Equipment Billing/Costing

OBJECTIVE

The Equipment Billing/Costing option is used to generate equipment rental invoicing based on User selections for internal projects in which they will be used or to the customers to whom the equipment has been rented.

The equipment allocation transactions are analyzed and re-invoiced based on the business rules defined in Rental Equipment Management. Among others, these rules determine the invoicing method and the rental rates that will be re-invoiced.

 

PREREQUISITEs

• Rental Equipment Management
• Equipment Allocation
• Project Management
• Customer Management

 

Steps

maestro* > Equipment > Equipment Rental > Processing > Equipment Billing/Costing

 

Create an equipment invoice

1. From the main window in maestro*, in the left menu, click on the Equipment module, then Equipment Rental.
2. In the section on the right, in the Processing group, click on Equipment Billing/Costing. The Equipment Billing/Costing window is displayed, with the Parameter Selection screen on top.
3. Select an Invoicing date.

This date is the end of the invoicing period. It starts on the date that each piece of equipment is assigned, unless it has already been invoiced, in which case, the invoicing period will start the day after the end of the preceding period. If an end date is entered for the equipment in equipment allocation, maestro* will invoice up to the return date even if the equipment has not been returned.

4. Click Accept.

Maestro* analyzes the data and displays a list of rented equipment to be invoiced based on the last period invoiced up to the selected invoicing date. None of the information except the Invoice column can be modified. You can determine periods during which the rental fees should be reduced by equipment by clicking the Select a Date icon. If a reduced fee is determined, maestro* displays invoicing periods for the item at the regular price on separate lines in the grid and then periods during which the equipment will be invoiced at the reduced fee. For more information, refer to the appendix.

5. On the Equipment Billing/Costing window, confirm which rented equipment needs to be billed by checking or unchecking the appropriate item under the Invoice column.

Field	Description
Invoice	Identifies the transaction to be invoiced if the box is checked.
Equipment	Code of the rental equipment to be invoiced.
Description	Description of the rental equipment.
Serial Number	Serial number of the rental equipment if the method for managing elements is Serial No. in Rental Equipment Management.
Quantity	Number of pieces of equipment originally rented.
Qty Returned	Number of pieces of equipment that have been returned.
Invoiced Qty	Number of pieces of equipment that are still rented out and that will be invoiced.
Revenue section Project Activity Group	Project, activity and group for posting rental revenue. NOTE: By default, maestro* displays the project, activity and group specified in Rental Equipment Management. Otherwise, the information is read from Configuration.
Allocation Type	Displays the equipment allocation type. Possible types include: NOTE: The assignment type is from Equipment Allocation. Internal: Rented to a project External: Rented to a customer
Expense section Project Activity Group	Displays the project, activity and group specified in Equipment Allocation for Internal Rental transactions.
Customer	Displays the customer specified in Equipment Allocation for External Rental transactions.
Allocation Dates section From To	Dates from Equipment Allocation. Start date of the rental period. End date of the rental period. NOTE: If an end date is entered in equipment allocation, the equipment will be invoiced up to the end of the allocation date even if the equipment has not been returned.
Previous Billing Date	Date of the last invoicing period.
Billing Dates section From To	Invoicing period for the rental. Displays the assignment start date if the agreement has never been invoiced. Otherwise, displays the date of the day after the preceding invoice. Displays the invoicing period end date for this equipment. This date can be determined in several ways: Allocation End Date If an allocation end date was entered at the time of allocation then this date precedes the invoice date. If the equipment has been returned and the return date precedes the invoice date. Invoicing Date If the invoicing method is Daily, Fixed or By Counter. Date corresponding to the end of a full week If the invoicing method is Weekly. Date corresponding to the end of a full month If the invoicing method is Monthly.
Rental Duration Days Weeks Month	Displays the rental term based on the invoicing method specified in Equipment Allocation. NOTES: No value is displayed in this section for Fixed or By Counter invoicing methods. If the invoicing method is monthly, the monthly period starts on the day invoicing starts and ends one month later, less one day. You can change this value if you want the month to always have the same number of days by completing the Number of days in a month field in Configuration. If the invoicing method is Best Cost, maestro*displays the corresponding period for the selected invoicing method in colour. You can change this colour by clicking the Configurationicon.
Billing Method section Defined Used	Displays the invoicing method specified in Equipment Allocation which is from Rental Equipment Management by default. Displays the invoicing method selected by maestro* for calculating the rental if the invoicing method is Best Price.
Rate Code	Displays the rate code used for invoicing. NOTE: For an internal rental, maestro* uses one of the four fees defined in Rental Equipment Management based on the Default Equipment Rates field in Project Management. NOTE: For an external rental, maestro* uses the rate defined based on the Invoicing Code specified in Rental Equipment Management (in this case, the rate code will be zero) or, if no invoicing code has been specified, based on rate 1 in Rental Equipment Management.
Rental Rate section Daily Weekly Monthly	Displays the rental fee based on the invoicing method used. NOTE: If the invoicing method is Best Price, maestro* displays the best fee in colour. You can change this colour by clicking the Configuration icon.
Estimated Rental Amount section Daily Weekly Monthly	Displays the amount of the rental to be invoiced according to the invoicing method selected or for the three basic methods if the invoicing method is Best Price.
Calculated Rental Amount	Displays the amount of rent to be invoiced. NOTE: If the invoicing method is Best Price, maestro* selects the method with the lowest cost and displays it in this column.
Maximum Rental Amount section To Invoice Already billed Balance	Lets you monitor the progress of invoicing based on the maximum amount to be invoiced for the rental period as defined in Rental Equipment Management. Maximum amount entered in Rental Equipment Management. Amount already billed Balance to be invoiced for this item NOTE: By default, equipment that has reached the maximum to be invoiced and is still on rental to a customer is not printed on the invoice that will be issued to the customer. You can still print them on the invoice by checking the Print all equipment on invoices, even when they are completely billed option in Configuration.
Billed Rental Amount	Displays the cost of the rental, adjusted based on the maximum billable, if applicable.
Fixed and Basic Rental Amount section Fixed Rate Basic Rate Calculated Amount Already Billed Rental Amount Amount Billed	Displays the fixed rental amount if the invoicing method in Rental Equipment Management is Fixed. NOTE: Fixed costs are only invoiced once for the entire term of the rental.
Meter Amount section Number Unit Rate Amount	Displays the amount of charges related to invoicing by meter. To calculate a charge by meter, simply enter the variation in the equipment counter in the Enter Production option. If no counters are entered, no charges will be invoiced. NOTES: If the Preventive Maintenance module is used, maestro* also includes meters entered in Usage Meter Management, as well as in the various hour entry options in which the Meter columns can be entered. In this case, the meter variations are automatically converted to production quantities. The Unit column matches the “Customer” unit as indicated in Catalogue Management. It may be kilometers, miles, tonnes, pages, etc. If no unit has been specified, maestro* uses KM as default value. A warning may be displayed if the production quantity has not been entered for an equipment rental by meter by checking the option in Configuration. You can also enter the counter variation directly if the Allow mileage entry when missing option is checked in Configuration.
Total amount of rental	Displays the total amount of the rental to be invoiced, including fixed charges and meter charges.
Company	Company to which the rental is posted. NOTE: This column matches the Company with equipment inventory field on the Equipment Rental – General option of the General Settings windows. If the field is left empty, the transaction will be invoiced by the company in which it has been created. NOTE: This only applies to the multidimensional mode.

6. Confirm the rental equipment to be invoiced by checking or clearing the Invoice column.

To clear all transactions, click in the grid with the right mouse button and select Clear All.

7. Click Transfer.

A confirmation message is displayed on the screen. Click Yes if the information generated earlier is adequate. For external rentals, a sale is created in the Enter a Sale option and the transactions are considered invoiced. For internal rentals, a transfer between projects is created. If you click No, maestro* returns to the equipment invoicing screen.

1. Comments tab:

This section displays information about the transactions created.

2. Transaction Created tab:

This section displays the type of transaction created, the counter for the transaction and the status.

For external rentals, access the Enter a Sale option in the Invoicing module to accept the invoices and print them. For external rentals, no further steps are necessary unless the user was unable to complete the transfer between projects due to his security level. If this is the case, you must transfer the Project-to-Project Transfer transaction manually.

8. Click Quit to exit Equipment Billing/Costing.

 

See also

• Equipment Billing Calendar
• Configuration
• Project-to-Project Transfer
• Enter a Sale
• Enter Production

 

APPENDIX

CONFIGURING A REDUCED RENTAL RATE

You can invoice a reduced rate for equipment during certain times of the year. The reduced rate is calculated based on the reduction percentage entered in Configuration option and the days defined for the reduced fee.

All of the options below are in the Equipment Rental module.

To configure a reduced rental rate:

1. Access the Configuration option.
2. Enter the Standby reduced rate.

This fee is a percentage. For example, to reduce the rate by half, enter 50. The rate will be applied to the regular rental rates based on dates when the reduced rate should apply for each piece of equipment.

3. Click Save and Quit to exit Configuration.
4. Access the Equipment Billing/Costing option.
5. Enter the Invoice Date and then click Accept to access the invoicing table.
6. Click the Select a Date icon. A calendar is displayed on the screen.
7. Select the year, type and equipment code for which the reduced rate should apply.
8. Using the mouse, click on the dates on which the reduced rate should apply.

You can select a period of consecutive dates by clicking on the first date, holding the Shift key down and then clicking on the last date. The reduced rate will only be applicable on the days selected in the calendar.

9. Click Save and Quit to exit calendar.

Maestro* recalculates the invoicing and refreshes the screen to apply the reduced rate, if applicable. If there is a reduced rate and a regular rate for an equipment rental, maestro* displays a transaction at the regular rate and another at the reduced rate based on the rental dates.

10. Continue with the invoicing steps described earlier in this document.

 

Last modification: September 20, 2024