Sub-Rentals: suppliers

Suppliers are the companies you rent from. Each one has its own contact details, the products it can supply, its rates and its late terms.

Add a supplier #

1. Go to Rentals › Suppliers and press Add supplier.
2. Enter the Company name, and the Contact, Email and Phone. Requests go to this email address.
3. Add the address if you want it on the supplier order.
4. Lead days is how many days before the rental you usually collect from this supplier. Leave it empty to use the store setting.
5. Press Save.

To stop using a supplier, press Hide or delete. A supplier with past sub-rentals is hidden, so your history stays, and you can bring it back with Show again.

What a supplier can supply #

Under Can supply, add each product or category. For each one you can set:

• Rates: what they charge per unit. Write them as lengths: 1d=120 is one day at 120, 3d=280 is three days at 280, and 1w and 1m work the same way. For hours, use 4h.
• Most units: how many they can usually send.
• Their reference: their own code for it, shown on the supplier order.
• Preferred: this supplier is listed first in the dialog.

You can still pick any supplier in the dialog and type a cost. Listing a product just saves you doing that each time.

Late terms #

Add the supplier’s late terms so you can see what a late return will cost:

• Late: per day: the charge for each day late.
• Late: free hours: how long after the return date before it starts.
• Late: most it can reach: the most they charge.

The sub-rental page shows an estimated late charge once a return is overdue. It’s only an estimate: nothing is charged until you add the supplier’s real charge. See Costs and reports.

Product settings #

On a product’s Rental tab you’ll find two more settings:

• Usually sub-rented: you don’t stock this product and usually rent it in.
• Cost to buy one: what one would cost you. The report uses it to tell you when you’ve spent more renting than buying.

Maintenance vendors #

If you use Sales Igniter Maintenance, the two supplier lists stay separate, because a repair vendor isn’t always a rental supplier. An import button on the Suppliers screen copies your Maintenance vendors across.

The answer link #

Each request email can carry a private link, so the supplier can confirm, decline or propose other dates without an account. The link opens that one sub-rental, it shows what the supplier order shows and no customer details, and it stops working when the sub-rental closes. When a supplier proposes other dates, you see them on the sub-rental page and in Needs you. Press Use these dates to take them, or find another supplier.