Introduction
A booking carries two sets of dates. The contract period is what you agreed with the customer, and the price is worked out from it. The actual dates are when the vehicle really went out and came back. On the booking screen, Change contract period and Change actual sit in a row of change buttons, together with Change location, Change asset, Change group and Upgrade. Changing the contract period takes two short popups: new dates first, then pricing and email.
Why you would use it:
- a customer rings to keep the car for two more days
- a customer wants to collect a day later and still return on the same day
- the car came back a day early and you want to bill only the days it was out
- a pickup or return time was recorded wrongly and needs correcting, without touching the price
- the booking's Invoice summary warns that the contract period and the actual period do not match
Terms used on this screen:
| On screen | What it means |
|---|---|
| Contract period, Contract from / Contract to | The agreed rental period; the price follows it |
| Actual, Actual from / Actual to | When the vehicle really left and came back |
| Asset | The vehicle |
| Asset group, group | The vehicle class |
| Lease | A long-term rental billed in monthly cycles |
Every way to change the dates:
| Route | What changes | Checks first | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Change contract period on the booking screen | The contract period, and the actual dates too unless the vehicle is already back | Return after pickup; vehicle and class still free, with an option to go ahead anyway | Kept per day, or looked up again — your choice |
| Adjust contract period or Change on the booking's Invoice summary | The same — it opens the same popups | The same | The same |
| Change actual on the booking screen | The actual dates only | Return after pickup; vehicle and class still free — unless you press Save (ignore availability) | Stays with the contract period |
| Actual pickup and dropoff dates on the booking's Overrides screen | The actual dates only | None | Stays with the contract period |
| Dragging a booking on the Scheduler | Depends on a company setting — see The Scheduler | Depends on the setting | Depends on the setting |
| Extend all overdues on the lease bookings list | Every overdue lease, 30 days at once — see Taking the vehicle back | None | — |
| The customer, on your website or customer app, where it offers this | The dates of their own booking | Whether a change is allowed, and whether the vehicle is free | Worked out by the website |
Use Change contract period whenever what the customer pays should change; use Change actual only to correct when the vehicle really moved.
How to use
Configuration
These buttons have no settings of their own. Two things set up elsewhere decide what happens around them:
- The emails. Confirm with email uses the Booking extended template, or Booking extension with payment request when a payment request goes with it. An administrator adds and switches these on under the email area's Bookings list. The app looks for a template in the customer's language, then your company's language, then yours; if none is active, no email goes and no message tells you.
- The price list. Recalculate rates reads the booking's price list — see How a price is put together.
Before you start: Change contract period and Change actual work for any staff account. The Overrides screen needs a company administrator account. On a lease booking the Change contract period button is not shown; lease dates are changed on the lease itself.
Using the booking date buttons
Open the booking first: from the main menu open Bookings and click the booking's row. The booking screen has no Save button. Its Auto checkout switch is saved the moment you flip it, so leave it alone here; the date buttons below save only through their own popups.
Change the contract period
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Click Change contract period. A popup opens with Contract pickup date time and Contract drop off date time, and the line Note: change of dates will recalculate total prices.
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Enter the new dates and times and click Update. Nothing is saved yet.
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In the second popup, decide on the two tick boxes:
Tick box Starts Tick it when What happens Email with payment request Off The customer should pay the difference now A payment request goes with the email; Confirm without email disappears while this is ticked Recalculate rates Off The new length should get a different rate, for example a weekly one The rates are looked up again in the price list; left off, the current rates carry on over the new length -
Click Confirm with email or Confirm without email. Cancel takes you back one popup; nothing is saved until a confirm button finishes.
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If the new dates clash, a No availability popup appears. It says No asset group availability in selected period. when the vehicle class is full, or Asset not availability in selected period. when this vehicle has another booking or maintenance in the new dates. Check the vehicle on the Scheduler, then click Confirm and ignore availability to go ahead, or Cancel. Your tick-box choices are kept.
When it worked, the popups close and the booking shows the new dates and the new total.
Correct the actual dates
- Click Change actual. A popup shows Pickup date and Drop off. The two boxes appear only on a booking that already has contract dates.
- Correct the date or time and click Save. The app first checks that the return comes after the pickup (Please check the dates.) and that the vehicle and its class are free, using the same two messages as above. Nothing is saved while a message shows.
- If you have looked at the clash and still want the change, click Save (ignore availability) instead. It saves exactly what you typed, with no checks at all.
A company administrator can also click Overrides at the top of the booking, beside Payments and Invoice, then Actual pickup and dropoff dates, change the dates and click Save. That screen checks nothing either.
Key details
What a contract change does to the actual dates. Until the vehicle is returned, the actual dates are moved to match the new contract period. Once it is back, the actual dates stay as recorded and only the contract period moves. That is how you bill a returned booking for the time it was really out.
Kept per day, or looked up again. A booking from Monday 10:00 to Friday 10:00 is 4 days at €50 a day, plus insurance at €8 a day: €232 excluding value-added tax (VAT). The customer keeps the car until the following Monday 10:00, which makes 7 days. The price list has €42 a day for rentals of 7 days or more.
| Rental | Insurance | Total excl. VAT | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Recalculate rates off | 7 × €50 = €350 | 7 × €8 = €56 | €406 |
| Recalculate rates on | 7 × €42 = €294 | 7 × €8 = €56 | €350 |
The number of days is counted again using the vehicle class's rule for counting days. Discounts on the booking are applied again either way. With Recalculate rates on, a rental rate typed in by hand is replaced by the price list's rate, and the prices for kilometres over the allowance are rebuilt from the price list. Extras, insurance and mileage packages that cover only part of the rental keep their end date.
What the email contains. Booking extended goes out even when you shortened the booking. With Email with payment request ticked, the request is for what is still owed on the booking, not counting the deposit.
What does not change. Invoices already created keep their amounts, and the booking keeps its status. Signatures stay on the booking; they are removed only when it is confirmed again.
What to do next. If the customer should sign for the new dates, confirm the booking again — see Confirm a booking — and collect a fresh signature, as described in Signatures.
Q&A
I ticked Email with payment request and saw "No outstanding amount for this booking. The extension confirmation was sent without a payment request." Why did the customer get no email? Despite that message, nothing was sent: when nothing is owed, no email goes either. The dates were changed. To send the confirmation, click Change contract period again, leave the dates as they are and click Update. Leave Recalculate rates and Email with payment request unticked, then click Confirm with email.
Why did a price agreed with the customer go back to the price-list rate? Recalculate rates was ticked, and it replaces the rental rate with the price list's rate for the new length. A company administrator can put the agreed rate back: click Overrides on the booking, then the edit icon beside the rental rate line.
Why does an Unconfirmed booking always say "Asset not availability in selected period."? A provisionally confirmed booking (status Unconfirmed) with a vehicle assigned is counted as clashing with itself, so the vehicle check fails almost every time. Look at the vehicle on the Scheduler; if no other booking or maintenance sits in the new dates, click Confirm and ignore availability.
Why could I save a return date that is before the pickup date? Save (ignore availability) and the Overrides screen save whatever you type, without any check. Click Change actual again, correct the dates and click Save.
I changed the actual return date. Why didn't the price change? The price follows the contract period, not the actual dates. Click Invoice on the booking. When the actual period is more than 3 hours longer or shorter than the contract period, the Invoice summary shows Deviation between contract period and actual period. Please adjust contract period if desired. Click Change beside it to move the contract period. Both lengths are rounded up to whole hours first: with a 96-hour contract, a vehicle out for exactly 99 hours shows no warning, while 99 hours and 1 minute counts as 100 hours and does.
Where is Change contract period on a lease booking? It is hidden on a lease. On the Invoice summary, Adjust contract period stops with Cant adjust contract dates in a (short)lease booking. Please adjust actual dates. and opens the lease screen, where lease dates are changed. Once the vehicle has been returned, the Invoice summary buttons do change a lease's contract period.
Why did the customer get no email after Confirm with email? There is no active Booking extended template, or Booking extension with payment request template, in a language the app tries. Ask your administrator to add one under the email area's Bookings list.
Can I send an email when I change the dates of a quote? Use Confirm without email on a quote. Confirm with email sends the Booking extended email even though nothing has been booked yet.
Related pages:
- The Scheduler — to move a booking by dragging it, and to see clashes before overriding one
- Confirm a booking — to send an updated agreement once the dates are right
- How a price is put together — what Recalculate rates reads
- Taking the vehicle back — Extend all overdues for long rentals