether invoices of this branch show a QR code (a square barcode the customer scans with a phone to open a payment page) |
| Asset group | A vehicle class, such as "Compact car" or "Van 12m3" |
The company details that print on your documents, and the logo, are explained in Put your logo, company details and terms on your documents.
How to use
Configuration
Creating a branch
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From the main menu open Admin, then Product design, then click the Branches tile. The list of your branches opens.
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Click New above the list. An empty Branch screen opens. The app has already linked the new branch to your company.
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Fill in the left column and the address on the right. These fields are required: Name, Phone number, Email, Website, Iban, BIC, Vat number, Chamber of Commerce, Postal code, House number, City, Country and Street. What each field does on a document, and what it accepts, is in the table on the letterhead page.
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Leave Is active on Yes. See Key details for what it does.
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Open the Logo tab and upload the logo, as described on the letterhead page.
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Open the Customer portal tab and fill in the two text boxes:
Box What to write Where the customer sees it About One or two lines about your company The Contact tab of the customer portal Instructions Practical directions, such as where to park and which door to use The Contact tab of the customer portal Both boxes may stay empty. The portal then shows nothing under About and Instructions.
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Open the Financials tab and set the two switches. Both are explained under Using the branch settings below.
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Press Save. If a required field is empty or wrong, the app shows the message Branch invalid and marks the field, for example Phone is invalid or Iban is invalid. Correct it and press Save again. Cancel throws away the new branch.
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Link the right locations to the new branch. Open Admin > Product design > Locations, open the location and choose the branch at the top of its Core tab; see locations.
Bookings only use a new branch once at least one pickup location belongs to it.
Before you start: the Product design menu and the Branch screens are for the Company admin role only. Other staff do not see these screens. They still get the branch's details on their paperwork, but they cannot change a branch. Ask your company administrator. To take money online, your company also needs a connection to the online payment provider; see Take card and online payments.
Using the branch settings
From the main menu open Admin, then Product design, then click the Branches tile. Click the pencil icon at the end of the branch's row, or click the row itself. The Branch screen opens. Nothing you change is kept until you press Save.
- Accept payments. Open the Financials tab. Accept payments starts at No on every branch, including the example branch. Set it to Yes to let customers of this branch pay online. With Yes, the customer portal shows its Pay now blocks and invoices can carry a payment QR code. With No, neither appears. See Set up the customer portal for the portal side.
- Show the QR code on documents. On the same tab, Invoice display QR starts at Yes. It only has an effect while Accept payments is Yes. Leave it on Yes to print a QR code in the Pay via bank transfer block of an invoice. Set it to No to keep the online payment link in the portal but leave the QR code off invoices made from a booking. Where the code sits and what it opens is on Change what prints on your contracts and invoices.
- Portal text. Open the Customer portal tab and change About or Instructions. Each branch has its own text, so a customer picking up in Utrecht sees the Utrecht directions and a customer picking up in Amsterdam sees the Amsterdam ones.
- Press Save.
When the change takes effect. The portal changes the next time the customer opens it. A QR code appears only on documents made after you save.
Worked example. Jansen Autoverhuur B.V. has two branches. The Utrecht branch has Accept payments on Yes and Invoice display QR on Yes. The Amsterdam branch still has Accept payments on No.
| Booking | Pickup location's branch | Invoice of €363.00 | Customer portal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Picked up in Utrecht, returned in Amsterdam | Utrecht | Shows a QR code for the €363.00 still owed | Shows Pay now |
| Picked up in Amsterdam | Amsterdam | No QR code, only the bank details | No Pay now blocks |
The return location does not matter; only the pickup location does. If the Utrecht customer pays by direct debit, the block on the invoice is headed SEPA Payment and carries no QR code, whatever the switches say.
Key details
Which branch a booking uses. A booking uses the branch of its pickup location, for its documents, its portal Contact tab and its payment switches. An invoice you raise by hand uses the branch you choose on the invoice; see Raise an invoice by hand. On an invoice raised by hand, the QR code appears whenever Accept payments is Yes; Invoice display QR has no effect there.
Other places you pick a branch.
| Record | Where you set it | What it decides |
|---|---|---|
| A location | Core tab of the location | Which letterhead, portal text and payment switches its bookings use |
| A vehicle class | Branch on the class | The class only shows in availability searches from that branch's locations; see Set up your vehicle classes |
| A vehicle | Branch on the vehicle | Which branch owns it; see Add a vehicle to your fleet |
| An insurance or breakdown record | Branch on the record | See Record who insures a vehicle |
| Electronic invoicing | Peppol Settings | Each branch that sends invoices needs its own codes; see Send invoices electronically over Peppol |
Is active. It starts at Yes. No only removes the branch from the branch list the app passes to your own website. Inside the app nothing changes: it stays in every branch box and its locations keep taking bookings.
The example branch after signup. When your company was first saved in the app, the app made a starting set of example records so you can try it out:
| Example record | Name |
|---|---|
| A branch | Example branch, active, with Website www.rentvisie.com and Email onboarding@rentvisie.com |
| A location in that branch | Example Location |
| Two vehicles in that branch | EXAMPLE-ONE and EXAMPLE-TWO |
| Starting vehicle classes and categories | Linked to the example branch |
The example branch has no phone number, bank account, VAT number, registration number or address. Until you fill them in, documents show the RentVisie website and email instead of yours. The best way to deal with it is to turn it into your own first branch: change Name, Website and Email to your own and fill in the rest. Its location and vehicle classes then stay linked and keep working.
Deleting a branch. The bin icon at the end of a row deletes the branch at once. The app does not ask for confirmation, and there is no undo. Deleting a branch also deletes every vehicle class whose Branch is that branch.
Locations, vehicles, invoices and insurance records that pointed to it are kept, but their Branch box becomes empty. A location with an empty branch prints no letterhead and cannot be saved again until you choose a new branch (Branch is empty).
Before you delete a branch, move everything to the branch that stays: each location on its Core tab, each vehicle class and each vehicle in its Branch box. Only then delete it. If you only want to stop using a branch for a while, leave it in place and move its locations to another branch instead.
What to do next: link each location to the right branch, see locations, then make one test invoice to check the letterhead and the QR code.
Q&A
All my vehicle classes disappeared after I deleted the example branch. Can I get them back? No. Deleting a branch also deletes every vehicle class linked to it, and there is no undo. Create the classes again under Admin > Product design > Asset groups; see Set up your vehicle classes. Next time, move the classes to another branch first, as described under Deleting a branch.
Why does a customer's invoice have no QR code? Check the branch of the booking's pickup location, not the one you usually work in. On its Financials tab, Accept payments must be Yes. For an invoice made from a booking, Invoice display QR must also be Yes. The code also stays off when the customer pays by direct debit, and on invoices made before the switch was changed. To get a new copy, make the invoice document again; see Find and re-send a document.
Why does the customer see no Pay now button in the portal? Accept payments is No on the branch of the pickup location. It starts at No on every new branch. Set it to Yes and press Save.
Why does the portal show the wrong parking directions? The portal shows the Instructions of the pickup location's branch. Either the location belongs to another branch, or that branch's text is out of date. Check the branch on the location's Core tab, then the Customer portal tab of that branch.
Why won't the example branch save, when I only changed its name? The app checks every required field on each save, and the example branch starts without a phone number, bank account, VAT number, registration number and address. Fill in each field the message points to and press Save again.
Why do our documents show the RentVisie website and email? Your locations still belong to Example branch, which starts with www.rentvisie.com and onboarding@rentvisie.com. Change Website and Email on that branch to your own.
Why does a branch I set to Is active: No still appear in the lists? Is active only affects the branch list your own website receives. To stop using a branch in the app, move its locations, vehicle classes and vehicles to another branch.
Why can't I see Product design or the Branches tile? These screens are for the Company admin role only. Ask your company administrator to make the change; see Add an employee and set their permissions.
Why does a new vehicle class not show up when I search from a location? The class's Branch must match the branch of the location you search from. See Set up your vehicle classes.
Related pages:
- Put your logo, company details and terms on your documents for every field on the branch and how it prints.
- Change what prints on your contracts and invoices for where the QR code sits.
- Set up the customer portal and help customers use it for the Contact tab and Pay now.
- Locations for linking a pickup or return point to a branch.
- Your company record for the company the branches belong to.