Introduction
Many of the emails RentVisie sends can carry a link the customer clicks to do something themselves: sign the rental agreement, sign or accept a quote, or pay what they owe. The customer does not need an account. They click, a page opens in their browser, and the result lands on the booking without you touching it.
A link only appears in an email if the email's template asks for it. Each kind of link has its own placeholder, a short code in the form ${signQuoteUrl} that you type into the template's text. When the email is sent, RentVisie swaps the code for that booking's own address. So most of the work on this page is done once, in the templates, and after that the links go out on their own.
You would be here because:
- You want customers to say yes to a quote without phoning you.
- You want the agreement signed before the customer arrives, so the handover is quicker.
- A customer asks for a way to pay the rest of the rent online.
- A customer says the link in their email shows an error, or does nothing.
Every link a customer can be sent
Skim this table once; each row is a placeholder you can put in an email:
| Placeholder | What the customer gets | Covered here |
|---|---|---|
| ${signAgreementUrl} | Sign the rental agreement of a booking | Here; the details of signing are in Send the rental agreement for signing |
| ${signQuoteUrl} | Sign a quote, which confirms it | Yes |
| ${acceptQuoteUrl} | Accept a quote with one click | Yes, but see the warning below |
| ${payBookingOutstandingUrl} | Pay what is due now | Yes |
| ${payBookingFullOutstandingUrl} | Pay everything still open, deposit included | Yes |
| ${payBookingRentOutstandingUrl} | Pay the rent still open, without deposit | Yes |
| ${payPaymentRequestUrl} | Pay a payment request you raised | Send a customer a payment request |
| ${payInvoiceUrl} | Pay an invoice | Take card and online payments |
| ${customerPortalUrl} | Open the customer portal | The page on the customer portal (the-customer-portal.md) |
Use this page to decide which links your emails carry and to understand what each one does when the customer clicks it.
How to use
Configuration
Links are added in the email templates.
- Open Admin from the main menu, then Communicator.
- Click the Bookings tile. The screen headed Automated lists your templates, one row per email type and language.
- Click the open icon at the end of the row you want, or New Automated to start one.
- Check Active is on and Automated type is the email you mean (see the table below).
- Type the placeholder into Body where the link should go, exactly as it appears in the Variables list on the same screen, including the dollar sign and braces. Put it behind a word such as Sign here if your editor lets you make a link.
- Press Save.
Skim the table once; come back to it when you set up a particular email.
| Automated type | Placeholder that belongs in it |
|---|---|
| Quote and Quote reminder | ${signQuoteUrl} (recommended) or ${acceptQuoteUrl} |
| Sign document | ${signAgreementUrl} |
| Booking confirmation, Booking confirmation advance payment, Booking confirmation full payment with deposit | One of the three pay links |
| Payment outstanding, Payment reminder | One of the three pay links |
| Payment request | ${payPaymentRequestUrl} |
Nothing checks that a placeholder is in the right template. A code misspelled, or put in an email that has nothing to point at (a quote link in a template for a booking that was never a quote), is sent to the customer as plain text.
Every language has its own template, so add the link to each one. Changing a template only affects emails sent from then on; emails already sent keep the links they had.
The pay links need online payments to be connected for your company, as described in Take card and online payments.
Before you start: only a Company admin can open Communicator and edit templates. Sending the emails from a booking needs Employee or Company admin.
Using the links
Once the templates carry the links, you send them the normal way:
- A quote: press Create and send quote on the quote, as described in Send a quote and follow it up.
- The agreement: open the booking, click the Emails tab and click Sign document remote, as described in Send the rental agreement for signing.
- A pay link: it goes out with whichever email carries it, for instance the confirmation email when you confirm the booking.
What the customer sees when signing. Both signing links open the same page, titled Sign contract. It shows Your information (name, email, phone, address), Our information (your company's details and the pick-up location), Booking (vehicle class, Own risk / deductible, fuel, transmission, Included mileage, Extra mileage), the price lines, and Subtotal, VAT, Total and Deposit. Under Sign for approval they sign in the box, press Clear to start again, or press Confirm. They then see Succesfully created! and land in the customer portal.
When a signing link opens.
| Link | The booking must be | Otherwise the customer sees |
|---|---|---|
| ${signAgreementUrl} | Unconfirmed, Confirmed or Picked up | Booking status not elegible for signature. |
| ${signQuoteUrl} | Still a quote, sent (not a draft) and with Quote valid until still ahead | Offerte is verlopen. when out of date or never sent; Offerte is niet meer geldig. when it is no longer a quote |
Signing a quote confirms the booking. RentVisie first checks a vehicle of that class is still free. If so, the booking becomes Confirmed, the price is recalculated and the customer is emailed the signed agreement with the Signed rental agreement template.
The pay links. Each opens the online payment screen for the amount below. If nothing is owed, the customer sees No balance outstanding and no payment starts. Once paid, the payment is added to the booking by itself.
| Link | Amount asked |
|---|---|
| ${payBookingRentOutstandingUrl} | The rent still unpaid. Never the deposit |
| ${payBookingFullOutstandingUrl} | Rent plus deposit, less what is paid. After the vehicle is back, or on a cancelled booking, just the rent still unpaid |
| ${payBookingOutstandingUrl} | What is due now under your payment terms (next table). Any amount already held on the customer's card counts as paid |
What ${payBookingOutstandingUrl} asks for depends on the payment thresholds under Settings, described in Confirm a booking:
| Situation | Amount asked |
|---|---|
| Advanced payment configuration off | Rent plus deposit, less what is paid (after return or cancellation: rent only) |
| On, Advance payment on, pick-up further away than Advance payment threshold | The advance, less what is paid |
| On, Full payment on, pick-up closer than Full payment threshold | Rent plus deposit, less what is paid |
| On, anything in between | Rent, less what is paid |
A worked example
Quote Q-5520 is for a van from 14 to 17 October: rent €385, deposit €500. Your company has Advance payment on at 20% with a threshold of 28 days, and Full payment on with a threshold of 4 days. The quote email carries ${signQuoteUrl}; the confirmation email carries ${payBookingOutstandingUrl}.
On 2 September the customer signs. The quote is sent and in date, a van is free, so the booking becomes Confirmed and the confirmation email goes out. The pick-up is 42 days away, more than 28, so the pay link asks for 20% of €385: €77. The customer pays it.
On 10 October the pick-up is 4 days away: not more than 28, and not fewer than 4, so the link asks for the rent only: €385 − €77 = €308. On 11 October, 3 days away, the full payment applies and it asks for €385 + €500 − €77 = €808.
Had they clicked it again on 2 September, straight after paying, €77 − €77 leaves nothing due, and they would have seen No balance outstanding.
Key details
The accept link does not work for customers at present. ${acceptQuoteUrl} is only open to someone signed in to RentVisie as a Company admin. A customer clicking it from their email is not let through, and the quote stays a quote. Put ${signQuoteUrl} in your quote templates instead: it confirms the quote the same way, with an availability check and a signature on file. The accept link is also looser when it does run: it skips the availability check and leaves Quote status on Send.
A quote can only be signed with the quote link. ${signAgreementUrl} refuses a booking that is still a quote. Once the quote is confirmed, the agreement link works.
Signing an unconfirmed booking does not confirm it. Only a quote changes status when it is signed. An Unconfirmed booking gets the availability check and the signature, and stays Unconfirmed.
Every signing replaces earlier signatures, recalculates the price and emails the signed agreement, whatever the booking's status.
A link is tied to one booking. It works for anyone who has it; treat it like a key. Links do not expire on their own, apart from the quote's Quote valid until; they stop working when the booking's status no longer allows them.
What to do next: after a quote is signed, the booking is an ordinary confirmed booking; see Confirm a booking. To chase an amount the links do not cover, raise a payment request.
Q&A
A customer paid through a link, but the amount is not what I expected. ${payBookingOutstandingUrl} asks for what is due at the moment of the click, which changes as pick-up gets closer and as payments arrive. For a fixed sum, send a payment request with a custom amount.
A customer says the quote link shows "Offerte is verlopen." The quote is past Quote valid until, or was never sent. Move the date forward and press Create and send quote again, as described in Send a quote and follow it up.
A customer says the quote link shows "Offerte is niet meer geldig." The booking is no longer a quote; someone confirmed it or it changed status. Open it from Bookings and check. If it is confirmed, send the agreement link with Sign document remote instead.
Why are those two messages in Dutch for an English customer? They exist only in Dutch in this version. The rest of the signing page follows the customer's language, which they can switch at the top right.
A customer says "we ran out of availability" when signing. No vehicle of that class was free for the dates any more, so the signature was not kept. Find another vehicle or dates, then send a new link.
A customer clicked accept on a quote and nothing happened. See the warning on the accept link under Key details. Confirm the quote for them with Accept quote on the booking, and switch the template to ${signQuoteUrl}.
The email arrived with a code like ${signQuoteUrl} in it instead of a link. The code is misspelled in the template, or the email is not about a booking that has a quote. Correct it under Admin, Communicator, Bookings.
The email arrived with no link at all. The template has no placeholder. Add one as described under Configuration, in every language you use.
The pay link says "No balance outstanding" but the customer still owes money. The link counts payments of every kind, and ${payBookingRentOutstandingUrl} never includes the deposit. Check the booking's payments; to ask for the deposit, use ${payBookingFullOutstandingUrl} or a payment request.
Related pages:
- Send the rental agreement for signing — for the signature itself.
- Send a quote and follow it up — for issuing quotes.
- Take card and online payments — for how online payments are recorded.
- The page on the customer portal (the-customer-portal.md) — for where the customer lands after signing or paying.