Rental Conversion

Before you can start using TrackAbout’s Rental module to calculate rentals and generate rental bills, your current rental information will need to be imported into TrackAbout in a process we call Rental Conversion.

You’ll work closely with TrackAbout Implementation Specialists during rental conversion. During the process, you’ll be asked to collect specific rental information into a series of data files, which either you or your TrackAbout Implementation Specials will import into TrackAbout. The data files can be simple CSV — tab- or comma-delimited — or Excel/Sheets files.

The following breaks down what information needs to be collected for each data file, and in what format. TrackAbout Support or your integration specialist will let you know when during the Rental Conversion process each data file must be completed.

Data File Formats

Customer Rental Rates

This is a list of all special or contract rental rates for customers. TrackAbout Support loads the file into TrackAbout.

Field	Example	Format	Notes
Customer Number	123456	Text, Max 30 char	This is the full customer number. It can contain numbers, letters and special characters.
Asset Type	AC100	Text, Max 400 char	This can be whatever is used to organize rental. This is typically a size or part number, such as "HP" for High Pressure or "AR300" for the part number AR300.
Rental Method	D	Text, Max 100 char	This can be configured to accept any native codes from your existing rental system, however these are the standard values: NR = No Rent D = Daily M = Monthly based on ending balance SBM = Monthly based on starting balance PBD = Peak Balance, with a Daily rate PBM = Peak Balance, with a Monthly rate
Rate	0.20	Numeric. Supports 3 points after the decimal	If this rate is 20 cents a day then this field would be 0.20. Extra zeros and “$” can be included, but aren’t necessary.
Review/Expiration Date	01/01/2015	Date in MM/DD/YYYY format	This is a date at which these rates will be set to be reviewed. Note that in TrackAbout the rates never really 'expire' but a date is stored after which someone should review the rates. Leave blank if you don’t want to use this feature.
Notes		Text, Max 2000 chars	Any special notes or comments on this rate. Leave blank if not used.

Customer Balances

This file contains the current asset balances/counts for customers. Typically this is the data for the start/end of a month. TrackAbout Support loads the file into TrackAbout.

Field	Example	Format	Notes
Customer Number	123456	Text, Max 30 char	This is the full customer number. It can contain numbers letters and special characters.
Product Code *	AC100	Max 52 char	This is commonly called the Item Number, Text Part Number, Stock Number, or Gas Code in some systems. If this code is broken into two parts by an appropriate delimiter both parts are needed here.
Current Balance	5	Integer	Number of assets of this type with this customer. Negative balances are OK for Exchange type assets.

Asset Agreements (Leases, Customer Owned, etc.)

This is for information on Leases or Cylinder Agreements with customers. These are more generically called Asset Agreements in TrackAbout. This is for any agreement where the customer doesn't pay rental on a given kind of asset for a given amount of time. TrackAbout Support loads the file into TrackAbout.

Field	Example	Format	Notes
Asset Agreement Type	LEASE	Text	The accounting code indicating the type of agreement. If all you have are leases, then put the word "LEASE" in this column. If you have more types of agreements, contact TrackAbout Support to set this up.
Customer Number	123456	Text, Max 30 char	This is the full customer number. It can contain numbers, letters and special characters.
Agreement Number	123456-1	Text, Max 50 char	A unique number to identify this agreement. If no number is available, leave this field blank.
Original Start Date	06/01/2005	Date, MM/DD/YYYY	If this agreement has been renewed and you still have the original start date, we'll take that here. If it is not known, then leave this field blank.
Start Date	01/01/2009	Date, MM/DD/YYYY	Current start date of the agreement.
End Date	12/31/2009	Date, MM/DD/YYYY	Current end date of the agreement.
Renewal Term in Months	12	Integer	If this agreement is renewed, this is the amount of time it will renew for. So it should be 12 for a 1 year lease.
Auto-Renew	1	One character	1= Yes, autorenew. 0=No, do not autorenew. Today this is just a flag that is shown to the user on a renewal report. When the agreement is nearing expiration a user will see this agreement compared to the customer's current balance. One of the fields is this "AutoRenew" field. If you don't have this concept in your system, then just set all agreements to either 0 or 1 depending on whether or not you allow renewal without talking to the customer.
Notes		Text, Max 2000 char	This is for any notes stored with this agreement.
Asset Type	AC100	Text, Max 400 char	An indicator for what kind of asset(s) this line covers. This is typically a size or part number. Like "HP" for High Pressure or "AR300" for the part number AR300.
Quantity	2	Integer	If this line covers 2 assets then the value here is a 2. If the agreement has many lines, this is just the quantity for this one line.
Rate Per Asset	50.0	Number with 2 places to the right of decimal	How much it costs PER ASSET for this line. If this line covers 2 cylinders for a year at $50 each for a total of $100 then the value in this field will be 50

Customers

This file provides a list of customers, their addresses, tax info and bill delivery options.

 

Field	Example	Format	Notes
Customer Number	123456	Text, Max 30 char	This is the full customer number. It can contain numbers, letters and special characters.
Parent Customer Number	123000	Text, Max 30 char	If this line is for a department (aka ship-to, jobsite or child account), then fill in the number of the parent (aka sold-to, bill-to or main account) account in this field. If this is NOT a department, then leave this field blank.
Customer Name	ALPHA BETA INC.	Text, Max 150 char	The name of the customer. If this is a jobsite, this should be the name of the jobsite.
Location Number	3	Text, Max 12 char	Number for your primary location (aka branch or store or warehouse) that services this customer. This is also the location that will get credit for rental revenue.
Shipping Address 1 (Shipping Name)	ALPHA BETA INC.	Text, Max 50 char	The first line of the shipping address block as printed on rental bills. It is usually the same as the name of the customer.
Shipping Address 2	101 MAIN ST	Text, Max 50 char	Second line of the address block as printed on the rental bill. It is usually the first line of shipping street address.
Shipping Address 3	MAINT DEPT	Text, Max 50 char	Third line of the address block as printed on the rental bill. It is usually the second line of shipping street address.
Shipping City	CHICAGO	Text, Max 50 char	City of shipping street address.
Shipping State	IL	Text, Max 50 char	State or Province of shipping street address.
Shipping Zip/Postal Code	60601	Text, Max 20 char	Zip or postal code of shipping street address. Include the full "+4" postal code if you have it, but it is not necessary.
Shipping Country	USA	Text, Max 50 char	Country of shipping street address. Leave blank if not necessary.
Billing Address 1 (Billing Name)	ALPHA BETA INC.	Text, Max 50 char	The first line of the billing address block as printed on rental bills. It is usually the same as the name of the customer.
Billing Address 2	101 MAIN ST	Text, Max 50 char	Second line of the address block as printed on the rental bill. It is usually the first line of billing street address.
Billing Address 3	MAINT DEPT	Text, Max 50 char	Third line of the address block as printed on the rental bill. It is usually the second line of shipping street address.
Billing City	CHICAGO	Text, Max 50 char	City of billing street address.
Billing State	IL	Text, Max 50 char	State or Province of billing street address.
Billing Zip/Postal Code	60601	Text, Max 20 char	Zip or postal code of billing street address. Include the full "+4" postal code if you have it, but it is not necessary.
Billing Country	USA	Text, Max 50 char	Country of billing street address. Leave blank if not necessary.
Tax Region *	IL20	Text, Max 25 char	Tax region or code for this customer. This is based on where the customer is located and dictates which taxes this customer is subject to.
Is Tax Exempt	N	Y = Tax Exempt, N = Not Tax Exempt	Flag to indicate whether or not this customer is tax exempt.
Rental Purchase Order Number	2010G45	Text, Max 100 char	This customers purchase order (PO) number that is to be used for rental bills.
Territory or Salesman	North Chicago	Text, Max 50 chars	There is a slot on the rental bill format for "Territory". This is commonly the name of the branch that services this customer, or a region this customer is in, or the initials of the sales person responsible for this account. The idea is that a customer could reference this when calling with questions to get routed to the right person.
Fax Number for Rental Bill Delivery	555-555-1212	Text, Max 200 char	A fax number where rental bills for this customer will be faxed. Check with TrackAbout Support to be sure you can use this feature. This typically requires integration with your bill printing and delivery system.
Emails for Rental Bill Delivery	test1@company.com, test2@company.com	Text, Max 400 char	Comma separated list of email addresses that should be sent copies of rental bills.
Send via US Mail	Y	Y = Yes, Mail. N=No, Do not Mail.	Indicates whether or not to mail a paper copy of the bills for this customer to the Bill-To address.
Rental Rate Bracket	7	Text, Max 100 char	If this customer is in a rate bracket (rather than just using customer specific rates and/or standard rates) then this is the code for that bracket. For instance brackets might be used if different geographic regions had different default rental rates or if larger customers are put into rate brackets rather than managed with special customer rates. Leave blank if not used.

 

Rental Invoice List

This file contains the dollar amounts from the rental invoices created in a rental run from your current rental system. There is one line per rental invoice.

Field	Example	Format	Notes
Customer Number	123456	Text, Max 30 char	This is the full customer number. It can contain numbers, letters and special characters.
Rental Invoice Number	R32323	Text	This is the invoice number on the rental invoice.
Pre Tax Total	100.00	Number	Pre-Tax dollar amount of the invoice.
Tax	6.50	Number	Dollar amount of tax on the invoice.
Grand Total	106.50	Number	Grand total of the invoice. This is the amount the customer pays. It should equal the Pre-Tax + Tax values.
Notes		Text	This is typically left blank. It is a place to include any notes on this invoice if it would be helpful in explaining why it might not match the TrackAbout total.

Tax Regions

This file contains information from your business system concerning Tax Regions.

Field	Example	Format	Notes
Tax Region Code	TaxRegionCode1	Text, Max 25 char	This is the tax region from your business system. It commonly looks something like TXAB01.
Tax Rate Between States	3.50	Decimal, Max 9 char before the decimal, and Max 5 char after decimal
Tax Rate Within State	2.75	Decimal, Max 9 char before the decimal, and Max 5 char after decimal
Accounting Code	Code1	Text, Max 100 char	The code used to send the data back to Accounts Receivable.
Tax Exempt Categories	TaxExemptCategory1, TaxExemptCategory2, ...	A comma-separated list of tax exempt categories

Deliveries and Returns

This file contains a list of all of the asset transactions (delivers and returns to customers) that took place in a period of time. If a delivery has multiple items on it then it will have multiple lines in this file with some of the information repeated from line to line.

Field	Example	Format	Notes
Delivery Ticket number	555555	Text, Max 25 char	This is the number associated with this delivery. This is sometimes an order number, shipment number, picking number or invoice number. Use whichever number your people most commonly use when thinking about this delivery.
Customer Number	123456	Text, Max 30 char	This is the full customer number. It can contain numbers, letters and special characters.
Customer Name	ALPHA BETA INC.	Text, Max 150 char	The name of the customer. If this is a jobsite, this should be the name of the jobsite.
Location Number	3	Text, Max 12 char	Number for your location (aka branch or store or warehouse) that made this delivery/return.
Customer Purchase Order (PO) Number	2010GASA100	Text, 100 char	This is the customer's PO number that you use to get paid by that customer. Leave blank if not set or not needed in this integration.
Ship Date	01/01/2010	Date in MM/DD/YYYY format	The date this delivery hit the rental system. For rental comparisons we want whatever date (order date, ship date, invoice date) that your current system uses for rental.
Product Code	AC100	Text, Max 52 char	This is commonly called the Item Number, Part Number, Stock Number or Gas Code in some systems. If this code is broken into two parts, both parts are needed here.
Product Code Description	ACETYLENE SIZE 100	Text, Max 1000 char	This is the description of the product code. This field is optional. Leave it blank to not use this field.
Delivered Quantity	2	Integer	Number of this product code delivered or shipped on this line. 0 is an okay value. Negative values are okay, too. Contact TrackAbout to determine how these will be handled.
Returned Quantity	2	Integer	Number of this product code returned on this line. 0 is an okay value. Negative values are okay, too. Contact TrackAbout to determine how these will be handled.

Item Info — Asset Type

This file provides specific information about your assets. TrackAbout Support loads the file into TrackAbout.

Field	Example	Format	Notes
Category Industrial	Text	Max 25 char	This is the general category of the item. For a gas distributor this list is typically: Industrial, Medical, Spec Gas, Rental Equipment, Bulk Tanks, Tube Trailers.
Group	Oxygen	Text, Max 30 char	This is normally the gas. For a gas distributor this list is typically: Oxygen, Argon, Nitrogen. There is normally a generic "Mix" group used for all mixes.
Asset Type	INDUSTRIAL Oxygen	Text, Max 50 char
Product Code	INDOX3	Text, Max 50 char
Product Description	INDUSTRIAL OXYGEN SIZE 20	Text, Max 200 char	This is the text description of the product code.
Description on Rental Bill
Rental Class Group
Rental Class	Industrial Cylinders	Text, Max 100 char	This is the way that rental is organized. For instance there is commonly a rental class call "Industrial" or "High Pressure" for most kinds of gas cylinders. There is also often another one called "Liquids". So this might be HP (for High Pressure) or LQ (for Liquids).
Replacement Price	200.00	Decimal, Max 18 char before the decimal, Max 2 char after the decimal	This is the amount a customer will be charged should the asset be lost or irreparably damaged.
Tax Category	Cylinder Rent	Text, Max 50 char	We'll normally assume that all items are in the same tax category, but let us know if any are in a different tax category. For gas distributors typically most items are in a "Cylinder Rent" tax category. Sometimes some other items are in a "Bulk Tank Rent" or "Delivery Charge" tax category.
Any Other Fields			We'll take any other fields that you might have like size, weight, vendor, etc. We will probably not use these fields, but they can be helpful to better understand the data.