Pool Balances

Some companies handle 'pools' of customer owned cylinders. The customer does not necessarily need his exact cylinder back, just any similar cylinder from the pool will do. For some companies the cylinders in these pools might be painted with a differentiating color.

TrackAbout can provide a way to identify these kinds of assets via special Barcodes with special Barcode prefixes

How It Works

Barcode prefixes denoting "Pool Balances" must be set up through TrackAbout Support. Then TrackAbout will utilize special logic for how to deal with these kinds of assets. Some points to note about Pool Balances:

  • A starting balance is assumed to be zero unless we explicitly set one

  • Unique asset balances do not matter.

  • Balances are passed forward from month to month.

  • Pool balances don’t go negative. Rental Balance = Nonpool + pool balance. If it is negative it is shown as a zero (unless it is an Exchange type – if it is an Exchange type then the negative balance is shown)

NOTE

An asset could be swapped between accounts and the returning account would get credit for the asset even if it was not originally delivered to them.

Alerts

There is an alert on the handheld to tell the user if they are doing an uneven exchange of Pool Balance barcodes. So if someone is delivering 3 Pool Balance barcodes and returning 2 Pool Balance barcodes the handheld will alert the user so that he can double-check that he scanned them all correctly.

NOTE

If a Pool Balance barcode is on an Exchange Type asset then it is just treated as Exchange. That it is Exchange takes precedence. There is no point in putting a Y barcode on an Exchange type asset.

Compared to Exchange Balances

The difference between Pool Balances and Exchange Types is that the balance increases or decreases with the net delivers and returns of barcodes with a "Pool Balance" barcode prefix - rather than an 'IsExchange' asset type. Any size cylinder can have a "Pool Balance" barcode and therefore affect the pool balance. The count of "Pool Balance" barcodes on a customer’s balance do not matter – all that matters is the net delivers and returns of "Pool Balance" barcodes since the close of the last rental billing period.