Rentpro is a computer software system designed to manage leases and sales for a wide variety of products. Rentpro is an easy to use menu driven system that may be used in single and multi-store operations. It provides internal cash control, inventory control, customer delinquency tracking, flexible security control, and cyclic billing on hourly, daily, weekly, semi-monthly, monthly, and yearly cycles. Rentpro's report generator provides for the ultimate flexibility in creating user-defined reports. Define and name the reports you need for your business, and let your employees print each of those reports by selecting each by name.

The power and flexibility of Rentpro will become more apparent to you as you use it. Listed below are a few highlights:

- Four different kinds of agreements may be created: Rentals, Rent-to-Own, Layaway, and Sales.

- Agreements, payment receipts, and other forms may be completely customized.

- Payments are broken down as cash, checks, money orders, or credit cards.

- Automatic late / reinstatement fees and insurance / damage waiver fees.

- Fast customer, agreement and inventory queries.

- Complete inventory and customer transaction history available on screen.

- Daily operating summaries.

- Advertising and customer agreement profile analyses available.

- Mailing labels / address cards may be customized.

- Reports are customized by the user, and may be printed on the screen, on disk, or on the printer in either fast rough draft mode, or slower letter quality mode.

About This Manual

This manual is designed to explain your options for each of the functions you select in Rentpro, and what Rentpro does as a result of the completion of a particular function. Each of the functions are described in an order you would likely follow the first time you begin to use Rentpro. The keystrokes used to access menu options from the primary menu screen are indicated by the caption headings for these options.

Rentpro is executed by the computer's main operating system called DOS (Disk Operating System). DOS has several commands that may be useful for you, such as FORMAT or CHKDSK. The following paragraphs briefly describe the syntax and usefulness of these two commands; however, this manual is not meant to substitute for your DOS manual. Please consult your DOS manual concerning the features that DOS can offer.

Diskettes purchased in stores are able to be used on different types of computers. In order for your computer to use these diskettes, they must be formatted by your Disk Operating System. Formatting is a process whereby DOS prepares the diskette to save information later. To format a diskette, insert the new diskette into the first drive and lock it down. Exit Rentpro to return to DOS, and enter FORMAT A: to begin the format process. When DOS is finished, it will report the number of bytes that can be saved on the diskette and ask you if you want to format another diskette. If you encounter problems or desire to know more about the format command, consult your DOS manual.

One other command that should be run after power failures, or if the computer was turned off while in Rentpro, is the CHKDSK command. Exit Rentpro to return to DOS and enter CHKDSK /F to check the hard disk where information is saved. The /F parameter causes CHKDSK to fix the hard disk if it finds problems it is able to fix. Often, power surges or failures occur when files are not closed properly, resulting in file corruption. In such situations, the CHKDSK command will report lost clusters. If you are asked any questions when running this command, generally, you should answer N or No. Consult your DOS manual for more information.

Nomenclature

Press / Type - Throughout this manual, these words mean to simply press or type the keys indicated. Pressing a key means to press it down and release it. If you hold the key down longer than a second before releasing it, more than one character will be sent to the computer, which is usually not desired. Do NOT press the Enter key after typing keys indicated this way.

Enter - Throughout this manual, this word means to type the response indicated and then press the Enter key.

Ctrl / Alt / Shift - Keys indicated by preceding the key with Ctrl, Alt, or Shift means to hold the first key down before and while pressing the second key. For example, Ctrl-C would mean to hold the Ctrl (Control) key down first, and while holding it, press the C key one time. Shift-F1 would mean to hold the shift key down when pressing F1.

Answering Yes - Rentpro will often ask a yes or no question. These questions usually end with: (y/n)?. Throughout this manual, answering yes means pressing the Y key, and answering no means pressing the N key.

Amount Forward - The amount forward is the partial payment made on an agreement. It is already taxed income that is received and credited toward the agreement. Successive payments are added to the amount after other charges and taxes are deducted, and when the amount forward equals the rate on the agreement, the payment due date is advanced forward by one pay period, and the amount forward is reset to zero.

Profile

Information - The Profile Information was established at the time Rentpro was installed. This information informs Rentpro how to operate for the way your company does business. Information such as the amount of late fee, the tax rate, etc. is kept in this file.

Default

Information - The Default Information was established at the time Rentpro was installed. This information informs Rentpro what kind of information to use for default values at various prompts. A default value is the answer to a prompt Rentpro will display and use if the user only presses the enter key in answer to a prompt.

Insurance - Throughout this manual, the word insurance may be used to describe the equipment replacement plan, but what is said will usually apply to other types of plans, such as damage waiver, as well.

Payment - The word payment is used to mean the actual amount being posted to an agreement. Tax and charges other than rent are included in the total amount. The phrase "regular payment" refers to an agreement's normal cyclic payment which includes insurance charges and tax. Note the distinction between regular payment and regular rate, which would include only rent.

Rate - The rate refers to the base rental rate for an agreement or a piece of inventory. This is not synonymous with payment in that it does not include any other charges, such as insurance and tax.

Controlling Rentpro through the Keyboard

The keyboard provides program control through the use of alphanumeric keys, editing keys, and program function keys. The alphanumeric keys have letters, numbers, or punctuation characters on them. The editing keys have arrows, or are marked as Insert, Home, Page Up, Page Dn, Delete, End, or Tab, etc. There are ten or twelve program function keys, which are marked as F1, F2, etc. or PF1, PF2, etc.

Three keys can cause keys on the keyboard to act differently if they are held down while a key is pressed. These are marked Shift, Ctrl (Control), and Alt (Alternate). The shift key is probably recognized by those who are familiar with typewriters. Those who are familiar with typewriters should note that the Caps Lock key is not a Shift Lock key as found on many typewriters. Caps Lock causes only letters to be all uppercase. It actually reverses the effect of holding the shift key down for any of the letters, so that if Caps Lock is on, holding the shift key down while pressing a letter will cause a lower case letter to be sent to the computer.

Keyboards usually have a numeric keypad on the right hand side. The numbers are accessed by holding the shift key while pressing the key with the desired number on it. The editing keys are accessed by simply pressing the key. A key marked Num Lock allows switching the effect of holding the shift key. With Num Lock on, pressing the key while holding the shift key causes it to act as an editing key while simply pressing the key sends the number indicated on the key. Note that some keyboards also have separate editing keys between the numeric keypad and the main alphanumeric keys. These keyboards are meant to function best by having Num Lock on and using the numeric keypad for numbers and the separate editing keys for the editing functions.

Answering Rentpro Prompts

The keyboard "talks" to different computer programs in the same way, but the information received from the keyboard may be handled differently by different programs. This section describes the way Rentpro responds to keys. When Rentpro asks the user to answer a question, it will usually suggest a frequently used response called a default value. If the default value is acceptable, simply press the enter key. If it is not the desired answer, change the answer to the correct one. When you press the first character of your new answer, the default value will be erased. If you desire to simply edit the default value without erasing it, press one of the editing keys first, such as cursor right, home, or end, and then edit the field.

The word cursor means the flashing line or block that appears on the screen. The cursor shows you where letters that you type from the keyboard will appear.

The Keys

The following keys function within a particular field:

Cursor

left / right keys move left or right one character.

Home moves to the first character of the field.

End moves to the last character.

Ins toggle insert mode on or off and changes the size of the cursor to indicate which mode is on. A larger cursor means insert mode is on, causing characters entered to be inserted before the character above the cursor.

Del deletes character above the cursor.

Backspace deletes character to left of cursor and moves cursor left one character.

Ctrl-End erases characters from cursor to the end of the line.

Ctrl-cursor

left / right keys moves left or right one word.

The following keys move the cursor out of the current field to another field or screen:

Cursor up / down keys moves the cursor to the previous or next field, i.e., up and down, or left and right.

Tab / Shift-Tab moves the cursor to the previous or next field, i.e., left (Shift-Tab) and right (Tab), or up and down.

F9 / F10 usually moves the cursor to the previous or next field.

Esc escapes out of current screen to the previous screen. If there are no previous screens, Rentpro asks if you want to exit the Rentpro system and go to the Disk Operating System (DOS). This key is normally pressed if you want to abort a particular function you started, or if you are done with a particular function and you want to go back to a menu to select another function.

Enter Key accepts the entered value and goes to the next prompt.

Upper and Lower Case Characters

Some prompts require that the answers be in all uppercase letters. In such cases, Rentpro will automatically convert any lower case letters sent by the keyboard to uppercase, and show an uppercase letter on the screen. Therefore, when answering some prompts, you will note that the Shift Key or the Caps Lock Key has no effect.

Other prompts allow lower case letters. For many of these prompts, increased readability is obtained if the first letter of every new word is capitalized. For example, an address such as 901 North Crenshaw should not be entered as 901 north crenshaw. Rentpro aids the user by automatically capitalizing the first letter of every new word as it is being typed. If for some reason you do not desire the first letter capitalized, backspace over the letter you do not want capitalized and type it again. This time, Rentpro will allow the lower case letter.

Printing Information on the Screen

If you desire to print information that is displayed on the screen, hold the shift key down and press the key marked PrtSc. This will send everything displayed on the screen to printer 1. Some keyboards allow you to simply press Print Screen without requiring the shift key. If you are running under Windows, the Print Screen key will actually copy the screen to the clipboard, which may then be pasted in a word processor and printed from there. Also, there are third party programs available which will make the Print Screen key work like it does in DOS.

Rentpro System Manager

Each company using Rentpro should designate one employee as the computer System Manager. This person will have the highest Rentpro security level possible and will be the contact person for any problems encountered by employees using Rentpro.

Preparing for Installation

Expect to allow two days for the installation of one store system. Both days will involve technical services to setup the software on the computer as well as software training. Please designate one person who will be your computer operations manager. The computer operations manager can be an owner, or a district manager, or a store manager, depending on how large your company is. He should be a trusted individual who can make decisions about how the computer software should be configured, including establishing security protocols for your rental operations. Remember that a computer not only facilitates making it easy and fast to conduct business, but also it allows establishing controls which aid in cutting down on employee negligence and theft. The computer operations manager will be educated in how these controls are established. Additional individuals may sit in on the training and setup procedures, but we would appreciate having one person who is expected to devote their full attention during the installation process, someone we would call with concerns or questions about how we have setup your software. Some companies desire a training session that all their employees can sit in on. Such a training session should be scheduled during the afternoon of the last day of installation. A typical training session can be done in one hour, but you may want to allow two hours to accommodate extensive questions, especially if there are a number of people being trained.

The installation process will involve the following steps:

1. Copying the Rentpro computer program files to your computer.

2. Configuring the hundreds of options in the software to conform to the way that you do business. For example, setting up the tax methods and rates, setting up how late fees are calculated, setting up custom delinquency periods, setting up how damage waiver fees are calculated, etc.

3. Entering inventory and agreement information into the system.

4. Training on how to use the software.

5. Fine tuning configuration settings based upon observations and conversations that occur during training.

6. If time allows, more data entry of inventory and agreement information may be done.

Prior to our installation, you should compile and organize the information concerning existing inventory and agreements. If you are being electronically converted from another system, you should simply print out certain reports that might allow you to spot check that the data was converted successfully. If you are currently on a manual system, then it will be especially important that you organize your information in a way that will facilitate entering the information into the computer. Following are steps that will aid you in that process.

Category Codes

Rentpro allows establishing product lines to aid organizing information on reports in meaningful ways. Each product line is also called a category, and Rentpro uses two character category codes to distinguish inventory items. Following is a sample of how category codes might look:

AW WASHER

AD DRYER

AR REFRIGERATOR

AF FREEZER

AM MICROWAVE

AC AIR CONDITIONER

AV VACUUM

AZ APPLIANCE MISC.

T3 TV-13 INCH

T9 TV-19 INCH

T5 TV-25 INCH

T7 TV-27 INCH

TB TV-BIG SCREEN

TC TV-VCR COMBO

TZ TV-MISC.

V2 VCR 2 HEAD

V4 VCR 4 HEAD

VS VCR STEREO

VZ VCR-MISC.

EC CAMCORDER

ES STEREO SYSTEM

ED CD PLAYER

ET TURN TABLE

ER RADIO/CASSETTE

EZ ELECTRONICS MISC.

FL LIVING ROOM

FS BEDROOM SUITE

FD DINING SET

FB BEDROOM

FC CHAIRS

FO ROCKERS

FR RECLINERS

FT TABLES

FK DESKS

FF FILE CABINETS

FP LAMPS

FZ FURNITURE MISC.

-G VIDEO GAMES

-T VIDEO TAPES

-Z ACCESSORIES MISC.

In this example, the rental company divided the categories into 6 groupings. Each grouping is designated by the first letter of the category code. In this example, “A” is used for appliances, “T” is used for televisions, “V” is used for video tape recorders, “E” is used for electronics, “F” is used for furniture, and “-“ is used for a miscellaneous grouping. The hyphen “-“ has a special meaning to Rentpro, which is to designate categories which should not be counted as BOR (Balance On Rent). Some rental dealers have items which they do not want considered in the BOR statistic. If you have such items, designate them in a product category whose code starts with a hyphen (-).

Your first step for getting information about your inventory is to develop a category code scheme similar to the one above. You simply establish a list of arbitrary descriptions 20 characters or less in length linked with a two character category code made up by you. Most users establish about 40 categories. However, many users will establish only a little more than a dozen categories, while others might have as many as 80. Rentpro does not allow more than 80 categories. It is recommended that you only establish enough categories that are meaningful to you. There are many ways to run reports that key in on other inventory fields for detailed analysis. The category codes are primarily for daily summary information to quickly check the availability of certain product lines and for quickly checking how many are renting for you. Keep in mind that larger grouping will be subtotaled on your daily reports. For example, in the example above, the daily report would total numbers for how many appliances are on rent, idle, etc. as well as totaling for electronics, furniture, etc. Some other groupings used by rental companies include “C” for communications (pagers, cellular phones, etc.), “J” for Jewelry, “L” for lawn and garden, and “T” for tools. Keep in mind that although it is not impossible to change category codes after entering inventory, it might be difficult. A little foresight now in planning how you want to organize the information about your rental items will go a long way toward smoother paths ahead. So please have available for our installer a list of category codes which you feel would be appropriate for your rental company. Remember that you cannot have more than 80 categories, each category description cannot exceed 20 characters in length, and each code should be 2 characters. Remember also that the first letter of each code designates a larger group. Therefore, you should not have one category with a unique first letter for the category code. Feel free to call us with any questions you might have about this.

SKU Rate Control Numbers

Rentpro has an SKU rate control system for two reasons. One reason is that it makes entering inventory items easier. A 7 character code links to product line and rental rate information that can quickly be transferred to the inventory record. This saves a lot of time on typing duplicate information. A second reason for SKU numbers is that it offers a multi-tiered security system. High level people, such as owners, can be the only ones allowed access to the SKU file. Such a person would then establish rental rates and retail prices. A second security level would allow other employees to override the rates established by the SKU, but such overrides would be accompanied by an audit report showing the exception. Lowest level personnel would only be allowed to increase rates but not to decrease them.

These advanced features do not come without a price. The SKU file must be established before inventory may be added. Therefore, in preparing for installation, you also need to devise an SKU numbering system for your current inventory. SKU’s may be easily added and amended later on, but some kind of system should be in place to make future additions easy. Most rental companies establish around 450 SKU numbers. While this might entail quite a bit of work, you need to keep in mind that the added control and easy and speedy entry of inventory later make it worthwhile. If rate control is not an issue for your company, you can simply establish one SKU for each product category. The rental rates can be overridden at the time an agreement is established.

SKU numbers may be from one to seven characters. They may be numbers, letters, or a combination of both, but they should not contain spaces. Some users simply use arbitrary numbers, such as 101, 102, etc. Most, however, use a mnemonic scheme which reveals something about the inventory. For example, a 27 inch stereo television might have an SKU number of TV27S, or a 19 cubic foot refrigerator with an ice maker might be designated as RF19I. Keep in mind that these SKU numbers are primarily for rate control. Therefore, you will have many inventory items with the same SKU number. The thing that would distinguish between whether additional SKU numbers are needed is whether or not the item is in a different category, and whether or not the item has a different pricing schedule.

Suppose, for example, that you have five 20" televisions from Goldstar and three 20" televisions from Sharp and 1 20" television from Samsung, any of which you would rent out at the same price. You could setup a SKU number of TV20 for all nine televisions. There would be one SKU record for TV20, and each time you added a 20" television to your system, you would enter TV20 for the SKU number, and Rentpro would automatically assign the category and rental rates from the SKU file. The actual manufacturer information is not tied to the SKU number, but rather it is entered when the inventory is added to the system.

Following is the kind of information maintained in the SKU file in the order it is entered into the Rentpro system:

SKU#, Category Code, Item Description, Unit Type, Tax Percent, Weekly Rate for Rent to Rent Agreements, Weekly Rate for Rent to Own Agreements, Monthly Rate for Rent to Rent Agreements, Monthly Rate for Rent to Own Agreements, Hourly Rate, Daily Rate, Yearly Rate, Retail Price, Monthly Damage Waiver Rate, Salvage percent for depreciation, Depreciation Term, Monthly Rental Term.

Most of these terms are self explanatory, but Unit Type is specific to Rentpro. There are six unit types:

1. Standard Unit

2. Standard Unit with Sale Charge

3. Pager

4. Pager with Sale Charge

5. Quantity Track Disposition (Rental and Sales)

6. Quantity Track Idle Only (Sales Only)

Most items in a rent to own company will use unit type 1. Unit type 3 was added for allowing specific enhancements to the software which are needed for pagers. The “sale charge” on unit types 2 and 4 allow the system to charge automatically a small sale price at the time a rental agreement is established. For example, a pager may have an initial sale price of $49 and be charged while establishing a rental agreement for the service to that pager. Unit type 5 allows establishing quantity type records. These are records for low cost items where some tracking is desired, but it is unreasonable to track each individual item. For example, if you rent chairs, you may want to know that you have 500 chairs and 100 are on rent, but you don’t care about where each specific chair is. Setting these up with unit type 5 would allow you to do that. One record is made with a quantity indicator of 500. When 100 are rented to a customer, a new record is created automatically to represent the 100 chairs and the original record is modified to reflect that only 400 are now idle. Unit type 6 is a quantity type record that has even less tracking ability. This was designed primarily for items which are not rented. For example, a rental company might rent cellular phones and sell air time for the phone. Air time often is tracked using debit cards for the amount of air time purchased for the phone. Because the debit cards are not ever rented, it might be more desirable to set them up as unit type 6, which would allow them to be sold directly on the payment screen. Rather than creating a new record and linking it to some agreement, the original record is simply decreased to indicate a card has been sold. In this way, idle stock can be easily monitored.

Inventory and Agreements

Once the category codes and SKU numbers are set up, inventory may be added. Following is the kind of information asked for when adding inventory.

Serial Number (17), SKU#, Description (20), Manufacturer, Model (10), Purchase Date, Color (6), Unit Cost, PO Number, Unit Retail, and New or Pre-leased.

You may also add the service cost and rental income earned by the unit at this time, or update this information at a later time. The Manufacturer information is linked to a 2 character code which may be established on the fly at the time the inventory is entered. However, if you have multiple stores, you may want to manage these from the Home Office System and update the stores with the manufacturer information to keep all your stores consistent. Many rental companies establish a policy whereby all inventory units are added through the Home Office System and then transferred to all the stores. This methodology insures consistency throughout the company.

After inventory are added, agreements may be added. Following is the kind of agreement information in the order in which Rentpro prompts for it:

Social Security Number, Social Security Number for spouse, First Name, Last Name, Company or Renter 2, Address, City, State, Zip Code, Primary Phone, Secondary Phone, Agreement Date, Delivery Date, Delivery Time, Number of Payments, Deposit, Tax%, Area Manager, Damage Waiver Plan, Processing Fee, and Delivery Fee.

The Social Security Number is important to Rentpro for linking different agreements to the same customer. If you have not kept this information, you may devise a customer number which would provide a method for Rentpro to know which agreements belong to the same person. This would facilitate posting payments to multiple agreements at one time. The secondary social security number for the spouse is important for bad agreements. By tracking this, a bad customer who sends in their spouse to try and rent from you without paying on their old agreement would be discovered. The system will check the social security number and find the spouse’s agreement which owes money, alerting the employee to the situation.

Summary

So in summary, in preparing for your installation of Rentpro, you should do the following:

1. Devise a list of category codes.

2. Establish a list of SKU numbers for adding inventory.

3. Organize your inventory information to make adding inventory easy.

4. Organize your agreement information to make adding agreements easy.

Starting Rentpro

Most systems are setup to automatically load Rentpro when the computer is turned on. If yours is not, or if you have exited Rentpro to DOS (Disk Operating System), you may start Rentpro from DOS by typing RP. Rentpro will attempt to load overlay files into Expanded Memory if it is available, which will allow Rentpro to run faster. If for some reason you have Expanded Memory but you do not want Rentpro to use it, you may enter RP N to cause Rentpro not to use Expanded Memory.

The Date and Time Prompt

The first prompt that appears when first loading Rentpro is the Date and Time Prompt. The Rentpro Date is set after End of Day Processing is selected, so you will not be able to change the date at this time. The cursor will be at the time field. Make sure the time is set correctly. If you enter the time in military format, and the time is greater than 1200 hours, you will not be asked to enter A or P for A.M. or P.M. You may enter the time using a colon to separate hours from minutes, or you may enter two digits for the hours and two digits for the minutes. For example, 10:00 may be entered as 10, 1000, or 10:00. If you need to change the date, you may either select End of Day Processing and set the correct date after it has completed, or if your security level is high enough (>= Problem Tools Level), you may select the Date and Time function under the Utilities Menu. If your security level is too low, you will only be allowed to change the time. When changing the date, you will not be allowed to enter a date earlier than the current system date.

Employee Log-On

Before using Rentpro, you must log on so that Rentpro knows who you are. This will permit Rentpro to allow you into areas of the program for which you are qualified, and restrict you from areas for which you are not qualified. Normally, new users will be assigned a security level of one.

The System Manager should give each Rentpro user a two-digit employee identification code, and a personal password. The identification code is usually the initial letters of the employee's first and last names. Each employee should be responsible to keep his password secure and not allow other employees to use his code and password. Rentpro will keep a log of what is done and when it is done by the user logged on.

To log on, enter your employee identification code and then your password. If Rentpro finds the employee identification code, you will be allowed to enter a password. If Rentpro cannot find your employee identification code, then either you entered it incorrectly, or your employee identification code has not been initialized by the System Manager. When typing in your password, instead of seeing the characters of your password, you will see a pound sign (#) for each character entered. This prevents anyone from reading your password on the screen. If you entered everything correctly, Rentpro will identify you by name and inform you of your access level. Make sure the information is correct, and press any key to complete the log on procedure.

Logging Off Rentpro

When you are through using Rentpro, it is your responsibility to log off the system by pressing the Esc (Escape) key until you have backed up to the employee log on screen. Otherwise, another employee may use the system under your log on information. If a question arises concerning what was done on the system at that time, the System Manager would be looking for you since the log that Rentpro keeps would indicate that you did the transactions at that time.

If you press Esc at the Employee Log-On screen, Rentpro will ask you if you want to leave the Rentpro system. Answering yes will cause Rentpro to return control back to the computer's disk operating system.

Rentpro has a safety feature if employees forget to log off. After a certain amount of time of keyboard inactivity (usually about 2 minutes), the system will prompt for a password to verify that the last user is still using the system. If the original user is not around, the new user must keep pressing the Escape key to back up screens until they are at the Employee Log-On Screen. Then they may log in as a new user. If the original user is available, he simply needs to enter his password to continue. If the user has a 99 security level, he may press the up arrow instead of the enter key after entering his password, and he will be asked if he wants to temporarily disable the password verification feature. If he answers yes, it will be disabled until the user logs off by backing up to the Employee Log-On Screen.

The amount of time the system waits is set in the profile on line 198. Enter the number of seconds of keyboard inactivity that will cause the password verification screen to pop up. If you want to disable the feature, set the value to 0 (zero).

Rentpro Menu System

The initial screen displays 12 menu options. Four of the options will display sub-menus, while the other options move you into a particular function. An option is selected by pressing the first letter of the option. For example, to select Post Payment, press P. Options that reside on sub-menus may be selected by two keystrokes from the primary menu. For example, to select Add Inventory on the Inventory sub-menu, you first select the Inventory sub-menu by pressing I, and then select Add Inventory by pressing A. The four sub-menus available are: the Agreement Sub-menu, the Inventory Sub-menu, the Report Sub-menu, and the Utilities Sub-menu.

The sub-menus also allow you to highlight the option desired by using the up and down cursor keys and then pressing the Enter key when the desired option is highlighted. When you are first learning Rentpro, this may be an easier method of selecting the function you desire; however, when you become more proficient, you will know the options on the sub-menu and prefer to simply press the letter of the option desired instead of reading the sub-menu.

Security Management Keystrokes: U S

If your security level is high enough, you will be allowed to add, edit, and delete employee information at this screen. Although an employee's security level may allow him access to this screen, an employee may only edit and add employees equal to or lower than his own security level. Rentpro will display a list of employees who may currently log onto Rentpro. The identification code and security levels are listed for each employee. If there are more employees than can be displayed on the screen at once, more of the list may be viewed by pressing the Page Down key. Page Up will move you the other direction in the list. F1 allows you to add employee information, F2 allows you to delete an employee from the file, and F3 allows you to edit employee information. You will not be allowed access to any employee information that has a higher security level than yourself.

The information Rentpro requires for each employee is their name, their identification code used to log on, their security level, and their password. Each employee should have a unique two-digit identification code. Usually, the initials of the employee may be used.

When adding or editing employee information, the passwords are displayed on the screen. Therefore, you should not access employee information when people are present who can read these passwords.

Manufacturer Codes Keystrokes: I M

The manufacturers of inventory are managed by using two character codes instead of manufacturer names. This allows faster input of inventory into the system, and it provides consistency among inventory items of the same manufacturer. The two character codes are entered first, followed by the manufacturer name. If you enter a code that is already used, Rentpro will respond Duplicate Code and expect you to enter a code that is not in use.

To delete an inactive manufacturer code, move the cursor to the code to delete and press the delete key (Del on some keyboards). You will be asked if you want to delete the code: press y for yes, n for no. You may delete any manufacturer codes that are not presently being needed for inventory being added to the system, even though inventory currently exists in the system with that manufacturer code.

The manufacturer codes may be sorted alphabetically by pressing F8. You will be asked if you want to sort the codes: press y for yes, n for no.

Any editing done is automatically saved when you move to the next field. When you are finished editing the manufacturer codes, press Esc to go back to the Inventory Sub-menu. Note that the Escape key does not abort any editing done, unlike its function in other Rentpro procedures. Press Esc two more times to return to the Employee Log-On Screen.

New Sku Number Keystrokes: I N

Sku numbers are used primarily to provide control over inventory rental rates. By assigning various rates (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.) to a single Sku number, inventory added to the system can be assigned a Sku number which determines which rates are to be used for that piece of inventory. This provides several advantages. First, employees adding inventory to the system do not need to have security access to rates on inventory. Setting the rates on inventory can be restricted to higher level personnel. Second, employees adding inventory do not need to know the seven different rates of the inventory they are entering. They can simply enter the Sku number, providing faster input of inventory. Third, mistakes on rates are much less likely since all the rates are keyed to the seven character Sku Number.

The advantages Sku numbers provide for rental rates also apply toward other inventory information. Category codes, retail prices, insurance rates, depreciation term, and salvage percentages are also keyed to Sku numbers and are transferred to the inventory record when a piece of inventory is assigned an Sku number.

Although the Sku number is called a "number," any letters or numbers may be used to designate a seven character Sku number. If you enter an Sku number that is already in use, Rentpro will respond Sku number already exists and expect you to enter an Sku number not in use. What scheme you use to construct Sku numbers is entirely up to you. Some use arbitrary numbers, such as 101, 102, etc., but others use a mnemonic scheme. For example, two 19 CF Refrigerators with different prices, one manufactured by Whirlpool and one by Kenmore, might be given Sku numbers of RF19WP and RF19KM respectively.

Category codes were established when Rentpro was installed. Pressing the F2 key allows you to view the category codes available. If you press enter when the field is empty, a window will appear allowing you to select the correct category code. Or, you may simply enter the appropriate two character category code. The category codes are linked to category (product line) descriptions that are printed on the End of Day Operating Summaries.

Item descriptions should describe the inventory being added. This field is also transferred to the inventory unit when it is given an Sku number; however, the inventory item description may be edited at the time inventory is added. Duplicate item descriptions are allowed.

Because item descriptions are keyed, many users might consider putting more general part of the description first. For example, rather than saying, “Queen Bed”, say “Bed Queen.” Or instead of saying, “25 CF Refrigerator,” say, “Refrigerator 25 CF.” This way, when the item descriptions are listed on the screen, all the Beds and Refrigerators will be grouped together, making them easier to locate. For more information about Sku numbers, see page 8 where Sku numbers are described in preparing for installation.

The Unit Type allows Rentpro to automate numerous functions. There are 6 unit types which may be viewed by pressing enter on the Unit Type when nothing is entered. Use the space bar to clear the field if necessary. Unit Type 1, the Standard Unit, is used for most Rent-to-Own items. This describes a unit for which you desire to track each particular item individually. Unit Type 2 is for adding an additional sale charge at the time of the agreement. This is useful for items which you are selling, but then provide ongoing maintenance for a recurring fee. Unit type 3 identifies that the item is a pager. Unit type 4 describes that the pager will have a sale charge added when an agreement is created. This allows selling the pager, and then providing air time all at the time a single agreement is created. Unit type 5 indicates that the unit is a quantity type item. This means that you are not interested in tracking individual items, but rather blocks of items. For example, suppose you have 500 chairs that you rent out, but you don’t want to track each individual chair. Making the unit type as 5 causes the system to dynamically create new inventory numbers when they are rented. For example, if 25 chairs are rented out, at the time of the rental, a new inventory number is created for the 25 chairs and assigned to the agreement. If this is a rent-to-rent agreement, the next lower inventory number is used so that higher inventory numbers will remain available for other inventory. When the 25 chairs are returned, this new inventory number is changed to a disposed status, and may be deleted when End of Day Processing is done, depending on the setting of line 185 in the profile. Unit type 6 is a quantity type item which is used only for sales. These items do not have inventory numbers created for them when they are sold. The number of items in stock is simply decreased by the amount of the sale. Accessory items like batteries might be set up like this. Also, air time for debit phones may be set to this item type. Note that when these items are sold directly on the payment screen for a rental agreement, the sale income will be credited to the first inventory item on the agreement. This allows tracking, for example, how much air time has been sold to a particular phone.

When entering rates, Rentpro will attempt to suggest a rate (the default rate) based upon rates entered for a different pay period. For example, if you enter 5.00 for the weekly rent-to-own rate, Rentpro will suggest 21.74 for the monthly rate. This figure was derived by multiplying 5.00 times the number of weeks in a month, 4.3482142 (365.25 days per year / 7 days per week / 12 months per year = 4.3482142 weeks per month). Of course you do not need to use this rate. Simply change the default value to the correct value. If you enter zero, Rentpro will change this value back to the default value because normally items are not leased for a zero rate.

If for some reason you desire a rate of zero in some of the fields, delete all characters in the item description field before entering rates. This will cause Rentpro to not change values of zero back to the default value. Default values will, however, still be suggested. Continue on to enter the other Sku information, but do not enter the last field, depreciation term. Instead, press the down arrow key which will move the cursor to the first field, Sku number. Keep pressing the down arrow until you can enter the Item Description. After entering the Item Description, use the up arrow to go back until you can enter the last field.

The retail price will be the amount the unit sells for directly. If Rentpro is configured to do a "same as cash" option, then, and only then, will the retail price be used to determine a cash option amount by subtracting rent received from this retail price.

Equipment replacement plans differ among different companies. Some companies use insurance plans while others use damage waiver plans. Some companies charge a certain amount per unit, while others charge a percentage of the rental rate. If your company charges a percentage of the rental rate, what is entered for the monthly ins / ldw fee is irrelevant since Rentpro will recalculate the proper replacement rate when an agreement is created. However, if you charge a set amount for each unit, enter what the monthly rate would be at the Monthly Ins/LDW Fee Field. When an agreement is created, the fee will be adjusted based upon the pay period of the agreement. For example, if the monthly replacement fee is 2.99, a weekly agreement will use 69 cents for the replacement plan rate (2.99 / 4.3482142 weeks per month = 0.69).

Rentpro uses the values in the Salvage Percent and Depreciation Term for calculating straight line depreciation. The term should be the number of months to depreciate the unit. The depreciation is calculated by the following formula: Amount of Depreciation = ((cost - (cost * salvage percent)) / depreciation term) * age of unit in months. The maximum depreciation amount is (cost - (cost * salvage percent)).

The Monthly Rent Term is used to establish a default term for the item. Like the rental rates, this value may be changed when an agreement is created. If the term is decreased from what is set here, an audit report will be produced for the end of day report.

The Sku number is added when the Enter key is pressed at the last field, depreciation term. If you decide not to add the Sku number, press Esc at any time to abort the procedure and return to the previous screen.

Update Sku Number Keystrokes: I U

Sku numbers may be edited by selecting this option. When you first select this option, Sku numbers are either listed on the screen allowing you to choose the Sku number you desire to edit, or a screen simply asks you for the Sku Number or Item Description. What Rentpro does here is determined by the setting in the profile on line 237. How the query selection list works is described in the next section. A description of the Sku fields shown once a Sku is selected was given in the section above, New Sku Number.

Query Selection Lists

Queries for items such as inventory, Sku numbers, agreements, customer records, etc. usually are accomplished through a Query Selection List. Depending on what is being queried, the screens will look a little different, but they function in pretty much the same way. Items are listed on the screen, and a highlighter bar may be moved up and down with the up and down arrow keys to select the item desired. The order in which the items are listed is identified by the “Sort Key” listed at the top of the screen. This Sort Key may be changed by pressing F3. The default value of the sort key (what it is on when you first pull up the screen) may be changed in the profile.

The list of items may be scrolled by pressing the page up or page down keys. Also, the Home key will move the highlighter to the top of the screen. Pressing the Home key again when the highlighter is already at the top of the screen will cause the list to start at the beginning of the file. Likewise, the End key will move the highlighter to the bottom of the screen, and pressing it a second time will move to the end of the file. To move directly to an item in the list, you may begin typing characters to move to that item. The characters you type are listed at the top left of the screen. You will notice that the screen will not begin searching until you have stopped typing for about one second. If you want to begin the search earlier, such as when you know you are done typing, simply press the enter key immediately as the last character. This will cause the system to search immediately. The amount of time the system waits to begin searching after typing has stopped also may be changed on line 41 in the DEFAULT.DEF file. Each tick is 1/18th of a second, so a value of 18 on line 41 will cause the system to wait about one second. Increase this value to wait longer; decrease it to wait less time.

Add Inventory Keystrokes: I A

Using Inventory Numbers and Serial Numbers

It is important to understand how you plan to track each inventory unit. Rentpro uses inventory numbers as the unique identifier for each unit, but some companies prefer to use serial numbers. It may be better for you to use serial numbers while allowing Rentpro to assign inventory numbers for its own tracking purposes. The advantage of using serial numbers is that letters are allowed, instead of just numbers, and up to seventeen (17) characters are allowed. Furthermore, many units already have serial numbers stamped on them by the manufacturer. What should be kept in mind, however, is that inventory numbers must be unique at each store, while serial numbers may be duplicated. It is possible to enter the same unit into Rentpro twice. If you use primarily serial numbers to track inventory, you should not duplicate serial numbers to prevent confusion when inventory are queried on Rentpro. Rentpro would treat every record of information that has a different inventory number as a different unit, while you would consider two records with different inventory numbers but the same serial number as the same unit. To avoid this loss of control, never enter a duplicate serial number.

If you attempt to enter a serial number that already is assigned to another unit in Rentpro, Rentpro will warn you that you are attempting to enter a duplicate serial number and ask you if you want to do this. You should answer no, and go to the query screen by pressing Esc Q, and query the serial number you attempted to add. The unit already may have been added to the system at an earlier date and transferred out to another store. In such cases, go to the status change screen (from the query screen, enter Esc S) and change the status from transferred to idle. On the other hand, if another unit has the serial number you are attempting to add, you should rectify the situation by assigning a different serial number to the unit. Sometimes this is not possible, so you may enter the unit with the duplicate serial number, but realize the problems you may encounter in attempting to query that unit.

If your company has multiple stores, you should organize a way to assign inventory numbers or serial numbers before they are sent to each store, so that when they are entered into Rentpro, they may be assigned an inventory number or serial number that is unique over the whole company. A workable method is to assign unique serial numbers to each unit and allow Rentpro to assign inventory numbers at each store. If this method is used, the same unit will likely have a different inventory number at each store, but the serial number will be the same. If this is disconcerting to you, then assign inventory numbers to each unit before they are sent to the stores. This may be done manually, in which case the inventory numbers will have to be edited manually when each unit is added to the system, or the inventory may all be received at one store (or home office) and transferred through disk transfer to each store. In this manner, each unit will have the same serial number and same inventory number at all stores.

Adding Inventory Screen

When a new piece of inventory is added to the system, it is assigned an inventory number. The new inventory number is the next number larger than the largest number used thus far. The cursor will appear first at the second prompt, the prompt for the serial number of the unit, with the inventory number field shown to the left of the serial number field. If you desire to assign a specific inventory number to the unit, you may do so by moving to the inventory number field by using the up arrow key or the shift tab key. However, if you assign a different inventory number, you should be aware of several things. First, duplicate inventory numbers are not allowed. Rentpro will inform you if you attempt to use an inventory number that has been assigned to another unit. Second, if you assign an inventory number larger than the largest one available, successive inventory information added into Rentpro will be assigned numbers consecutive from this larger number. Therefore, inventory numbers in between will either not be used, or have to be entered manually. It is possible to cause problems if a very large number is used. Although inventory numbers could be higher than 2 billion, the current screen only supports 5 characters. If 99999 were entered for an inventory, 100000 would be the next number assigned causing problems if on-screen editing of the number were desired.

It may be advantages to keep all the serial numbers the same length if possible. For example, make a serial number of 354982 the same length as the largest serial number of 49283938 by padding the first number with zeros: 00354982. The advantage to this allows inventory sorted by serial number to be in numeric as well as alphabetic order. Serial numbers are sorted alphabetically, so that serial numbers of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 would appear in the order 1, 10, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, whereas serial numbers of 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10 would appear as 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10.

After entering the serial number, enter the Sku number. Rentpro will retrieve the rates, retail price, category code, item description, and depreciation information keyed to this Sku number and add the information to the record for this unit. If your profile information indicates that automatic discounts are desired for units pre-leased beyond a specified time period, the rates tied to the Sku number will be discounted by the specified percentage before they are transferred to the unit's record. Rentpro will inform you if it could not find the Sku number. You may list the Sku numbers available by pressing F1.

Next, you may edit the item description if you desire. Press the enter key without entering anything to keep the displayed description and go to the next prompt, manufacturer code. To list the manufacturer codes available, press F3. A manufacturer code must be entered. The model number may be entered next, followed by the purchase date. The purchase date is used for depreciation, so it is usually the date when the unit came into the store, but some companies may use the date when the bill for the unit was paid. The color of the unit may be entered next. This is simply another descriptor of the unit and has no special purpose in Rentpro so it may be left blank, or you could enter some other kind of information here if you desire. The cost of the unit may be entered next. The cost is used for depreciation so it should be entered; however, Rentpro will allow inventory to be added without entering cost because some companies consider this sensitive information that the store personnel should not be able to access. Rentpro provides security levels to protect this information.

The next field may be labeled Trust Receipt No., Purchase Order No., or Invoice Number, etc. depending on the profile information. This also may be considered sensitive information, so Rentpro allows it to be left blank when inventory is added. The next field asks whether or not the unit is new or pre-leased. Some states in our country require this information, and some companies give discounts for pre-leased equipment. Rentpro may be configured to give automatic discounts at the time an agreement is created for equipment marked as pre-leased. If a unit is returned or repossessed, the new or pre-leased field will automatically be set to pre-leased.

The last field asks whether or not the unit was transferred. Normally, transferred inventory should be transferred by using diskettes that transfer all the information over, eliminating the need to use this screen for adding transferred inventory. However, it is possible that the store from which the inventory was transferred did not have Rentpro when the units were transferred, or the diskette may have been damaged or lost. Answering yes to this prompt allows you to enter the store number from which the unit came, and to enter any service cost and rental income associated with the unit.

Query Inventory Keystrokes: I Q

If line 236 of the profile indicates to list inventory for queries, then the inventory will be listed on the screen and selected as described on page 16 concerning Query Selection Lists. If line 236 indicates not to list inventory, then a window will appear allowing you to enter either an inventory number or a serial number.

When using the non-list method of query, there are two search modes possible when you do the query: Exact Match and = or > (equal to or greater than). If a unit is not found in the exact match search mode, Rentpro will respond that it could not find the unit desired. In equal to or greater than search mode, Rentpro will display the first unit equal to or greater than the inventory number or serial number entered. Once a unit is displayed, you may move forward or backward through the file by inventory number or by serial number. F1 and F2 moves backward and forward by inventory number respectively; F3 and F4 moves backward and forward by serial number respectively.

All of the information for a particular unit is called a record, and all the records comprise a file. You may think of the F1 and F2 keys as moving you through a file that has all the records sorted by inventory number, with the lowest inventory numbers on top. If you queried by inventory number or have pressed F1 or F2 after the query, pressing the up arrow key (or Page Up Key) will move you toward the top of the stack, i.e., toward lower inventory numbers, while pressing the down arrow key will move you toward the bottom of the stack toward higher inventory numbers. If you queried by serial number or pressed F3 or F4 after the query, the up and down arrow keys work similarly on serial numbers.

Since inventory numbers may only be numbers, they will be sorted numerically. However, serial numbers allow characters and are sorted alphabetically, not numerically. Therefore, serial numbers of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 will be in the order 1, 10, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. If serial numbers were all entered with the same number of digits, then the alphabetic sort would be the same as the numeric sort. For example, if the list of serial numbers above were entered as 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10 then the sorted order also would be 01, 02, ... 09, 10.

Most of the information displayed for queried inventory is self-explanatory. A few of the fields need explanation. The time the unit spent on a particular status is displayed in weeks. The time spent is actually recorded in days but converted to weeks when it is displayed on the screen. More precise information of this type may be obtained at the inventory report menu.

The earned income of a unit is the rental income of a unit added to its sale amount. To display a list of transactions for a queried unit, press F5. Reversed transactions are not displayed unless they are the last transactions on an agreement, in which case they are labeled as VOID. The reference number indicated for each transaction may be used at the transaction report menu to view more information for a particular transaction. If your security level is high enough, you may erase the unit or edit certain inventory fields by pressing F6. If you are allowed to erase the unit, the screen will display the option F6 - Edit/Erase. Pressing F6 will first give you the option to erase the record. If you respond no, you are then allowed to edit the record.

Reservations Keystrokes: I R

Reservations utilize a separate file system designed to allow tracking future need of equipment. Note that a reservation also can be created by going to the customer file. Establishing a reservation allows taking a deposit and printing out a reservation receipt. Deposits are managed by the customer file and are lumped together with other deposits the customer might make. No restrictions are currently in place to forbid renting out items that have been reserved. The system is primarily meant right now to allow printing out reports showing what items are reserved and it is expected that the user will determine what he can or cannot rent out based on the reports he runs.

New Agreement or Sale Keystrokes: N

The first prompt asks what type of agreement to create. Four different agreement types are possible: R = Rental, O = Rent-to-Own, L = Layaway, and S = Sale. Layaway agreements are rental agreements that can automatically deposit amounts paid above the normal rental payment into a deposit/layaway agreement. Rental and Rent-to-Own agreements also may have deposits made on them, but it is not done automatically. Rent-to-Own agreements are rental agreements that allow the leaser to purchase the equipment he is leasing at any time during the term of the lease. A Sale expects a single payment to purchase the equipment, but Rentpro will allow any number of payments to be posted to the agreement. Initially, a sale agreement has a status of I (Invoice), but the status is changed to P (Paid) when full payment has been received.

The next prompt asks for the pay period of the agreement: Y=yearly, M=monthly, S=semi-monthly, W=weekly, D=daily, H=hourly, and N=not applicable (such as for a sale). After answering this prompt, you may begin to enter the inventory assigned to the agreement.

The number of inventory assigned to a single agreement is not limited. Inventory may be assigned by inventory number or by serial number. Press the Enter key without entering any information, or press tab, up arrow, down arrow, etc. to toggle back and forth between the inventory number field and the serial number field. Before entering inventory, you should look at the status of the F2 and F3 keys listed at the bottom of the screen. F2 should say either "Keep Rate" or "Adjust Rate." Pressing F2 will switch back and forth between "Keep Rate" mode and "Adjust Rate" mode. When the F2 status shows "Adjust Rate," the cursor will move to the inventory rate field after an inventory number or serial number has been entered. The rate may be adjusted higher by any security level, and lower if your security level is high enough. If a rate is adjusted lower, an audit trail of the rate change will be sent to Home Office and printed on the End of Day Summary Report. When in "Keep Rate" mode, the cursor will go to the next inventory number or serial number desired. If you need to go back to a previous field, press the up arrow or shift-tab key.

The F3 key toggles between Carry-In Service and In-Home Service (or between some other type of surcharge program that may be specific for your company). When the F3 status displays In-Home Service, a surcharge will be added to the displayed rate after the enter key is pressed to allow entering of the next inventory item.

If at any time you need to leave the agreement screen to do another function, such as posting a payment, you may do so without loosing the information you have already entered. Simply press the Esc key. When you return to the New Agreement or Sale screen, the default values will be the information you were entering.

When you are done assigning inventory to the agreement, you may begin entering the agreement information by pressing F1. Enter the first name, last name, address, apartment, city, state, zip code, and phone. The last name should be the name you would query the agreement by if you did not know the agreement number. The first name may be any kind of descriptor since it is not used in queries. The city, state, and zip should have default values that are the most frequently used answers by your company. Change the default values to the correct answers if the particular agreement you are entering differs.

Rentpro requires three dates for the agreement. First, the agreement date is the date the agreement is formed by the leaser signing the lease. Second, the delivery date is the date of the actual delivery, which may be the same as or later than the agreement date. The delivery date is the commencement date of the lease. All charges for an agreement begin on this day. Third, the first due date is the first day the customer desires to be due. This allows subsequent payments to be due on a particular day or date. For example, a weekly agreement may always desire to be due on Friday, or a monthly agreement may desire to always be due on the first of the month. If the first due date is different from the delivery date, Rentpro will add a per diem rent charge to the agreement so that the first payment will be more than the agreement's regular payment.

Next, the term (number of payments) of the agreement is entered. Entering a zero (0) will cause the agreement to be indefinite and no ending date for the agreement will be set. Any other entry causes an ending date for the agreement to be set and displayed.

The area manager code is entered next. Some companies break up their agreements among area managers for collections. A two character code may be entered here for the area manager so that reports may be sorted and printed for each area manager. The code may be numbers, or they may be letters, such as initials of the area manager, or the employee code of the area manager.

The next prompt asks if the agreement should be placed on automatic insurance plan. Answering yes causes the regular payment to include the insurance for the inventory assigned to the agreement. If you answer no, you may still collect insurance by debiting the agreement for it before posting a payment.

On some systems there may be one or two more prompts: 1) Do you want to charge an application fee, and/or 2) Do you want to charge a delivery fee. Most systems are configured not to ask these questions.

After answering the last prompt, Rentpro will ask you to press + to complete the agreement, or Esc to abort. Pressing + will save the new agreement on disk and print the agreement for it. Pressing Esc does not complete the agreement. The information you entered will come up as the default values for the next agreement, allowing you to easily re-enter the agreement information if needed.

After pressing the + key, Rentpro attempts to print the agreement. If you pressed the + key and the printer was not ready, Rentpro will respond with an I/O (Input/Output) error and ask you to press any key to continue. After reading the error message, you may press any key. Rentpro will then ask if you want to print the agreement again. You may reset the printer and attempt to print the agreement if you desire. If you press Esc or answer N at this point, the agreement will not be printed, but the agreement already has been entered into Rentpro. Do not enter the agreement again without deleting the first agreement by going to the Transaction Reversal screen.

Some systems will be configured to print a delivery ticket after printing the agreement. Rentpro will continue asking you if you want to print the delivery ticket until you answer no.

Rentpro allows advertising and customer profile information to be entered for analysis. This information is not entered at the New Agreement or Sale screen because this information is not pertinent for an agreement and would slow down the time it would take to create an agreement. To enter this information, go to the Query Agreement screen and press F7, More Information. Customer profile information will be displayed. Press F1 to edit this information. The fields are explained on page 27.

Ledger Card Keystrokes: A L

Some companies maintain a current ledger card for each agreement, as kind of a manual hard card backup of every transaction. These cards usually are printed after creating an agreement. After selecting the agreement, you will be presented with three prompts. The first prompt asks if you want to print a new ledger card. Answering yes causes Rentpro to print all the customer information at the top of the ledger card. Answering no causes Rentpro to print only the transaction information itself. The second prompt asks: Print R)ef. #, L)ast, A)ll, or N)o transactions? Answering R will cause Rentpro to print the transaction associated with the reference number entered at the next prompt. Answering L causes Rentpro to print the last transaction for the agreement. Answering A causes Rentpro to print all transactions for an agreement. Answering N causes Rentpro not to print any transactions. Unless you answer R to this second prompt, the third prompt will be skipped.

Post Payment Keystrokes: P

All money received for an agreement is posted at this screen. Agreements may be accessed by agreement number or last name. Press tab, up arrow, etc. to toggle between the agreement number and name field. If you enter a last name that is on more than one agreement, Rentpro will beep and inform you that duplicate names exist. Look at the name and agreement number to be sure it is the name and agreement number you desire. If not, press F8 to view other agreements with the same last name. When the last agreement with the queried last name is reached, pressing F8 again will cause Rentpro to beep and display a message indicating that it has returned to the first name it found.

You will notice at the top of the post payment screen a menu of six function keys. Pressing a function key will provide the function listed by its name. Generally, you should press these function keys before accessing an agreement, but they may be pressed at the Amt to Post and Amt Tendered fields as well. Posting payments may be done over the counter when payments are received by the customer, or different types of payments may be grouped together for processing. For example, all checks may be grouped together, all money orders together, etc. These may be further subdivided into those having late charges waived, etc. Then, for each group of payments, the correct settings are set using the function keys.

Press F1 to change the date. You may select a date earlier than the current date to double date a transaction. However, note that charges will still be assessed to bring the agreement up to the current date. You may select a date later than the current date to assess charges that will bring the agreement up to the date entered. The transaction will not be double dated, but rather, it will be dated with the current system date shown at the top of the screen.

Press F2 to change the type of payment. Payments may be cash, check, money order, credit card, or misapplied payment. If your security level is high enough, you may also select non-cash adjustment which is a non-taxed credit to the agreement for the amount entered. A non-cash adjustment is referred to by some companies as free time. The non-cash adjustment credits the agreement much like an actual payment, but the cash drawer is unaffected, and the credit fields for actual rent on the agreement are unchanged. The agreement information does track the amount of non-cash adjustments, and the end of day summary sums all the non-cash adjustments done during the day, month, and year for control purposes.

The F3 key allows you to select the cash drawer to which the payment will go. F4 allows you to either assess or waive late charges that are due. Note that if F4 shows assessed, then late fees are only assessed if late fees are due. Normally F4 should show assessed for all agreements, unless you specifically want to force a waiver. F5 chooses whether to assess or waive insurance charges. Again, insurance is assessed only if the agreement is set up to charge insurance, and if insurance fees are due. If you waive any late or insurance fees, a record of the amount waived is kept with both the agreement and the End of Day Summary Report for that day.

The F6 key allows you to switch to a fast batch processing mode. If you post payments by agreement number that are received in the mail, it may be faster to post payments through fast batch processing. Rentpro will show you very little information about the agreement. Instead, it will expect you to enter an agreement number, after which it will display the first and last name for that agreement number. Then it will expect the amount to post and immediately post that amount when the enter key is pressed. Generally, payments will not be posted this way because it is easier to make mistakes because the next due dates and accumulated charges are not shown for the agreement. However, fast batch processing may be much faster and more efficient if your company stictly follows that automated billing Rentpro provides.

With fast batch mode off, Rentpro will display agreement information. The first and last name, the address, the city, state, and the zip code are displayed. Below the city, state and zip code is the status of the agreement, followed by the letter code for the agreement type, the normal rate, and the pay period. The top three fields to the right of the name and address show 1) how much is on deposit for this agreement, 2) any partial amounts collected toward rent (tax already has been collected for this partial payment amount), and 3) the payment due date. Below these three fields is the rent, tax, late fees, insurance fees, and other charges due on the agreement. A break down of the other charges is shown to the left under the name and address.

Enter the amount to post to the agreement at the Amt to Post field. The default value will be the regular payment expected on the agreement. If the agreement is a Rent-to-Own agreement and the amount entered is equal to or greater than the cash option amount for that agreement, you will be asked if you want to close the agreement by cash option. If you answer Y and the amount you had entered is greater than the cash option amount, the entire amount will still be posted to the agreement. The next field, Amt Tendered, is for entering the amount received. Rentpro will change this Amt Tendered to the amount of change due (the amount tendered - the amount to post) when the enter key is pressed. After entering this last field, Rentpro will display how it applied the posted amount toward the various charges. In addition, the new amount on deposit or layaway, the new amount forward (partial payment amount), and the new payment due date will be displayed. If Rentpro is handling the payment as you desire, press the + key as indicated to post the payment. Pressing Esc at this point would abort the procedure.

After pressing the + key, depending on how Rentpro is configured for your company, you may be prompted to enter a line number for the ledger card. Rentpro will attempt to keep track of the next available line number for each agreement, but the line number must sometimes be altered. If you desire to skip printing the ledger card, press Esc. Transactions will be saved on disk, and ledger cards showing these transactions may be printed at any time. Again, depending on how Rentpro is configured for your company, you may be prompted to press + to print the receipt. Press Esc if you wish not to print a receipt. Sometimes it is desireable not to print a receipt, such as when payments are received in the mail. However, some companies may have Rentpro configured not to prompt for a receipt, but to print the receipt every time a payment is posted.

Debiting Other Charges at the Post Payment Screen

Other charges may be debited directly on the payment screen by pressing F7 before pressing Enter at the last field, Amt Tendered. Pressing F7 once shows a menu of options that varies, depending on your security level and the type of agreement you have accessed. Pressing M allows you to modify the address and / or the other charges. If your security level is high enough, you could decrease other charges as well. The up arrow key / down arrow key, and the tab / shift-tab keys can maneuver you through the different fields. Note that unlike at the Debit Agreement procedure, a separate transaction for the debit is not posted. Only a payment posted transaction is made.

Modifying an Agreement's Address

The address and phone number for a customer's agreement may be changed directly on the post payment screen by pressing F7 and then pressing M. The procedure is the same as for debiting the agreement. Use the up arrow key to move to the address field or phone number field.

Due Date Change

The due date of an agreement may be changed when posting a payment by pressing F7 to display the options menu, and then pressing D for Due Date Change. Rentpro will ask for the new due date and automatically assess the necessary rent to advance the next due date to the date entered. When attempting to change the next due date, the full amount due plus the per diem amount needed to adjust the date must be collected.

Closing an Agreement by Cash Option

A rent-to-own agreement may be closed on the payment posting screen by posting the payment as a cash option. This is done by selecting F7 to display the options menu. The menu displayed should list C)ash Option and the cash option amount needed should be displayed (note that the amount needed for cash option also may be queried at the Query Agreement screen by pressing F7 - More Information). If your security level is high enough, another option will be listed that allows you to over-ride the cash option amount. If the user over-rides the cash option amount and the new cash option amount is less than what Rentpro calculated, an audit report of the transaction will be generated. Note that attempting to post a payment equal to or greater than the amount needed to complete a cash option will cause Rentpro to ask you if you wish to close the agreement by cash option.

When completing a cash option, the agreement status is changed from A - Active, to P - Paid. The amount of rent is updated to include funds needed to bring the agreement current, and any remaining amount is added to the sold amount field on the agreement. The inventory status is changed from C - Customer assignment to O - Owner for each unit assigned to the agreement. In addition, the rental income collected for units will be increased if full rental payments were received. The sold amount associated with each unit also will be increased. If all the units assigned to the agreement have a retail sale price, the sold amount will be the fractional amount that each retail sale price represents out of the sum of the retail price of all the units. If one or more of the units do not have a retail price, then the fractional amount that the inventory rate represents out of the sum of the rates of all the units will be used to increase the sold amount associated with the unit.

How Charges are Assessed on an Agreement

All agreements may have the following charges debited: Rent, Late Fees, Insurance Fees, Trip or Delivery Fees, NSF Charges, Damage Fees, Deposit or Layaway Charges, and Miscellaneous Charges. Debiting any of these charges increases the total amount due from an agreement. Besides adding up these debited amounts for a total due, Rentpro may assess additional charges automatically based upon the payment due date if the agreement has a status of A (Active), I (Invoice), H (Hold), or K (Skip).

The types of charges that may be assessed automatically are rent, late fees, and insurance fees. Rentpro simply calculates the number of rental payments needed, late fees needed, and insurance fees needed to bring the agreement current. Note that each of these charges have their own next due date. The payment due date or next due date is the due date for rent. If a partial payment is received, the late charge next due date and/or the insurance next due date may be advanced while the payment due date is not advanced. Therefore, it is possible to have agreements that show delinquent, as indicated by the payment due date, but are not showing assessments for an automatic late fees. This is because the late fee was paid already, advancing the late charge next due date beyond the payment next due date.

Debit Agreement Keystrokes: A D

This function is used to assess charges on an agreement. Charges also may be debited directly on the Post Payment screen (see page 25).

After the agreement is queried, three column of numbers are displayed. The first column shows the amounts debited already. The second column contains the editable fields of the new amount to debit. The third column shows the total of columns one and two. If your security level is high enough, you may enter negative numbers to decrease the amount of debit for a field.

The numbers to the right of the fields rank the charges in the order in which they will be paid when payments are made. This is meaningful only if partial payments are made. If the word "Taxed" appears to the right of the number, that means that additional tax charges will be computed based upon the value of this field.

Note that payments are not received on this screen. This screen only adds charges to an agreement which will be paid later at the payment screen.

Query Agreement Keystrokes: Q

Depending on the profile setting for line 169, agreements may be listed on the screen according to the description on page 16 concerning Query Selection Lists. If the setting on line 169 indicates not to use the Query Selection List, then a window will appear allowing agreements to be queried by agreement number, last name, or social security number. Rentpro uses an advanced B+ tree structured algorithm to provide extremely fast queries. The search modes provided are identical to those discussed on page 19 for querying inventory, so they will not be repeated here. The agreement file may be browsed forward or backward by agreement number, social security number, or last name by pressing F1 or F2 respectively. The up arrow, shift-tab key, and page up keys work like F1, and the down arrow, tab, and page-down keys work like F2.

Pressing F3 allows you to change the key by which the browsing is done. For example, if you originally queried by last name and now want to move to the next agreement number, press the F3 key until Act Number is displayed.

F5 will display the inventory associated with active agreements. F6 will display the transactions that have occurred on the agreement.

Most of the information displayed for queried agreements is self explanatory. The two columns marked NOW DUE and PAID display the amount of charges currently being assessed and the amount of money collected, respectively. Note that the NOW DUE column does not show the total amount of money ever debited, but it displays the total charges currently due on the agreement. To view a breakdown of other charges, press F7 - More Information. Customer profile information is displayed, along with a break down of other charges near the end. The debit column is on the left and the credit column on the right, as on the main query screen.

Following is a description of the information displayed when the F7 key is pressed:

Cash Option

Total Due - The total amount needed to pay-out an agreement. This amount equals the sale price plus rent, late fees, tax and any other charges due.

Cash Option

Sale Price - The sale price of inventory for a Cash Option.

Term Credit - The number of full payments received.

Age - Age of Customer in Years.

Dependents - Number of children.

First Year at

Residence - The year the customer moved to his current residence.

Hired Year - The year the customer was hired at his current job.

Occupation - Occupational Code.

A = Professional / Technical

B = Farmer

C = Manager / Official

D = Clerical

E = Sales

F = Skilled

G = Operative

H = Domestic / Service

I = Laborer

J = Clergy

K = Teacher

L = Homemaker

M = Military

N = Self-employed

O = Retired

P = Non-wage Earner

Q = Other

Hired Year of

Spouse - Year in which Spouse of Customer was hired at current job.

Occupation of

Spouse - Occupational Code, using codes listed above.

Joint Monthly

Income - Combined income rounded to the nearest whole number.

Damage Waiver /

Insurance - Code for damage waiver or insurance. N = No insurance, D = Damage Waiver as a percent of rate, I = Insurance as a constant charged amount. Note that some companies may use a fixed amount for damage waiver rather than a percentage of the rate. These companies should enter I, not D, to put a customer on the Damage Waiver plan.

Tax Exempt Status - Some customers may be exempt from taxes. Enter Y at this field if the customer is tax exempt and no taxes will be charged for that agreement.

Advertising Source - Advertising Source Code.

R = Referral from another customer

F = Former Customer

N = Newspaper

O = Other

C = Current Customer

B = Broadcast Radio

T = Television

W = Walk-in

Y = Yellow Pages

M = Mailer

D = Door Hanger

S = Sign

1-9 = Misc. Categories 1 thru 9

Mailing List - Code for sending mailings. Y = Yes, send mail. N = No, don't send mail.

Current/Former/New - C = Current Customer

F = Former Customer

N = New Customer

Own/Rent House - O = Own House

R = Rent House

House Payment - Monthly House Payment

SSN - Social Security Number

Trip - Trip charges, column 1 = amount due, column 2 = amount collected to date.

NSF - Not Sufficient Funds for check. Column 1 = amount due

Column 2 = amount collected

Damage - Damage Charges

Column 1 = amount due

Column 2 = amount collected

Misc. - Miscellaneous Charges

Column 1 = amount due

Column 2 = amount collected

Editing Name, Address, and Customer Profile Information

After pressing F7 (More Information) at the main Query screen, you may press F1 if you desire to edit the customer profile information. If you desire to edit the name, address, phone number, area manager code, or insurance rate, press F2. If your security level is high enough, you also may change the agreement number of an agreement at this screen. Note that the address information also may be edited directly at the Post Payment screen (see page 25).

Merchandise Returned Keystrokes: M

Use this option to terminate a lease by returning all the equipment assigned to an agreement, or to return some of the merchandise on an active agreement. When the agreement is selected, the agreement number, name, and the address for the agreement will be displayed. The function of the first four function keys also is displayed. If the agreement is not paid current, Rentpro will beep and notify you with a message, "Agreement Not Paid Current." The number of days the agreement is not paid current is displayed, as is the current rate of the agreement. A per diem charge for each unit returned will be made based upon this rate and the number of days for which to collect rent. If the agreement is on the insurance plan, a per diem charge will be made for this amount as well. However, if no money has ever been posted on the agreement, the agreement is considered a cancellation and no rent charges will be assessed. Note that initially, the rent charges displayed may be a negative number. This is the amount forward, the amount of credit the agreement has for partial payments.

If you need to double date the transaction, press F1 to change the date. If the units being returned were repossessed, press F2 so that the status displayed is Repossessed. If the units were returned voluntarily by the customer, press F2 so that the status displayed is Returned. The units returned will receive the status indicated on the screen by the F2 - Status field.

Next to each unit returned, press Y. If the agreement is not paid current, Rentpro will beep and notify you that charges were assessed. The rent charges field will increase to the total rent amount the agreement will be debited, and the insurance field will increase to the total insurance amount the agreement will be debited.

To terminate the agreement, press F3. To return only the marked units and leave the agreement active, press F4. If the rent and insurance charges displayed were greater than zero, the agreement is debited by the amounts indicated. Money collected for this debt needs to be posted at the Post Payment screen.

Transaction Reversal Keystrokes: T

Transactions may be reversed for the same day on which they were made. If you made a mistake when posting a payment or creating an agreement, etc., pull up the agreement at this screen. Rentpro will display the last active transaction posted to this agreement and ask you to press the + key if you want to reverse the transaction. If you do not desire to reverse the transaction, press Esc to abort the procedure.

If the transaction involved inventory that were returned, the units potentially could have been assigned to another agreement. Therefore, Rentpro either will not allow you to reverse this kind of transaction, or if your security level is high enough, Rentpro will allow you to do the reversal, but you will be warned of the problem so you may decide for yourself if you would be creating a bigger problem by reversing the transaction.

Inventory Status Change Keystrokes: I S

This option is used to change the status of inventory. For example, units may be posted as stolen, put on display status, or transferred to another store. Rentpro will display the current status and list in parentheses the possible new statuses. If you need to change the posting date, press the up arrow key to access the date field. In the new status field, enter the new status desired and press Enter. Press + to complete the transaction. Depending on what status is being changed, Rentpro updates the appropriate status time fields (number of days on a certain status) and changes the status of the unit.

If a unit is being transferred back in by this method, Rentpro will ask for the store number from which it came, the total rental income earned by the unit, the service cost, whether the unit is new or pre-leased, and the number of days it has been pre-leased. The number of days it has been pre-leased is kept track of so that Rentpro may determine whether the unit qualifies for an automatic discount.

A unit's status may be changed to D to mark it as deleted or disposed. This may be desireable if you want to dispose of inventory but not erase its information from the data base. A unit with status D is not processed for summary information during the End of Day processing and may be excluded from reports by virtue of its D status. If you don't need to retain information on a unit, you may elect to erase the record to conserve disk space, as indicated on page 20. When a record is erased, the record for it is cleared and used for new inventory before adding new records to the data base.

Status Codes for Inventory

B = Bought / Sold

C = On Rent to Customer

F = On Floor / Display

I = Idle Inventory

L = Loaner (On Loan to Customer)

O = Owner (Paid-out)

P = Stolen

S = In Service

T = Transferred

D = Deleted / Disposed

Disk Transfers Keystrokes: I D

Rentpro allows writing to diskette the inventory information for units being transferred to another store. The diskette should travel with the units. The Rentpro system at the store receiving the units will read the diskette for inventory information. A listing of the units being transferred or received may be printed using the print screen function, or by configuring a transaction report for them, as described on page 84.

This diskette procedure increases inventory control in that units that were transferred from a store to another can be received only by the store to which it is transferred. Also, users cannot make mistakes typing incorrect information. Rentpro also will allow manual entry of transferred units, but less information is transferred to the new store, and the possibility exists that the store from which the unit came indicates a different store for the transferred item.

Before using this function, the inventory should be transferred to the appropriate store using the status change option discussed on page 31. Once all the inventory being transferred out have been entered at the Status change screen, access this function to write all of the changes on the diskette that will travel with the transferred units.

The disk transfer screen displays a sub-menu. The first option allows listing the inventory that will be written to the diskette. If all the transfers were entered on the same day, selecting this first option should list them. If you need to include transfers that were entered earlier than the same day of business, you should change the starting transaction reference number to the transaction reference number of the first transfer to list.

To begin writing the information to the diskette, place a diskette in the disk drive and select the third option, Write Transfers to Disk. If the diskette was previously used to transfer other units, that information will be erased when the current units are saved on the diskette. Rentpro will list the units it saves on the diskette. When Rentpro is finished, the diskette is ready to be sent to the new store.

When receiving transfers, place the diskette in the disk drive, and select Read Transfers from Disk. Rentpro will read the information on the diskette and list the units it is adding or updating to the system. The steps Rentpro uses to determine whether to add or update inventory is as follows: First, Rentpro looks for a unit with the same inventory number in its data files. If such a unit is found, Rentpro examines its serial number, model number, manufacturer code and category code to see if they match the unit being transferred. If so, Rentpro will update the following information: inventory status is changed to I (Idle), idle date is set to the current system date, the transfer from field is set to the store number from which the unit was transferred, the purchase date is updated only if it was not previously set, the field for the number of days the unit has been rented is updated, the field for the number of days the unit has been idle is updated, the field for the number of days the unit has been transferred is updated, the last transaction date is set to the current system date, the number of days stolen is updated, the number of days the unit has been serviced is updated, the number of times the unit has been serviced is updated, the new or pre-leased flag is updated, the service cost is updated, the rental income is updated, the inventory cost is updated only if it was not previously set, the trust receipt number (may be termed purchase order number or invoice number on your system) is updated only if it was previously not set, the in-store date is set to the current system date, and lastly, the rental rates, retail price, and insurance rate (the depreciation term, salvage percent, category code, and item description are updated only if these were not already set) are all updated using the current sku information file available that keys to the existing sku number on the unit.

Note that the information for this unit is changed only if the status is T (Transferred). If the status is anything else, Rentpro reports an error and does nothing with the new inventory information.

If the serial number, model number, manufacturer code and category code for the unit with the matching inventory number indicate the unit is different than the one being transferred, Rentpro will then look for a unit with the same serial number and update that unit's information if the model number, manufacturer code, and category code indicate it is the same unit. If Rentpro cannot find a unit with the same serial number or the information associated with it indicates it is a different unit, Rentpro will add the unit as new equipment. If the transferred unit's inventory number exists already, Rentpro will assign it a new inventory number, but the serial number will remain the same.

The transfers that are saved on diskette may be displayed by choosing the last option on the menu, Display Transfers on Disk. The store number from which the units came will be displayed also.

Exchange Inventory Keystrokes: A E

Sometimes it is desirable to exchange units assigned to an agreement with other units that are idle. Four function keys provide the options on this screen. The F1 key allows the transaction to be double dated. The F2 key allows selection of the status. Exchange status means that the customer will be assigned the new unit and is expected to keep that unit, as if he had been assigned it all along. Loaner status means that the unit going out to the customer will have a status of L, instead of C, and the unit on loan is expected to be returned when the customer's original unit is repaired. Choosing the Loaner status also will cause the agreement status to be changed to S (on service) and the unit being returned also to receive an S (on service) status.

Enter the new inventory number or serial number in place of the existing number. The F3 or tab key will allow changing the inventory query back and forth between inventory number and serial number. Rentpro will find that unit, and return the information associated with it. The inventory number for the unit that was assigned to the agreement previously will be displayed at the left of the screen. If the unit was queried by serial number and duplicate serial numbers exist, Rentpro will beep and inform you of duplicate serial numbers. If the unit queried has a different category code, Rentpro will beep and inform you of this. Normally, you will not be allowed to exchange units with different category codes, but if your security level is high enough (high enough for sku rate control), then Rentpro will give a message indicating the different category codes and allow you to do the exchange. The new unit assigned to the lease will have the same rate as the unit being returned regardless of its sku number. If you desire to change the rates, you should terminate the lease and create a new one.

Pay Period Change Keystrokes: A P

Enter the new pay period for an agreement at this screen. Rentpro will adjust the rate, the term (total payments due), and the payment counter on the agreement and display these new values. Rounding may occur in these figures.

Agreement Status Change Keystrokes: A S

The status of an agreement may be changed from active to skip or hold. Generally, an agreement may be changed to skip status if the location of the customer and equipment is unknown. This allows the delinquent information on the agreement to be separated out from other active agreements on the daily operating report. It also allows separate reports for this type of an agreement. Occasionally, a user may desire to take an agreement off active status for awhile but they may not want to terminate the agreement or put it on a skip status. The hold status provides this use. Agreements on hold are separated out on the delinquency summary on the daily operating report. Before doing transactions on an agreement that is on skip or hold status, the agreement should be made active again by using this Status Change function.

Agreements that have been Charged-off, Returned, or Repossessed may have their status changed to a Legal status, indicating that a legal judgment has been awarded. If the next due date on the agreement was set to zero because no balance was owed, the posting date will become the next due date on the legal agreement. Any additional fees due for collection may be debited on the agreement through Debit Agreement (see page 26). Once a legal agreement has been paid in full, the agreement status is changed to P, Paid-Out.

Status Codes for Agreements

A = Active

I = Invoice (Direct Sale Not Yet Paid)

K = Skip

S = Service (Inventory being serviced, loaner received)

C = Charged Off to Bad Debt

H = Hold

L = Legal Judgment Due

P = Paid Out (Cash Options and Direct Sales)

R = Returned Merchandise

X = Repossessed Merchandise

Refund Deposit Keystrokes: A R

Deposits may be refunded up to a certain percentage amount of the total deposit made. The percentage amount may differ for active versus non-active (e.g., those with Return or Repossess statuses) agreements. The percentages are set in the profile information for Rentpro and are taken as a percent of the total deposit collected, not the total deposit currently on hand. If your security level is high enough, you may refund a full 100% of the deposit while other employees will be restricted from doing so.

The F2 key toggles between Check and Cash. If the refund is made by check, it is assumed that this will not affect the cash drawer, and the F3 key shows Drawer: None. Pressing the F2 key changes the mode from Check to Cash. A cash refund is assumed to come from petty cash, from the drawer indicated by the F3 key. Press F3 to change the drawer to the proper drawer.

If a refund is made with check, the cash drawer will be unaffected. If a refund is made with cash, the drawer balance is decreased by the amount of the refund as a petty cash withdrawal.

Applying Deposits toward Rent

Deposits may be applied toward rent in two steps. First, do a cash refund to the customer as described above. Then, go to the Post Payment screen and post the cash refund as a payment to the same drawer from which it was drawn. It is possible that the refund amount may exceed the amount of cash in the cash drawer. In such cases, Rentpro will not allow you to do the refund. The deposit amount may still be applied toward rent by first posting a cash payment to the agreement and then doing the refund. If you post the payment first, make sure there is enough deposit to refund the desired payment, taking into agreement the maximum percentage of total deposits that may be refunded.

Charge-off Agreement Keystrokes: A C

When you consider that the debt of a particular agreement is uncollectible, you may charge-off the agreement if your security level is high enough. The purpose of this is to cease any further billing and/or attempts to collect from the customer. Note, however, that payments still may be posted to the agreement at a later date to reduce the amount of debt for the agreement. Both active and terminated agreements may be charged-off. If the agreement was active, the status of the units assigned to the agreement are changed to stolen (P) and the remaining value of the units is estimated. The retail sale price is used for the equipment charge, but for rent-to-own agreements, the amount of rent owed is decreased by the amount of this retail price. Any rent, late fees, insurance fees, trip charges, NSF charges, damage charges, and miscellaneous charges are also displayed on the screen. For active agreements, the rent charge is the rent due up to the time when the agreement was charged off. Any amount forward on the agreement is subtracted from the rent charge and reset to zero. The total charge-off amount is the sum of all these displayed charges. Note that the deposit amount on the agreement is left unaffected. Deposits should be dealt with by the user at the Refund Deposit screen discussed previously.

When the transaction is complete, Rentpro sets the charge-off date on the agreement to the posting date. If the agreement was active, the closing date on the agreement is also set to the posting date, and the number of stolen units for the agreement is set to the number of units assigned to the agreement. The miscellaneous charge of the agreement is increased by the amount of equipment charge displayed. The status of the agreement is changed to C, charge-off.

Term Extension Keystrokes: A T

An agreement may have its term extended by selecting this option. Once the agreement has been selected, simply enter the new maintenance limit date. If the user has security level to Sku numbers, he may back date the maintenance limit date (decrease the contract term). In addition, he may select the option to change the term in accordance with a new rate by pressing F3. This option was added for seasonal items like Air Conditioners that may rent for one price during the warmer season, and for a much lower price during the cold season. Rather than creating new agreements for each season, the new rate may be entered and Rentpro will calculate the appropriate term.

Append Agreement Keystrokes: A A

You may append inventory to Rent-to-Rent agreements, or to Rent-to-Own agreements provided that the default term for the item is still left to be paid on the agreement. Simply select this option, choose your agreement, and then add the items as desired. When you complete the transaction, an Agreement Addendum will be printed for the customer to sign.

Forms and Letters Keystrokes: A F

Selecting this option will bring up a menu of up to 22 user defineable forms and letters. The menu is constructed based upon information in a file called FORMS.DEF in the work station directory. The first seven lines in this file are comment lines and are ignored by the program. However, every six lines that follow, starting at line 8, define the menu and form to print. Each six lines give the following definitions to the rental program:

1. Menu Name. This is the name used to display in the menu, and before the form is ready to print.

2. FRM File Name. If the file name extension, .FRM, is left off, then the program will add Contract Type + .FRM to the file name. For example, if the file name specified is NSF_, the program will use the file name NSF_O.FRM if the agreement to print is a rent to own agreement, or if the agreement is a rent to rent agreement, the program will use the file name NSF_R.FRM to print the form.

3. Form Destination (e.g., LPT1, LPT2, REP=Report Destination)

4. Prompt For Printing (P=Prompt User, Y=Print w/o Prompt but Show Prt Msg)

5. Keep Asking (Y=Keep Asking User If He Wants To Print It Again)

6. Print Envelope (P=Prompt To Print ENVELOPE.FRM, N=No Envelope Needed)

For example, a termination letter might be defined as follows:

Termination Letter

TERMINAT.FRM

LPT1 FormDest

P PromptChar

Y KeepAsking

Y PrintEnvelope

The FRM file name is an ASCII configuration file described in more detail on page 59, 60, 60 and following. Note, however, that the file name extension is FRM instead of DEF because the field numbers may differ from those used in the DEF file. It is recommended that you maintain the FRM file name extension for these files.

There are two different kinds of delimiters that can be used to distinguish field numbers from text to print. The first one is the ASCII 1 character (☺) and will be used if the first line of the file has four numbers separated by spaces. If the first line of the file does not have four numbers, then the tilde character (~) will be expected.

First we will consider the ASCII 1 character as the delimiter. The program scans each character in the ASCII configuration file for an ASCII decimal 1 character (which appears as a happy face, ☺). When an ASCII decimal 1 character is found, the decimal value of the next character is interpreted as a tab character. For example, the letter A has a decimal value of 65, so if A was the character immediately following the ASCII 1 character, the program would insert enough spaces into the line to make the current position 65 characters from the beginning. The next characters up to the next ASCII 1 character are expected to be numbers. The numbers are read in and interpreted to be a field number for which a specified value is to be inserted into the line. For example, field number 15 is the customer's phone number. Therefore, the characters ☺A15☺ would be translated by the program so that the customer's phone number is printed starting at column 65.

Alternatively, you can use a word processor like Wordperfect to create the letters by using a different delimiter than ASCII 1. Before each code, have three tilde's (~~~) instead. Follow the code with one tilde (~). For example, to print field number 15, the customer's phone number, insert ~~~15~ in your document. Note that the program can only read ASCII text files. If you use a wordprocessor, you will need to save the file as an ASCII text file, or if you want to preserve embedded printer codes, you may be able to print the file to disk by changing the port to a file name. The program expects each line in the file to end with a carriage return and line feed character.

Please note that any form or letter may be printed in mass mailings by using the report generator. The form file simply needs to be copied to the appropriate file name. For example, to have report 1 for the profile of agreements to print a letter instead of the report configured, save the form file as PROFREP1.FRM and the form will print for that configuration. Consult the manual or contact us for more information.

Font codes may be embeded instead of field numbers. Following are the font codes:

B=Bold On, b=Bold Off

U=Underline On, u=Underline Off

I=Italics On, I=Italics Off

L=Large Font, H=Huge Font, N=Normal Font, S=Small Font

V=6 Lines Per Vertical Inch, v=8 Lines Per Vertical Inch, h=Half Vertical Line

Q=Quality Font, q=Rough Font

@=Reset

X=Cpi Code 1, x=Cpi Code 2, Y=Cpi Code 3, y=Cpi Code 4, Z=Cpi Code 5

R=Good Report Quality, r=Rough Report Quality,

l=Ledger Card Quality, c=Contract Quality Font, t=Receipt Quality Font

F=Form Length Full, f=Form Length Half

C=Center Line

These codes are imbedded instead of the field number, and they may be padded together for multiple effects. If the tilde delimeter is used, a field code of 0 (Zero) must precede the font codes. For example, the following code specifies printing what follows using a bold and underlined font: ~~~0BU~.

Starting with line 21, the following codes apply to each line in PRINTER.DEF: Bold On, Bold Off, Underline On, Underline Off, Italics On, Italics Off, Huge Font, Form Length Full, Form Length Half. The Large, Normal, and Small codes are on lines 3, 4, and 5 respectively.

Customer File Keystrokes: C

The customer file is a separate file which keeps one record for each customer. This allows tracking additional information which does not specifically pertain to one agreement. For example, employer, landlord, and reference information may be stored here. Delivery notes also may be saved with the customer record and printed on agreements and / or delivery tickets.

When you press C to access the customer file, a menu appears asking you if you desire to query and existing customer, or if you want to add a new customer. Selecting N)ew Customer allows you to save information for an applicant when you have not yet created an agreement. Selecting E)xisting Customer allows you to select a customer record that already exists. Note that when you create an agreement, a customer record will be created for you automatically, unless this feature has been turned off on line 228 of the profile.

Drawer Transactions Keystrokes: D

Rentpro automatically keeps track of money received into the cash drawer. This record may be viewed at the Drawer Transactions Screen. You will want to go to the Drawer Transactions Screen to reconcile the physical cash drawer with the amounts Rentpro indicates should be there. This would be done just prior to running End of Day. Bank deposits, drawer transfers, miscellaneous receipts, and petty cash withdrawals may be performed at the Drawer Transactions Screen.

Initially, the screen here will display the amount for the particular user's drawer, as set in Security Management. Pressing F1 moves you through information for other cash drawers if your system is setup to handle multiple drawers. When the last cash drawer is displayed, pressing F1 will cause Rentpro to display a consolidated cash drawer which is a combination of all the drawer information.

The total amount of cash, checks, and money orders in the drawer is shown in the upper left of the screen. The sum of these amounts should equal the current balance shown at the bottom of the left half of the screen. The right half of the screen shows information for credit slips.

Pressing F6 at the Cash Drawer screen will list transactions done for the cash drawer during the same day. The types of transactions that may be done at this screen are described below.

Bank Deposit

Press F2 at the Cash Drawer screen to enter a bank deposit. Separate deposits should be made for cash, checks, and money orders. At the Bank Deposit screen, the F2 key changes the type of deposit (cash, check, money order, or credit card). Rentpro will choose the expected deposit amount, keeping the cash drawer balance with the amount of cash determined in its profile information. If the amount Rentpro chooses is not what you desire, change the amount to what you desire. When the amount is correct, press enter to complete the transaction. If you make an error and need to reverse a bank deposit, you may do so by entering a negative number for the bank deposit. Also, additional bank deposits may be made without reversing previous ones. For example, two cash deposits of 100.00 and 50.00 each will be added together to reflect a cash bank deposit of 150.00 on the End of Day Summary Report.

Transfer Funds

Funds may be transferred to another drawer by pressing F3. At the Transfer Funds screen, pressing F2 will select the type of funds. Enter the amount to transfer, and the drawer to which it will go.

Miscellaneous Receipts

Sometimes money is received for which there is no agreement number in Rentpro. To add this money to the cash drawer, at the Cash Drawer screen select F4, Misc. Receipts. F2 will select the type of funds received. Then, enter the amount received, the reason code, and whether or not you want tax deducted out of the amount received.

Petty Cash

Rentpro allows cash to be taken out of the drawer to pay miscellaneous expenses. At the Cash Drawer screen, press F5 to enter the amount of withdrawal from petty cash. You will then be allowed to enter the amount of withdrawal and a reason code. If an amount is entered by mistake, it may be reversed by entering a negative number for the petty cash withdrawal.

End of Day Processing Keystrokes: E

At the end of each business day, the cash drawer should be balanced, the bank deposits entered into Rentpro, and End of Day Processing should be run. End of Day Processing processes all the transactions for the day, all the customer information on file, and all the inventory information on file. While Rentpro is processing this information, it will compute numerous summary information for inclusion in the daily operating report. After completing End of Day Processing, Rentpro will advance the date to the next business date.

For each drawer that exists, Rentpro will ask you to enter the next day's cash and credit balance. The default values should be the normal starting balance. If the amount entered is over or under the present drawer balance, Rentpro will show the over/short amount and ask if you want to force the balance. Answering yes causes Rentpro to record the over/short amount with the daily operating report and make the drawer balance equal to the amount entered.

After entering the drawer balance information, Rentpro begins processing the information. Rentpro will display the record number for each transaction, agreement record, and inventory record as it is processed. When all the information has been processed, the summary information is saved and any audit trail information for that day is saved. If the profile information indicates that a home office will retrieve the information via telecommunications, Rentpro will put a copy of the summary information and audit trail information in the telecommunications directory, and load the communications program specified in its profile. The following morning, you may exit the communications program as specified in its manual, and control is passed back to Rentpro. Rentpro will go to the date / time screen. If the profile information indicates home office will not be retrieving information, Rentpro will go straight to the date / time screen without attempting telecommunications.

The date / time screen is the same screen shown when Rentpro is first started, but this time you may edit the date field. The profile information contains days of the week that your company usually is closed so that Rentpro may suggest more frequently the correct next day of business. Examine the date, and if it is not the correct next day of business (this should only happen after holidays or other unexpected days of closing), change it. You may not change the date to a day of business previous to the last day of business. After entering the date, enter the correct time. The Employee Log-On screen now appears. Rentpro is ready to have a user log on for the new day of business.

Backup Files Keystrokes: U B

Good backup procedures should be followed to prevent loss of information on the computer. Computer hardware failure, magnetic disturbances, sabotage, fire or other disasters are just of few of the sources that can cause loss of information. Good backup procedures will allow restoring information if misfortune occurs. If you are running Rentpro under DOS or Novell, this option may be configured to call your backup program. Rentpro calls a batch file named BACKUP.BAT to initiate your backup program. If you are running Rentpro under Windows, this option may or may not be able to be used depending on your backup software's capabilities.

Backup Utilities and Storage Media

The choice of what utilities to use for backup is yours. In choosing a backup utility you should consider reliability and speed. Many users prefer ZIP or JAZ drives for their reliability and speed. Read / Write CDROM drives are also an alternative, but they are considerably more expensive. Most common are tape drives because of their low cost and high storage capacity.

What to Backup

The entire hard disk, the Rentpro system, or only the data files of Rentpro are possible decisions of what to backup. The best choice is to backup the entire hard disk, but some choose not to do this because of the greater amount of time it takes. Usually Rentpro is set up to be self-contained underneath the Rentpro directory. Therefore, backing up Rentpro and all subdirectories under Rentpro will insure that you have all that you need to restore damaged files. Most backup utilities may be instructed to copy only files that have been changed since the last time the system was backed-up, shortening the time required for backup procedures considerably. However, when this kind of method is used, keep in mind that you will need TWO good backup sets in order to get a successful restore. One full backup, and one incremental backup of only the files that have changed. We recommend always doing full backups.

Frequency of Backups

If you have fast tape backup abilities, backups are best done on a daily basis. A separate tape should be used each day. One general procedure is to label each tape with the day of the week, and use that tape each day. In addition, a separate tape for each week (a weekly backup tape), and a separate tape for each month (a monthly backup tape) may be used. The reason for using so many tapes is because sometimes data errors may not be discovered until several days, or sometimes weeks, after it occurs. It should be standard practice for the store manager to take the weekly backups off site with him. Monthly backups should also be kept at a different location from the store in case of fire or other disaster effects the store.

If you do not maintain daily backups as we recommend, then at least make sure you alternate backup sets between three different sets. This will insure that you have at least three good backups of the system at all times.

Hard Disk Maintenance

Hard drives, the devices storing the program code and all the data, do not last forever. Before complete malfunction, however, hard drives usually develop symptoms of having trouble accessing data. These symptoms are usually reported as read errors and sector not found errors by either Rentpro or the Disk Operating System (DOS). Such errors do not necessarily mean that the hard drive needs to be replaced, but it does mean that some maintenance steps are required.

There are many programs designed to tune-up your hard drive. The two primary types of tune-ups would be a hard drive defragmenter and a non-destructive low level formatter . What these programs do require more technical information than the intended scope of this manual, but suffice it to say that over a period of time, the heads that read and write information on the hard drive may become misalligned, necessitating reformatting the drive. This may be accomplished by successfully backing up the material, reformatting the drive doing a LOW LEVEL format (which erases all the information on the drive), and then restoring the information from backups. Programs designed to tune-up a hard drive may do this without necessitating a restore from backup, and they are designed to try and retrieve information that is difficult to read on the drive. Therefore, it is highly recommend that you purchase such a program (at the time of writing this manual, the price for such a program is about $150). Such tune-up programs may be run every other month for the defragmenter, and every year for the reformatter, to keep your hard drive working at its best. These programs usually also have diagnostic abilities to spot potential hard drive problems before they cause you trouble. Some also have the ability to retrieve information that seems to have been lost by hardware malfunction.

Information Keystrokes: U I

This option displays various types of information concerning Rentpro. The fiscal date is the used by End of Day Processing to determine when to do End of Year Processing. Usually it is set to January 1 of any year for the fiscal year January 1 through December 31.

Rentpro is designed to require system updates if it is being leased. The system shutdown date is displayed on this screen. The amount of free disk space also may be viewed on this screen.

Reset Summary Values Keystrokes: U R

The daily operating report values may need to be set when Rentpro is initially installed. This screen requests a field number and the new value for the field to edit. The field numbers may be obtained from the section of this manual that describes the different fields of the daily operating report (see page 46). The fields being edited are the fields of the last daily operating report available. After all the desired fields are edited, press F1 to save the new information on disk. If you change your mind and want to abort this procedure without saving any information, press Esc.

If Rentpro informs you that the field number is too large, you are attempting to edit a field that is calculated when the report is run. Field numbers greater than 500 are calculated when the report is run. These calculated fields can be changed only by changing the fields from which they are calculated.

Communications Keystrokes: U C

You may desire to access a credit bureau, or sometimes there are problems with the home office communicating with the store computer during the night and you need to let home office recommunicate with the store computer. This option causes Rentpro to turn control over to the communication software so home office may communicate with the store computer.

File Tools Keystrokes: U F

Several options exist at this screen. The first option is the File Repair Menu. This area deals with reindexing files. In order to query agreements, inventory, or sku numbers, Rentpro indexes these files when new information is added. Indexes are a file of the query keys (e.g., agreement number, last name, social security number, inventory number, serial number) associated with a number that tells Rentpro the exact position on the hard disk where the information associated with the queried key is stored. Without indexes, Rentpro would normally have to do a sequential search for the desired information, starting at the beginning of the file and moving through it until it found the information being queried. Such searches take a long time for large files. With indexes, however, Rentpro will move all the indexes into memory, arranged in a specific manner. Rentpro can then locate the queried key quickly and use the number associated with it to calculate where on the hard disk the information for that key is located. The end result is that you can retrieve information very quickly on Rentpro.

Several things, such as power failures and unsteady power supplies, can cause the information in the index files to become corrupt, resulting in either the wrong information being retrieved, or a program error. You can correct this problem in Rentpro by re-indexing the appropriate key at this screen. For example, if Rentpro consistently retrieves the wrong name in a file, you can go to this screen and select last name indexing. Rentpro will go through all the records in the agreement file and recreate the last name index file.

Another file tool option allows you to create the cash drawer. This option would be used when the system is installed, and if you desire to change the name or number of drawers. The cash drawer should be created immediately after End of Day Processing has occurred since all the balances and transactions will be reset.

Another file tool is the ability to reverse the last End of Day Processing . Some problem situations may exist where it may be helpful to reverse the last End of Day and run End of Day processing again. Rentpro will restore the cash drawer to where it was before running End of Day processing, as well as the reversal file for transaction reversals. Furthermore, the last end of day summary record is deleted from the end of day report file.

Another file tool is the ability to compress the transaction file in order to free up disk space. If no options are entered, transactions that have been reversed will be eliminated from the file. Alternatively, statuses may be entered as well as maximum dates. For example, transactions for agreements paid out before January 1, 1989 could be eliminated in addition to reversed transactions.

What actually occurs in eliminating transactions is that a new transaction file is created without the unwanted transactions. The reference numbers for these transactions will change. Rentpro will process the reference numbers kept in the agreement, inventory, and end of day summary files and change the old reference numbers to the new reference numbers.

Reset Inv Fields from Sku #’s is used to reset the inventory rates or other information based upon the Sku number. The rates for units were established when the units were received into the system. If you change rates, you should change the rates tied to Sku numbers. However, only the new units added to the system will have their rates changed to the new rates assigned to Sku numbers unless you use this procedure. This procedure retrieves the new Sku information and transfers it to the inventory. If your profile information indicates you desire to give pre-leased discounts, Rentpro checks to see if the unit qualifies, and if it does, Rentpro discounts the Sku rates being transferred automatically. If you desire, you may have this procedure only transfer the new information for certain statuses. For example, if you want to only assign new rates to In Service and Idle units, enter SI in the Inventory Statuses to Match field. If you desire to change all units, leave the Inventory Statuses to Match field blank. Note that units currently on rent will not affect the rates of the current lease; however, once the unit has been returned, the new rates will be in effect.

Date and Time Keystrokes: U D

Occasionally, a user may enter the wrong date after End of Day Processing. If your security level is high enough, you may change the date in Rentpro at this prompt. Otherwise, you will be allowed only to change the time. Note that leased systems only allow you to advance the date.

Memorandum to Home Office Keystrokes: U M

This option allows users to send messages to the home office. Many companies require their managers to explain in detail non-cash adjustments, petty cash expenses, miscellaneous receipts, or rate over-rides through this memo. The users at the store may go into this memo area and add to the memo at different times during the day. Nothing more is needed for the final memo to be sent to home office once end of day processing takes place.

The editor for the memo accepts Wordstar type commands. Control K-D (^K^D) will save the file, while Control K-Q or Esc will abort the current editing session.

Eod Summary Report Keystrokes: R E

Upon completion of End of Day processing, summary values are saved in a file and used to produce the report generated at this menu option. Rentpro lists the summary reports available, along with their dates and the number of transactions done on that day. The top of this screen shows the destination for the report, the options, and the page number of the reports being viewed.

The destination of the report may be the screen, a printer, or a disk file. Change the destination by pressing D. A new screen will display options: press P for printer 1, or press S for screen. The other option allows you to specify a file name. The new screen also allows you to change the text quality by pressing T. Selecting Rough draft causes the printer to run faster, but the quality of text will be poorer. Good draft mode provides for better text but slower printer speed.

The options displayed should be a Y or N followed by a single digit. Press O to see what these options mean, and to change them if desired. The first question is Print Operating Summary? Answering yes instructs Rentpro to print the operating summary when a report is run. Answering no allows you to print only the transactions for a particular day. The second question asks for the transaction configuration. Enter the number of the report configuration to use for printing transactions. This configuration is defined on the Transaction Report screen, which is discussed on page 82. If you want to skip printing any transactions, enter 0.

Rentpro can only list the last twelve business days on the screen at one time. Press the Page Dn key to move to the twelve previous business days. Each successive page holds twelve earlier business days. To jump farther back in the listing, you may use the Page option by pressing P and entering the page number desired.

When the desired report date is displayed, select it by using the down arrow key or up arrow key to move the pointer to point to that date. Then, press the enter key to print that report.

The report produced depends upon the configuration file for your particular store and may or may not vary for different companies. Unlike most other reports, the End of Day summary report is not configured from a menu. An ASCII editor must be used to change the configuration. The format of ASCII configuration files is discussed later in this manual (see page 59, 60, 60).

Following is a general End of Day summary report with the field numbers for the values displayed. The field numbers are used to change the configuration file, and to change the values of the fields at the Reset Summary Values option of the Utilities screen (see page 42).

End of Day Summary Report Page 1

Date: 12

Store: 163 Time: 628

Manager: 502

Today MTD YTD

AGREEMENT ---------- ---------- ----------

PRODUCTION Agrmts Units Agrmts Units Agrmts Units

-----------------------------------------------------------

Rent to Own ....... 28 203 29 204 30 205

Rent to Rent ...... 31 206 32 207 33 208

Lay Away .......... 34 209 35 210 36 211

===========================================================

Gross Production 560 634 561 635 562 636

Terminations 586 637 587 638 588 639

===========================================================

Net Production 589 640 590 641 591 642

Cancellations: 214 217 218

===========================================================

True Production: 646 647 648

DELINQUENCY SUMMARY

*******************

Status N % Units % Amount %

-------------------------------------

Active: 556 735 623 739 557 742

Ceased: 558 736 - - 559 743

Skip: 108 737 170 740 364 744

Other: 109 738 171 741 365 745

=====================================

575 746 624 747 576 748

-------- Active Agreements -------- -- Ceased Leases --

Period N % Units % Amount % N % Amount %

--------------------------------------------------------

01-19 96 705 164 711 352 723 101 717 357 729

551-20 97 706 165 712 353 724 102 718 358 730

552-21 98 707 166 713 354 725 103 719 359 731

553 + 99 708 167 714 355 726 104 720 360 732

========================================================

556 735 623 739 557 742 558 736 559 743

12[date] Page 2

Agreement

Statuses RTO RTR LAY Total

------------------------------------

Active 110 118 126 566

Return 115 123 131 567

Repo'd 116 124 132 568

In Service 117 125 133 569

Paid Out 114 122 130 570

Skip 113 121 129 571

Chg-Offs 112 120 128 572

On Hold 111 119 127 573

====================================

563 564 565 574

Sales: 134 Legals: 212

BILLING RTO N Units Rent Insurance

-----------------------------------------------------

Daily 135 172 327 331

Weekly 136 173 328 332

Semi-Monthly 137 174 329 333

Monthly 138 175 330 334

Yearly 191 194 388 391

=====================================================

Monthly Total: 577 625 578 579

BILLING RTR N Units Rent Insurance

-----------------------------------------------------

Daily 139 176 335 339

Weekly 140 177 336 340

Semi-Monthly 141 178 337 341

Monthly 142 179 338 342

Yearly 192 195 389 392

=====================================================

Monthly Total: 580 626 581 582

BILLING LAY AWAY N Units Rent Insurance

-----------------------------------------------------

Daily 143 180 343 347

Weekly 144 181 344 348

Semi-Monthly 145 182 345 349

Monthly 146 183 346 350

Yearly 193 196 390 393

=====================================================

Monthly Total: 583 627 584 585

Value Rent Insurance

of Agreements Receivable Receivable

---------------------------------------------

Rent-to-Own: 397 400

Rentals: 398 401

Layaway: 399 402

=============================================

643 644

12[date] Page 3

Agreement Transaction Summary

*************************** Average

Agreement Termination Today MTD YTD Contract Length

-------------------------------------------------------

Cash Options 39 40 41 602

Returns 48 49 50 603

Repossessions 54 55 56 604

Charge-Off Actives 187 188 189 630

=======================================================

586 587 588

Other Transactions Today MTD YTD

--------------------------------------

New Agreements 560 561 562

Direct Sales 42 43 44

Returns 45 46 47

Repossessions 51 52 53

Charge-Off Returns 57 58 59

Charge-Off Repo's 60 61 62

--------------------------------------

Inventory Transaction Summary

*****************************

Inventory Coming In Today MTD YTD

--------------------------------------

Added 67 68 69

Transferred In 70 71 72

Exchanged 79 80 81

Returned 82 83 84

Repossessed 85 86 87

======================================

592 593 594

Inventory Going Out Today MTD YTD

--------------------------------------

Transferred Out 73 74 75

Put On Rent 76 77 78

Exchanged 79 80 81

Sold 88 89 90

======================================

595 596 597

Cash Optioned 91 92 93

Charged Off 184 185 186

Internal Control Today MTD YTD

---------------------------------------------

Service Cost 312 313 314

Petty Cash 315 316 317

Over Short Cash 319 320 321

Over Short Credit 322 323 324

---------------------------------------------

Page 4

Income Summary Non-Cash Adjustments

Today MTD YTD Today MTD YTD

-----------------------------------------------------

Rent to Own 219 220 221 258 259 260

Rent to Rent 222 223 224 261 262 263

Lay Away 225 226 227 264 265 266

Late Fees 249 250 251 282 283 284

Insurance Fees 234 235 236 270 271 272

NSF Fees 231 232 233 267 268 269

Delivery Fees 237 238 239 273 274 275

Damage Fees 243 244 245 279 280 281

Misc Fees 240 241 242 276 277 278

Cash Option 374 375 376

Direct Sale 377 378 379

Salvage 255 256 257

Misc. Receipts 252 253 254

Sales Tax 228 229 230

=====================================================

605 606 607 608 609 610

Agreement

Charge Off Summary Today MTD YTD

-------------------------------------------------

Rent to Own 285 286 287

Rent to Rent 288 289 290

Lay Away 291 292 293

Late Fees 309 310 311

Insurance Fees 297 298 299

NSF Fees 294 295 296

Delivery Fees 300 301 302

Damage Fees 306 307 308

Misc Fees 303 304 305

=================================================

611 612 613

Today MTD YTD

Unit Charge Off ----------- ------------ ------------

Summary Units Amount Units Amount Units Amount

--------------------------------------------------------

184 382 185 383 186 384

Today MTD YTD

----------- ----------- ---------

Fee Waivers N Amount N Amount N Amount

-----------------------------------------------------

Late Charge 160 371 161 372 162 373

Insurance 157 368 158 369 159 370

=====================================================

617 618 619 620 621 622

Insurance Penetration Today MTD YTD

----------------------------------------------------

New Insurance 63 64 65

Eligible Agreements 560 561 562

====================================================

Percent 614 615 616

Page 5

Agreement Average Average Average

Information N Maturity Life Remaining Term

-------------------------------------------------

With Term 37 598 599 600

Without Term 38 601 - -

-------------------------------------------------

Today MTD YTD

Deposit --------- --------- ---------

Summary N Amount N Amount N Amount

--------------------------------------------------

Deposits 197 246 198 247 199 248

Refunds 200 394 201 395 202 396

--------------------------------------------------

Total Deposits Collected: 367

Deposits Refunded to Customer: - 629

======

Total Deposits On Hand: 380

Rental Debits: 403

Reinstatement Fee / Insurance Debits: 404

Other Debits: 366

Active Agreement Income Projection

----------------------------------

Rental Income Due by End of Month: 405

Insurance Due by End of Month: 406

Other Charges Due by End of Month: 407

Tax Due by End of Month: 408

====

Total Income Due by End of Month: 409

Agrmts Units

------ -----

Total Monthly Billing: 800 801 802

Average Agreement Income per Month: 803

Average Unit Income per Month: 804

Average Agreement Value: 805

Average Unit Value: 806

BANK DEPOSIT for 836[name of day] 12[date]

------------------------------------------

Cash: 318 Income Summary Total: 605

Checks: 385 Deposits Received: 246

Money Orders: 386 Over/Short Cash: 319

========= Over/Short Credit: 322

631 Petty Cash: 645

Credit Slips: 387 Deposits Applied: 649

========= =====

Total Deposit: 632 Expected Bank Deposit: 633

Deposit MTD: 411 Beginning Drawer Balance: 410

CLUB MEMBERS> New: 24 Total: 16 Percent Members: 750%

Page 6

Inventory On On In On Paid

Summary Rent Loan Idle Serv Floor Out Sold Disp Trans Theft

------------------------------------------------------------

550

Number of Inventory with deleted status: 213

Rate Change Audit Report: C:\XPORT\RCHG1.AUD

Last Recorded: 3/21/1990 11:30

AgmtNo InvNo Normal New Agrmt_Type Term P Rent_Inc CC MF

-----------------------------------------------------------

12894 10293 64.90 62.50 Rent to Own 78 W 64.90 1W ZE

4798 309 35.68 0.00 Cash Option 18 M 895.99 1D MA

12895 10301 48.50 40.00 Rent to Rent 0 M 998.35 4D SY

The agreement type on the audit report would read "Cash Option" if the cash option price for a buy-out is over-ridden (see page 25). It would read "Rent to Own" if the rate on a Rent to Own type of agreement is decreased below the standard rate, or if the term was decreased below the standard term (see page 21). The above example shows two rates being decreased (a rent to own weekly agreement, and a rent to rent monthly agreement) and one cash option over-ride where the expected cash option amount was 35.68, but no money at all was collected for the buy-out. Note that Rentpro allows memo's (see page 44) to be sent to Home Office that would allow the manager of the store to explain details concerning any over-rides.

If a transaction at the store is reversed, the audit trail is flagged as having been voided. The is shown on the report by the word VOID printed next to the record. Records thus marked mean that the transaction they are reporting is no longer in effect.

Some field numbers are not listed on this report, but may be included in the daily operating summary by modifying its configuration file. Following is a list of these:

Field Number Description

501 Company name

502 Manager's name

503 Store street address

504 Store city

505 Store state

506 Store zip Code

507 Store phone number

1 First transaction reference number

2 Last transaction reference number

3 Total maturity in days for agreements with term.

4 Total maturity in days for agreements without any term.

5 Total life remaining in days.

6 Total agreement length in days for agreements terminated by cash option.

7 Total agreement Length in days for agreements terminated by return.

8 Total agreement length in days for agreements terminated by repossession.

12 Total agreement length in days for agreements terminated by charge-off.

9 Number of transactions.

10 Total number of inventory.

11 Total number of agreements.

66 Number of payments made.

96 Number of manually applied debits.

325 Sum of inventory costs.

326 Sum of inventory retail prices.

366 Sum of manually applied debits.

Understanding the End of Day Summary Values

The End of Day summary reports daily, month to date, and year to date figures that should aid the owner and manager in understanding how his business is performing. Considerable control over the business can be attained by understanding these figures and monitoring them frequently. These figures also may be used to establish commission and bonus schemes for employees.

When calculated values are obtained, it is helpful to know how many agreements or units make up that particular value. Standard statistical methods usually report the number of observations used to calculate a statistic as N, and this notation often has been followed in the End of Day Summary report. Occasionally, the number of units as well as the number of agreements is important information. In such cases, the number of agreements is represented by N and the number of units is reported as Units.

In many calculations, the number of days in a month or the number of weeks in a month is used. The number of days per month is determined to be 365.25 days per year divided by 12 months per year = 30.4375 days per month. The number of weeks per month is determined to be 30.4375 days per month divided by 7 days per week = 4.3482142 weeks per month.

Agreement Production

The agreement production, recorded for both the number of new agreements and the number of new units, is calculated by tallying transactions in the transaction register at the end of each business day. Terminations include any transaction that may terminate an agreement, namely: a return or repossession of all units assigned to an agreement, a charge-off of an active or skip agreement, or a cash option of an active agreement. The terminations are subtracted from the gross production to yield the net production. Cancellations, the number of agreements terminated for which no money was collected, also is tracked. Subtracting this number from gross production yields the value reported as true production.

Delinquency Summary

Delinquent agreements and units are separated into active, ceased lease, skip, and other agreements. Active agreements are any agreements with an A status that are more than one day past the adjusted payment next due date (for an explanation of the adjusted next due date, see page 80). Agreements falling into the delinquent ceased lease category are those agreements that were terminated through return or repossession (status R or X) but that continue to owe a balance. These ceased lease agreements should either be worked for collections, non-cash adjusted so that the balance becomes zero (causing the payment next due date to be set to zero), or charged-off to bad debt (charge-offs were explained on page 35). Delinquent agreements that have any other status fall into the other category (e.g., statuses such as Hold and Invoice).

The denominator used to calculate the percentages for active and ceased lease delinquent agreements is the number of all active agreements, all on service agreements, and the number of agreements that fall into the categories delinquent ceased leases, delinquent skips, and other delinquents. Therefore, the percentages calculated here may not match the percentages calculated at the delinquency summary at the end of a Debt report.

The denominator used to calculate the percentages of active delinquent units is the total number of units on rent and on loan. The denominator for the delinquent amounts is the total monthly billing for rent-to-own, rent-to-rent, and layaway agreements.

Agreement Status

At the end of each day, the agreement file is processed and the status of each agreement record is tallied. The result is broken down by agreement type.

Billing

The amount of rent and insurance being billed for each pay period is summed. The number of units represented by this billing also is summed. Then, in order to give a meaningful sum, each amount being billed is converted to a monthly equivalent, and a total monthly billing reported. For example, the amount being billed weekly is multiplied by the number of weeks in a month, and the amount being billed semi-monthly is multiplied by two.

Value of Agreements

The future amount of rent and insurance expected to be collected from agreements is calculated by taking the amount being billed for each agreement and multiplying it by the term remaining on the agreement. The figures thus computed are summed for all agreements with an A (Active) status. The average agreement value is calculated by dividing the total rent receivable by the number of agreements represented by it. The average unit value is calculated by dividing the rent receivable by the number of units represented by it (see page 5 of the End of Day Summary for these averages).

Agreement Transaction Summary

The transaction register is summarized here. Cash Options, Charge-offs, and Returns and Repossessions that terminate agreements are tallied in the first block. The average agreement length in months of agreements terminated by these methods is recalculated every time end of day is run, by summing the length in days each agreement continued (the number of days between the delivery date and the closed date) for each record with the appropriate status. Note that even though an agreement may have a status of C (charge-off), Rentpro maintains the previous status of the record internally so that the record will contribute to the average length of terminations by return. These sums are then divided by appropriate denominators, e.g., the total number cash optioned, the total number returned, the total number repossessed, and the total number of active agreements charged-off. This last quotient is divided by the number of days per month to yield an average agreement length in months.

The other transaction block summarizes agreement transactions that do not terminate an agreement. For example, if an agreement has 2 units but only returns one unit, the numbers across from Returns in Other Transactions should all increase by one whereas the numbers across from Returns at the Agreement Termination block would remain unaffected.

Inventory Transaction Summary

The transactions dealing with inventory are summarized here. Inventory are grouped by whether the transaction causes them to come into the store or go out of the store. For example, adding inventory into the system, transferring inventory in, returning inventory from an agreement, or exchanging inventory may all bring inventory into the store. In contrast, putting inventory on rent, transferring inventory out of the store, selling, or exchanging inventory can each cause inventory to leave the store.

Internal Control

The transactions dealing with service cost collected and petty cash disbursement are tallied here. In addition, over and short amounts from the cash drawer reconciliation are reported here.

Income Summary

The transactions dealing with payments and cash options are tallied for each of the appropriate categories. The totals are summed for all categories when the report is run.

Non-Cash Adjustments

Transactions recorded for non-cash adjustments are tallied for each of the appropriate categories. The totals are summed for all categories when the report is run.

Agreement Charge Off Summary

Transactions recording the amounts charged off to bad debt are tallied in this area. The equipment charge is reported separately in the next block.

Unit Charge Off Summary

Transactions charging off agreements are tallied to report the charged-off equipment charges and the number of units represented by the amount in this area. Rent and other charged-off income are reported in the Agreement Charge Off Summary block.

Fee Waivers

If either late fees or insurance fees are waived when a payment is collected, a negative value of the amount waived is recorded in the transaction register for that field. During end of day processing, Rentpro will sum these amounts to record them in the fee waiver block. The number of agreements having their fees waived also is tracked.

Insurance Penetration

When an agreement is created, if the agreement was set up on an insurance or damage waiver plan, the payment type field of the transaction register is set to a number greater than zero (it is actually set to the ordinal value of the insurance flag). Therefore, when the transaction register is processed during end of day processing, Rentpro tallies the number of agreements that were established with the insurance plan and divides this number by the Gross Production value yielding the insurance penetration percentage. Note that agreements put on the insurance plan after the agreement was created, by editing the insurance flag at the query screen (see page 28), are not included in this insurance penetration figure. Only agreements set up on the insurance plan when they were created are included in the percentage.

Agreement Information

Agreements may be set up on a pay period by pay period basis by entering a zero for the number of payments prompt at the new agreement screen (see page 22). Such agreements are said to be agreements without term. The average maturity is separated for agreements with term and agreements without term. The average maturity is calculated by summing the number of days between the delivery date and the next payment due date for every agreement within the proper category (those with and those without term). The sum for those with term is then divided by the number of agreements with term (the value N), and the sum for those without term is divided by the number of agreements without term. These average maturity in days figures are then divided by the number of days in a month to yield an average maturity value expressed in months.

The average life remaining value is calculated by summing the number of days between the next payment due date and the maintenance limit date for each agreement. This value is then divided by the number of agreements with term, and further divided by the number of days in a month to yield average life remaining values expressed in months.

The average term figure is calculated by summing the maturity in days and life remaining in days for agreements with term, and dividing this sum by the number of agreements with term. This quotient is then divided by the number of days in a month to yield an average term value expressed in months.

Deposit Summary

Transactions are processed to produce these values. Payment transactions (transaction code 1) record the deposit amounts collected, and these are summed to record the deposit amounts. The refunds are recorded as transaction code 38, and these are summed for the refund amount reported.

The total deposits collected value is calculated by processing each agreement record, not the transaction register. Each record keeps track of the total deposits collected as well as the deposits on hand. These are summed for each agreement record to produce the total deposits collected and the total deposits on hand values. The deposits refunded to customer field is calculated by subtracting the total deposits on hand from the total deposits collected.

Debit Summary

When the agreement records are processed, any charges that are due for collection are summed, and separated by rent due, late and insurance fees, and other debits. These figures represent manually applied debits. For example, automatic rental and late fees would not be included in them. However, fees may be assessed as a debit by the system automatically if a partial payment is collected on a delinquent agreement, and this amount did not fully pay the fees being assessed. For example, if only 5.00 were collected toward 20.00 of late fees, the difference between the amount paid and the amount assessed, 15.00, would be recorded as a debit on the agreement and the late fee next due date would be advanced.

Active Agreement Income Projection

Rentpro calculates what would be owed by active agreements if the present day was actually the last day of the month. The late fees would, of course, be subtracted out of this total. The amounts are then broken down by rental income due, insurance due, other charges due, and tax due. The total income due by the end of the month includes all charges due on agreements, less any late fees presently or later due on the agreements. Note that no estimate is made concerning the number of new agreements or the future decline in the number of agreements in projecting income due by end of month.

The total income due by end of month , therefore, is meant to represent the total amount that may be collected from active agreements by the end of the month. Both delinquent and current agreements are included in this figure, but late fees collectable are not included. Agreements with a skip status (K), hold status (H), or any status other than active (A) are not included in these values.

Total Monthly Billing

The total monthly billing is the total taken from the break down of the billing described earlier (see page 55). It represents the total amount expected to be collected every month. The total number of agreements and the total number of units also is summed from the billing area described earlier. These figures represent the true number of agreements and units that make up this total monthly billing. The average agreement income per month is calculated by dividing the total monthly billing by the number of agreements comprising this figure. Note that agreements with any status other than active (A) are not included in this figure. The average unit income per month is determined by dividing the total monthly billing by the number of units represented by it.

Bank Deposit

The bank deposit shown is what is the amount of the actual physical bank deposit as entered by the user. The expected bank deposit calculated by Rentpro is shown next to it. Any discrepancy between the actual bank deposit and the expected bank deposit represents the change in the cash drawer balance for the next day of business. For example, if the actual bank deposit is 5.00 less than the expected bank deposit, and the beginning drawer balance for the day was 200.00, then beginning balance for the next day would be 195.00. The way for this to occur is if the user entered 195.00 for the next day's beginning drawer balance, instead of 200.00, when he began End of Day Processing to close out the day of business.

Expected Bank Deposit

The expected bank deposit is the income summary total plus any deposits collected that day, plus the over/short cash and credit amounts, less any petty cash disbursements. Note that this expected bank deposit assumes the cash drawer balance will remain the same. If the expected bank deposit does not match the bank deposit, the difference should be found in the beginning drawer balance for the next day of business.

Inventory Summary

When the inventory records are processed, they are tallied according to status and category code. These sums are reported in the inventory summary, with subtotals for every category code with the same first character. Percentages are calculated for the grand totals using for a denominator the number of units currently active, that is, the number of units on rent, on loan, idle, on service, and on floor.

ASCII Configuration Files

ASCII configuration files exist for operating information, menu choices, and numerous printouts. These files may be configured differently for each store by using any good ASCII editor to alter the contents of the files. Many users of Rentpro will not know what an ASCII editor is or how to use one. Such users would require assistance to modify these configuration files. In any case, by understanding what configuration files are available and the kind of information they can print, you will gain a better understanding of what kind of flexibility Rentpro offers. For example, if your present agreements do not have the time printed on them, and you notice from the information given following on page 61 that Rentpro can print the time on agreements, you know that it requires only a simple change to a configuration file to accomodate your need.

Following is a list of some of the configuration files:

File Name Description

EOD.DEF Defines the End of Day Operating Report

AGRMT_O.DEF Agreement for Rent-to-Own agreements

AGRMT_R.DEF Agreement for Rental agreements

AGRMT_L.DEF Agreement for Layaway agreements

AGRMT_S.DEF Agreement for Sales

DELIV_O.DEF Delivery Ticket for Rent-to-Own agreements

DELIV_R.DEF Delivery Ticket for Rent-to-Rent agreements

DELIV_L.DEF Delivery Ticket for Layaway agreements

DELIV_S.DEF Delivery Ticket for Sales

LEDGER_O.DEFNew Ledger Card for Rent-to-Own agreements

LEDGER_R.DEF New Ledger Card for Rental agreements

LEDGER_L.DEF New Ledger Card for Layaway agreements

LEDGER_S.DEF New Ledger Card for Sales

RECEIPTO.DEF Receipt format for Rent-to-Own agreements

RECEIPTR.DEF Receipt format for Rental agreements

RECEIPTL.DEF Receipt format for Layaway agreements

RECEIPTS.DEF Receipt format for Sales

COTICKET.DEF Cash Option Ticket printed after buy-out

DELINQ.DEF Delinquency summary for Debt report

PROFREP.DEF Summary for Profile of Agreements Report

PROFILE.DEF General configuration information that instructs Rentpro how to perform.

DEFAULT.DEF Standard default values for various prompts are saved here.

PRINTER.DEF Printer driver needed for Rentpro to know how to "talk" to different kinds of printers.

The last three files listed above have comments following the fields that are read. When editing these files, make sure you have at least one space between the values entered and the comment if the first field is a number. If the field is not a number, either comments do not follow, or a specific total string length is required before text following is considered a comment. Therefore, maintain the column starting position of any comments.

All except the last three configuration files consist of text to be printed, and field numbers which will be substituted with the value represented by it. If you need to edit these files, you must understand how Rentpro processes these files.

How Rentpro Processes ASCII Configuration Files

Rentpro reads each character in the file, and prints it, until it finds an ASCII decimal code 1. Rentpro then reads the next character in the file and pads spaces on the line to reach the column number equal to the ASCII decimal value of this second code. The third character (the second one after the ASCII 1 character) is expected to be the first digit of the field number, and Rentpro continues to read the digits until another ASCII decimal code 1 is read. Rentpro then inserts the value represented by this field number into the line, and continues on, printing each character it finds until another ASCII decimal code 1 is found.

The decimal value of the first character after the ASCII character 1 is interpreted to be a tab position, unless its value is greater than 250. ASCII values greater than 250 have special meaning to Rentpro. An ASCII value of 253 causes Rentpro to advance the printer page vertically to the vertical line number (from the top of the page) expressed by the number following the ASCII 253 character. An ASCII character 254 causes Rentpro to interpret the number following as an indicator of how many of the next number of lines to keep on the same page.

Following are the fields that may be printed by these configuration files:

Field Numbers Used for Agreements, Delivery Tickets, Ledger Cards, and Receipts

1 = Company Name

2 = Manager Name

3 = Company Address

4 = Company City

5 = Company State

6 = Company Zip Code

7 = Company Phone Number

8 = First Name

9 = Last Name

10 = Address (for Agreement)

11 = Apartment

12 = City

13 = State

14 = Zip Code

15 = Phone Number

16 = Store Number for Agreement

17 = Agreement Number

18 = Agreement Date

19 = Delivery Date

20 = Next Due Date

21 = Maintenance Limit Date

22 = Deposit Charge

23 = Rent + Delivery Charges + Application Charge

24 = Rate (NOT including tax, insurance, etc.)

25 = Pay Period Expressed as Monthly, Weekly, etc.

26 = Agreement Type (Rental, Cash Option, Layaway, Sale)

27 = Late Charge / Reinstatement Fee

28 = Application Fee Amount

29 = Trip Fee Amount

30 = Term of Agreement

31 = Full Disclosure of Rent (Rate * Term)

32 = Pay Period Expressed as Month, Week, etc.

33 = If no insurance, inserts the word NOT

34 = Insurance Type (Insurance, Damage Waiver, etc.)

35 = Insurance Percent as a whole number

36 = Agreement Insurance / Insurance Rate (See 50)

37 = Regular Payment (Rate + Tax + Insurance)

38 = Time Agreement Created

39 = Last Transaction Reference Number

40 = Name of Employee Doing Transaction

41 = Name of Day of Week

42 = Actual Day of Transaction

43 = Time of Transaction

44 = Agreement Status

100 = Inventory Assigned to Agreement

Additional Field Numbers Used for Agreements, Delivery Tickets and Ledger Cards

45 = Miscellaneous Charges Assessed

46 = Delivery Charges Assessed

47 = Rent Charges Assessed

48 = Taxes Assessed

49 = Total First Payment Amount

50 = Agreement Insurance Rate Assessed

51 = Monthly Rate for Agreement

52 = Monthly Insurance Rate for Agreement

53 = Weekly Rate for Agreement

54 = Weekly Insurance Rate for Agreement

55 = Monthly Term

56 = Weekly Term

57 = Due Day of Month if Monthly Agreement

58 = White Goods Collection Amount

59 = Non White Goods Collection Amount

60 = Agreement Term minus one (Term - 1)

61 = Full Disclosure Tax Amount

62 = Full Disclosure Including Tax

63 = Daily Rate

64 = Monthly Term minus 1

65 = Weekly Term minus 1

66 = Next Due after current payment is made

67 = Retail price for Agreement

68 = Minimum Cash Option Amount

69 = Tax amount on normal payment

70 = Full Disclosure Including Tax & Insurance

99 = Inv. Spacing if Using two inv.'s per line

Additional Field Numbers for Receipts

45 = Amount Forward

46 = Total Paid Amount

47 = Payment Type

48 = Rent Paid

49 = Tax Paid

50 = Late Charge Paid

51 = Insurance Paid

52 = Deposit Paid

53 = Delivery Paid

54 = NSF Paid

55 = Damage Charges Paid

56 = Miscellaneous Paid

57 = Payments Remaining

58 = Deposit Total On Hand

59 = Transaction Date

60 = Total Due

61 = Cash Option Amount

62 = Other Charges Paid including late fees & Ins

63 = Same as 62 but not padded out 6 digits

65 = Amount Forward not padded (=45)

66 = Total Paid not padded (=46)

68 = Rent Paid not padded (=48)

69 = Tax Paid not padded (=49)

70 = Late Fees not padded (=50)

71 = Insurance Paid not padded (=51)

72 = Deposit Paid not padded (=52)

73 = Delivery Paid not padded (=53)

74 = NSF Paid not padded (=54)

75 = Damage Paid not padded (=55)

76 = Miscellaneous Paid not padded (=56)

77 = Sold Amount

78 = Sold Amount not padded out 6 digits

79 = Late Fee + Deposit + NSF + Damage

99 = Inventory Spacing if using 2 Inv's per line

Field Numbers for Forms and Letters

1. Company Name

2. Company Manager

3. Company Address

4. Company City

5. Company State

6. Company Zip

7. Company Phone

8. Customer First Name

9. Customer Last Name

10. Customer Address

11. Customer Apt

12. Customer City

13. Customer State

14. Customer Zip

15. Customer Phone

16. Customer Store Number

17. Customer Agreement Number

18. Customer Agreement Date

19. Customer Delivery Date

20. Customer Payment Next Due Date

21. Customer Maintenance Limit Date

22. Customer Deposit Charge (pad 4)

23. Customer Rent Charge + Customer Rate + Customer Delivery Charge + Customer Misc. Charge - Customer Amount Forward (Pad 4)

24. Customer Rate (pad 4)

25. Customer Pay Period as Yearly, Monthly, ... Hourly, One Time.

26. Customer Agreement Type as Rental, Cash Option, Layaway, Sale.

27. Late Charge/Reinstatement Base Fee (pad 4) (PROFILE.DEF line 9)

28. Processing/Application Base Fee (pad 4) (PROFILE.DEF line 11)

29. Trip Fee Base Fee (pad 4) (PROFILE.DEF line 12)

30. Customer Term As Whole Number, Dropping Decimal

31. Full Disclosure, Customer Rate * Term (pad 4)

32. Customer Pay Period as Year, Month, ... Hour, One Time.

33. Prints " NOT" if agreement does not have insurance/damage waiver.

34. Name For Insurance/Damage Waiver (PROFILE.DEF line 35)

35. Damage Waiver/Insurance Percent as 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, etc.

36. Damage Waiver/Insurance Rate even if not taken (see #50) (pad 4)

37. Customer Regular Payment (pad 4)

38. Time Agreement Printed

39. Last Transaction Number For Customer

40. Name of Employee doing transaction.

41. Name of Current Business Day (Monday, Tuesday, etc.)

42. Actual Date of Last Transaction

43. Time of Last Transaction

44. Customer Status as Active, Charged Off, etc.

45. Customer Misc. Charge (Actual Processing Fee for Agrmt) (pad 4)

46. Customer Delivery Charge (Actual Delivery Charge Debited)(pad 4)

47. Customer Rate + Rent Charge - Amount Forward (pad 4)

48. Customer Taxes Due (pad 4)

49. First Pmt Due (pad 4) = Rate + Rent Charge + Miscellaneous Charge + Delivery Charge + Taxes Due + Insurance Rate + Club Rate - Amount Forward.

50. Actual Customer Insurance Rate (pad 4)

51. Customer Monthly Rate (pad 4)

52. Customer Monthly Insurance/Damage Waiver Rate (pad 4)

53. Customer Weekly Rate (pad 4)

54. Customer Weekly Insurance/Damage Waiver Rate (pad 4)

55. Customer Monthly Term as whole number rounded up.

56. Customer Weekly Term as whole number rounded up.

57. Day of Month Due if Monthly Pay Period

58. White Goods Collection Amt (pad 4) (PROFILE.DEF line 97)

59. Non White Goods Collection Amt (pad 4) (PROFILE.DEF line 98)

60. Customer Term minus 1, rounded to 1 decimal place.

61. Full Disclosure Tax Amt (Rate*TaxRate*Term) (pad 4)

62. Full Disclosure Including Tax (Rate*(1+TaxRate)*Term) (pad 4)

63. Customer Daily Rate (pad 4)

64. Customer Monthly Term rounded up to nearest whole number, minus 1.

65. Customer Weekly Term Rounded up to nearest whole number, minus 1.

66. Customer's Next Payment Due Date After Next Payment Is Posted.

67. Customer's Cash Price (pad 4)

68. Cash Option Minimum

((Rate or Cash Price) * (MiniumFactor (PROFILE.DEF line 46) )

69. Tax on Normal Payment (pad 4)

70. Full Disclosure Including Tax & Insurance

71. Monthly Term Rounded Up * Monthly Rate (pad 4)

72. Weekly Term Rounded Up * Weekly Rate (pad 4)

Normal AGRMT_?.DEF Field Numbers 73-80 Moved to 133-140

73. Total Paid for Last Transaction (pad 4)

74. Rent Paid for Last Transaction (pad 4)

75. Ins/DW Paid for Last Transaction (pad 4)

76. Late/RIF Fee Paid for Last Transaction (pad 4)

77. Tax Paid for Last Transaction (pad 4)

78. Other Charges Due/Balance Due for Last Transaction (pad 4)

79. Customer Total Deposit Amt Paid (pad 4)

80. Customer Deposit On Hand (pad 4)

81. Customer Regular Monthly Payment

82. Customer Regular Weekly Payment

83. Monthly Ins/DW Rate for Customer even if not taken.

84. Weekly Ins/DW Rate for Customer even if not taken.

85. Monthly Taxes Due (pad 4)

86. Weekly Taxes Due (pad 4)

87. Customer Nsf Charge (pad 4)

88. Customer Damage Charge (pad 4)

89. Posting Date on Last Transaction

90. Next Payment Due after a weekly payment is made.

91. Customer Monthly Rate + Rent Charge - Amount Forward (pad 4)

92. Customer Weekly Rate + Rent Charge - Amount Forward (pad 4)

93. Monthly Rate with tax included (pad 4).

94. Weekly Rate with tax included (pad 4).

95. Full Disclosure for Monthly Payments (Reg. Mthly Pmt*Term)(pad 4)

96. Full Disclosure for Weekly Payments (Reg. Weekly Pmt*Term)(pad 4)

97. Customer Misc. Chg + Deposit Charge + Ins/DW Rate (pad 5)

98. Customer's Second SSN

99. Inv. Spacing for two inv per line.

100. Print Inventory Assigned for Active Agreements (A,K,I,S,H)

101. Print Inventory Returned (If None Are Assigned To Another Agrmt Yet)

102. Customer's Second SSN

103. Customer's Second Phone

104. Customer's Balance Remaining, less late fees (pad 4)

105. Bad Check Charge (pad 4) (PROFILE.DEF line 177)

106. Customer Comment

107. Customer's First SSN

108. Customer Term

109. Customer Payments Remaining, rounded to nearest whole number

110. Customer Payments Made, rounded to nearest whole number

111. Customer Rent Paid + Sale Amt Paid (pad 4)

112. Customer Tax Paid (pad 4)

113. Customer Ins/DW Paid (pad 4)

114. Customer Nsf Paid (pad 4)

115. Customer Late/RIF Fees Paid (pad 4)

116. Customer Misc. Fees Paid (pad 4)

117. Customer Damage Fees Paid (pad 4)

118. Customer Delivery Fees Paid (pad 4)

119. Customer Delivery Fees Paid + Damage Fees Paid + Misc. Fees Paid + NSF Charges Paid (pad 4)

120. Customer Non-Cash Credit Paid (pad 4)

121. Customer Rent Paid + Sale Amt Paid + Tax Paid + Ins/DW Paid + Nsf Fees Paid + Late/RIF Fees Paid + Misc. Fees Paid + Damage Fees Paid + Delivery Fees Paid (pad 4)

122. Amount Due or Refund Due if returned immediately (pad 4). This will be negative if refund is due. Use 132 if 0.00 is desired when a refund is due. Also see 185, 186.

123. Total Amount Now Due for customer's current pay period (pad 4)

124. Next Due Date after Total Amount Now Due is Paid

125. Current System Date of Business

126. Current System Time

127. Rent Charge if equipment returned immediately (pad 4)

128. Ins/DW Charge if equipment returned immediately (pad 4)

129. Late/RIF Fees Assessed if equipment returned immediately (pad 4)

130. Other Fees Assessed when equipment returned immediately (pad 4)

131. Tax Fees Assessed when equipment returned immediately (pad 4)

132. Amount Due if returned immediately (pad 4) Also see 122, 185, 186

133. Time Due {73 for AGRMT_?.DEF}

134. Customer's First SSN {74 for AGRMT_?.DEF}

135. Cash Option Discount Percent 1 {75 for AGRMT_?.DEF}

136. Cash Option Discount Percent 2 {76 for AGRMT_?.DEF}

137. Cash Option Discount Percent 3 {77 for AGRMT_?.DEF}

138. 1 minus Cash Option Discount Percent 1 {78 for AGMRT_?.DEF}

139. 1 minus Cash Option Discount Percent 2 {79 for AGRMT_?.DEF}

140. 1 minus Cash Option Discount Percent 3 {80 for AGRMT_?.DEF}

141. Rent paid over term of contract.

(Rate*Term) minus Cash Price (sum of inventory retail prices)

145. Customer Amount Forward (pad 2)

146. Total Paid for Last Transaction (pad 6)

147. Payment Type for Last Transaction

148. Rent Paid for Last Transaction (pad 6)

149. Tax Paid for Last Transaction (pad 6)

150. Late/RIF Fees Paid for Last Transaction (pad 6)

151. Ins/DW Fees Paid for Last Transaction (pad 6)

152. Deposit Paid for Last Transaction (pad 6)

153. Delivery Paid for Last Transaction (pad 6)

154. NSF Paid for Last Transaction (pad 6)

155. Damage Paid for Last Transaction (pad 6)

156. Misc. Paid for Last Transaction (pad 6)

157. Customer Term Remaining (No Term = N/A)

158. Customer Deposit on Hand (pad 6)

159. Posting Date for Last Transaction

160. Total Amount Now Due (pad 6)

161. Cash Option Amount (pad 6)

162. For Last Transaction, NSF Paid + Ins/DW Paid + Delivery Paid + Misc. Paid + Damage Paid + Deposit Paid + Late/RIF Fees Paid (pad 6)

163. For Last Transaction, NSF Paid + Ins/DW Paid + Delivery Paid + Misc. Paid + Damage Paid + Deposit Paid + Late/RIF Fees Paid (pad 1)

165. Customer Amount Forward (pad 1)

166. Total Paid for Last Transaction (pad 1)

168. Rent Paid for Last Transaction (pad 1)

169. Tax Paid for Last Transaction (pad 1)

170. Late/RIF Fees Paid for Last Transaction (pad 1)

171. Ins/DW Fees Paid for Last Transaction (pad 1)

172. Deposit Paid for Last Transaction (pad 1)

173. Delivery Paid for Last Transaction (pad 1)

174. NSF Paid for Last Transaction (pad 1)

175. Damage Paid for Last Transaction (pad 1)

176. Misc. Paid for Last Transaction (pad 1)

177. Sold Amt for Last Transaction (pad 6)

178. Sold Amt for Last Transaction (pad 1)

179. Other for Last Transaction

Late/RIF Fees Paid + Deposit Paid + NSF Paid + Damage Paid

180. Prints "PAID IN FULL" if Next Payment Due = 0

181. Closed Date (Date the Agreement was Closed)

184. Number of Days Agreement is Late (Number of Days Past Payment Next Due Date)

185. Absolute Value of Amount Due or Refund Due if all equipment is returned immediately (pad 4)

186. Prints "Refund" if a refund is due or prints "Amount" if a balance is due if equipment was returned immediately.

187. Monthly First Payment Due (pad 4). Also see 49.

188. Weekly First Payment Due (pad 4). Also see 49.

189. Next Due Date after a Monthly Payment is Received

190. Rent Charges Currently Due (see 123 & 160 for Total Amount Due)

191. Insurance Charges Currently Due

192. Club Charges Currently Due

193. Late Charges Currently Due

194. Tax Charges Currently Due

195. Monthly Term Remaining

196. Weekly Term Remaining

197. Full Disclosure for Monthly Term Remaining (MthlyRegPmt*MthlyTermRemaining)

198. Full Disclosure for Weekly Term Remaining (WklyRegPmt*WklyTermRemaining)

199. Agreement Last Transaction Date

200. Write Transactions for Agreement. Follow Code With Number Between 0 and 9 To Specify The Number Of Transactions To Write. For Example, Follow With 3 To List The Last Three Transactions.

201. Number of Payments Made For Current Pay Period Setting Rounded To 1 Decimal.

202. Number of Days Past Payment Due Date ADJUSTED For Partial Payment Rule.

203. Number of Payments Due (Would Include Payment If Due Today)

204. Number of Payments Past Due (Would Not Include Payment If Due Today

205. Other Charges Due (non-automatic charges: nsf+misc.+deposit+trip)

206. Other Charges plus Club Charges Due

207. Other Charges plus Club and Insurance

208. Other Charges plus Club and Insurance and Late Fees

209. Number of Times Agreement has been late.

210. Number of Times Late Fee Waived.

211. Pay Period Name (Years, Months, Semi-Months, Weeks, Days, Hours, Times)

212. Pay Period Name 3 chars (Yrs, Mts, SMs, Wks, Dys, Tms)

213. Pay Period Name 7 chars (Yearly, Monthly, S-Mthly, Weekly, Daily, Hourly, Once)

214. Total Amt Paid In Including Tax

215. Print Inventory Returned List From Last Return Done On Workstation

216. Last Transaction Reference Number of Drawer Transaction

217. Last Transaction Reference Number of Inventory

218. Days Added For Term Extension Transaction

219. Previous Ending Date On A Term Extension

220. Tax for Total Cash Price for Agrmt

221. Difference Between Full Contract Amt & Fair Market Value, including tax

222. Difference Between Full Contract Amt & Fair Market Value, without tax

223. Total Due plus One Additional Regular Payment

224. Total Due plus One Additional Payment IF Within Days To Next Due Range

225. Sale Charge Amt

226. Tax Amt On Sale Charge Amt

227. Miscellaneous Receipt Reason Description

228. Petty Cash Reason Description

229. Non-Cash Adjustment Reason Description

230. Print List of Miscellaneous Receipt Items From Last Misc. Rec. Done On Workstation

231. Pay Period Name 5 chars (Years, Mths, SMths, Weeks, Days, Hrs, Times)

234. Rent Due plus Additional Sale Amt Due

235. Additional Sale Amt Due

344. First Payment Due Plus Deposit Charge.

345. First Rent Amt Due

346. First Ins Amt Due

347. First Club Amt Due

348. First Club Amt Due Minus Partial Credit For Rent (Discount Amt)

349. Name of Day of Agrmt Next Due

350. Club Rate Monthly If Agrmt Elected Club Plan

351. Club Rate Weekly If Agrmt Elected Club Plan

352. Club Rate Monthly Regardless Of Whether Agreement Has Elected It

353. Club Rate Weekly Regardless Of Whether Agreement Has Elected It

354. Tax Amt Of Total Cash Price

355. Difference Between Full Contract Amt & Fair Market Value, Including Tax

356. Difference Between Full Contract Amt & Fair Market Value, Not Including Tax

420. Tax Amt Of Total Cash Price

421. Difference Between Full Disclosure & Fair Market Value, Including Tax

422. Difference Between Full Disclosure & Fair Market Value, Not Including Tax

423. Total Due Plus Regular Payment

424. Total Due Plus Regular Payment IF within Days To Next Due Range In Profile

425. Sale Charge Amount

426. Tax On Sale Charge Amount

427. Monthly Term Rounded To Nearest Whole Number

428. Weekly Term Rounded To Nearest Whole Number

429. Time Due Using 12 hr clock (am/pm) {See 133 Also}

Reports Configured by Menu

Eight of the reports on the report sub-menu are configured by menu. This section describes how to print and configure these reports. Note that the reports listed on the report sub-menu are simply categories of reports. However, each category may allow certain run time options. A run time option is a prompt asked concerning a report that is configured already. For example, the number of days past due may be specified at run time for delinquency reports. This allows configuring a report for all active agreements, regardless of whether they are active or not. Then at run time, the number of days past due may be specified to produce reports for different delinquent periods, all from the same report configuration.

When first accessing the report category, Rentpro will list the nine reports available for that category. Above the report names is the destination for the report, and menu options for configuring the report, and for reprinting the last report. Generally, users would desire to have the destination as the screen when running the report the first time. This allows examining the output before printing a hard copy. Then, the destination is set to the printer desired, and reprint last report is selected. Instead of processing the files again, Rentpro prints the last report.

Printing a Report

To select a report, move the arrow with the up and down arrow keys to point to the report desired, and then press enter. Or, print a report by simply pressing the number of the report regardless of where the arrow is pointing. Rentpro has a printer driver that will adjust the print size on the printer according to the width of the report. For example, most documents use 10 cpi (characters per inch), and may be printed up to 80 characters on 8.5 X 11 inch paper if the left margin is less than 0.5 inches. If the report you are printing exceeds 80 characters (or whatever width is specified in the printer driver), Rentpro will instruct the printer to switch to a small print size, such as 12 cpi. Up to 96 characters may fit within 8 inches. Therefore, if the report exceeded 96 characters, Rentpro would instruct the printer to switch to 17.1 cpi, allowing 136 characters on a report. The capabilities of changing font size to accommodate all the information for a report on a single line depends upon the capabilities of your printer.

Configuring Reports

The reports may be named and configured by the user at any time. If the report name says, Unconfigured, then the report probably has not been configured yet and cannot be printed. To configure a report, move the arrow to point to the report and press C.

Before configuring a report, you should plan the report. List the variables you want printed on the report, and the order in which you want them to appear. Determine what kind of qualifying variables you desire. Determine how you want the report sorted. There is a limit of 256 characters per report record, including the sort fields. When configuring a report, the bottom right hand corner shows the total width used thus far. The sum of the total number shown for all the sort fields, plus the totals for each line of the report itself, cannot exceed 256. If it does exceed 256, the remaining information of the record will be truncated at 256 characters. If your record is being truncated, you have several options: 1) divide the report into two separate reports and configure them separately, 2) eliminate some of the sort fields or print fields, 3) shorten the width of some of the fields (For example, if the first name field were being printed, instead of using a width size of 21, use a width of 10, which causes only the first 10 characters of the first name to be printed).

The first thing Rentpro asks when configuring a report is the report name. The next questions depend upon the type of report being configured. The Debt report asks whether you want to print the inventory assigned to an agreement. Next, it asks which sort variable to skip a line after. For example, if your first sort variable is going to be the next payment due date, the report will skip a line every time the payment due date changes if you enter a 1. If your first sort field were category code, and your second sort field were manufacturer code, entering a 2 would cause a line to be skipped every time the manufacturer changed.

Rentpro will list the variables available. If you do not want the report sorted, press F1. Otherwise, move with the arrow or tab keys to highlight the desired sort variable. Press the enter key to select it. Continue and select another sort variable, if desired.

Each sort variable selected is a level lower than the preceding one. For example, if your first sort variable is status, your second sort variable is last name, and your third sort variable is agreement number, then the report will be sorted first by status. Then, the listings within each status will be sorted by last name. Lastly, any records with the same status and last name will be sorted by agreement number.

After selecting the sort variables and pressing F1, you will be allowed to select the qualifying variables. If you have qualifying variables that are not going to be printed, you should enter these first. By doing so, Rentpro will process the agreement file faster. Select variables by highlighting the desired variable using the cursor keys. When the desired variable is highlighted, press enter to answer the four questions at the bottom of the screen.

The min and max fields allow you to specify minimum and maximum values inclusive for the variable in order to qualify the record for printing. If the variable is a single letter, such as for agreement status, the min and max fields are not really min and max values; rather, simply list each of the letters that would be qualified for printing. For example, if you want active and skip agreements, enter AK in either the min or max field. The third question asks if you want to print the field. Answer Y if you want the variable to actually appear on the report. The last question asks you the size of the variable. The size is the maximum number of characters used by the variable. For example, if the largest agreement number were 7985, then at least four characters should be specified for the size of the agreement number field in order to be able to distinguish the different agreement numbers.

Rentpro will suggest the appropriate size of the variable selected, but sometimes it may be desireable to decrease or increase this size. For example, although first names may be up to 21 characters in length, it may not be necessary to print all 21 characters since most first names will be much less than this. It may be desireable to print only 10 characters so that there will be enough room for other variables on the report.

The number of variables selected for printing is displayed at the lower left. The total width (number of characters) of the report is displayed at the lower right of the screen. When you are finished configuring the report, press F1.

File Variables

The variables displayed in the report configuration menu are defined in an ASCII file. The names may be changed and the order in which they are displayed may be changed to suit your desires with an ASCII editor. Five different files contain different variable names for the different category of reports. The 27 reports categorized under debt reports, agreement reports, and profile of agreements use the agreement file variables saved in the file AGMTVARS.DEF. The 18 reports categorized under Inventory Listing and Unit Depreciation use the variables saved in the file named INVVARS.DEF. The mailing label reports use MAILVARS.DEF. The transaction reports use TRANVARS.DEF, and the sku reports use SKUVARS.DEF.

Following are definitions of the fields that may be printed in different reports. Because the names may be changed, the variable names appearing on your screen may differ from those listed below. If you print out your configuration file, however, you can match them to those below using the field number. Some of the fields listed below are used by the program and may not be of much use to the average user, so don't expect to understand all the fields listed.

AGMTVARS.DEF: Debt Report, Agreement Listing, Profile of Agreements.

Name Field No Size Description

Act_# 2 5 Agreement Number.

First_Name 107 21 First Name of Customer.

Last_Name 108 13 Last Name of Customer.

Address 109 36 Street address of Customer.

Apt 102 4 Apartment Number of Customer.

City 106 19 City of Customer.

State 99 2 State of Customer.

Zip 104 10 Zip Code of Customer.

Phone 105 12 Phone Number of Customer.

Area_Mgr 100 2 Area Manager Code for Agreement.

Agmt_Type 53 1 Agreement (Agreement) type (R,O,L,S).

Status 52 1 Status (A,H,C,I,K,L,P,R,X,S,D).

Pay_Period 54 1 Pay Period (Y,M,S,W,D,H).

Reg_Pmt 110 8 Regular Payment, including tax.

Total_Due 115 8 Total amount due from customer to bring agreement current as of the day and time the report is run.

Amt_Fwd 76 7 The amount forward, partial payment credit, that may be applied toward rent.

Rate 77 8 The base rate for the agreement. This equals the sum of the rates for each unit assigned to the agreement.

InsRate 80 7 The insurance rate on the agreement.

OtherRate 79 9 Monthly rate if Pay Period = W, D, or H Weekly rate if Pay Period = Y, M, or S.

Old_Rate 92 8 Rate prior to Return / Repossess.

RentDue 11 7 The amount of rent due on the agreement.

TaxDue 114 6 The amount of tax due on the agreement.

LC_Due 113 6 The amount of late charge due.

InsDue 112 6 The amount of insurance due.

OChgsDue 137 6 NSF + Misc. + Deposit + Trip + Damage Fees.

COTotalDue 119 10 The total amount needed to cash option.

SalePrice 118 9 The sale price for cash option.

Grace_Flag 55 1 Grace Period Flag.

Ins_Flag 57 1 Insurance Flag (I,D,N).

OChg_Flag 56 2 Other charge Flag (Y,N).

RentChg 78 7 Rent charge on the agreement. This is any rent debited on the agreement. It is NOT the total amount of rent due.

LateChg 75 7 Late charge on the agreement. This is the late charges debited manually, NOT the total amount of late charges due.

InsChg 71 6 Insurance charge on the agreement. This is the insurance charges manually debited on the agreement, NOT the total amount of insurance due.

TripChg 73 7 Trip charge, Delivery / Pick-up fee.

NsfChg 69 6 Not Sufficient Funds, Bad Check charge. It is the amount debited for a returned check.

DamChg 74 6 Damage charge needed to be paid.

DeposChg 72 6 Deposit charge needed to be paid.

MisChg 70 6 Miscellaneous charge needed to be paid.

RentTotal 81 9 The total rent already collected.

SoldAmt 96 7 The total sold amount collected.

NCashTotal 82 8 The amount non-cash adjusted.

TaxTotal 83 8 The total amount of tax collected.

LCTotal 86 7 The total late fees collected.

InsTotal 84 8 Total amount collected for insurance.

TripTotal 89 8 Total trip/delivery fees collected.

NsfTotal 85 8 Total NSF/Bad check fees collected.

Damage_Tot 88 8 Total damage fees collected.

DeposTotal 90 8 Total deposits collected.

DepOnHand 95 9 Total deposits on hand.

MiscTotal 87 8 Total miscellaneous fees collected.

CashPrice 91 8 The retail price for all units assigned.

LCWaived 39 4 The no. of times late fees were waived.

LC_W_Amt 93 8 The amount of late fees waived.

InsWAmt 94 7 The amount of insurance fees waived.

TimesLate 38 6 The number of times payment was late.

#NSF_Chks 36 4 The number of NSF checks.

#PmtsDue 116 6 The number of payments due.

#PD 23 4 Number of payments due when units returned.

DPastLCND 120 4 Days past late charge next due date.

DPAdjLCND 121 4 Days past adjusted late charge next due date.

DPastNxDue 117 4 Days past next due date.

DPAdjNxDue 124 4 Days past adjusted next due date.

AgmtDate 10 8 Agreement Date / Contract Date.

Hour 29 2 Hour Agreement was made.

Minutes 30 3 Minute Agreement was made.

CTime 123 5 Time when agreement was made.

ClosedDate 9 8 Date agreement was terminated.

CoffDate 24 4 Date agreement was charged off.

Delivered 12 8 Delivery date. Commencement date.

EndDate 13 7 Maintenance Limit Date.

InsDue 6 8 Insurance due date.

Last_Pmt 11 8 Date last payment was posted.

Lst_TransD 7 8 Date of last transaction.

LC_Due 5 8 Late Fee next due date.

Nx_Due 4 8 Payment next due date.

NxMinDue 50 4 Used on hourly agreements.

ServDate 8 8 Date agreement put on Service status.

NxDueDay 122 3 The day of month agreement is due.

Due_Day_1 27 2 The first day of month agreement is due.

Due_Day_2 28 2 Second day of month agreement is due.

Term 45 4 The total number of payments to be made during entire agreement.

TrmCounter 46 4 The number of payments made thus far.

TrmLeft 125 4 The number of payments remaining.

MthsLeft 126 5 The number of months remaining, regardless of the pay period. The months left is expressed as a real number rounded to one decimal place.

ActValue 127 8 The value of the agreement equal to the number of payments remaining times the regular payment.

Tax_Exempt 65 5 Tax exempt status flag. Y prevents tax from being deducted from payments.

Adv_Code 59 2 Advertising Code. (Y,N)

Adv_Src 58 2 Advertising Source.

Age 31 3 Age of customer.

Dependents 32 3 Number of dependents.

Hire_Year 34 2 The year customer was hired at job.

Hire_Yr_Sp 35 2 The year the spouse was hired.

House_Pmt 48 4 Joint monthly house payment.

Occ_Code_S 63 3 Occupational Code for Spouse.

Occup_Code 62 2 Occupational Code.

Own/Rent 61 1 Own or Rent House.

PFN 60 3 Present, former, new customer.

Salary 15 5 Joint salary.

SSN 14 9 Social Security Number.

Yr_Res 33 2 Year customer moved to residence.

Int_Rate 37 3 Interest rate to pay on deposit.

#Units 47 3 Number of units assigned to agreement.

#Loaners 41 3 Number of units on loan to agreement.

#Stolens 40 3 Number of units with stolen status.

Temp 17 5 Temporary long integer field.

1st_Inv_No 3 5 First inventory assigned to agreement.

1st_Trans 18 5 First transaction reference number.

Lst_Trans 19 5 Last transaction reference number.

Inv_Rec 22 5 Record number for first inventory.

DelPeriod 138 4 Delinquency Period - Uses the days past the adjusted next due date (see page 80) to determine the delinquency period, and specifies the period by the upper limit of the period. For example, period 1-4 is represented by a 4.

1st_Rec 20 5 First agreement record number for linked agreements.

Nxt_Rec 21 5 Next agreement record for linked agreements.

Proc_Code 64 2 Process code.

RecStatus 1 5 Record status, long integer.

Store_No 44 3 Store number for agreement.

MthRate 129 7 Monthly Rate for Agreement.

WkRate 130 6 Weekly Rate for Agreement.

MthInsRate 131 7 Monthly Insurance Rate for Agreement.

WkInsRate 132 6 Weekly Insurance Rate for Agreement.

MthTerm 133 4 Monthly Term.

WkTerm 134 3 Weekly Term.

Space 135 1 Writes one or more spaces.

New Line 136 1 Carriage Return for new line.

MAILVARS.DEF: Mailing Labels

This file is similar to CUSTVARS.DEF except that it has a few other variables for formatting the label.

Name Field No Size Description

, 121 1 Prints a comma.

. 122 1 Prints a period.

- 123 1 Prints a hyphen.

# 124 1 Prints a pound sign.

" 125 1 Prints a quotation mark.

$ 127 1 Prints a dollar sign.

Space 120 1 Prints a space.

New Line 126 1 Carriage return to a new line.

INVVARS.DEF: Inventory Listing, Unit Depreciation

Name Field No Size Description

Inv_# 2 5 Inventory Number.

Serial_No 69 12 Serial Number.

Item_Desc 70 20 Item Description.

Model_No 67 10 Model Number.

Color 65 6 Color of Unit.

Cat_Code 63 2 Category / Product Line Code.

MF_Code 64 2 Manufacturer Code.

Status 39 1 Status (I,C,L,F,O,V,B,P,S,T).

PO_# 68 10 Purchase Order No., Trust Receipt No.

Act_# 3 5 Agreement number unit is/was assigned.

Lst_Cust 4 5 Last customer before current customer.

Rate 49 8 Rental rate, not including tax.

OtherRate 56 9 Monthly rate if Pay Period = H, D, or W Weekly rate if Pay Period = Y, M, or S.

Sku_No 66 7 Sku number for unit.

RO-Monthly 50 8 Rent-to-Own monthly rate.

RO-Weekly 51 8 Rent-to-Own weekly rate.

RR-Monthly 52 8 Rental monthly rate.

RR-Weekly 53 8 Rental weekly rate.

Hr-Rate 59 8 Hourly rate.

Day-Rate 58 8 Daily rate.

Yr-Rate 60 8 Yearly rate.

InsRate 54 8 Insurance rate.

RentIncome 48 8 Rental Income Earned by Unit.

Retail 55 8 Retail Price of unit.

InvCost 47 8 Purchase cost of unit.

ServCost 46 8 Service cost / Repair costs.

SSAmt 45 8 Sold / Salvage Amount for unit.

SSCode 40 3 Sold / Salvage Code.

DisplayDte 19 8 Date unit put on display.

Idle_Dte 6 8 Date unit put on idle status.

LstTransDt 20 8 Date of last transaction.

OnRentDte 14 8 Date unit put on rent.

Serv_Dte 8 8 Date unit serviced.

SS_Date 5 8