Hire Help and User Guide

1. Pre-Requisites

Prior to using Hire, the Sicon Fixed Assets module will need to be enabled on relevant user’s roles, and at a minimum Fixed Asset Categories* and sub categories along with associated default nominal codes created as the hire assets are linked to categories and sub categories

If you buy in equipment (stock items) to hire out, or if you manufacture/build the items to hire out you will need to also need to ensure that those items are either in stock, (standard sage 200) ready to from within Hire ‘Issue Stock to Fixed Assets’ which in turn will make them available to Hire

If you do not buy in or manufacture/build the hire items then you would be looking to manually add Fixed Assets, flag them as hire item (s) and flag as available hire.

*Important Note*

Please refer before setting up multiple Hire Fixed Asset Categories to the Fixed Asset Year End Process.

In standard Fixed Assets companies tend to only have a few categories such as F&F, Office Equipment, Buildings and Vehicles, but companies with Hire Assets may want to have a category for each type of Hire Product Group.

Because of the way the Sicon Fixed Asset Year end works (which simply moves the balance on the account and is not looking at a transactions), it is important that where you are looking to have different categories for each of your hire product sets/groups/items then it is important to make sure you DO NOT use the same balance sheet nominal codes for additions this year, and additions brought forward, depreciation this year, depreciation brought forward for multiple Fixed Asset Categories, but instead have unique balance sheet codes for each Fixed Asset category. This is because as explained further down, during the Sicon Fixed Asset Year end we simply move balances , we do not look at transactions and if you use the same balance sheet additions and depreciation codes on multiple Fixed Asset categories your yearend journal will duplicate postings

2. Configuration Steps

You will also need to review, configure and set some other areas including maintenance items and defaults within settings.

Sales Order Processing configuration prior to using Hire:

Within SOP settings ensure Auto Numbering is switched on

Service Items are set as ‘confirmation not required’ and

Within SOP/User Permissions users have ‘override default confirmation method on order lines’ ticked. This is accessed from Sales Order Processing>SOP Utilities>System Set up>User Permissions

Within ASM a designated Analysis code field for SOP orders which Sicon Hire will use to show the
Hire Order number on the Sales Order

One the above steps have been taken you can then begin to add hire quotes, orders and start to process through the system

The next few sections will take you through the configurations, settings and maintenance as above.

3. Utilities

3.1. Import Hire Orders

With all the Hire Imports you would first select to create an example template, this is to create your data in the correct format. Select the ‘Example Import File button’ Once the templates are prepared and saved as a .csv, the import routine can be run.

The system will create you an excel version with definitions to explain important things like field length, whether the field is mandatory and format required.

And an example csv file format (The format required during the import routine).

When you have populated your file for importing and saved as in a CSV file format, use the same menu item / screen as you obtained the example template, and select.

Select your prepared .csv file from your saved location by clicking on the ’Find’ button, then click ‘Check File’.

3.2. Import Hire Order Assets

Hire Order Assets import allows you to import the assets that are linked to the Hire Orders created.

Click the Example Import File to generate the 2 xlxs files shown below. Book 2 has all the fields shown and identifies whether they are compulsory or not, Book 1 is the file to populate and save as a CSV file.

When you have populated your file for importing and saved as a CSV file format, use the same menu item / screen as you obtained the example template, and select your prepared .csv file from your saved location by clicking on the ’Find’ button, then click ‘Check File’.

When the File has been checked and if there are no errors you will be able to import the details – any errors will need rectifying before the import button will be active.

3.3. Import Hire Details

Hire Details is a screen where you can import:

Sub Categories, Price Bands, Price Bands for Customers and if you are wishing to mark existing Fixed Assets as Hire Assets there is a ‘Hire Assets Import Details Import’ which is used to flag assets as Hire Items.

Check File: Use to validate / check for any errors, the screen will display the lines to be imported, with any lines containing errors highlighted in red, with details explaining the problem in the result column

Any errors should be corrected on the original template or within Sage if error is within Sage (for example nominal code does not exist), saved as a new .csv and the import routine run again.

As long as there are no errors, click Import (bottom left of screen). The relevant import records will then import

It’s important to note that going forward when upgrades take place if you wish to use the import routines that you should always use the ‘Example Import File’ within the new version installed, not a keep one from previous versions, as it’s possible that the format of the file may be different

3.4. Enable Module

This screen is used to show all configured Sicon Add-ons and allows the entry of enable strings to allow use of a module.  When a new module enable string is provided, copy into the ‘Enable string’ field and then click Apply to save the changes.

If online enable strings have been activated these will self-populate.

4. Hire Settings

One of the key areas of the module and one of the first steps for review, discussion and completing is Settings.

This is where you set the rules which in turn determines how the module works.

All tabs should be reviewed, but not all require changes from the defaults.

Each tab is explained in detail below:

4.1. Processing Settings

Hire Orders Processing Settings

Always set the sales order lines as undefined hire periods: Tick if your Hire Quotes/orders periods are ‘undefined’ with no known end date (If set, when adding a hire order you only select a start date there will be no end date field. A box with a tick in confirming undefined end date can be unticked at point of entry to enable an end date to be set).

Default start times: If you have a default start time for a day’s hire, enter the time here to save users entering the same info every time, in our experience not many companies go down to this level.

Default Selling Unit: Linked to Duration Calculations. Set a default if the majority of the time if your hire orders/quotes are for the same units e.g. Hours; Days; Weeks etc. this will pre-populate the field with the default and may be amended as required.

Create Sales Returns for Generated Sales Orders if Hire Period is reduced after billing: It is possible (although not the recommended) to be able to generate sales orders in advance of the Hire period. If this is a process your company adopts, and the actual hire period is less than invoiced you should enable this feature. You would then be able to raise a SOP return for difference.

Default Delivery address to customer account address: When selected the hire order delivery addresses will default to the customer account address.

Order type mandatory: In the Maintenance section of setup where you have created Hire Order Types, you may want to force your users to select the order type. If so, tick the order type mandatory box. (order types could be used to analysis if the hire is for short term, long term, fixed price etc.)

Post Code Mandatory for delivery address: If for layouts and reporting you wish to ensure users always enter a post code into the ‘Postcode’ designated field, then tick this box.

Reserve specific assets when entering hire quotes (i.e. Rapid Quote Entry/Amend): When selected rapid quote entry/amendment may be used to reserve specific assets for Quotes.

Customer Credit Limit Check: Enabled to always show credit limit information, you can select from None, Basic or Detailed from the drop down list.

Generate forecasts for months into the future (applies when forecasts next generated: Set the number of periods that you need to generate the sales forecast on an order for.

Allocate, Despatch, Off Hire, Receipt, Documentation Processing Settings

Allocate assets at despatch of hire order: Where you prefer to choose which hire assets to allocate at despatch, rather than when putting the order on, enable this feature. If you enter hire orders on in advance this may be the best method for you.

The alternative is for the system to automatically allocate at time of entering the order (not advised if using serial numbers or if you need control of which Hire Assets you are hiring out).

Auto allocated at despatch: If the above option is enabled, you can choose for the system to automatically allocate at time of despatch, (not advised if using serial numbers or if you need control of which Hire Fixed Assets you are hiring out).

If ‘Allocate assets at despatch of hire order is left un-ticked’ then this 2^nd option is greyed out.

Don’t allocate assets due for service: When selected, any assets that are due a service today or in the past (not yet completed) will not be available for hire.

Auto print hire agreements at despatch: Enable if you send hire agreements out to the customers and you want this to be automatic. If you do not enable this auto feature, then you can still from the order or from the reports menu print out hire agreement.

Show Asset/Sub Category attachments when despatching Assets: Within Maintenance/Subcategory Defaults its possible against a Sub Category to add an attachment.

If this setting is enabled at the point of despatch the relevant attachment will be displayed.

When printing hire order documents automatically add to history as a PDF (this does not apply to reports run from a menu): Hire order documents generated from the system will be stored against the order as a PDF.

Off hire is mandatory before receive: Tick this setting if you need to ensure the assets are off hired before being able to receive back.

Off Hire process stops the billing, and is a step prior to confirming hire assets back.

If ‘Off Hire’ functionality is used after the off hire process, and prior to receiving them back the assets are flagged on the hire order line as ‘Expected Off Hire’.

If you use the Off Hire Functionality, you would still use the ‘receive assets back’, to confirm the assets are physically back.

Default despatch, off hire and receipt dates to current day: When this is ticked, the despatch, off hire and receipt date fields will be automatically populated with today’s date.

Print Collection Notes at off hire: This will set the print collection notes by default on the off hire screen.

When receive assets on hire order, create sales order automatically: Set this if you want to automatically generate the sales order when receiving assets back.

Inspect all items when receiving items: Enable if assets are to be inspected before becoming available for hire again.  Against each sub category, defaults can be changed if not applicable for that sub category.

Change end date on hire order when final asset received: When entering a quote/order you have the option of entering a hire end date.  If the goods are received back off hire earlier than the original ‘off hire date, by ticking this option, the system will change the ‘end date on hire order’ automatically.

Location Processing Settings

Use Bin Numbers as well as Warehouse Location: If you use Bin Locations, and want to for hire assets, enable this feature.

Default Locations if not set on category: Preferably you would set the location of the hire asset at sub category level (rather than using the warehouse location of the stock item), use this feature to default which Location (warehouse) to use if no default has been set on a Sub category.

Use Warehouse Set on Order when confirming assets received; If enabled when receiving hire items back, it will allocate them to the same Location (warehouse) used on the hire order line

Name of Bin when confirming assets received: When receiving hire items back, it will allocate them to the default Bin as stated here.

Appointment Labels

Appointment Labels are used in conjunction with Sicon Service

Generate Forecasts:  Only to be used when upgrading from an older version of Sicon Hire and therefore there are no forecasts for the hire order lines.

Using this button/feature will generate forecasts on order lines where no forecast exist.

Note: Can also be generated individually on a hire order line.

Reset Reserved Assets: When selecting assets on order entry (allocate assets when entering order, not at despatch), when an asset has been selected but the order has not been saved the asset is reserved first. When the order is saved, the reserved flag is reset and the asset allocated. If something happens, i.e.: Sage crashes, then there will be assets reserved but not allocated.

Using this button/feature will clear these reserved assets

Note: The reason that we reserve assets is so that the assets do not get taken by other users.

Unlock Hire Orders: Clears all existing hire orders locked by users (disconnected logins).

4.2. Formatting Settings

Hire Ordering Numbering:

Use same number sequence for hire orders and hire quotes: Tick if your hire quotes and hire orders numbering are to run with the same format for example hire quotes could be formatted to start with QT formatted QT000001, QT000003, QT000005 and hire orders formatted to start with HO HO000002, HO000004, HO000005.

Next hire quote number and next hire order number are updated automatically as quotes and orders are entered.

Next Despatch number increments as the hire orders are despatched.

Quantity Format:  Specify your quantity format for example if you only use whole quantities, enter 0 (as per screen shot above).

Price Format: Specify your price formatting from a decimal point perspective (Recommendation is to leave as default).

4.3. Screen Settings

Configurations set on this tab determine if certain fields appear on the screen when adding a hire quote / hire order or how they behave if a user double clicks.

Hide time selection: Do Not Tick if when adding a Hire Order Line, in addition to specifying the date /first day of Hire you also need to set a time i.e. 08.30am.

Hide stock items tab: Do Not Tick if you need to add items from your Sage 200 stock module, (stock list) to the hire order for despatching to the customer.

For example, you hire out carpet cleaners and as well as hiring out the carpet cleaner, you sell the customer carpet cleaner liquid at the same time by adding the relevant stock item to the hire order.

Hide additional charges tab:  Do Not Tick if charge for Delivery and / or Collection these can be added on to the Hire Order Line as an additional Charge.

Before you can use these you would need to set them up in Maintain Additional Charges section of the Hire Menu. Against each additional charge added you can specify it it’s linked to an SOP Additional Charge Item, a Sage 200 Service Stock Item or a Free Text Line.

Hide Credits Tab:  Within Sicon Hire there is the function to create an ad-hoc credit against a hire order line, this may be useful if the order has been over charged, and would prefer to have the credit note linked on the hire order, rather than raise a manual SOP sales return (which is not linked). If you do not wish to use this function and would prefer users to also raise credits from within standard SOP sales return functionality, tick this box, and the Credits Tab, as shown below will be hidden.

Enable duration override: When selected used can manually override the calculated hire durations. This may be used if you have an agreement with a customer that you don’t automatically round up to a full week e.g. if the hire period is for 1 week and 4 days the system may round up to 2 weeks depending on your settings. If this is not appropriate for certain customers, you can manually override the calculation if duration override is enabled.

Start-up:  Show Lines to despatch / receive this week when sage starts up: If enabled, at start-up of Sage 200 a ‘Visual only’ / warning screen will automatically appear.

This is just to remind you that there are either lines that need receiving back, this week or despatching this week.

Rapid Entry/Amend

Enable hire details tab on rapid entry screen options being:

When ticked the Hire Details Tab on the rapid entry/amendment is shown as per the screen shot below, and users will be able to view the individual hire asset initially when opening the screen.

If enabled to show, users will be able to see the item  line details when first opening this screen (As per screen shot below).

Left unticked when form is loaded the category /sub category shows first.

Hide Add Assets Button (On hire details tab)
If Enable Hire details tab enabled, the ‘Add Asset (s)’ button on rapid entry/amendment screens will NOT be seen.

Exclude stock items in drop-down selection list.

When selected it will not be possible to add stock items to an order using the Hire Details tab.

Suppress asset/stock availability warnings when order is saved
When ticked, Asset and/or stock item availability will NOT be shown on the rapid
add/amendment screens.

Schedule (Hire Order Schedule)

Show customer name in appointment subject
When ticked and when using the menu item ‘Schedule for Existing Hire Orders’ the Customers Name will be shown for scheduled appointments.

Note if enabled after the event – pre-existing appointments will not have the customer name displayed in appointment subject.

Suppress default row background colours: If this is ticked, all the background colours in the Schedule view will be white.

Maximise appointment height to fill schedule for asset rows: If enabled the appointment height will be set to full each row in the schedule. This setting should not be enabled if multiple appointments can exist for the same asset and date.

Scroll vertically using mouse wheel (i.e. up/down): Select this if you want to scroll up and down the list of assets as opposed to left/right across the time line.

Number of assets per page: Set the number of assets you want to be displayed in the schedule view (note that you should check the clarity of these to ensure you can still read the details – screen settings of 1920 x1080 should display 30 assets).

Desktop List

Open amend rapid screen on double-click (applies after next Sage log-in) : Enable if you use Rapid Hire Order entry rather than Full Hire Order Entry. On the desktop list if you double click on an order it opens the Rapid Entry Screen and not the standard Hire order screen.

4.4. Duration Calculations

This area is where you specify your default frequency of the hire period i.e. If you hire out in Hours, Days, Weeks, Months, and what your rounding policy is with regards to charging (for example if you charge days, and a customer has it for 5 days, do you charge for 5 days or round up to one week).

You also have the option for Fixed (previously called One Time) Hire Orders, this is where you have agreed a Fixed Price Hire Price regardless of the period it is on Hire.

In our example above we show two separate Selling Units for Weeks, this is because we have one set to round to week (1 week) and the other set to Weeks/Weeks, meaning for certain customers you could charge for a week/round to week, and another Week/round to day.

Exclude Weekends

Enable/Tick if you wish to exclude weekends (Saturday and Sundays) when Calculation how long the hire item is out on hire from a charging perspective.

Bank Holidays

This functionality gives you the ability to specify that you don’t charge customers for hire when it’s a bank holiday. Each year you will need to add the relevant Bank Holiday dates. These are configured within the maintenance menu, and companies can have different ones set up as our example below.

Method 1: If it’s only certain customers that you have agreed to not charge for hire over bank holidays, then on a customer’s sales ledger record, using the Hire Tab tick as per our example below.

Method 2: System Wide

If you don’t charge for bank holidays for all your hire customers, enable within Settings/Duration Calculation Tab as below.

4.5. Stock Item Settings

This is where you enter a default Sage 200 standard Stock Internal Account which will be used for posting stock values to the nominal ledger when Issuing Stock to Fixed Assets.

For more information about Sage 200 standard Internal Areas please speak with your Sage 200 Business Partner or refer to Sage 200 help files.

4.6. Sales Order

Settings here determine amongst other things which analysis codes/fields to use to store information when pushing through to standard Sage 200 Sales Order Processing (SOP).

Generation tab:

Sales order line format: Selecting from the options on the drop down choose how on the Sales Order/Invoice you would like the Hire period to be displayed.  In this example we have selected Format 3, Weeks and Days (example 3 weeks and 5 days) other options include Days (example 26 days), Weeks with Decimal places (example 3.71 weeks= 3 weeks and 5 days) and Initial Weeks hire plus days (example 1 week and 19 days).

Automatically print invoices following sales order generation: Standard functionality is the Sales orders are generated, then the user would then go into the sales order processing module and print the invoices. When this feature is enabled, the system will print the invoices in the same process.

Ensure that the user generating the sales orders within Hire has Sales Order processing ‘SOP Invoice Print’ functionality enabled as a feature within their Sage role in accounting system manager.

Allow filtering by customer analysis code: If enabled and a Customer Analysis code is selected, during the generate sales order process within the Hire Module, the relevant customer analysis code will be available as a filter.

Add hire order number on generated sales order lines: (Or SOP Returns if applicable) Select which SOP Analysis Code to populate the Hire Order Number if required. This is a useful feature if you wish to search by a Hire Order Number when working in sales order list.

If using SOP Analysis codes to push information through from the Hire Order so it appears on documentation such as invoices, customer SOP reports, visible within SOP list views, or simply to be stored on the sales order, you will need to set within ASM and SOP Maintenance the relevant Analysis code fields and make sure user permissions are set.

Add ‘total Invoiced to date’ on generated sales orders into: Select which SOP Analysis Code to populate the ‘total net hire value invoiced to date’ for this hire order line – This information is only available if you have used the ‘Billing Forecast’ function on a sales order line, as its only when the forecast is run that forecast total values are populated.

Add ‘total remaining to invoice’ on generated sales orders into: Select which SOP Analysis Code to populate the ‘total net hire value remaining to invoice’ for this hire order line – This information is only available if you have used the ‘Billing Forecast’ function on a sales order line, as its only when the forecast is run that forecast total values are populated.

Change sales order created by field: As standard, when an order is generated in SOP, the order is stamped in the Order Taken by field with the name of the person entering it. If you prefer the Order Taken by to be specific to Sicon Hire, then tick this setting and give it a description (in our example Hire Manager Order).  If un-ticked the Order Taken by on the Sales Order will be populated with the Sage Users Name that created the Sales order from the hire order.

When billing monthly: Tick if you would like the system to round up invoicing to the end of the month (Billing only once a month).  If ticked further option regarding ‘less than selling unit’.

If bill less than selling unit: e.g. If billing Monthly and charging weekly and the start date is the 28th, then rather than charge for just 3 days, we roll those 3 days over to the next month on to the next month’s order/invoice

Create orders for on-hold customers:  Enable if you allow Hire Orders to be entered if a customer’s sales ledger account is on hold.

Set Text on Sales Order Lines to Upper Case:  Use this setting to determine whether the information that is passed from the hire order to the Sales order is added as UPPER CASE TEXT.

Add the Hire Order Description as a comment Line on to the Sales Order raised: If enabled the Hire Order Description, (from the front page on the Hire order) will copy through to the Sales Order Line.

Add the Hire Order Line Description as a comment Line on to the Sales Order (when billing for a single line) will copy through to the Sales Order Line.

Add final charge comment to line when generating sales orders:  If you want to add a comment on to the sales order /invoice to confirm to the finance team at the customers that this is the final invoice for this hire item/hire order line, specify the text here.

Consolidate sales orders for the same hire order: Enable this feature If you have multiple lines on a Single Hire Order which are due to be invoiced at the same time (for same billing hire period), and you wish them to be consolidated onto a single sales order. If you do not enable this feature sales orders for single lines will be generated.

Consolidate sales orders for the same customer and with the same customer reference (customer reference field on the hire order header): Enable this feature If you wish to consolidate hire order lines from multiple hire orders, that are for the customer, same hire billing period, and whereby the customers reference is exactly the same (case sensitive)
– This 2^nd feature is only available to be enabled if the first feature is enabled.

Important Note: if you have enabled these consolidation features, you are likely to see different results from view bill details, when you look at it at line level to when you look at it on the ‘Generate Sales Order Line’ screen.

Consolidate all asset hire on a single sales order line: When selected, hire charges will be consolidated on to one sales order line providing the tax code, selling unit, discount and nominal account match.

Don’t generate sales orders until hire order despatched: Hire orders with a status of ordered or scheduled will not be listed for sales order generation.

Only bill despatched assets: Hire orders with a status of ordered or scheduled will not be listed for sales order generation.

Only bill assets on-site during billing period: When selected hire charges will only include assets despatched before/during the billing period and not yet received or received after the start of the billing period.

Hide option to generate sales order on ‘Off Hire’ or ‘Asset Received’: If selected, hire order generation is not available when off hiring or receiving assets back.

If despatch date is after the requested from date, use requested from date as billing start date: When selected it the assets are despatched after the requested from date, billing will start at the requested from date.

4.7. Deposit

Deposits: Only applicable where the hire order lines have been setup as one-off charge lines (known on drop down as Fixed). This is a different way of billing hire orders. Sales orders would be generated from the deposit tab on the hire order. The first sales order is the deposit, the second is the balance of the total hire order value.

Important Note: Generate Sales Orders for these types cannot be generated via the generate sales orders screen, they are invoiced from the deposit tab at hire order header level.

Default deposit percentage: Specify if you wish to record a default % rate for calculations, this is on the deposit tab on the hire order

Change deposit nominal account number to: Specify if you wish to record the deposit value to a different nominal code.

4.8. Fixed Price

Fixed Price: When creating a Fixed Price order – this is where you have agreed a price for the hire regardless of the length of the hire period, you can stipulate a dedicated nominal account.

4.9. Line Descriptions

Line Description Tab: Use this feature to default the descriptions that will appear on the sales order lines, there are 3 different options default description options (2^nd & 3^rd one relates to where you are using the deposit function as described above).

Most people will start off by not using this function, and see how the sales order looks by default and then if not seeing details required then look to use this feature.

1^st Custom description relating to standard Hire Sales orders
Enter Text, and use the insert variables ( which lists up fields from within Sicon Hire which can be populated automatically and where values will change throughout the life of the hire order line, i.e. dates, values).

2^nd Custom description relating to deposit Invoice
Enter Text, and use the insert variables ( which lists up fields from within Sicon Hire which can be populated automatically and where values will change throughout the life of the hire order line, i.e. dates, values).

3^rd Custom description relating to deposit Invoice balance lines:
Enter Text, and use the insert variables ( which lists up fields from within Sicon Hire which can be populated automatically and where values will change throughout the life of the hire order line, i.e. dates, values).

4.10. Advanced Replacements

Default replacement non-chargeable days: If you offer a replacement while you are repairing the original hired asset, you can set the number of days that the replacement asset can be with the customer before you look to charge for it.

Default Advanced Replacement Case Type: If you are using Sicon Service Manager, select the case type to action the advanced replacement on.

4.11. Sicon Projects Integration Settings

Sicon Projects is installed as part of Sicon Hire Suite

If to be used/integrated please consult the Sicon Projects Help and User Guide for further information and assistance with setup & configuration.

If not enabled the screen will display as below with no further options selectable.

Enable Sicon Projects:  If this feature is enabled once a hire order has been entered a Project will be created, with a Project number equal to the Hire Order number. If you would prefer to manually create a Project number or select an existing Project tick the ‘Manually select Project for Hire Order’.

Record Asset depreciation against hire order as well: If ticked then the depreciation generated within Sicon Fixed Asset for your Hire Asset will be shown on the Hire Project Costing Record under the Fixes Assets tab, if not standard Fixed Asset depreciation will apply, within FA/Nominal with no details being posted to Sicon Projects.

Book Assets to  Project Hire Cost Customer Account Code: Used as part of the ‘Book Assets To Project’ functionality within the module.

If your company simply hires out equipment to customers with no additional services then it’s unlikely you will use this feature.

If (as an example) you are a construction company and one division is doing a job for a customer and is charging them and that charge includes an element of hiring hire assets /using your own company hire assets, to flag those assets as being ‘unavailable for hire’ to anyone else you can allocate them to an internal Project.

The hire assets will then be linked to this internal customer account as set on this screen. A customer link is required to know where the hire assets are, especially if you also have the Sicon Service module installed and those hire assets have service intervals set.

If you need the relevant internal Project to show an element of revenue for internal cross charging purposes, you would set a Hire Price Band up and link to the internal customer account.

Cost Headings:  Cost (Project Headers) are set up within Sicon Projects itself, and when transactions are posted from other modules, and the Project is selected, you then select a cost/project header which determines where the transaction value sits within the Project itself.

If you are unsure of what is meant by Cost/Project headers then think of them as the same as cost centres against a nominal code, therefore a sub level against a Project and used for reporting purposes.

– Stock Items added to a hire order
– Hire Asset Monthly Depreciation
– Revenue on a hire order  and
– Costs associated with any back to back fulfilment requirements (where you do not have enough hire assets available so you order in from a 3^rd party to fulfil the demand).

Sicon Projects Integration

If Sicon Projects Integration is enabled within settings, prior to saving users will need to either select an existing project/job (if ability to link to existing project/job enabled within settings) or create a new project/job on the fly.

In example below we have chosen to create a new project/job, which will be prefixed with a ‘H’.

Press Ok to close and return to Hire Order List.

4.12. Insurance Charge Settings

Enable Insurance: If you charge customers a percentage of the hire order line value, for insurance premiums to cover for damage / loss etc., then enable this feature which in turn will enable an additional tab on the hire order line.

Default Insurance percent: In relation to the above, and if you have a default %, enter here. It can be overridden on each hire order line if needed

Insurance nominal: In relation to the above two options, enter the relevant sales nominal / cc / dept. revenue code for the Insurance element on the Sales Order, as a result your Hire Quote/Order

Insurance tax code: In relation to the above three options, select the relevant Tax (VAT) Code associated with Insurance charged.

4.13. Analysis Codes

Function to allow additional analysis at hire order header level, these are useful as from a visual aspect and reporting.

If configured, and used on at Hire Order Header Level, and can be added to custom layouts / reports. If configured as mandatory they will be identified by the * symbol.

Options available are to enable, flag as mandatory at order level or mandatory on despatch or mandatory on receive.

If you set the analysis codes to be mandatory on despatch or receive and haven’t set them when you enter the hire order, you need to amend the order before you are able to despatch/receive, it is not done from either of those screens.

4.14. Fixed Asset Integration Settings

When using the Issue stock to Fixed Assets functionality to move stock to fixed assets and set them as Hire Items (which in turns sets them as available for hire), select the default Asset Type to be set during the Issue Stock to Fixed Asset Process.

The Last temporary cross hire suffix is a non-editable field that just records the last temporary asset record created.

Transfer warehouse/location allows you to set a default warehouse to be used during the transfer process.

Default to display available assets only when allocating, swapping etc., when enabled will show the assets status in the despatch screen so you are able to see the assets that are currently on hire and those available for hire.

4.15. Service

Where you have Sicon Service installed you will be able to create Delivery and Collection cases for your Hire Orders. These Cases will need to be assigned to a default employee. From the Service module an appointment on the case can be assigned to the ‘Delivery Driver’ with the required time slot.

Allow despatch/receive hire equipment from service case screen when ticked will show additional buttons on the service desk.

Creating Delivery & Collection cases from Hire Orders

You will need to create an employee for the Delivery and Collection cases to be automatically assigned to, this can be done from the Service Module or Sicon Projects. This employee record only requires very basic details.

The Employee will need to be flagged as a Service user to be available for selection in the Hire Settings.

In the Hire Settings on the Service tab, select the Employee that the cases are to be assigned to –only the employees flagged as Service are available to select here, our example is an employee for Driver so this is a generic record as opposed to a dedicated person.

Enter the Hire Order as normal noting there are extra check boxes to flag the order for Delivery and Collection.

When the Hire Order is Saved and the Asset despatched, the corresponding cases will be created and appear in the Service Desk and in the Diary views.

In the example below we have filtered by customer and case type so we are only seeing the Delivery and Collection cases for that customer.

In the Diary/Appointments screen we have added a column header by editing the grid to show Delivery and Collection Case Types (1)

(2) Right click or double click on the Delivery Appointment to set the Start and End times for the appointment and the employee (if you are changing it from the default one) who is doing the delivery then confirm the appointment and click OK to save.

Once the appointment is completed you can bill the case – in this instance we are showing the lines as Free of Charge as we have added our Delivery charge to the Hire Order.

The case can be marked as complete as Collection is done via a separate case.

4.16. Reports

An additional tab has been created in the Hire Settings to enable the linking of customised hire reports.

Note: Asset transfer reports and Issue stock to fixed assets reports will not be generated unless they are linked here.

5. Maintenance Set Up

Another key area of the module and one for review and completing before Hire Orders can be added.

Maintenance set up is where you create some defaults and options for uses to select during the life of a Hire Order

There are 15 screens to review, all of which should be reviewed, but not all require changes from the defaults.

Each one is explained in detail below:

5.1. Additional Charges

On a Hire Order Line its possible for you to add additional charges, (can be multiples) such as charges for Delivery / Collection and Installation charges.

Against each type you can either:

Link to an existing SOP additional Item. As set up and configured within Standard Sage Sales Order Processing.

Link to a Sage Service stock item (If using this option, you can also choose to whether to ‘Adjust the Additional Charge Quantity when the Assets are received back and Allow user to manually select service stock item at order maintenance). If this addition option is selected the user is automatically prompted to adjust/confirm the quantity of additional charges when assets are received back …

Add as a Free Text (not linked to either a sop additional charge or service stock item); Using the Default Description Text when used / invoiced. If selecting Free Text line, you can also set the nominal code to post to.

5.2. Bank Holidays

Having set the UK defaults for Bank Holidays (this is done by pressing the Set UK defaults button), we needed to be able to suspend billing for the Christmas Shut Down.

A new name was added and England was selected as there may be different bank holidays that you need to set for other areas of the UK.

When this has been saved, highlight the line, and click Edit to add in the required dates. Tabbing across from the date field will allow a description to be entered if desired, tabbing again will enable the next line to be entered. Select from the calendar or manually enter the date.

When you have all the dates required, Save.

In Hire Settings tick to Exclude bank holidays when calculating charges.

Add the hire order as normal with the hire from and to dates (or undefined hire period that covers the bank holiday) and Save.

When you view the Planned Sales Orders you can see that the value for the sales order lines that includes the bank holidays are less that the other lines.

5.3. Contacts

The Maintain Contact section is an area where you can build up an additional list of contacts that you deal with when your customers place their orders with you.

NB: This is separate to the contacts on the customer’s sales ledger account and stores the information for future Hire Quotes/Orders.

5.4. Custom Hire Order Sub Status

Hire Orders can be in a Status of Ordered, Part Despatched, Despatched, On Hire, Received, Part Received, Complete or Cancelled.

In addition to this status, it’s possible to add have a sub status, custom/specific to your requirements.

This Sub Status would be selectable when adding a new Hire Order, both Full or Rapid.

5.5. Examination Types

If you are going to use the facility to inspect hire items when receiving back from hire, then you can set up different Inspection Types.

To add a new type, click underneath the last one in the list as example below:

When assets are received back from a hire customer, and have been flagged as requiring Inspection (Examination), and the inspection results are entered, you select the Examination Type within the process.

5.6. Hire Asset Conditions

This function allows the users to create ‘conditions’ for the assets which is different from the Asset Status. The system has pre-configured options as shown below:

Click Add to create a new condition and link a colour to it. These colours are shown in the Schedule view so it easy to identify assets that have been damaged or lost/stolen.

5.7. Hire Order Types

Use this maintenance set up, to create and set defaults against where you wish to set a ‘Hire Type’ to analyse different types such as Short Term, Long Term, Event Hire, Managed Hire. Custom reports could be written to report on the types of hire.

Order types could be used to analyse the types of Hire and/or the types of companies using your services. Order Types can be flagged in settings as a mandatory requirement

Against each item you can then choose to set some overrides.

You can: Specify, based on event type to which nominal / cc / dept. the revenue is posted to and link a sales Ledger customer to a Hire Order Type, so the system knows when created a hire order type to select, this is a one to one relationship, so if you do have a customer specific type, we recommend you enter their name in the Hire Order Type Name field as well, as you can only link one customer to a type, not multiple.

These customers are treated as priority hire order customers and therefore hire order line assets will be treated as priority.

5.8. Locations

Use this function where you wish to add a default and additional locations/delivery addresses for your customers to be selected on a Hire Orders (At Hire order level, NOT line level)

Sub Locations at the created addresses can also be set, but noting that the sub location fields are comment fields, not report writer fields in the true sense.

5.9. Price Bands

Using Price Bands: You can set up price bands against a Sub Category against each of the Duration Types you have set up within utilities.

In this example we have:

Labelled / Named them Hours, days, Weeks. We have then assigned to the relevant time Unit (Selling Unit which is set up within utilities), and a from and to quantity and the relevant default pricing.

When you are entering a Hire Order or Hire Quote and you select this Sub Category, the relevant pricing will come through.

NB:  If you have Price Band per Customer set up, Price Bands for customer overrides any standard price bands.

5.10. Price Bands by Asset

Use Price Bands by Asset where a specific individual asset has special pricing regardless of which customer you hire to.

Noting that the prices by asset are ONLY applied when a single asset is added on a hire asset Line.

If using this feature each asset that has an individual price band needs to be setup.

5.11. Price Bands for Customers

Price Bands for Customers are assigned against a Sub Category against each of the Duration Types you have set up within utilities.

Note: Price Bands for customer overrides any standard price bands.

5.12. Price Band by Customer and by Asset

Use Price Bands by Customer & Asset where a specific individual Asset has special pricing for a specific customer.

5.13. Rapid Entry Comments

Comments is used when adding a ‘Rapid Hire Order’.

During Rapid Order Entry/Amend if you start typing a comment (on the ‘Comments’ tab) they appear as selectable drop downs.

Clicking the pencil icon to the right also displays a selection screen

5.14. Sub Category Defaults

Hire Assets are associated with categories and sub categories. Against a category / sub category it’s possible to set certain defaults, which in turn will populate on to the hire order line

We can set defaults on 4 tabs.

5.15. Sub Category Defaults - General

Default Tax Code: Default is zero, but can be changed to select any of the tax rates set within your Sage System Global settings

Insurance Percentage: If you have insurance percentage set and used as an additional charge, the system will calculate the percentage based on quote/order net value

Inspection Period: Used to show how long a hire item is going to be set aside upon return and therefore unavailable to hire for that delivery time span

Minimum charge is one Selling Unit: Enable if you always have a minimum charge equal to the selected selling unit. If using this as a default the following option ‘minimum charge’ is greyed out. This is an either/or option

Minimum Charge: If set and the quote/order lines are set to less than, the minimum charge will apply

Inspection Required when items received: Default is Not set, but can be changed to Yes, Yes, mandatory or No for default. Where Yes, mandatory is selected when assets are received back they will automatically be placed in the Inspection queue.

Default Location: Set a default warehouse from which the hire asset will be despatched on a hire order line, for items within this sub category

Default Nominal code for Sales Order Lines: Default which revenue (P & L) nominal code is to be used when billing for hire items within this sub category. Can be changed on the sales order once it is generated from within Hire through to sales order processing on the sales order line itself.

Scan/enter assets at despatch: Tick this option if you are using a barcode scanner when selecting assets to despatch. The asset number can also be entered manually on asset despatch using either the Asset Code or Serial number.

5.16. Sub Category Supplier Defaults – Suggested Fulfilments

If you ever have the situation whereby you do not have enough ‘free/available’ hire assets to hire out for an order it may be you ‘hire items / assets’ in from a supplier to fulfil your hire order.

Where this is the case you can set a default supplier to be used during the ‘Suggested Fulfilments Routine’ and a default tax rate, which will be set on the PO raised from within Hire

5.17. Sub Category Defaults – Associated Items

When hiring out a hire asset it’s possible to set default associated/recommended items.

Where the associated items are created for sub categories, when a user adds an asset linked to this category/sub category they will be prompted to include these items onto the hire order.

For example, hiring out Glasswashers, you are prompted to ask /tell the customer they may also need additional items, examples being.

Dishwasher Salt and Rinse Aid would be added as a stock items and be charged accordingly.

Additional items to hire out, may be extra baskets for the glasswasher which could be a hire asset.

Additional Charges could be delivery and collection.

Flag as Mandatory:  Items flagged as being mandatory will ensure that the user is warned if the item is not included on a hire order.

Allow users to Override the Quantity ?  – If Yes tick the ‘Manual?’ box: The user will be prompted to override the quantity of the associated item to be added to the hire order, else the quantity will be set to the value configured here.

Association at Hire Asset Level

Associated items may also be linked to individual fixed asset (Hire) items.

These would be set via amend fixed asset within Fixed Assets, selecting the Hire Details Tab and Associated Items Tab.

5.18. Sub Category Defaults – Attachments

Images and other attachment files may be added using the Attachments tab. Within Settings (on the processing Tab) it’s also possible to specify whether the attachment is shown at the ‘Asset Despatch’ stage of processing a hire order.

5.19. Warehouses

When raising sales orders from Hire orders the revenue is posted to the nominal code specified against the Fixed Asset Sub Category.

If, however for a specific warehouse you wish to post the hire revenue to a different nominal using this feature you can select a warehouse, edit and enable account number / cc dept. override and select alternative ones.

If this is used, then these will override the sub category nominal codes.

6. Hire Menu

A reminder that there are a number of items within the maintenance and settings section with Sicon Hire and within Sicon Fixed Assets that you will need to configure before you can add your first Quote or/and Order including: –

• Price Bands
• Sub Category Defaults
• Configuration Settings
• Contacts and Locations
• Hire Categories Sub Categories along with defaults set up within the Sicon Sage 200 Fixed Assets Module
• Issue Stock items to be hired to Fixed assets, in order for them to be available for Hire, or if your hire items are not stock items then you wold manually add Fixed asset items and mark as Hire Assets
• Assign the Hire Fixed Assets to the relevant Category & Sub Category

Once these are completed you can start to you the system.

For details of the Pre requisites visit sections 1, 2 & 3

7. Add, Amend and Convert Hire Quote

7.1. Hire Quote List

List view facility where default all quotes will be listed but using the standard Sage 200 creation of filter progress you could create user specific or public filters.

From the List View you can also Add (create), select a quote and amend, convert to hire order, copy or mark as lost quote, and add columns to display useful information such as Hire Status, If it’s a converted quote, the Hire Order Number.

7.2. Adding a New Hire Quote

As any order screen within Sage 200, the first step is to select the customer, then tab through filling in other relevant fields / data.

Description is not a mandatory field, but if populated this will be shown on the quote lines and can be printed on sales order documents if required.

Select the relevant Sub Status (if sub statuses are used)

Order Type (selecting from your pre-defined list set up within maintenance if being used)

Stock Location (where the hire equipment is stored/being hired out from),

Document Date (Date of order, which defaults to the date the order is added), and time if using/relevant

Customer Reference / PO Number Expiry date

Ordered by: – The customers contact Name, placing the order

Created by: defaults to the Sage 200 user adding the order, but could be overtyped, as it’s a free text box

The Contact Section, is used to create a stored contact for this hire Quote, this can be a Hire specific contact or a Sage 200 sales ledger contact

HM contact section is an area where you can build up contact details for the customer in relation to Sicon Hire only (this is separate to the contacts on the customer’s sales ledger account).

Or you can select or create a Sage 200 sales ledger contact, and potentially assign to a role type of Hire order contact on the s/l record if this is your preferred route.

Delivery TAB

Use this section to select or create a new stored delivery address for the customer, if different to the customer’s sales ledger account address.

Alternatively, additional / new addresses can be set up within Maintenance and Maintain Locations or can be created whilst in a hire quote and/or order.

If delivery addresses for the customer do not already exist, then these can be added for use of future Hire Quotes and/or orders. This is using the standard Sage SOP delivery address feature.

Quote Lines Details

The Quote Lines tab is where you enter the details of what equipment is being quoted for hire, the duration, delivery and prices (if they are defined in customer price bands, relevant pricing will pull through)

Following which you add the proposed / quoted hire lines.

If the description has been entered on the Hire Quote Details tab it will automatically be populated on the Quote Lines tab.

Select the location (if not the account billing address) that the hire order is to be despatched to.

Depending on settings, update the requested from and to dates (if the settings are for Undefined Hire Periods, you will only see the Requested From date unless you untick undefined hire period).

Select the Hire Category and Sub Category that the Hire item belongs to, enter the Quantity being quoted and whether weekends are excluded.

The duration will automatically calculate if a start and end date is added, otherwise the duration will be 1. The Selling Unit will populate with the default set on the Processing tab is Hire Settings and may be changed if required.

Enter a unit price (if price bands not set up) and the tax rate (default tax rates must be set up on the sub categories as it is no longer editable on the hire quote line).

Enter a unit price (if price bands not set up) and the tax rate ( default tax rates can be set up on the sub categories).

Within this screen you can toggle to view different information on the Details/Info/Quantities Tab, although not reliably relevant on a quote.

If you have several lines on the Hire Quote that need to be moved within the list, this can be achieved by highlighting the required line then use either the Move Up or Move Down button to reorder in the list.

You can also view the hire movements for current, future or history.

As with full Hire Orders, or Rapid Hire Orders if the category / Sub category selected is flagged as having associated items / suggested stock items to be added or additional charges, an additional form will be displayed and if any of these additional items are mandatory the user will be warned if they try to close the screen.

Adding a Specific Fixed Asset to quote for:

If for whatever reason on a quote you wanted to quote for a specific Hire Asset you can do so by selecting ‘Add Assets’ instead off selecting a category / sub category.

You need to enter the asset details in the Fixed Asset field (either asset number or asset name, this can be a partial name entry)and click the magnifying glass icon to search to add to the quote. For customers with barcode scanners they could search using the scanner.

You would then select the specific asset and use the > function to add the asset to the Hire Quote.

When all details have been entered click Save to save and exit from the quote lines then Save to completely save the hire quote.

The quote can be amended at any time up to the point of either marking the quote as ‘lost’ which is done by highlighting the line from the Hire Quote List view and clicking Mark As Lost Quote. The Quote can be converted to a Hire Order by highlighting the line from the Hire Quote List view. And clicking the Convert Quote icon

You can also add standard Stock Items or additional charges (such as delivery or insurance) to your Hire Quote by amending the Hire Quote.

To add these items, select the relevant tab within the Hire Quote Screen.

Default insurance rates (along with tax rates and other information) can be set up against the Hire Fixed Asset Sub Categories, which are within Sicon Hire utilities and Sicon Fixed Assets, Maintenance, Categories and Sub Categories on the Hire Defaults Tab.

Once Line (s) are added select Save.  The quote number will be displayed on the screen, press Ok to close.

Once the quote has been saved you can print the Hire Quote by highlighting from the Hire Quote List and selecting the short cut ‘Print Quote’ icon.

Or from the form the Reports\Documents Menu Option.

7.3. Mark as a Lost Quote

A quote can be marked as ‘lost’ from the list view by highlighting the line and using the Shortcut Icon ‘Mark as Lost Quote’.

After which the status will change to ‘Lost’

7.4. Copy Quote

A quote can be copied from the list view using the shortcut ‘Copy Quote’. When you first copy a quote it opens in the rapid entry form, once saved, can be opened in full hire form after initial form is saved.

The New Quote delivery date will be shown, but users can amend, and then you would select ‘Continue’ or Close if selected the wrong one to copy

Once the copy is complete, you have the option to View/Edit

The system will open the ‘Newly’ Copied Quote, either in full order or rapid entry (which ever the original one being copied was). When the Quote is in the Quote List you can amend/amend rapid as required.

7.5. Convert Quote to Hire Order

You can either choose to ‘Convert Quote to Hire’ from the list view and click the convert quote icon.

Or from the Menu Item ‘Convert Quote to Hire’

Choosing Convert Quote To Hire via the menu item allows you to filter by customer, location, order reference, date, delivery postcode, or click Show All Quotes.

If you Show All Quotes and Select All, you can then Convert Quote to Order which will take each line individually and generate a Hire Order. As this process completes you have the option to amend the Hire Order at this point by clicking Yes.

Lines can be individually selected and the hire quote can be viewed from this screen by highlighting the line and clicking the View button.

This process will be repeated for all the quotes you have selected to convert to orders.

8. Hire Orders

The Hire Order menu area is where you can create new hire orders, edit and amend an existing hire order and or line, access a previously converted hire quote to order, copy an order, cancel a hire order (amend hire order status), change prices on a hire order Despatch, Off Hire and Receive Back Assets.

8.1. Hire Order List

List view facility where all orders will be listed but using the standard Sage 200 creation filter progress you could create user specific or public filters.

Users can add additional columns to display additional Hire Order information, such as Customer Ref, Status, Order Type

From the List View, using the Hire Order List Icons you can also Add (create), select an order from the list to amend, amend the status of the order, copy an order.

Overdue hire orders, which have not yet been despatched but despatch date is passed, are highlighted in pink.

Note: If the ‘open amend rapid screen on double-click’ feature is enabled on the screen settings tab within hire settings, then regardless of the method a hire order was added to the system (Rapid or Full) the order will open in ‘Rapid Mode’ when selected with a double click from the Hire Order list.

Users can also, on a highlighted order line print a picking list, hire agreement, delivery note and a collection note from the reports shortcut bar.

There is also a tick box to enable Auto Refresh for the Hire Order List view as well as a scrollable view. The scrollable view when ticked will only scroll through the first 1,000 records.

8.2. Hire Order Lines List

List view facility where all order Lines will be listed separately. You can select to View those order lines due to be despatched this week, based on delivery dates and see lines expected back this week.

Or choose and all hire order lines will show.

Additional information can be shown on the list view by right mouse click and adding columns. In our example we are showing in addition to standard info the:

O/S Qty to despatch

Quantity Flagged as off hire: Off hire is an optional process, if used on a line the system flags the off hired quantity. This is the quantity the customer has notified you that they wish you to collect.

Using Off Hire is a 2 step process: flagging an item(s) as off hire stops the billing (regardless of when you actually collect/book assets back in via confirm Assets Received Back), then receive.

Hire Status

Undefined Hire: When this column is added to the view, a simple Yes is displayed if there is no known end date on the order line. It is classed as undefined hire.

9. Rapid Hire Order

Some customers prefer the Rapid Entry method.

The rapid hire order entry screen allows users to enter hire order information and add lines to an order using a single screen.  Customer, delivery address, hire period dates and other order details are entered at the top of the screen.

In total the same information is inputted, but it’s a company’s / users personal preference as to which one to use.

When using ‘Rapid’ you will add the item for hire on each line entered by Asset, not category/Sub Category then asset.

9.1. Adding a New Hire Order – Rapid

Adding a Rapid Entry Hire Order can be done either by using the shortcut icon / menu or from the Menu list, New Hire Order Rapid.

You would start off by selecting the customer’s name, any order number/PO expiry date (when this PO expiry date is reached, users are warned as such); requested hire dates, hire description, hire order sub status, type and warehouse for which to allocate assets from

Note: The ‘Add Assets’ Button seen in our screen shot below on the Hire Details will only show if not disabled within the screen settings tab in settings.

When Adding Assets, you can search using the asset number or partial word search.

When the required asset(s) are found use > to move them over to right hand side panel, to show that these are the ones to be used on this hire order line.

The tabs along the top half of the order are explained below.

9.2. (Rapid Hire Order) Hire Order Details Tab

This is the main area of the Rapid order where the asset due to go out on Hire is added, along with customer name, any customer order number/PO expiry date (when this PO expiry date is reached, users are warned as such); Requested Hire dates, hire description, Sub Status, Order Type/Warehouse for which to allocate assets from

NB: The ‘Add Assets’ Button seen in our screen shot above/on the Hire Details will only show if not disabled within the screen settings tab in settings

9.3. (Rapid Hire Order) Planned Sales Orders Tab

This tab shows you the planned sales orders that will be generated based on the information added on the Hire Order Details Tab. You will also specify how often you wish to raise a sales order (most customers have this set to Frequency = 1 Month)

Repeat on day: If you enter 20 in this field, you are telling the system that you want to repeat the billing cycle for this order on the 20^th of each month.

Note: This is only used when the Default Selling Unit is set as Months. **If you are importing Hire Orders that are for undefined hire periods remember that February only has 28 days so you will not be able to set a repeat on number that is higher than 28**

Billing Start Date: Can be left blank, as the module will only be looking to use this the first day of the Hire period. If you were not going to be invoicing them for a while, enter the first billing date here (if this is set the system would still look to invoice for the period commencing equal to the first hire date)

Previously Invoiced up to: if you have been using another system prior to using Sicon Hire, and have been invoicing for the Hire period, when you create ‘opening balance’ Hire orders that you are recording the original start date of the Hire Period you must add a ‘Previously Invoiced up to date’

If you do not set this when adding in opening balance hire orders, the system will look to generate a sales order commencing from the start date of the hire period.

The system will automatically calculate the forecast upon saving of the order.

If you wish to review/create the forecasts prior to saving the Hire Order, select Create Forecast Button as per our screen shot below

From this screen you can see how the system is calculating the sales order. And show you the relevant, linked sales order number, the sales order date (post generation)

If you have raised an ad-hoc credit the relevant details will also be displayed

If you ever have to cancel the sales order after it has been generated from the hire order through to sales orders, you would use the ‘Unlink Sales Order and Recreate Forecasts’ make adjustments to hire order if necessary and generate sales orders again

Important Note: It is the Planned Sales Order Forecast that the module uses to know when to generate and for what period / which details to be used during the generate sales orders process. If for any reason there is no forecast for a Hire Order line, the system will not suggest there is anything to invoice

The Total Invoiced and Total Remaining fields are populated/updated throughout the life of an order based on the information on each hire order line and the Planned Sales Order details on this tab

These two fields are for a visual reference only, although some customers show these details on their sales order(s) using a configured SOP analysis code(s), set within Sicon Hire, Utilities and Settings on the Sales Order Generation tab.

These fields are particularly useful if you add multiple lines onto a Hire Order.

9.4. (Rapid Hire Order) Invoice Tab

Displays the invoice address for which the sales order will be sent to. This is populated when the order is saved.

9.5. (Rapid Hire Order) Deposit Tab

This functionality is only to be used when the sales order / invoicing method is different to a normal hire order, and it is a Fixed Price Hire Order (previously known as One-Time).

All lines on the Hire order MUST be of the same type (Fixed)

If you are looking to use this functionality then there are a couple of areas within settings you need to review, and consider / set up

Default Deposit Percentage: If you have a default percentage of the Hire Order value that needs to be invoiced as a deposit you can set this on the Sales Order Tab within Settings

What is a Normal Hire Order?  On a hire order line, you specify how often you will invoice the customer during the hire period i.e. Daily, Weekly, Monthly or Yearly. These selling units are used on ‘normal’ hire orders.

Deposit Hire Orders have a default selling unit of FIXED which is set at header level (and all lines on hire order must be the same)
This type of order is used when you need to raise a deposit invoice for the Hire Order. Instead of raising sales orders at a set frequency until the end of the hire period (as for a Normal Hire Order) a single ‘Balance sales order’ is created, so for the whole life of the hire order there are only two sales orders raised.

When adding lines to this type of order you MUST set the ‘Selling Unit as Fixed (previously One-Time) as per our example Hire order line below.

If you don’t select Fixed (previously One-Time)as a selling unit (as per screen shot above), or on the hire order you have added a mixture of types, when you select the deposit tab and tick ‘Add Deposit sales order’ you will see the message below, and it will not allow you to continue.

When ready to raise a deposit invoice for the hire, from the deposit tab:

Tick the Add deposit sales order
Enter the deposit amount or deposit %
And select ‘Create Deposit Sales Order’, you will be asked to confirm

You will be prompted to add some text for the deposit invoice after the Hire Order Number has been generated.

Clicking Save will generate the invoice for the deposit.

At the end the hire period, you need to amend the hire order, click the Deposit tab and select the ‘Generate Balance Sales Order’ button.

If you are looking to use this functionality then there are a couple of areas within settings you need to review, and consider / set up

1. Default Deposit Percentage: If you have a default percentage of the Hire Order value that needs to be invoiced as a deposit you can set on the Sales Order Tab within Settings.

If you use a different nominal code for deposit revenue you can specify it on this tab.

2. The second setting to consider is the information pulled through on to the deposit sales order generated, if you wish to add extra information you can select additional fields from the Sicon Hire Table.

This can be achieved by:

Ticking the ‘Use Custom description for deposit lines’;

Click in the Box where the default text and variables are pre-configured (It’s a good idea to take a copy of this text, and keep safe, in case you need it before you start adding new fields / deleting what’s there as default).

Use the ‘Insert variable’ function button which will load the fields available to choose from, click on the field you wish to use, and click ‘Insert’.

And a reminder that Hire Lines must be set to a selling unit of Fixed.

9.6. (Rapid Hire Order) Schedule Tab

A simple schedule list view of the hire assets with start and end times

9.7. (Rapid Hire Order) History Tab

A simple history tab showing when the hire order was created, when items were despatched and billed. In the top panel selecting an ‘Asset despatched on order or Assets scheduled line, the bottom half of the screen will show additional information relating to the assets despatched or scheduled.

9.8. (Rapid Hire Order) Analysis Codes Tab

Against a Hire Order you can add up to 20 analysis codes, which can be used for reporting, or filtering on hire order lists / list view. These are setup in Utilities > Settings > Analysis Codes.

9.9. Rapid Hire Order | Collection Notes Tab

When companies are using the ‘Off Hire Functionality ‘on a hire order line, the system will generate a collection note.

Off Hire is a way that you can specify that your hire customer has contacted you to say “please come and collect the item I hired from you”

Flagging items as off hire stops the billing at the point you flag it as off hire. This is regardless of when you actually pick the hire item up, receive it back and confirm assets received.

When an item / items is flagged as ‘off hire’ and a collection note is printed, a collection note number is allocated and stored on the ‘Collection Notes Tab’ on the Hire Order. The Collection Note can be reprinted from here if required.

On receiving the assets back through ‘Confirm Assets Received Back’, when booking back in, you will be asked to match against a specific collection note

So care is needed if you:

Had one hire order line with a Qty of 2 on, but the customer off hired them on 2 separate days, for example 1 was flagged as off hire on the 24^th Dec 2017 and the other 26^th Dec 2017

And you physically collected one of the 28^th and the other on the 3^rd January BUT because it was Christmas holidays you actually did not enter them back in the hire system / confirm assets received back until the 6^th January and you entered them as 2 received back, not 1 and 1

So you will need to know (if you wish to be 100% accurate about which asset received back and matched to which collection note).

9.10. Rapid Hire Order | Attachments Tab

This is to store Hire Order header level attachments and could be where you attach a copy of the customers purchase order number

This is separate to attachments on Sub Categories

9.11. Rapid Hire Order | Memo’s Tab

Dated Hire Order header level memos can be maintained against the hire order on the Memo tab.

The ‘Add’, ‘Edit’ and ‘Delete’ button are used to enter, amend or remove memos.  When adding or editing a memo the ‘Save’ button is used to store the details, ‘Cancel’ will cancel any changes.

When the ‘Show Detail’ box is ticked memo details are shown in the lower area of the screen.

Any follow-up date/time and user information is shown below the memo details when the ‘Show Follow Up Detail’ box Is ticked, along with the ‘completed’ tick-box.

There is no routine / process to show which memos are due for follow up, this is a visual aspect of the hire order only

9.12. Rapid Hire Order | Line Tabs Details

The tabs along the bottom half of the Rapid Entry Hire Order are explained below

Rapid Line Hire Details Tab

Then this tab will only show if enable within settings on the Screen settings tab

If enable to show, users will be able to see the item when first opening this screen (As per screen shot above

If not enabled when users open this screen they will see the category and sub category initially

And will need to click on Asset details as per the screen shot below to see individual asset

Rapid Line Asset Details Tab

When this tab is selected the category and sub category are seen, and this is the only tab within rapid entry that the Details/Info/Quantities Tab appears

Asset Details – Details tab shows

Category, Sub Category, Quantity, Ex Weekends, Duration, Selling Unit, Unit Price, Insurance %, Tax Rate, and Total Charge Value.

Asset Details – Info tab shows

No. Category, Sub Category, Quantity, Hire Unit Price, Unit Insurance, Unit Total, Duration Inc Min Charge, Total Hire, Total Insurance and Total Charge Value

Asset Details – Quantities tab shows

Category, Sub Category, Quantity, Allocated, Despatched, On Hire, Expected Off Hire (due back), Actual received (Confirmed asset received back).

Rapid Line Asset Details Tab – Hire Movement Enquiry Screen

From within the Asset Details tab on a line you can choose to review Hire Movements. This is a useful screen, if for example the line goes red when adding, this suggests that the warehouse you specified for the asset to be hired out from, does not have enough available hire items for the given dates.

To view Hire Movements, select the Hire Movements button when you are on from the Asset Details Tab

It will display the relevant warehouse as on the order, and display (with drill down functionality) balances, in’s, outs’ and the hire order relative to, which you can drill down on and the status of said order line

You can change the dates to see how (if) the balances change and you can choose to filter by future hire movements

It also shows you how many individual assets are within the sub category displayed

Rapid Line Asset Details Tab – Asset Detail Enquiry Screen
This enquiry screen would show you if any of the assets on this line have already been despatched (and if so what date) off hired if so what date received back and calculating from all info available ‘Available for Hire Qty’

Further drill down from this ‘Assets on Asset Line’ screen is available:

View Asset Hire Details takes you through to the Hire Asset record (within the Fixed Asset Module)

Here you can View the Location and Status, Inspection History, Hire History and any associated items

Rapid Line Stock Items Tab

This is where you would add any additional stock items to the hire order, it may be if you are hiring out carpet cleaners you offer to sell them carpet cleaning fluid.

On the Stock Settings Tab within Hire Settings you can specify whether if adding stock items on to a hire order line, whether the stock item warehouse from which it is to be despatched from is determined at hire order level as defaulted in settings) or at despatch of the hire line/stock item, at which time the user will be prompted to selected which warehouse the stock item is to be despatched from.

This tab shows two views; Show Values and Show Quantities

Show values view displays:

Stock Code, Stock Item Name, Warehouse, Bin, Add to Last Invoice (if ticked the stock item will be added on to the last sales order generated for this hire line) Charge Date, Qty, Unit Value, Tax Rate & Line Total

Show Quantities view displays:

Stock Item Code, Stock Item Name, Warehouse, Bin, Qty, Qty Allocated, Qty Issued & Qty Invoiced

Additional Charges Tab

This is where you would add any additional charges relating to this hire item such as delivery or carriage. Additional Charges are set up and maintained within Maintain Addition Charges within the Maintenance menu item

When added you will be looking to:

• Select from the drop down the relevant additional charge
• Confirm whether this additional charge is to be added to final hire sales order
• Add the Qty
• Add Unit Net Value (Sales)
• Unit Net Cost (if you wish to specify your additional charge cost to you here)
• Tax Rate
• The Total will self-calculate

Once any stock items and/or additional charges are added, back on the Hire Details tab they will be shown as well as the Hire line itself, as our example screen shot below

When you save the order after adding the relevant lines, if there is not enough available stock of the stock item(s) added you will be warned.

9.13. Despatching from within Rapid Hire Order Line

Once you have added the main details on to the Hire order as described in section 9.1

You will need to despatch the lines and there are three ways to do this:

Confirm Hire Order Despatch from the Menu Structure: Order Processing > Confirm Hire Order Despatch. If using this method, users would select either the customer, the warehouse from which to despatch from, an individual hire order reference, or pick a date in which to list all order lines that have a delivery / requested from date of xxxx

Or by selecting an order from the list view and select the shortcut Icon from within the Hire Order itself

As we have added a stock item on our rapid order, and the system prompts us to select that first

The system will then prompt the user to select and confirm the individual assets to be despatched

If you forget to enter a despatch date you will be advised you need to enter one

Within the Line the Hire Asset will show as Allocated & Despatched

And within the line, on the Stock Items tab the Stock Item will be shown as allocated & Issued

Stock Item History for the stock item added will show as below

The Hire Asset (s) record (s) within Sicon Fixed Assets within the Hire Tab will show which Hire order the asset is out on hire

With the History Tab also updated

Depending on your companies’ processing you could at this stage Generate the Sales Order for this one Hire Order Line from within Hire order itself.

But from our experience most companies would run sales orders for multiple orders through the menu item Order Processing\Generate Sales Orders and Returns either weekly or monthly and it may be that this is a finance user’s role.

9.14. Generating Sales Orders Rapid or Full

Whether adding a Hire order via Rapid or Full, the Generation of Sales orders is the same for both methods

When choosing to generate sales orders from within order processing\generate sales orders and returns menu options you will be prompted with the screen below

In our example Hire Order our requested hire date was from 12^th November, so in our example we have selected to show orders due to be invoiced in November, but users could filter by customer, by Hire Order Number, a due before date, or for a specific warehouse

From this list you can also choose to see what the sales order/billing will be like for a specific Hire Order by selecting ‘ View Bill Details’

As our hire order line had a stock item on it and additional charges users would see two additional lines, but those lines were flagged to be added to the last generated sales order so would not be shown when the first order is generated.

You can also choose to ‘Print a list of Sales Order and Return Suggestions’ for all hire orders displayed in this screen.

When ready to generate sales orders you will be asked for a date for the sales order

The Sales Order generated, will show on the hire order

View Hire order on the Billing forecast tab the linked sales order will be visible

And using View Sales order the sales order can be viewed, but not amended

The nominal code on the sales order line in our example is the one taken from our warehouse override (set within maintenance\warehouse maintenance)

But where no overrides are set against a warehouse, then the revenue nominal code is taken from that set on the sub category defaults as our screen shot below shows. This is set within Maintenance\Sub Category defaults.

Once the Sales orders have been generated from the Hire module, standard Sage procedures are followed for invoicing and posting

10. Full Hire Order Entry

For customers / users whose preference is to choose the individual asset at despatch / let the system auto allocate the asset and work through each of the hire order tabs adding the relevant information you would be looking to use Full Order Entry, as opposed to Rapid.

10.1. Full Order Adding a New Hire Order

Adding a New Full Order, can be done either by using the shortcut icon displayed at the top of the Hire Order List view or from the Menu, Hire Order folder, New Hire Order

When selecting New Hire order, as with any order screen within Sage 200, the first step is to select the customer, then tab through filling in other relevant fields/data.

Care needs to be taken when specifying which warehouse the hire items on this order are to be despatched from. One of the most common support calls is where the line goes red on a hire order, which means there is not enough hire asset availability to fill the hire order line. The user knows there is, but on the front screen of the order they had select the wrong warehouse which does not have the capacity to fill the order.

Description is not a mandatory field, but if populated this will be shown on the order lines and can be pulled through/printed on sales order documents if required and also pulled through to the hire order lines, at that stage it can be extended/expanded on.

Hire Sub Status if being used

Select the relevant Location (where the hire equipment is stored/being hired out from)

Enter a delivery date and time (which pulls through on to the lines as a default), and enter (if applicable) the Customer Ref

Ticked if the lines by default are to ‘exclude weekends’

The Total Invoiced and Total Remaining fields are populated/updated throughout the life of an order based on the information updated on each hire order line and the Billing Forecast Tab.

These two fields are for a visual reference only, although some customers show these details on their sales order(s) using a configured SOP analysis code(s), set within Sicon Hire, Utilities and Settings on the Sales Order Generation tab.

These fields are particularly useful if you add multiple lines onto a Hire Order.

The contact section, is used to specify the contact for this order and can be a Hire specific contact or a Sage 200 Sales Ledger contact.

HM contact section is an area where you can build up contact details for the customer in relation to Sicon Hire only (this is separate to the contacts on the customer’s Sales Ledger account). These can be preconfigured in Maintenance > Contacts, or you can select (as in the screen shot example above) a Sage 200 sales ledger contact and potentially assign to a role type of Hire Order contact on the Sales Ledger record if this is your preferred route.

Also on this screen are additional buttons that apply once an order has been added, such as apply a suspension, which is used to suspend billing for a date range entered at the time of selecting ‘Apply Suspension’.

You can also choose to print either a picking list, hire agreement and/or reprint a previously printed despatch or collection note by selecting the ‘print’ button, at which time a menu appears. Where multiple despatch or collection notes have previously been printed, a criteria box will appear to choose the relevant one.

You can Despatch, which is the same process as ‘Confirm Hire Order Despatched’ menu item process.

10.2. Full Order Delivery Tab

Use this section to select a delivery address, if different to the customer’s main address.  The alternative delivery addresses are set up within Maintenance and Maintain Locations or can be selected on the Hire Order by selecting the magnifying glass icon and maintain locations. This links through to the standard Sage SOP delivery addresses.

10.3. Full Order Adding a Hire Order Line

Hire Order Lines Details

The Hire Order Lines tab is where the you enter the details of what equipment is being sent out on hire.

The description will have pulled through from the front hire order screen, but there is the option to add more detail within the large text box by clicking in to the description field and keying in additional information.

Based on the settings and how the system is configured with regards to defaults, the next section shows the ‘default selling unit’.

Requested from date (pulled through from front page of order): Delivery date will populate the same date as ‘Requested from’, this can be amended as required

Undefined hire period: If your default is that all of your hire order periods are ‘undefined’, this will be ticked by default, but can be unticked and if users do so the ‘requested to’ and ‘collection dates’ will be displayed and need to be populated.

Requested to: The date for which the customer wishes to end the hire.

Collection date: Will automatically populate with the same date as the Requested to date. This can be changed if you are unable to collect the hired item on the same day that the customer has requested it to be hired to, the billing for the item will be up to and including the requested to date.

Duration: The system calculates the total duration of hire. How it is displayed is based on settings within Utilities and the defaults on the Sales Order Generation Tab.  These defaults determine how the hire period is explained/shown on the Sales order and therefore on the Invoice when it goes out to the customer.

After which you would select ‘Add item’

Depending on your preferred working methods you can either at this stage add the Category and Sub Category as seen in our screen shot below.

Then:

The Qty being quoted, duration, Unit price (if price bands not set up) tax rate (default tax rates can be set up on the sub categories)

Within this screen you can toggle to view different information on the Details/Info/Quantities Tab, these are the same as detailed within the Rapid order entry see section and gives a different view of the hire details.

Line Details tab shows

Category, Sub Category, Quantity, Duration, Selling Unit, Unit Price, Insurance %, Tax Rate, and Overall Charge

Line Details Info tab shows

Category, Sub Category, Quantity, Hire Unit Price, Unit Insurance, Unit Total, Duration Inc Min Charge, Total Hire, Total Insurance and Total Charge Value

Line Details Quantities tab shows

Category, Sub Category, Quantity, Quantity Allocated, Quantity Despatched, Quantity Expected Off Hire (due back) , Quantity Actual received (Confirmed asset received back).

If there are availability issues, the lines will be highlighted in red.  If this occurs then it indicates that you do not have, according to the Sicon Hire module, enough hire assets in this category to hire out, this may be because;

• Although they have been physically received back, they have not been received back in off hire, via the ‘Confirm Assets received’ routine.
• Or that there are enough hire assets, but they are held/located in a different warehouse (location) then has been set on this hire order.

To help users understand why the system believes there is none available, users should use the: –

Hire Movements Function (noting its loading up Hire Movements for the Category/Sub Category within the selected Warehouse/location).

By default, it displays balance as of this point in time (today, when viewing and then going forward showing in’s / out’s running balance)

You can also view the hire movements for future or history and if required filter out balance today by selecting ‘Filter Future Movements’.

Other Information / drill down functionary include: –

Asset Detail Information

View Asset Hire Details

Asset Hire History

If you are still not sure of why you are seeing un-available items for hire , then an alternative area that you may find useful is :-

View Sub Category Balances’ accessible via the menu option enquiries and ‘View Sub Category Balances’

And even drill down within this screen using ‘View Hire Movements’

This screen is slightly different as it shows where the hire assets are and therefore indicates why they are not available.

This screen shows balances in the different warehouse(s)/Location(s) and whether any are in ‘inspection’ (and therefore not available for hire) and if you have any on back to back order (cross hire) with suppliers.

10.4. Full Order Adding Stock Items

This is where you would add any additional stock items to the hire order, it may be if you are hiring out carpet cleaners you offer to sell them carpet cleaning fluid.

On the Processing Tab within Hire Settings you can specify the default location (warehouse) the stock is to be despatched from if this is not configured at Sub Category level.

To add these items, select the Stock Items tab on the Hire Order line. There are two radio buttons on this tab to show different information.

Show Values view shows

Stock Code, Stock Item Name, Warehouse, Bin, Add to Last Invoice ( if ticked the stock item will be added on to the last sales order generated for this hire line) Charge Date, Quantity, Unit Value, Tax Rate & Line Total.

Show Quantities View Shows

Stock Item Code, Stock Item Name, Warehouse, Bin, Quantity, Quantity Allocated, Quantity Issued & Quantity Invoiced.

On this Stock Items Tab also you can drill down on the stock item itself, this loads standard Sage 200 Stock ‘View Stock Item Balances’.

Additional Charges Tab

This is where you would add any additional charges relating to this hire item such as delivery or carriage. Additional Charges are set up and maintained within Maintain Addition Charges within the Maintenance menu item.

When adding you will be looking to :

• Select from the drop down the relevant additional charge
• Confirm whether this additional charge is to be added to final hire sales order
• Add the Quantity , Unit Net Value (Sales)
• Unit Net Cost ( if you wish to specify your additional charge cost to you here)
• Tax Rate  (If configured will pull through from any defaults created, otherwise can be added or changed manually.
• The Total will self-calculate

10.5. Full Order 'Ad-Hoc' Credit

If for any reason against a Hire Order Line you wish to raise a credit note, you can do so by adding a ‘Ad Hoc Credit’. This is only available when using the Amend Full option. Click the Order Lines tab, highlight the relevant line and click Edit.

In our example screen shot above we wanted to compensate the Hire Order Customer for late delivery.

This is free text; you would click the Add Item  button, enter a description (reason for the credit) select a date, enter the Net Value/Cost and the relevant Tax Code that the credit note is to be raised for. This will be shown on the ‘Billing Forecast’ Tab.

The Credit Note (which in turn becomes a SOP return) will appear (based on date) within the in the ‘Generate Sales Orders’ process.

10.6. Full Hire Order Billing Forecast

Within Rapid entry this tab is known as Planned Sales Orders

This area is where you specify how often you wish to invoice the Hire Order Customer for the Hire Period and to generate a forecast of ‘Billing’ (Sales orders that will be generated)

The Options of which are configured within Utilities, Settings, and on within the ‘Duration Calculations tab’

You also set what day of the month the billing is to occur, the billing start date (see important note)

This tab shows you the planned sales orders that will be generated based on the information added on the Hire Order Details Tab. You will also specify how often you wish to raise a sales order (most customers have this set to Frequency = 1 Month

Billing Start Date: Will default to teh Requested from date, as system will be looking to use this first day of the Hire period. If for some reason you were not going to be invoicing them for a while, enter the first billing date here

Previously Invoiced up to: if you have been using another system prior to using Sicon Hire, and have been invoicing for the Hire period on that other system (or manually), and you are adding what in effect are opening balance Hire orders and where you wish to record the original start date of the Hire Period you must add a ‘Previously Invoiced up to date’

If you do not set this when adding in opening hire orders, the system will look to generate a sales order starting from the requested from date of the order line

The system will automatically calculate the forecast upon saving of the order.

If you wish to review/create the forecasts prior to saving the Hire Order, select Create Forecast Button as per our screen shot below.

From this screen you can see how the system is calculating the sales order. And show you the relevant, linked sales order number, the sales order date (post generation).

If you have raised an ad-hoc credit the relevant details will also be displayed.

If you ever have to cancel the sales order after it has been generated through to sales orders, you would use the ‘Unlink Sales Order and Recreate Forecasts’ make adjustments to hire order if necessary and generate sales orders again.

Important Note: It is the Billing Forecast that the module uses to know when to generate and for what period / which details to be used on during the ‘generate sales orders process ‘so if for any reason there is no forecasts for a Hire Order line, the system will not suggest there is anything to invoice.

10.7. Full Hire Order Fixed Price

This functionality is only to be used when the sales order / invoicing method is different to a normal hire order, and it’s a ‘One-Time’ Hire Order (Fixed Price).

All lines on the Hire order MUST be of the same type (One-Time)

If you are looking to use this functionality then there are a couple of areas within settings you need to review, and consider / set up

Default Deposit Percentage: If you have a default percentage of the Hire Order value that needs to be invoiced as a deposit you can set on the Sales Order Tab within Settings

What is a Normal Hire Order?  On a hire order line, you specify how often you will invoice the customer during the hire period i.e. Daily, Weekly, Monthly or Yearly monthly, when to start billing, and if an opening hire order (if during go live you are bringing in opening hire orders), a ‘Previously invoiced up to date’.

Deposit Hire Order set at header level (and all lines on hire order must be the same)
This type of order, is to be used where you need to raise a deposit invoice for the Hire Order, and then instead of raising sales orders at a set frequency until the end of the hire period, you would generate is a single ‘Balance sales order’, so for the life of the total hire order there would only be two sales orders raised.

When adding lines to this type of order you MUST set the ‘Selling Unit as One-Time as per our example Hire order line below

If you don’t select One-Time as a selling unit (as per screen shot above), or on the hire order you have added a mixture of types, when on the deposit tab at header level, if you tick ‘Add Deposit sales order’ you will see the message below, and it will not allow you to continue.

When ready to raise a deposit invoice for the hire you would, from the deposit tab

Tick the Add deposit sales order
Enter the deposit amount or deposit %
And select ‘Create Deposit Sales Order’, you will be asked to confirm

You will be prompted to add some text for the deposit invoice.

And you will be shown the raised sales order number for the deposit.

When you are looking to end the hire and generate the balance sales order you would select the ‘Generate Balance Sales Order’ button

If you are looking to use this functionality then there are a couple of areas within settings you need to review, and consider / set up

1. Default Deposit Percentage:If you have a default percentage of the Hire Order value that needs to be invoiced as a deposit you can set within the Sales Order Tab within Settings

Different nominal code for deposit revenue? If so you can specify the nominal code.

2. The second setting to consider is the information pulled through on to the deposit sales order generated, if you wish to add additional information you can select additional fields from the Sicon Hire Table.

This can be achieved by:

Ticking the ‘Use Custom description for deposit lines’;

Click in the Box where the default text / variables are pre-configured (It’s a good idea to take a copy of this text, and keep safe, in case you need it before you start adding new fields / deleting what’s there as default).

Use the ‘Insert variable’ function button which will load the fields available to choose from, click on the field you wish to use, and click ‘Insert’.

And a reminder that Hire Lines must be set to a selling unit of one-time.

11. Fixed Price Event Hires

This functionality is only to be used when the sales order / invoicing method is different to a normal hire order, and it is a Fixed Price Hire Order, where you are charging a set price for the duration of the event hire. (Previously known as One-Time).

The ‘Fixed’ duration is a standard configuration on the Duration Calculations tab in Settings.

All lines on the Hire order MUST be of the same type (Fixed)

If you are looking to use this functionality then there are a couple of areas within settings you need to review, and consider / set up

What is a Normal Hire Order?  On a hire order line, you specify how often you will invoice the customer during the hire period i.e. Daily, Weekly, Monthly or Yearly. These selling units are used on ‘normal’ hire orders.

Fixed Price Hire Orders have a default selling unit of FIXED which is set at header level (and all lines on hire order must be the same).

This type of order is used when you have agreed a set price for the term of the hire and you are raising one Sales Order to cover this.

When adding lines to this type of order you MUST set the ‘Selling Unit as Fixed (previously One-Time) as per our example Hire order line below.

Select the Default Selling Unit, Requested From and To Dates, noting that the Selling Unit on the Line itself updates to Fixed. In this instance you DO NOT enter a Unit Price for the hire as this is done on the Billing Forecast tab.

Save the order and despatch in the usual manner.

To set the fixed price to be generated for this order amend the order, click the Billing Forecast tab.

Tick Fixed Billing Date and enter the date the hire order is to be billed up to.

Input the price to be charged to the customer in the Fixed Price field and amend/enter the Fixed Revenue nominal account as required.

Save.

To generate the Sales Order, you can either highlight the hire order in the hire order list view and click Generate, or from the order processing folder select Generate Sales Orders and Returns.

If you highlight the line from the hire order list, this will be shown in the Generate Sales Orders and Returns screen as the only line. Tick to select and click Generate Sales Orders and Returns. (Note: if you forget to tick the line the sales order will not be generated).

Select the date for the sales order.

Standard Sage procedures take over from here to generate the invoice and post invoice.

The sales order number is updated on to the Billing Forecast tab, highlight and click View Sales Orders/Returns to open the sales order in view mode.

If you have inspection required for your assets they will need to go through the process before being available for hire again.

Please refer to the Assets Requiring Inspection section of this Help and User Guide for more details.

Quick inspection allows you to Select All and be prompted to set the assets as available for hire.

Enter the date of examination, Examination By: and Examination Type: from the drop down lists.

12. Amending Existing Hire Orders

Whether you have added the order via the Rapid or Full process to amend an order a user would either use the list view, highlight the order they wish to amend and select Amend or Amend Rapid to amend header or line details.

12.1. Amend Order / Order Lines Via List View

The first is by selecting the order from the Hire order list, and use the short cut icon (as below screen shot).

12.2. Amend Order / Order Lines Via Menu

If you prefer to navigate from the Menu list, then there are two menu options you can choose, depending on if the order was added via the ‘Rapid or Full’ method.

Amend Hire Order (Full)

Notes
Within Hire Settings, on the screen settings tab you have the ‘Desktop List\Open Amend Rapid Screen on double-Click’ enabled and if you have added a hire order in ‘Full Mode’ you can double click on the order on the list view and it will open the Hire Order in Rapid Mode.

If you make any changes to hire orders / lines, you will need to regenerate the forecast/planned sales orders to ensure the system recalculates any planned sales orders to be generated.

13. Cancel a Hire Order / Removing a Line

To remove a single line  Removing a single Line, use one of the amend order methods to see the line you wish to remove.

If you know there is only one line on the order you can use the remove button from the first screen, alternatively edit the line and remove which line from the order line details tab.

If you try and remove a line that has been despatched / part despatch you will be advised that you cannot remove as some of the items have been despatched.

To Cancel a ‘whole order’ where no items have been despatched you can use ‘Amend Hire Order Status’, example below.

You can access Amend Hire Order Status from either the menu structure as above or from the list view as below.

Once cancelled the Order Status becomes ‘Cancelled’ (as per screen shot below).

14. Change Hire Order Prices on Existing Orders

This Grid form, is useful when you wish to increase prices on current / live hire order lines.

Select a customer, by account number, short name or postcode and click Calculate Prices to show the list of current Hire Orders for that customer.

You can Increase by a % (selecting calculate prices after entering a %).

or you can manually select which Hire Order to update and click in the ‘Hire Unit Price’ field. Amend the value in this field and select ‘Process’ to update the Hire Orders.

15. Hire Order Processing

Whether the Hire Order are added via Rapid or Full method within this section / area of the module you can run various processes as shown below.

Some of these processes are also available from within the Hire order itself such as highlighted in the screen shot below for reference.

Full Order

Rapid Order

15.1. Make Available for Hire

Individual Hire Assets are not added to a Hire order line directly, Hire Assets sit within Sicon Fixed Asset Module and are flagged with an Asset Type set to ‘Hire’

In order for them to be used on a Hire order, they have to also be flagged with a Hire Status of ‘Available for Hire’.

If you use, from within the Sicon Hire Module the ‘Issue Stock to Fixed Assets’ then this process will flag the Hire Asset as a ‘Hire Type’ and also flag it as ‘Available for Hire’.

Assets that are created as Hire Assets will be updated with a First available for hire date on Save, this will default to today’s date and can be amended if the asset is not available for immediate hire. You can also set an asset condition if required.

15.2. Allocate Assets

This screen can be used to manually allocate assets to hire orders.  A customer account or hire order number must be entered at the top of the screen and the ‘Display’ button pressed.

When a quantity to allocate is entered against each listed asset line, the ‘Selected Assets’ button opens the Assets for Hire Order Line screen. The default is to only display available assets, if you have more than one available in the list, highlight the one required and use the > key to move the asset to the selected asset side of the screen.

Auto-Allocate assets is only available if you have configured settings to Auto Allocate at despatch. If you have Allocate assets at despatch of hire order on and you click the auto allocate button a message will be displayed.

15.3. Print Picking Lists

Use this process, if your stores need paperwork to know which hire assets to prepare to send out for delivery / on hire.

Click Show All Orders to see the list of orders, or search by customer details, order ref, delivery date etc.

Highlight the order line and select Print to print a ‘picking list’.

Layouts are standard Sage 200 Report designer layout.

15.4. Suggested Fulfilments

If you have the situation where you on occasionally do not have enough Hire Asset’s to fulfil your customers’ requirements, it may be that you ‘Cross Hire’, i.e. hire equipment ‘In’ from 3rd parties in order for you to Hire Out’, you can use the Suggested Fulfilment’s function.

This comes into effect when adding a Hire Order line, and where there are not enough hire assets, the line will go red.

On saving the order the system will suggest that you that you run the ‘Suggested Fulfilments’ process’ as you save the order.

Defaults for cross hire are set up within the maintenance\sub Category defaults.

You can set a preferred supplier and Tax Rate.

If you are happy and understand why the system is showing that there are no hire assets available within this category\sub category and your process is that you raise a PO on to a supplier to hire in some items to fulfil the order you will

Users can access ‘Suggested Fulfilments’ from within the ‘Order Processing’ menu.

You can Generate Suggestions for all Hire Orders, or filter by Category\Sub category or select a single relevant warehouses.

You can select a line to view Hire Movements if you wish to look at the movements in more detail.

Select the line(s) you want to generate the purchase orders for.

If you have lines without a supplier linked, you will need to select the supplier before clicking Generate Purchase Orders.

You will need to add the Unit price you have agreed with your supplier, if not entered here you will need to edit the PO before sending to the supplier.

You could also choose to increase the quantity it is suggesting you order, if you know there may be an additional requirement to fulfil other orders.

If some required information is not available (because defaults were not set against the sub category) you will be advised, e.g. Default Tax Rate.

In the Description column the description is pulled through from the hire (fixed) asset record. For the purpose of what is printed on the PO line you can over type this.

Once you are ready to generate the Purchase orders tick the required lines and select Generate Purchase Orders.

When generated the purchase order will be available to amend, print and send to your supplier.

When the purchase order is received from within purchase order processing, temporary assets are created, in order to fulfil the Hire Order.

The screen displays which hire order number the items are required for and the warehouse they will be linked to. Once booked in the items will be available for Hire for the linked Hire Order.

Standard routine applies thereafter for the purchase order, i.e. receiving the Invoice.

When despatching the hire order having processed the goods received note, the assets show as Temporary with the hire order number in the name field so you know which assets to despatch and they are also flagged as back to back hire.

Within Fixed Assets the relevant Hire Order details are shown in the asset name field, and the asset is automatically put on hold, so no depreciation takes place, and the type is displayed as ‘Back to Back Hire’.

When the Temp Asset is no longer required, the users can return them back to the supplier via the Return Assets to Supplier routine within the Order Processing menu options.

15.5. Confirm Hire Order Despatch

If you are not despatching from with the Hire Order itself, you can choose to confirm multiple Hire orders due to be despatched using this method.

When you are ready to despatch the Hire Assets, use ‘Confirm Hire Order Despatch Routine’.

You can select a single order, order(s) for a single customer, select by warehouse, by order reference, or by entering a single despatch date (which when used looks for hire orders with status of ‘Ordered’ with a ‘Delivery Date’ of the entered date.

If you filter by ‘Code’, ‘Short Name’, ‘Postcode’, ‘Warehouse’, or ‘Order reference’ you do not need to enter the despatch date, as the system, will show all those relevant to your selection.

If you are looking only to display a certain date, then simply filter by ‘Orders to be despatch on date ‘and enter chosen date

Depending on the filters selected, different orders will be displayed, examples below:

When you have decided which lines are to be despatched by clicking in the check box to the left of the hire order number, select and hit the Next button

Where you have set your settings to allocate on despatch, you will be asked to select the individual asset to hire.

It would be on this screen you can change which asset(s) are selected, if within settings you have the system set to automatically allocate serial numbers on order entry.

Note: If allocation is at the point of despatch, items will not appear in the schedule diary view within enquiries until despatched.

If you are using serial numbers we would recommend to Allocate on Despatch, this will enable you to pick the correct Hire Assets, otherwise the system will auto allocate, which may not suit your processes.

When selected, click Despatch; enter the despatch date which shows on the delivery document produced at despatch.

Once you have despatched your order, your delivery note is produced and you will be able to see in the diary schedule that the asset number is on for the hire period; you can double click on the diary entry and view the order.

Depending on the settings as below, the system may display the screen as above, indicating there is an attachment against the asset\sub category.

15.6. Advanced Despatch Note (use with care)

This feature is not one we would recommend to be used unless you really need to. Advanced despatch note functionality was added for a customer who needed to prepare despatch notes in advance for the Hire Items going out on delivery on a Saturday. These assets were being collected on a Friday night from the previous hire order customer, but not being returned to stores until Saturday morning to be available for despatch again.

In their case their admin team does not work on a Saturday, so would not be there when the previous hire order items came back when in normal circumstances users would then process the return via ‘Confirm Assets Received’, and thereafter despatch out again using the ‘Confirmed Hire Order Despatched’.

So by adding this function the admin team on a Friday afternoon could use the ‘Advance Despatch Note’ which in one process, books in the asset from where it was previously, using the ‘collection date’ as the date booking it back in, and at the same time despatches out on the hire order line you are advance despatching. Hire movements / history is recorded as standard.

If using this functionality, please note that the previous hire order asset item is not physically back with you. When the despatch notes for the ‘future hire orders’ are printed, the system thinks they are physically back with you so there is no longer visibility of which ‘assets’ are due back.

15.7. Off Hire & Collection Note Process – Rapid & Full

You can flag items as being Off Hire (the terminology used when customers notify you that they wish to end the hire and ask you to collect the hire items).

This can be done from the Hire Order line, Hire Order List View (Select hire order and click the Off Hire icon) or from the Order Processing Menu – Off Hire.

When used, this Off Hire process stops the clock from a billing perspective.

It is therefore important to be mindful that if you ‘off hire’ and there is a gap between ‘off hire’ and physically collecting the hire items from the customer and receiving them back via ‘confirm goods received’, you will have a period where:

a) you are not billing and
b) the asset is not available for hire.

Select the Off Hire Menu Item, (this is also available as an icon at the top of the Hire Order List view), enter a customer code, or hire order number and click display.

Enter the quantity to off hire, the off hire date (which is the date the billing stops) and the planned collection date (the date you are planning to physically go and collect the hire items), these will default to today’s date so should be amended if different.

Off Hire will also generate you a collection note with a collection note number, this is checked by default, depending on your settings configured on the Processing tab.

When you then confirm ‘assets received back,’ you will need to match to the relevant collection note (this is recorded in the History tab and on the Collection Notes tab).

You can choose to enter an ‘off hire’ quantity equal to the ‘whole line quantity’ or ‘part line quantity’.

Off Hiring can also be done from within the hire order – amend order, Off Hire.

A collection note is automatically selected and will be produced when you click Save, these can be re-printed from the Print Collection Note icon at the top of the Hire Order List view.

To receive the items back and ‘confirm assets received’ either highlight the hire order line from the hire order list and click the Receive icon, or if no hire order line is selected click the Receive icon and enter the customer account code and Display.

The ‘receive date’ is auto populated with today’s date, (this is the date the system will use to show as being available for hire again, if no inspection period applies). And you will need to match the received items back to the collection note which is selected from the drop-down list as per the screen below:

You can also choose to Generate a sales order at this time for the items flagged within this screen/process.

On clicking Receive, you will be presented with a Select Assets To Receive screen where you will need to select the assets that are coming back this time. If they are all being returned, you can Auto Select. At this point you have the option to Sell Asset or mark it as Lost.

If you chose to sell an asset when you have ticked which one(s) you are going to sell, click Close, then Receive on the main screen. Following this you will get a Sale of Assets screen where you can amend the selling price of the asset. (The Selling Unit Price shows the current Net Book Value of the asset).

OK the screen above and a sales order generated confirmation screen will enable you to view the generated order, amend or close.

From this point, standard Sage processes apply for invoice generation.

If you flag an asset as Lost during the receipt process, you will be able to run a report (from the Miscellaneous reports folder) to identify which assets are lost and therefore not available for hire.

The Asset will show a Status of Lost on the Asset Register List. Click Amend Hire Details to see the status, click Check to see when this has been recorded as lost and against which hire order.

If the asset is subsequently found, you can amend the status to reset this to Live and make available for hire again.

When the asset is showing as Available for Hire again, you will need to set the Asset Condition from the drop-down list to Normal.

Important Note: if you have previously raised multiple ‘off hire notifications’ and printed multiple ‘collection notes’ against a hire order line, you MUST ‘receive back’ multiple times, in quantities matching each collection note quantity.

On the Hire Order there is a ‘Collection Notes’ Tab, which when selected will show you details of the collection notes for this hire order and they will show the collection date and if the collection note has been received.

15.8. Print Collection Note

Collection notes is a function that will only apply if you are using the functionality ‘Off Hire’ as described above

If you are not using the ‘Off Hire’ Functionality and try to print collections notes as described below, you will not see any results.

Collection notes can be printed from within the Hire order itself for that particular hire order line, during the ‘off hire process’.

Alternatively, you can use the Print Collection Notes functionality within the Order Processing menu structure to print multiple collection notes , it may be for all the ones due to be collected.

You can also choose this method to reprint a collection note.

Print collection notes to issue to your drivers to let them know where, when and what hire assets they are collecting.

Select the Hire Order (s) and Print.

When you physically receive the items back and ‘confirm assets received’, the Receive Date automatically defaults to today’s date (this is the date the system will use to show as being available for hire again, if no inspection period applies). And you will need to match the received items back to the collection note as per the screen below:

You can also choose to Generate a sales order at this time for the items flagged within this screen/process

Important Note: if you have previously raised multiple ‘off hire notifications’ and printed multiple ‘collection notes’ against a hire order line, you MUST ‘receive back’ multiple times, in quantities matching each collection note quantity.

On the Hire Order there is a ‘Collection Notes’ Tab, which when selected will show you details of the collection notes from this hire order and they will be flagged as ‘Complete’ if the hire items have been received back in and matched to a collection note.

15.9. Confirm Assets Received

You can receive the items back from within the hire order itself

Within a Rapid Order Receive Process

Select the Line to receive, confirm the quantity being received back, the received date will default to today’s date and can be amended if required.

Select the Asset To Receive.

If not using off hire functionality, the received date is the date the billing stops.

If using off hire functionality you will need to match to a collection note, so be careful if the customer off hired in stages and therefore there are multiple collection notes. If this is the case you will need to receive back in stages, in quantities equal to off hire quantity, to ensure you match up the receiving back quantity to the relevant off hire quantity.

Within a Full Hire Order Receive View/Process

Select the Line to receive, confirm the quantity being received back, the received date will default to today’s date and can be amended if required.

If not using off hire functionality, the received date is the date the billing stops.

If using off hire functionality you will need to match to a collection note, so be careful if the customer off hired in stages and therefore there are multiple collection notes. If this is the case you will need to receive back in stages, in quantities equal to off hire quantity, to ensure you match up the receiving back quantity to the relevant off hire quantity.

Alternatively, you may choose to process through the menu Order Processing\Confirm Assets Received Back.

In this screen you can filter by Customer, Collection Note, Asset Category and Sub Category or Hire Order Number.

Ensure you enter the correct ‘date’ for which you are receiving back, if you are running this process after the event, and you leave the ‘receive date’ as todays date, you will be changing the ‘requested to date’.

Select the asset in the Select Assets To Receive screen which is automatically opened (you have the option to sell the asset as this point if required by ticking the Sell Asset option), click Close.

Chose the collection Note from the drop down list.

Depending on your default settings the ‘Generate sales orders now for received items’ will either be ticked or left unticked, you can choose to untick, and generate a sales order at a later date through ‘generate sales orders’, or if un-ticked, you can choose to tick, so after confirming ‘received back’ by selecting the ‘Receive’ button

If the items displayed have previously been flagged as ‘Off Hire’ the Off Hire Date field will be populated accordingly

Depending again on default settings the ‘Inspection Required may be ticked or un-ticked, if ticked, and left ticked, after receiving back users will need to go into ‘Assets Requiring Inspection’ to confirm inspected, and release to make asset ‘available for Hire again’. If un-ticked the asset will be ‘available for hire again’.

15.10. Sell Asset after Confirm Goods Hire Asset Received Process

Use this functionality to flag the hire asset to be sold at the point of receiving the asset back. This will raise a sales order and dispose of the asset flagging it as sold.

During the confirm assets received back process simply tick the box ‘Sell Asset’ (step 3 as below):

Select close on this screen, receive (step 5 as above).

Set the selling price as we have done in our example.

Click OK.

A screen confirming a sales order has been generated will be displayed giving you the option to open at which time the user will be asked if they would like to open the sales order (either in view mode or amend mode).

Most users would want to add some additional comments on to the sales order, in which case you would select ‘Amend’.

By default, the sales order will be created as below:

This is now a standard sales order so if required additional lines can be added, a comment line or simply save and print / post. The Customer Order Number is auto populated with Hire Asset Sale which may be amended .

When looking at the Asset within Fixed Assets the asset has been set to a status of ‘Sold’.

And the asset will no longer be available for hire.

Click the Check Button to confirm the status of the asset .

15.11. Swapping an asset on a Hire Order

This first method assumes that the original asset has already been returned to you and you are just actioning a straight swap.

Select the Hire Order and click Amend.

On the Asset Details Tab:

Highlight the required line (my example only has one line but this still needs to be selected), click the Swap Assets button.

1. This is the asset already on hire
2. Enter asset code (or search in the available asset list) then click the magnifying glass icon to remove this asset
3. Enter the asset code for the replacement (or search in the available asset list) then click the magnifying glass icon to add the asset
4. You can select between Asset Code and Serial Number so if it is easier to search by serial number check this option
5. Click the Swap button. This will create a Swap Asset Document report that shows what has been swapped

Advanced Replacement.

Select the Hire Order and click Amend.

On the Asset Details Tab:

Highlight the required line (my example only has one line but this still needs to be selected), click the Adv. Replace button.

This will show the Assets on the hire order line, click Select Assets button.

Ensure the dates are for the same period as the original hire order line (this is for an undefined hire period so there is no end date).

Hire then Switches the Asset to the Original Order Line.

And the Original Asset is passed to the Advanced Replacement Line.

Save the Order then Amend Full to see both lines – the original asset is showing on the Advanced Replacement Line which you can Off Hire.

Select the Quantity to Off Hire and make sure the Off Hire date and Collection Date are correct. The Print Collection note is ticked by default in my system, you may need to manually select this before you Save.

When you have Off Hired the replacement line you need to receive it back.

Select the Quantity and the Collection Note from the drop-down list.

The Asset is pre-selected – you can flag to sell or mark as lost if needed, otherwise just click Close.

If you system is set to automatically generate the sales order when off hiring and receiving, you will see the screen below.

16. Assets Requiring Inspection

There are three menu options and available processes for inspection, all of which after which the asset(s) can be flagged as

Inspection Passed
or
Available for Hire again  (If an asset requires inspection until it has been passed , it will not be available to despatch)

Assets Requiring Inspection

Users can search by Category , or Show all, highlight the one they wish to enter the results for and select Enter Inspection Results

If you do not tick as inspection passed you will note that the make available for hire is greyed out.

Single Asset Inspection

You can search by Category and Sub Category or if you know the Asset to be inspected you can select it. If you select the Asset, this will back populate the Category and Sub Category together with the Order Reference.

Quick Asset Inspection

This is a quick way to flag items as having passed inspection and being available for hire again without having to enter too much details. In this screen you can click Search to show all assets requiring inspection, select by category and sub category or order reference and you can also choose to included previously failed inspection assets.

Clicking Select All will open a prompt for you to flag if all the assets are available to hire again – if you say No to this message you have the option to tick the assets individually to make available for hire again.

Clicking View Previous Inspection will show you details of the prior inspections for the assets.

Enter the Date of Examination, Examined By (selected from the drop down list) and Examination Type (from the drop down list) then click Save.

17. Return Temp/Hired in Assets Back to Supplier

Where you have hired in items from a supplier because you did not have sufficient of your own in the warehouse, you will use this feature to action the return.

Select Return Assets Back to Supplier from the Order Processing Menu.

You can choose to show all, or select by category and sub category.

Select the temporary hire assets you wish to return, and click ‘Return to Supplier’.

This function does not raise a POP return by design. In standard Sage 200 you would usually raise a POP return because you are expecting a credit note. In this instance you would not receive a credit. The process within Sicon Hire is to record this temporary asset is being returned to the supplier and is no longer available as a temporary hire asset for future orders.

The asset record is updated to show that it has been returned to the supplier.

18. Generate Sales Orders

Pre Requisites for Sales Orders being generated as a result of Hire orders:

• Within Sales Order Processing settings please ensure that Auto Generation of Order Numbers is switched on.
• Hire items are deemed as service items for invoicing purposes, so please ensure the Order Line despatching within Sales Order Processing settings for Text and Service/Labour order lines are set to Confirmation Not Required.
• Within Sales Order Processing, User Permissions, make sure the relevant users have Override Default Confirmation method on Order Lines Ticked.
• Within the Sicon Hire Settings there are options to select which Sales Order Analysis Fields your Hire Order Number will appear/filter through to (which in turn can be displayed on your invoice).  You will need to ensure that within Sage 200 standard Account System Manager & SOP Maintenance settings that analysis fields are configured accordingly.
• Review, Configure and set as required the relevant default settings and options within the Generation and Line descriptions tabs on the Sales Order Generation Tab, within Sicon Hire Setting area of the module.

Create Sales Orders for invoicing by selecting Generate Sales Orders.

To access this function, select Hire Manager; Order Processing; Generate Sales Orders and Returns.

There are several options available to filter the list of hire orders that require a sales order to be raised.

• You can select a specific customer, or a specific Hire Order number
• Select by Invoice frequency (Invoice frequency is set against a hire order line, on the billing forecast tab)
• Select a month (for which the system would display orders due to be invoiced in that month)
• Include (by ticking) orders that should have had sales orders generated before the day this process is being run
  or
• Simply hit display to show all due for generating (as in screen shot below)
• Whether adding a Hire order via Rapid or Full, the Generation of Sales orders is the same for both methods
• When choosing to generate sales orders from within order processing\generate sales orders and returns menu options you will be prompted with the screen below

• In our example we have selected to show orders due to be invoiced in November, but users could filter by customer, by Hire Order Number, a due before date, or for a specific warehouse.

• From this list you can also choose to see what the sales order/billing will be like for a specific Hire Order by selecting the line and clicking ‘View Bill Details’

As our hire order line had a stock item on it and additional charges users would expect to see two additional lines, however those lines were flagged to be added to the last generated sales order so would not be visible until the last order is generated.

You can also choose to ‘Print a list of Sales Order and Return Suggestions’ for all hire orders displayed in this screen.

When ready to generate sales orders you will be asked for a date for the sales order.

If there are outstanding orders to be generated, you will get a warning message stating ‘Outstanding billing periods exist for hire order xxxxxxx. Are you sure you want to generate orders for this period? Click No if you want to go back to an earlier date and generate the orders in sequence.

The Sales Order generated, will show on the hire order.

Within the Hire order on the Billing forecast tab the linked sales order will be visible.

And using View Sales order the sales order can be viewed.

The nominal code on the sales order line in our example is the one taken from our warehouse override (set within maintenance\warehouse maintenance.

But where no overrides are set against a warehouse, then the revenue nominal code is taken from that set on the sub category defaults as our screen shot below shows. This is set within Maintenance\Sub Category defaults.

18.1. Generate Sales Returns / Credits

On a Hire Order it’s possible to add an ‘Ad-Hoc’ Credit on to / against a Hire Order Line , example below:

These credits will also be seen on the billing forecast tab as a minus figure.

Sales Return credit notes are processed within the ‘Generate Sales Orders and Returns ‘process and are displayed as a minus figure.

When you are ready, and have selected the hire orders you wish to generate sales orders returns for, press the ‘Generate Sales Orders and Returns’.

As with orders, you will be prompted for a date, and a message will be shown on screen to confirm an order/return has been generated.

The details shown in the Sales Return description, is the free text detail description entered when adding the ad-hoc credit on to the hire order line.

19. Complete Hire Order

Hire orders can be completed by either selecting the order in the Hire Order List View and clicking the Complete icon from the top of the screen or from the menu item within the Order Processing folder as shown below:

Clicking the Display button will show all the active Hire Orders e.g. On Hire, Part Received, Received and Ordered.

From this list you can select the order(s) to be completed by ticking the box to the left of the order number.

Click the Complete button to activate this process, when this has finished you will get a dialog box confirming how many hire orders have been completed.

You can also search for individual hire orders from the drop down hire order number list box, or by filtering against the customer account.

20. Enquiries

There are number of enquiry options, no amendments / processes are allowed when using the enquiry screens, like standard Sage 200 process. Enquiry screens are useful where you allow Sage 200 users to view orders, but do not want them to make any changes / amendments.

20.1. Asset Register List

This is a list of Hire Assets, showing the asset name and number, status, category, sub category  and last hire order number by default, but additional columns may be added on the list view by right mouse click, columns, and selecting the extra as required.

Using Sage standard filter functions, you can create user specific filters, or allow them to be public.

20.2. View Hire Quotes

This screen allows the user to view the details of the Hire Quote, but they are unable to amend, add or delete any details.

You can select the quote to view by various methods including Account Code, Short Name, Postcode, Location, Order Reference (The Hire Quote Number), Entered by, Quote Status or as in this example by selecting Show All Quotes; this brings up all Hire Quotes.  Highlight the Quote you wish to view and click View.

If a quote has been converted to a Hire Order the Hire order number is displayed in the Created Order No column.

From this screen you can view or copy the quote.

20.3. View Hire Order

You can view the details of the Hire Order but you are unable to amend, add or delete any details.

Select the order to view by various methods including Account Code, Short Name, Postcode, Location, Order Reference/ Hire Order Number, Entered by, Order Status, Delivery dates or as in this example by clicking Show All Orders (this brings up all Hire Orders).

Highlight the order you wish to view, and click View.

20.4. Hire Asset Register

By selecting the Hire Asset, you wish to make an enquiry on you can view its:

Location & Status

The Inspection history, and you can view the inspection record, by clicking on a line, and selecting the ‘view button’.

Hire History

In these view only screen (s) you are unable to amend, add or delete any details.

Associated Items. If you have associated Stock items, additional charges linked to the asset, they will be displayed on this tab.

20.5. View Sub Category Balances

On this enquiry Screen you can view balances on the selected Category and Sub Category, then use the view hire movements button to drill down to see the hire movements both current and future.

In this view only screen you are unable to amend, add or delete any details.

20.6. Sales Order Forecasts

A useful information screen pulling details from either the planned forecast tab on a rapid hire order or the billing forecast tab on a full hire order.

Run for a single category / sub category at any one time with tabs with views of forecast sales order / sales order values. There are different tabs, which when selected shows the information in a different format.

Hire Forecast

Other Tabs on this screen are:

Note: The Contract Forecasts tab is only visible if Sicon Contract Manager installed and hire lines are linked.

Only visible if Scion Contract Manager is installed and shows any contracts for that customer (Sicon Contracts and Sicon Hire are not integrated, this is purely for reference).

Forecast by Month: Details Sales orders month by month, along with other additional useful information, noting that this view is a combination of Hire Orders planned Sales Orders and Sales Orders in its own right.

Forecast by Month Summary: As ‘Forecast by month’ but consolidated to type’ Orders relating to ‘Hire Orders’; ‘Sales Orders’ and if installed ‘Contract Orders’.

20.7. Asset Utilisation

A Very quick and useful view of the utilisation of your Hire Assets, by category / sub category giving you (for a date range):

• Total number of assets per category
• Available Days in the selected period
• Number of Assets Hired out in that period
• Days Out on Hire
• Utilisation in a % calculation

This information can be sent to Excel for reporting by using the Sage standard function, right mouse click and export.

You can also choose to filter by Hire Order type (if configured to use hire order types) and Warehouse.

21. Schedule for Assets

Schedule: On this enquiry Screen, once Hire Assets are allocated you can view the schedule for selected allocated Hire Assets.

You can select a day, 5 days, 7 days, 31 days, a time line or Gantt View.  By selecting a Category, the associated Hire Assets will display underneath the Sub Category; select all or some of the associated Hire Assets.

From within the diary schedule you can advance forward in time and can go back, select Go to today, Zoom in and Zoom out.

In this view only screen you are unable to amend, add or delete any details, but you can drill down on the details (Hire Order Number) on the diary to display the Hire Order details.

21.1. Schedule for Existing Hire Orders

Schedule: On this enquiry Screen, you can select a day, 5 days, 7 days, 31 days, a time line or Gantt View from the ribbon at the top of the screen.

Filtering is by Status, Order type and Customer (account number, short name or postcode).

From within the diary schedule you can advance forward in time and can go back. Right clicking in the main section of the screen will allow you to Go to Today, Go to Date, select Timescales / Timescale Captions (the default is for Week and Day) and Change View To. The view options are Day View, Work Week View, Week View, Month View, Timeline and Gantt View.

In this view only screen you are unable to amend, add or delete any details.

22. Sicon Projects Integration

If Sicon Projects Integration is enabled within settings, prior to saving a hire order, users will need to either select an existing project (if ability to link to existing projects enabled within settings) or create a new project on the fly.

In example below we have chosen to create a new project, which will be prefixed with a ‘H’.

Press Ok to close and select the project number. Complete the order in the usual manner.

23. Adjustments

The Adjusts menu area, is where you can:

• Add/Move Fixed Asset (Hire Asset) from Fixed Assets to Sage 200 Stock (asset is disposed and add stock item qty increased by the nbv )
• Book Assets to an internal Sicon Project (Whilst booked to a project, the asset is un-available to hire on any hire orders)
• Issue Stock to Fixed Assets (Flag as Hire items and mark as available for Hire)
• Transfer Asset (Between Warehouses)
• Copy Hire Asset, this feature will copy existing asset details and create a new asset
• HireTransfer

Add Assets to Stock

Move Fixed Asset (Hire Asset) from Fixed Assets to Sage 200 Stock

This is useful for example where an asset is longer available for Hire, and you want to add it back into stock and sell as an ex-hire unit, or you are simply using fixed assets/hire assets in conduction with internal projects (Sicon Projects). Once the project is complete, the item is returned back to stock.

The user is prompted to select one or more assets from a category/sub category along with the target stock item, warehouse, date and a reference.

Book Assets to Project

Settings and an internal sales ledger account should be set within the Project tab within Hire settings before this feature can be used.

Assets may be booked to projects making them un-available for hire during a selected period.  Daily costs are read from the hire price list for the customer configured on the Settings screen ‘Projects’ tab.  The user must select a category/sub-category and project details along with the dates that the asset(s) are booked to the project.

Issues Stock to Fixed Assets

Use this routine to move stock items out of stock and create fixed assets, flag them as Hire Assets that are available for Hire.

As with any Sage 200 issue transaction stock has to be available to issue.  When using Issue Stock to Fixed Assets it reduces the quantity held within Stock Control and increases the Quantity in Fixed Assets.

The stock for hire will not be counted in stock takes or valuations, but will be part of your Company’s assets if costs are assigned.

If transferred with no Asset cost, they will still be part of your Fixed Asset register but no depreciation will be made.

Once you have selected your stock item to Issue to Fixed Assets as a hire item, you will select the warehouse where the Stock is held before transferring, the Asset Category, Sub Category, date of Issue, reference and second reference (reference fields not mandatory), and if you wish to assign an asset location*, you can select from the drop down box.

Note: Contract and Job fields are only shown if you have Sicon Contract Manager installed and Sicon Projects activated within Hire Settings.

The defaults for depreciation method / percentages are stored against the category and the cost price for the asset is based on your costing method of the stock item

NB: *Asset locations (Where Hire Asset is held in preparation to hire out) are set up within Fixed Assets and some customers prefer to have an asset location called Hire just so they can report on the Hire assets separately to the Company’s assets.

Upon saving, you will be prompted to either create a new asset or add to an existing fixed asset quantity. The system will confirm the Fixed Asset Numbers that have been created.

If your chosen stock item is serialised, you will be prompted to select the relevant serial number. The serial number would populate the serial number field on the Fixed Asset Record.

NB: if you issue Stock to Fixed Assets, then the Hire Fixed Asset Name will be as the Stock Code Description and the Description will be Stock Code + Description

The system will display the Fixed Asset Number allocated and if you view the Fixed Asset record after you have Issued Stock to Fixed Assets you will see that it has been assigned the Asset Type as Hire (underneath the Asset Status field) and that an extra tab has been created on the Fixed Asset Record for the Hire Details.

An Example of the details recorded on the Fixed Asset are as per the screen shot below:

On an individual asset, where Sicon Hire is installed on the record there is an extra tab to record Hire Details.

When the tab is selected, users will see four additional sub-tabs each showing different information.

Location and Status (as per the screen shot above)

Showing the current status of the Asset, in our example the asset has been out on hire, received back, and is now waiting Inspection

Inspection History

Inspection History, with the option to select a line, and View the Inspection Notes (unless quick inspection routine was used, in which case there is no option to record inspection notes)

Hire History

History of the Hire history, and different Stages/Actions i.e. Despatch, allocated, scheduled, Inspection, Asset set available for hire. All transactions are dated/timed Stamped.

Where the Action is relevant to a Hire Order, the Hire order number is shown, and against all transactions the Sage 200 user name displayed.

Associated Items

If you have associated Stock items, additional charges linked to the asset, they will be displayed on this tab.

Transfer Asset

A simple routine to transfer a Hire Asset from one Hire Warehouse to another Warehouse.

Select the Category & Sub Category, then the warehouse the hire asset is currently in, now select the warehouse you wish to move the hire asset to.

The Screen will show how many are available to move (in our case 6).

Enter the number of units to move and confirm Date & Time (Defaults to the date and time of the process being carried out).

Click the Proceed button to select which assets to move.

Click OK to produce an Asset Transfer History report.

23.1. Copy Hire Asset

Use this function as a quick method to create a new Hire Asset by selecting an existing Fixed Asset (which is flagged as a hire asset).

Only assets that are flagged as Hire Assets are available for selection to copy.

All main details are copied across as standard with some additional optional items to copy such as Associated Items, attachments, price bands and equipment. These check boxes can be unticked if the information is not relevant for the new asset.

In our example we are looking to copy asset FT00000093, where currently the details are as follows:

Noting in our example the last month of depreciation was December 2019.

On saving the asset, the system will display the newly created Asset Number, in our example FT0000318.

Click OK, at which time the new asset screen will display in order for you to amend details such as:

Cost Value, depreciation, purchase/capitalisation/next depreciation dates.

Hire Transfers

This allows you to move assets between warehouses.

In order to use this feature, you need to have a receiving warehouse set up in Hire Settings on the Fixed Assets Tab.

The first time you use the hire transfer screen there will be nothing returned when you click the Search button regardless of the information entered in the boxes.

Click Add to set up the transfer.

1. Click Add in the Hire Transfer Details screen
2. Enter a Description
3. Select the From and To warehouses
4. Chose the asset to transfer from the drop down list presented – note that the only ones shown are available for hire

Click OK to save this line.

In the main screen you can now highlight the item to transfer and select Despatch or Receive. There is also the option to be able to Edit the line prior to being despatched and received.

1. Select the line
2. Despatch – this needs to be done before you can receive (you will have a conformation screen for the despatch)
3. Receive
4. Confirm

24. Reports

Standard Module Reports

All Reports are available within the Sage 200 report designer, so they can be amended to suit specific requirements.  Using additional fields within report designer users can write further reports to meet their specific requirements.

Sicon Reports are held in a separate package to the module, so when a module is installed where reports are available they will be installed as a separate package.

Custom Reports

If you wish to tailor the reports using the standard in module reports as a template it’s very important that you open the report and save it using a different name. This should be saved in a custom folder as advised by your Sage 200 Business Partner.

If you do not do this and just make your changes and save over the standard report, when Sicon or your business partner next upgrades your system your custom reports will be lost.

Standard reports are broken down into three sub menus as shown below:

When accessing the reports menu you can select via the Criteria Values, a single document Is, a range of documents, documents from a certain number, documents to a certain number and various other criteria depending on the report selected.

25. Release Notes

The release notes page shows which release of the system includes new features or issues resolved.

At the release of Sicon v21 we announced that going forward, we will only be supporting Sage 200c and as such we are able to drop the year from our version numbers. We moved from 201.201.0.0 to 210.0.0.

New features detailed in the Release Notes relating to Pre-Release versions will not be detailed in the current Help and User Guide until the end of development phase.

26. Help and User Guide Archive

26.1. Sicon Hire Help and User Guide v22

Hire Help and User Guide v22

26.2. Sicon Hire Help and User Guide v17

Hire Help and User Guide v17

27. New Features & Important Information