Getting Started with Rental Car Manager Guide

Getting Started with Rental Car Manager Guide

Getting Started with RCM 


This article will walk you through the process of setting up your RCM system.  

There are several different areas that will be focused on:
  1. Accessing RCM
  2. System Settings
  3. Vehicles
  4. Rates and Fees 


Video Tutorials

Most of the sections below have an associated Video Tutorial 
Click here to access links to the Tutorials. 

Accessing RCM


When your new RCM area has been setup, you will have been sent an email which contains the URL to use to access the RCM login page.  This email will also contain a username and password. 



If you are unable to log in using these details, please ensure that you have typed the username and password correctly, remembering that it is case sensitive. 
If you are unsure of your password, click on the 'Forgot your Password' link and an email will be sent to you with a link to reset your password. 

If you are still not able to log on, please contact RCM Support - support@rentalcarmanager.com


Before you start setting up your new RCM system, in particular creating new users, we recommend that you take the time to read the following Knowledge Base article.  It describes how the security within RCM works - Security and Access within RCM 

System Settings:

The following information needs to be setup before you can start using RCM

  1. Company
  2. Locations
  3. Users
  4. Templates
  5. System Parameters

Company

Within RCM you can setup information about your company.  This information is used when producing any documents with RCM, i.e. Rental Agreements, Confirmations, Quotes etc.  You can see the type of information that is entered in the image below  for instance, if you want the ABN Number to appear on your Rental Agreement, then you need to enter this information here. 



When you first login to RCM, you will see that a default company record has already been setup.  You are not able to delete this record, however, you are able to edit it.  We would recommend checking the information against this company record to make sure the details are correct. 

The Company screen can be found by navigating to the System Setup menu and choosing the Company Info option. 

The following Knowledge Base article describes the Company Information screen in more detail including a description of each of the fields.  Company Info 

Locations


Your branches and or depots are called Locations within RCM.

When you first log into RCM you will see a default Location which will have been setup.  You will not be able to delete this record, however, you will be able to edit it.

Locations are an important part of the overall RCM functionality, therefore we recommend that you take the time to make sure that you have them all entered into RCM with the correct information.




The Locations screen can be found by navigating to the System Setup menu and choosing the Locations option.

The following Knowledge Base article describes the Location screen in more detail including a description of each of the fields - Locations

Users

If you are going to have multiple people accessing RCM, we would recommend creating a user for each person. There is no limit to the number of users you can setup within your RCM system and there is no additional cost for having extra Users. Creating a user for each person will allow you to set the access level for each user. It also allows you to track who is logging in and making changes. The User Maintenance screen can be found by Navigating to the System Setup menu and choosing the Users option. The following Knowledge Base article talks about the extra security around accessing the User Maintenance screen  -User Maintenance  

If you are unable to locate the User Maintenance screen please contact support@rentalcarmanager.com


Templates

RCM allows you to customise the documents that are sent out from within RCM.  You are able to do this by updating the various templates that exist within your RCM system.

It is important to note that when location specific templates are discussed below, the location is determined by the pickup location of the booking in question. When your RCM system is created, each of the templates mentioned below, with the exception of any location specific templates, are populated with standard information. Therefore this is something that can be done after you have the other information setup.

The available templates are: 
  1. Rental Agreement Template
  2. Confirmation Template
  3. Quotation Template
  4. Invoice Template

Rental Agreement Template


A Rental Agreement can be produced for each booking within RCM. This agreement can either be printed or emailed to a customer. There is also a function within RCM which allows you to obtain signatures on the Rental Agreement electronically.

There are 2 parts to the Rental Agreement.
The top half is all of the information which is unique to the booking. When you are given your RCM system, you are supplied with the standard Rental Agreement. If you wish to change how the top half of the Rental Agreement looks, simply get in touch with RCM Support support@rentalcarmanager.com.

The second half of the Rental Agreement is referred to as the Terms and Conditions section. This section is controlled by the Rental Agreement Template. Whatever you have setup here is what will appear on the Rental Agreement in this section. 

The following Knowledge Base article describes how to edit the Rental Agreement Template in more detail -  Rental Agreement Template



Email Templates

Full details of all templates listed below can be found in this Knowledge Base Article -  Email Templates within RCM 

Confirmation Template
The Confirmation Template allows you to personalise the confirmation email that is sent out to your customers from within RCM.
There are two parts to the Confirmation Template, the Letter section and the Terms and Conditions section.

When a confirmation email is sent out it is built up in the following manner, first of all the Letter section from the confirmation template is displayed. There is then a standard section which contains
all of the booking information. Then lastly the Terms and Condition section from the Confirmation Template.

There are also 6 different confirmation templates:
• Standard Confirmation Template – this is the template that is used to send out confirmationemails from within RCM. There are two sections to this template as discussed above.
The following getting started video shows the basics of editing your Standard Confirmation Template
• Location Confirmation Template – within RCM you are able setup different confirmation templates for each of your locations. If you need to have different information in either the letter or Terms and Conditions sections for different locations, then you would create a Location Specific Confirmation template.
It is not necessary to setup a template for each location, if there is not a location specific template than the Standard Confirmation template will be used.
• Decline Template – when you decline a booking RCM sends a decline email using this template. The email simply consists of whatever you have setup in this template.
• Cancellation Template – after you cancel a booking you have the option of sending a cancellation email to the customer. If you choose to do this, RCM sends an email using this Cancellation template. The email simply consists of whatever you have setup in this template.
• Agent Confirmation Template – this template will be used when sending confirmation emails for any Agent bookings. You are able to setup both an Agent Standard Confirmation template and also location specific Agent Confirmation templates.
• Brand Confirmation Template – Within RCM you are able to have more than one Brand running. The following Knowledge Base article describes Branding within RCM in more detail, Brands within RCM
If you have Branding turned on in your system you are able to create Brand specific confirmation Templates.

Quotation Template
The Quotation template allows you to personalise the email that is sent out an email for a Quotation. Just like the Confirmation template, there are two parts to the Quotation template as well, the
Letter and the Terms and Conditions sections.
When a quotation email is sent out it is built up in the following manner, first of all the Letter section from the quotation template is displayed. There is then a standard section which contains all of the
booking information. Then lastly the Terms and Condition section from the quotation Template.

There are 5 different quotation templates:
• Standard Quotation Template – this template is used when sending out quotation emails within RCM. There are two sections to the template as describes above.
• Location Quotation Template – just like the Confirmation template, you are able to create Location specific Quotation templates. This allows you to have different information if needed for locations.
If there is no location specific template, then the Standard Quotation template will be used.
• Quotation Decline Template – if you decline a quotation within RCM this template is used to send an email out to the customer. The email simply consists of whatever you have entered into this template.
• Quotation Acceptance Template – when you accept a quote within RCM, i.e., convert it to a booking, this template is used to send an email out to the customer.
• Brand Quotation Template – if you have Branding turned on within your RCM system you are able to create Brand specific Quotation templates.
For more information about branding please see the following Knowledge Base article, Brands within RCM.
The following Knowledge Base article describes each of these templates and how to edit them in more detail, Quotation Template Screen.


Invoice Template
The Invoice Template allows you to personalise the invoice that is sent out. The top part of the invoice contains the booking information. The information entered into the template appears at the bottom of the invoice.
There are 2 different types of Invoice templates:

• Standard Invoice Template – The information entered into this template appears at the bottom of the invoice.
• Location Invoice Template – You also able to create location specific invoice templates. If there is no location specific template, then the standard invoice template is used.



System Parameters

Within RCM there are many system parameters that you are able to change. These system parameters can change the way that the functionality within RCM works. While it is not important to look at these system parameters while setting up your RCM system, it is recommended that you have a look at them before you start using RCM as your live system.


The following Knowledge Base article describes these system parameters in more detail, System Parameters within RCM. 

Vehicles


Before you start entering vehicles into RCM, you will need to set up some information with regard to certain fields that are used to classify vehicles within RCM. The three areas that need to be setup before you can enter vehicles are:
• Category type
• Vehicle Categories
• Vehicle Makes, Models and Types

The following Knowledge Base article describes how to start adding vehicles into RCM once you have these areas setup, Vehicle Update


Category Type


The Category Type is a high-level distinction for your Vehicle Categories. Your RCM system will come with a Category of Type which you will be unable to delete. Some other examples of Category types are Bike, Camper, Truck, or Trailer.
When you setup a Category Type you are able to set both the Rate Type and the ordering. The Rate Type can be one of 3 options:
• 24 Hour - If rate type is set to 24 hours, the daily rate is applied every 24 hours of the booking period. i.e., A booking from 3/May/2021 10:00 – 6/May/2021 10:00 will be a 3 day hire. 10
• 12 Hour - If rate type is set to 12 hours, the daily rate is applied to every calendar day occurring during the booking period, this is normally used for campervans. i.e., A booking from 3/May/2021 10:00 – 6/May/2021 10:00 will be a 4 day hire.
• Per Night - If rate type is set to Per Night, the daily rate is applied to every calendar day occurring during the booking period, this is normally used for campervans. i.e., A booking from 3/May/2021 10:00 – 6/May/2021 10:00 will be a 4 day hire. Also any drop offs after 10 am and pickups before 2 pm will incur the "After Hours Fee" for the location.
This is can be used for campervans where you are trying to enforce morning drop offs and afternoon pickups.
The following Knowledge Base article will explain the Category Types screen in more detail, Adding/ Editing Vehicle Category Types.

Vehicle Categories

We recommend that before you start setting up your Vehicle Categories, you allow some time to decide exactly how you wish to group your vehicles for charging purposes as when you setup rates within RCM, they are assigned to Vehicle Categories.
Taking this time will allow you to have a clearer idea of what your vehicle categories should be. You assign ordering to each of the Vehicle Categories. This is used when displaying vehicles on both the Reservation Sheet and on the Web Booking module. You can also choose to add a minimum age of driver to Vehicle Categories, this value defaults to 21.
If you assign an image filename to a Vehicle Category and the corresponding image file is uploaded to the server, this image will appear in any documents created within RCM relating to this Vehicle Category. You can also assign a friendly description and the number of passengers/bags that can be carried for each Vehicle Category. This information is used by your website if you are using Rental Car Manager's Web Booking Module.
The following Knowledge Base article describes how to setup a Vehicle Category in more detail, Setting up Vehicle Categories Makes and Models.

Vehicle Makes, Models and Types

You will need to create the various Vehicle Makes and Models before you can add vehicles to RCM as when you add a new vehicle you need to assign both of these values to the vehicle. After setting up vehicle makes and models, you can also define vehicle type, e.g. station wagon, sedan, hatch back, among others, to further describe your vehicle. The vehicle type is displayed in pop-up hints when using the Reservation Sheet.
 

Rates/Fees

Once you have Vehicles setup, the last step before you will be able to enter bookings into RCM is to setup the Rates and Fees. To be able to enter rates into RCM you will first of all need to setup Seasons and the Rate Structure. Once you have setup the rates, you can setup any extra fees.

Seasons

A Season refers to a period of time over which a rate will be applied. You are able to create as many seasons as you like. Seasons allow you to setup different rates for different times of the year, i.e., your high and low seasons. Your RCM system will have a season called Default, you will be unable to edit or delete this season. Seasons are also location based, this means that you will need to setup the seasons for each of your locations. Each location will have a Default season. You do not need to set up any seasons to start using RCM, you can use the default season. However if you will be charging different rates for different times of the year, then you will need to setup the relevant seasons. If a season does not exist for any part of a booking, the Default season will apply for those days. ie, if you have a season called July that goes from 1/Jul/2017 – 1/Aug/2017 and your booking is 29/Jun/2017 – 10/Jul/2017, the days in July will be charged at the July season rate, and the days in June will be charged at the Default rate.

The following Knowledge Base article describes creating the seasons in more detail.   Adding/ Editing Seasons.

Rate Structures


You will need to define your Rate Structures before you can start assigning rates to Vehicle Categories. Rate structures allow you to setup different rates based upon the length of the hire. Before defining your rate structures, you should already have an idea about the rates you will charge on a daily basis. You can see in the image below that you assign a number of days to each rate structure. This enables you to charge a different daily rate depending upon how long the hire is.






The following Knowledge Base article describes how to create and maintain your Rate Structures in more detail, Setting up Rate Structures. 

Hourly/Part Date Rates

Rate structures are normally defined for the number of days a vehicle may be rented. If you also charge hourly rates for your hires where the hire is less than 1 day, you need to define hourly rate structures as well. You are also able to setup Part Day Rates which will enable you to charge for part of a day if the booking does not encompass an entire day., charge 3.5 days instead of 4.
Setting up Hourly and Part Day Rates is not necessary and if you do not have any Hourly or Part Day Rates setup, then the daily rates will be used.

The following Knowledge Base articles describe setting up both of these in more detail. Hourly Rate Structures Part Day Rate Structures

Rates


Once you have the Seasons and Rate Structures setup you can create your rates. The Rental Rates are defined by Location, Season and Vehicle Category. The image below shows the screen where you setup the rates. You can see that are able to assign a different daily rate to each of the Rate Structure that you have setup.

Note that you are also  are able to implement Weekend Rates. If you have weekend rates setup here and the necessary System Flag is set, any bookings where the entire booking period falls between Midday Friday and Midday Monday will have the Weekend Rates applied.





The following Knowledge Base article describes setting up the rates in more detail, Setting up Rates

Extra Fees/Insurance

You are able to setup various types of extra fees that can be added to bookings. The following Knowledge Base article explains this in more detail, Extra Fees within RCM.

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