Rental Car Manager has many features and
functions and can be used in many different ways.
At its most basic Rental Car Manager will
provide you with a comprehensive booking system via the Reservation Sheet. While
this is a major step forward from a manual system, to ensure you gain the
maximum benefit from Rental Car Manager we recommend that you follow a regular
set of procedures and processes.
Below are a series of steps that we believe
will enable you to make use of not only the basic booking processes but also
leverage all the reporting options and hence give you a more detailed analysis
of how well your Rental Business is running.
Step 1. The Daily
Reservation Cycle.
When making reservations in the system it is
important to ensure that all reservations are updated to the correct status
throughout the booking process.
The diagram below shows the critical steps
from making a reservation through to completion.
1. Reservation - Colour coded Orange on the
Reservation Sheet 2.
Hired - Colour coded Purple on the Reservation Sheet 3. Returned - Colour coded Green on the
Reservation Sheet. 4.
Closed - Colour coded Green on the Reservation Sheet
By following these steps you will ensure
that the Vehicles are located correctly, that Hireage Revenue is recorded
accurately and finally that Reports are accurate. (A lot of reports depend on
these steps being completed correctly)
The
Reservation Booking Cycle
The Status or Type is updated from the Reservation Page and should be set correctly as the Vehicle
is Reserved, Hired and Returned. The Reservation is finally closed once the balance due is zero and the car
has been returned. This last step is important as it releases the Hireage
Revenue to the GL Posting and Sales Reports.
Step 2. The Daily Reporting
Cycle
It is
important that a standard set of reports are run on a daily basis. By doing this
you will be able to reconcile your fleet status and gain an accurate view of
your days activity. The following reports should be produced on a daily
basis.
1. The Vehicle Overdue Report a. To be run every evening for the same
day. b. This Report quickly shows what vehicles are
overdue. It also helps to highlight any cars that have been returned but not
updated on the system. 2. The Vehicle Activity Report a. To be run every evening for the next days
activity. b. It shows all pickups and drop-offs for
the depot and lets you plan your next days activities in
advance. 3. The Vehicle Availability Report a. To be run every morning for the same
day. b. The
availability report shows cars currently available and when any bookings on
these cars are next due. 4. The Reservations Due Closed Report a. To be run every evening for the same
day. b.The due
closed report identifies vehicles that have been returned but not closed on the
system. 5. The Daily Receipts Report a. To be run every evening for the same
day. b. The daily
receipts report shows a summary of all tenders. It should match your till and
electronic sales summaries,
Step 3. The Weekly Sales Reporting
Cycle
On a weekly basis you should be producing
the following suggested reports. These include financial and utilization reports
that should be reviewed to assess trends and to make comparative analysis on
figures from the same time last year.
1. A Weekly Vehicle Activity report a. To be run at the start of the week for
the week coming b.
Allows you to see activity for the week and access required staff levels, and
plan pickups and dropoffs. This is the same as the Daily Activity report but run
for the week coming instead.
2. The Hired Revenue Report a. To be run at the end of the
week. b. Gives
you either a summary or detail view of both rental revenue and extra
revenues.
3. The
Utilization Report
a. To be run both weekly and monthly. b Allows trends in Vehicle utilization
to be tracked.
4. The GL Posting Report (Optional if not running a Financial interface) a. To be run once a week. b. Allows you to see the required summary
postings to packages such as MYOB .. etc.
5. The Fleet Status Report (Optionally
daily if required) a.
To be run weekly.
b. Identifies cars on the ground by location and allows effectively a stock take
against actual vehicles and what the system considers correct.
Step 4. The Monthly Sales Reporting
Cycle
On a
monthly basis you should be producing the following suggested reports. These are
primarily designed to show you the sales and hireage figures along with the
source for these.
1. The Monthly Hireage Report a. To
be run Monthly b.
Can be run for the current month or for any of the preceding 12
months.
3. The Monthly Sales Revenue Report a. To be run Monthly b. Show sales figures by category
of vehicle. Depends on reservations being closed correctly after the booking is
completed.
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