FocalPoint Online Help

In the main tab, there are buttons to save orders, and multiple print options to choose from. From here you can also “Save and Email” instead of printing. You can also print pick tickets or invoke your signature capture device manually. This is also where you “copy from existing” orders, to create a new order based on a previous open or closed order for the same customer. This is also where you can get right to the payment screen,

or start the return process.

In the customer tab, you can edit the customer, see real time aging information, email the order to the customer, or change the customer that the order is for. This is also where you can open up location or directional maps for a customer’s office or ship to address.

The “Header” tab will show you general information about the order, like out dates and due dates, event timing, PO and job information, Tax information, Salesperson information and much more.

Dates and Times

On the header tab you will see the out date and time, a length that is used to help establish a due date and time, and a due date. Rental charge estimates will be based on this time frame. If you change the length, the due date and time will adjust for you. If you want to set your own due date and time, and not use the length feature, you are certainly able to do so.

Event Settings

If you choose the event setting, the event days will default to “3”. There is a default event days’ field in the hours tab of the store manager file to control this default. In the “rate” field, you can choose “Event 1”, “Event 2” or “Event 3”. Event 1 will use the daily rate for the default event prices. Event 2 will use the weekly rate for the default event prices, and Event 3 will use the monthly rates for the default event prices.

Anything in the event field will show under “event name” on the order. If you flag an order as an annual event, you can run an annual event report as a reminder to try to get the customers’ business over and over again.

Because you can set up items to default to event pricing or not default to event pricing, the “Charge All Items Event Rates” check box will force all items on the order to adhere to your event pricing rules, even if some of the items on the order are normally unrelated to special events.

PO & Job Information

The PO/Job Information area allows you to enter Job #’s and PO #’s that your customer provides to you. The Internal Job # field allows you to select internal job numbers that you set up in FocalPoint. The internal job file is located at 5-3 from the main menu.

Tax Information

In the tax information area, you can choose the correct tax code for your order, and if the customer is tax exempt, enter an Exempt ID on the order to render the order tax exempt. If a customer record has already been assigned an Exempt ID, the ID will be carried over from the customer record to the order.

Price Type

The price type field allows  you to select different price type options to show all, some or no pricing on the order. You can set up as many different price types as you wish in the price type file, 3-9 from the main menu.

Authorized User

Use the drop down function to select an authorized user, or change the authorized user if one was selected prior to this point. If adding a new user, a screen will pop up giving you the ability to add information about this user. If you have access to a driver's license scanner, you may scan the customer's driver's license at this point to assist in the data entry process and store a picture of the authorized user.

Options - Layaway

If you check the layaway check box, you will be able to filter out layaway orders in the Edit Existing list screen.

Options - Days Off

Enter a number in this field to be deducted from the total number of days the contract was open. This number reduce the number of days on rent. During the return process, for the number of days that is specified in this field, 24 hours will be removed from the length of rental for rate calculation purposes.

Options - Print by Group

This flag works in conjunction with the order line priority functionality in the group file. For example, if you have items on an order that belong to a group with "order line priority" of "1", and you also have items on an order that belong to a group with "order line priority" of "2" , and you use the "Print By Group" check box on the order header screen, then all items on the order that are in this group will print first, and a "heading" will print with the name of the group on it. Then, all of the "2's" will print with their own heading, and so on.

Sales Split

You can assign up to two salespeople on an order. When splitting commission, Salesperson 1 will get the split percent, and the second salesperson would get the remainder.

Rent to Own

If you flag an order as “rent to own”, the order will monthly bill up until the final payment date has been reached. When the final monthly bill is created, the order will be closed and a new order will not be opened for the next billing cycle.

Monthly Billing

There are three areas of consideration for monthly billing control. The billing cycle represents the number of days in your month with respect to monthly rental rates. By default, this will prefill first by the billing cycle setting in the store manager file, and second by the billing cycle setting in the customer file. This can be changed on an order-by-order basis if needed.

The bill days 1 represents the number of days that will pass before a monthly bill is generated. For example, if your rates are structured so that by the 19th day of a rental, your customer will be charged a monthly invoice, then on the 19th day of the rental, a monthly bill will be generated, either automatically, or manually if this field is set to 19.

If the order is closed between day 19 (in this example) and the last day of the month (as specified in the billing cycle field), the order will be closed for zero dollars.

By default, this will prefill first by the billing cycle setting in the store manager file, and second by the Bill Days 1 setting in the customer file. This can be changed on an order-by-order basis if needed.

The bill days 2 field represents the number of days that will pass before a monthly bill AFTER THE FIRST monthly bill is generated. Aside from this difference, it works just like the Bill days 1 setting. Typically, the bill days 1 and bill days 2 fields will be set to the same number.

“Bill By Month” works completely different from normal monthly billing in FocalPoint. If you flag an order to be “billed by month”, you will only be able to monthly bill it by using the “bill by month” function located at A-B from the main menu.

Here’s how it works.

Let’s say you start an order on the 16th of June.

When you “bill by month”, the first month will bill 14/30ths of the monthly rate for each item, and the next cycle will start on July 1. After the first month, every month will bill the monthly rate, always ending on the last day of the month. The new billing cycle will always start on the first day of the next month.

When you return an order that is flagged to “bill by month”, the same prorating will occur. If you return the order on August 10, FocalPoint will prorate the monthly rate for 10 of the 31 days in August for each item on the order.

History

The history area will show you who created the order and when, along with any cycle billing sequence information.

Notes

You can assign up to two salespeople on an order. When splitting commission, Salesperson 1 will get the split percent, and the second salesperson would get the remainder.

The notes section allows you to enter free form notes that will print on the order.

In the shipping and dispatching tab, you can add, edit, or select a ship to, and add or change your delivery and pickup dates and times. You can also see all dispatching information for the delivery or pickup date you’ve chosen.

You can choose any location that you have set up in the location file, 6-9-B from the main menu. Locations can help you prefill delivery and pickup notes, and you can also use it for the “revenue by location report”, B-B-E form the main menu.

Use the drop down in the ShipTo field to select from ship-to addresses previously entered, or add a new one. Ship to records remain with the customer until you deactivate them, streamlining future order entry efforts for the customer. When ship to functionality is used, the user then has the ability to generate a map from Google Maps or MapQuest on the Additional Header Fields tab.

The information section below the shipping area will reflect any ship to information you chose.

Use the drop down in the Ship Via table to select or add a shipping method to the order.

To set delivery and pickup dates/times and notes, check the “dispatch delivery” and “dispatch pickup” check boxes. Once you do so, you can choose delivery dates and time windows, delivery charges, and on site durations for dispatching purposes. Delivery options can be set up by going to 6-9-C from the main menu to assist with setting delivery and pickup amounts.

At any time you can see dispatch schedules by clicking either of the buttons at the bottom of the shipping and dispatching screen.

The details tab shows all of the rental or sales items already on an order. If you wish to add rental or merchandise items while in this tab, simply click on Add Rental or Add Merchandise. Among other things, you can re-sequence lines by dragging and dropping, or use the re-sequence button to re-sequence by merchandise and rental, or vice versa.

There is both a conventional and a quick-add method to add rental and merchandise items to an order. A flag in the Setup 3 tab of the store manager file named “Quick Add Rental/Merchandise Items” controls which method is used.

With Quick Add enabled, you simply click on the button to add an item, search for it, and the item is added. You remain on the search screen afterwards, and can search for more items and repeat the process. If you want to adjust descriptions, rates, or other options for a line item, you right click on the item and “edit” it after you’re done adding items.

With Quick Add DISABLED, you still click on the button to add an item and search for it, but once you select an item, you are given the opportunity to adjust descriptions, rates, or other options for item before it is added to the order.

The EDIT screen that is used to adjust descriptions, rates, or other options has many options. On this screen you can sell items, view images, and access a web page that you associated with the rental or merchandise item in the rental or merchandise file.

In the general tab of the edit screen, you can change the description of the item for this order, as well as rent dates and due dates if you have items going out at different times.

Rates can also be adjusted on this screen. The Per Unit price can be over-ridden, but only if the Override Pricing checkbox is checked.

If you right click on an item, you can get to the same edit screen that you open by double clicking on the item. You can also start an exchange, start a pickup, void the line, adjust serial numbers on serialized merchandise sales, and edit re-rent information on re-rent items.

On the left side of the screen in the totals tab, you can see where the order currently stands with respect to charges and payments received. The payment history section shows payments already made to this order. If you right click on a payment or use the buttons above a payment, you can capture credit card information, or refund, reverse or void a payment. Similar functionality is available in the Deposits and Security Deposits tab, but you can also use the right click or use buttons to convert deposits to payments or release pre-authorizations.

To take a new payment, go to the new payment tab.  Select any payment type icons on top, and enter the amount received in the “To Process” area. The options you have available below the payment types will vary based on the payment type you select.

In the documents tab, you can attach many different types of documents. If there is a scanner attached to your PC, you can scan right from FocalPoint and attach the scanned document directly to the order. When you Attach or Scan a document from your PC, FocalPoint will copy the document to the server so that all FocalPoint workstations can access the document after it has been added. You may also double click on the attached document to view it.

If you set up custom attachments like damage waiver forms or rain day addendums, you can choose which custom attachments should be included with this particular order.

On the images tab, you can import images from any digital camera that can be plugged into your PC and import images into the outgoing, incoming, damage or misc image folders.