Effectively Managing Rental Units with Dynamics NAV and RPM
Effectively managing all aspects of rental units (costs, depreciation, location, etc.) is one of the main pain points we hear about when talking with those in the rental industry. Companies struggle knowing exactly how well their rental units are performing. They find it challenging to find exactly where any given piece of equipment is at any particular time. Further, they find it difficult to capture relevant, user-defined information on each piece of equipment they own. Equipment rental companies struggle with issues such as these all the time; fortunately, SuiteEngine RPM has the tools necessary to help effectively manage your rental units.
Rental Unit List View
The rental unit list view provides an “at-a-glance” view of pertinent information related to your rental units. You can see if the unit is on rent, ready to rent, in service, inactive, etc., whether it is a serialized unit or a quantity-tracked unit, as well as what company location from which it is based.
Figure 1 – Rental Unit List Page in Dynamics NAV with RPM
Taking the highlighted rental unit as an example, if look at the Unit Status fact box on the right, we can see that it shows that this unit has been shipped.
Figure 2 – Rental Unit Status Fact Box
Clicking on the blue hyperlink quantity of -1 in the Qty. Shipped field, we are brought to the Movement Ledger entry for that shipment and from that page, pressing the Show Source Doc. button we can get right to the Rental Contract for which this this unit has been shipped.
Figure 3 – Unit Movement Ledger Entries
Rental Contact and Rental Unit Card
The rental contract allows you to see relevant information pertaining to the current status of this rental unit, such as the address it was shipped to, as well as the estimated or actual stop date of the contract so you know when this unit will be back in your rental fleet and available to rent again.
Figure 4 – Rental Contract
Sticking with the same rental unit example, if you press the View or Edit button in the list view it will open the Rental Unit Card.
Figure 5 – Rental Unit Card
On the General FastTab of this card view, you can see pertinent information regarding this Rental Unit such as its serial number, the Product Line and Category codes it belongs to, as well as its related Fixed Asset:
Figure 6 – General FastTab
On the Invoicing FastTab of this card view, we capture relevant financial information related to this unit such as the Equipment Cost and Insurance values, as well as any Meter information, which could be used to charge for excess usage on the unit.
Figure 7 – Invoicing FastTab
In addition, on the Specifications FastTab of this card view we capture user-defined specifications that are relevant for you to track on this specific equipment, such as Kw or Volts. Best of all, any of the fields described can be used to filter your rental unit list to a specific set of units, such as only those that are “20 Kw” or only those in location “Houston.”
Figure 8 – Specifications FastTab
Lastly, let’s take a look at the rental unit statistics. From the Home ribbon at the top of the Rental Unit Card, select Statistics.
Figure 9 – Home Ribbon
This opens the Rental Unit Statistics window, which presents a wealth of useful information related to this unit.
Figure 10 – Rental Unit Statistics
From this screen, you get a snapshot view of the utilization of this unit, the revenue and costs including both the internal costs of maintaining the unit and the depreciation costs of the associated fixed asset, and you get a calculated margin and ROI to help you make informed decisions about this unit. All of this information is presented for the current period (MTD), this year (YTD), as well as a comparison to last year and anywhere you see a blue value, you will find it is a hyperlink to get you to the underlying data that makes up those values for further research.
These are some of the ways in which SuiteEngine RPM helps your company gain the insight it needs to manage your rental equipment. If you would like to learn more about SuiteEngine RPM and/or to see a demo of some of the features described above, please contact us.