Beta: shortlease contracts are new in RentVisie and are released as a beta.
Introduction
Shortlease contracts are the new way to bill a long rental month by month (or every so many days). They run next to the older Lease screen, which keeps billing its leases. Before anyone can use them, a company administrator sets them up on the pop-up headed Shortlease settings. From top to bottom it has four blocks: Switches, Defaults for new contracts, Rules for all contracts and Indexation of the base rate, with Save and Cancel at the bottom.
You would be here because:
- your company is starting with shortlease contracts and nothing shows on the bookings yet
- the yearly price rise for running leases has to be set before January
- customers should be invoiced on the 1st of the month instead of on their pickup day
Words this screen uses
| The screen says | It means |
|---|---|
| Nightly invoicing run | RentVisie makes the invoices of every period that is due, by itself, every night |
| Advance / Arrears | Invoice a period before it starts / after it has ended |
| Anchor day (Day of the month) | The day of the month the billing periods start on |
| Open-ended | A contract with no end date, that runs until notice is given |
| Indexation | The yearly price rise of the base rate, as a percentage |
How to use
Configuration
This page is the configuration. The steps are under Using the Shortlease settings below.
Before you start: only a company administrator sees the Shortlease tile and can change these settings. The nightly run also has to be switched on for your RentVisie environment as a whole: it is delivered switched off. Ask RentVisie support to switch on the shortlease invoicing run. Until they do, nothing is invoiced overnight, even with the tick set below; invoices are then only made with Invoice what is due on each contract.
Using the Shortlease settings
From the main menu open Admin, then Settings, and click the Shortlease tile. The pop-up Shortlease settings opens. The first time, it opens with the starting values shown in the tables below.
-
Switches. Tick what you need:
Switch Starts as What it does Nightly invoicing run (invoices every period that is due) Off Every night, invoices each period of your running contracts whose invoice date has come Use for new leases, followed by the three places it counts for Off A lease made on the booking screen, by another system or by converting a quote request gets an active shortlease contract instead of the old Lease screen With Use for new leases on and the run off, a yellow note warns that invoices are then only made with Invoice what is due. With either switch on, every booking shows the Shortlease contract button, and the two Shortlease tiles appear under Bookings, Show more; they stay while your company has contracts.
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Defaults for new contracts. These are copied into a contract when it is made. Skim the table once; you will come back to rows as they come up:
Setting Starts as What it does Accepts Billing period Monthly Monthly, or Every number of days one of the two Days per period 14 Shown only for Every number of days: the length of each period 1 to 366 Periods start on Day of pickup Shown only for Monthly: periods start on the pickup day of the month, or on a Fixed day of the month one of the two Day of the month (1 = calendar months) 1 Shown only for a fixed day 1 to 31 Invoice Advance Advance or Arrears one of the two Days before (Advance) or after (Arrears) the period 0 Moves the invoice date 0 to 60 Invoice grouping Individual Individual: one invoice per contract. Combined: one invoice for all of a customer's contracts that are due on the same date one of the two Invoice a first period shorter than this many days with the next one (0 = never) 0 A short first period goes on the second period's invoice 0 to 31 Notice period (months) 1 How much notice an open-ended contract needs 0 to 24 Minimum term (days); also the term that fixes the rate of an open-ended lease 30 Shorter contracts get a warning; an open-ended contract is priced for this many days 1 to 365 -
Rules for all contracts. These are read every time they are needed, so a change also counts for contracts that already run:
Setting Starts as What it does Accepts Days per month (daily rate x this = monthly amount) 30 Turns a daily rate into the monthly amount above 0, up to 31 Re-rate when a contract ends early into a more expensive duration On A contract ended early pays the rate for the time it really ran (see Give notice on or end a shortlease contract) on or off Periods planned ahead for open-ended leases 3 How many periods of an open-ended contract are planned ahead 1 to 24 -
Click Save. A value out of range gets a red message under its box, for example Enter 0 to 60 days., and nothing is saved. Cancel closes without saving the blocks above.
Indexation of the base rate
- Click Add year. The pop-up Indexation opens with the year after the last one in the list (or next year), Percentage 0 and New price from 1 January of that year.
- Type the Percentage, check the date and click Save. The year appears in the list. Edit opens it again; Remove takes it out at once, without asking.
The indexation list is saved straight away, also when you then press Cancel on the settings.
Key details
What the defaults do not change. A contract keeps the terms it was made with. Changing a default never changes an existing contract; change those one at a time with Edit terms on the contract (see Turn a booking into a shortlease contract).
A customer's own lease terms come first. A customer with their own lease billing terms on their Financial tab gets their billing day and Advance or Arrears from there (see Set a customer's payment and invoicing terms).
How the anchor day works. Day 1 gives calendar months. Day 15 gives the 15th to the 14th. Days 29 to 31 move to the last day of a short month: day 31 gives 31 January to 27 February, then 28 February to 30 March.
How indexation is applied. Only the base rate rises, on every running contract, once per year. Contracts invoiced in Advance get the new price on the invoice made ahead of the date; Arrears contracts from the date itself. A contract that starts on or after the date is not raised. Years add up: 3% one year and 2% the next make a €1,000 monthly rate €1,030.00, then €1,050.60. Once a year has been applied to a contract, a change here no longer reaches it. Exceptions per contract are on the contract screen (see Change prices, extras and indexation on a shortlease contract).
A worked example. Defaults Monthly, Fixed day of the month 1, Advance, offset 5. A customer collects a van on 20 March. The first period, 20 to 31 March, is billed pro rata and due at once (its invoice date is 15 March). April is invoiced on 27 March, May on 26 April. With the first-period merge set to 15, the 12-day March period would instead go on the April invoice of 27 March.
What to do next
Switch on Use for new leases only when the desk is ready; then open a booking and follow Turn a booking into a shortlease contract. Ask RentVisie support to switch on the nightly run before you tick Nightly invoicing run.
Q&A
Why are contracts not invoiced overnight, even though Nightly invoicing run is ticked? The run is also switched off for your RentVisie environment until RentVisie support switches it on. Ask them. Until then, click Invoice what is due on each contract, as described in Invoice shortlease contracts and follow up failures.
Why did a new long booking still get the old Lease screen? Use for new leases is off, or was switched on after the booking was made. Existing leases stay where they are. For a new booking, open it and click Shortlease contract; it is refused while the booking is still billed on the old Lease screen.
I changed the notice period here. Why does a running contract still use the old one? Defaults are copied when a contract is made. Change the contract itself with Edit terms.
Why is there no Shortlease tile under Settings? Your account is not a company administrator. Ask one to change these settings.
I removed an indexation year. Is the price rise undone? No. Contracts it was already applied to keep the new price. To correct one contract, use Price on its base rate, as described in Change prices, extras and indexation on a shortlease contract.
Why does Save say "This year already has an indexation."? Each year can be in the list once. Click Edit on the existing year instead.
Related pages: Turn a booking into a shortlease contract to start one, and Set how a lease is billed for leases on the old Lease screen.