You can either define a product code plus a rental price on the “Machine” master record (the equipment you are renting out), or define a product code on the rental master record.

The product/price combination on the “Rental” record takes precedence over that on the “Machine” record: if a product code/price combination is specified on the machine record, and a product code is specified on the rental record, the product code from the rental record will be used, with the price then being retrieved from the corresponding product record. This rule applies even if the product code on the rental record is the same as that on the machine record.

Let’s take an example: you have rented a bicycle to your customer.

Whether you have specified a product code on the relevant bicycle record or on the relevant hire record (if you have specified a product code on both, the one shown on the hire record will be taken into account), the sales unit will be taken from the product record; this will determine the quantity to be invoiced.

In this case, you rent out bikes by the hour (so you have specified ‘Hour’ or ‘Hours’ in the relevant product code).

• If you are invoicing a hire from 24/08 from 09:00 to 11:00, the quantity invoiced will be 2.
• If you are invoicing a hire on 24/08 from 09:00 to 12:15, the quantity invoiced will be 3.25, corresponding to three and a quarter hours.
• If you are invoicing a hire from 24/08 at 09:00 to 25/08 at 14:00, the quantity invoiced will be 29, corresponding to the total number of hours between these two times.

Here, you are renting out bikes on a half-day basis (so you have specified ‘Half-day’ or ‘Half-days’ in the relevant product code).

In the general settings, you have specified that the standard duration of a day is 8 hours (you consider a half-day to consist of 4 hours).

• If you invoice a hire for 24 August from 09:00 to 11:00, the quantity invoiced will be 0.5. Two hours is half a half-day.
• If you invoice a hire on 24 August from 09:00 to 12:15, the quantity invoiced will be 0.81. Three and a quarter hours is not quite half a 4-hour half-day, but it corresponds to 81 per cent.
• If you invoice a hire from 24 August at 09:00 to 25 August at 14:00, the quantity invoiced will be 3.25. In this case, from 24 August at 09:00 to 25 August at 14:00, this amounts to 29 hours, i.e. 1 day (2 half-days) + 5 hours. However, if a half-day is 4 hours, 5 hours equates to 1.25 half-days.

Here, you are renting out bikes by the day (so you have specified “Day”, “Days”, ‘Day/Person’ or ‘Day/Man’ in the relevant product code).

In the general settings, you have specified that the standard duration of a day is 8 hours.

• If you are invoicing a hire for 24 August from 09:00 to 11:00, the quantity invoiced will be 0.25: two hours, which is a quarter of eight hours.
• If you invoice a hire on 24/08 from 09:00 to 12:15, the quantity invoiced will be 0.38: three and a quarter hours is 38 per cent of eight hours.
• If you bill for a hire from 24 August at 09:00 to 25 August at 14:00, the quantity billed will be 1.625. Here, the duration from 24 August at 09:00 to 25 August at 14:00 is 29 hours, i.e. 1 day + 5 hours; 5 hours = s 0.625 days if a day is 8 hours.

• Hour: Hour(s), Hora(s), Stunde
• Half-day: Half-day(s), Media jornada(s), Halber Tag, Halber Tage
• Day: Day(s), Man-day(s), Day(s), Jornada(s), Tag, Tage

(other units available on request)

ℹ️ Other articles on “Client Invoicing”