How to Complete a Rental Contract | Latner Software Documentation

Completing a rental contract closes it off once the equipment is back and everything on it has been invoiced, so it drops out of your live rental work and can no longer be billed.

Overview

A rental contract earns its keep while equipment is out on hire. Once the last machine is back on the yard and the customer has been billed for everything, the contract has nothing left to do, and completing it says so.

Completing sets the Contract Status to Completed and marks every detail line on the contract as completed.
Every equipment and sub hire equipment line has to be Returned first. Off hiring alone is not enough.
Any transport raised against the contract must be Completed or Cancelled.
Nothing can be left to invoice. Latner re-prices the whole contract at the moment you complete it and refuses if anything is still outstanding.
A completed contract can't be invoiced, off hired, returned, or used for new purchase orders, but it can be reopened.

Before You Begin

Completing a contract is an option on the rental contract itself, so you need the right permission for its branch and you should know whether your business blocks completion while an inspection is open.

Requirement	Where to Find It
Edit Rental Contract permission, for the contract's branch	Security › Configuration › Permission Groups, under Rental › Option
Reopen Rental Contract permission, only if you may need to undo a completion	Security › Configuration › Permission Groups, under Rental › Option
Block Completing Rental Contract with Open Inspection setting	Security › Settings › Rental

The Rental settings, filtered to the setting that ties contract completion to inspections

With Block Completing Rental Contract with Open Inspection switched on, a contract can't be completed while any inspection on one of its lines is still Open or Pending Approval. Complete or cancel those inspections first. Switch the setting off and completion ignores inspections entirely.

The message you get when an inspection on the contract is still open

Completing the Rental Contract

Step 1 - Check every equipment line has been returned

Open the contract from Rental › Rental Contracts and look at the Details tab. Every Equipment and Sub Hire Equipment line needs a Detail Status of Returned. Lines that are still On Rent, Off Rent, Pending Pick Up or Reserved will stop you.

Equipment and sub hire equipment lines - must be Returned. Use Options › Off Hire and then Options › Return to get them there.
Other lines - transport, admin charges, sale items and labour lines don't have to be returned.
Transport - every transport on the contract must be Completed or Cancelled.

The Details tab with the equipment line Returned, which is the state completion needs

If anything is still out, Complete Rental Contract is greyed out in the Options menu and hovering over it tells you why.

Complete Rental Contract greyed out while a line is still on rent

Step 2 - Clear anything still to invoice

Latner checks the money before it closes the contract. It re-prices every line up to the latest actual off hire date, and if that produces so much as a dollar of unbilled charge, completion is refused and the outstanding lines are listed for you.

Completion refused, with each unbilled line and its value spelled out

Clear it with a final invoice. Choose Options › Invoice, set Invoice Type to Final Invoice, click Preview to see what is left, then Create Invoice.

Invoice Date - the date the invoice is raised. Defaults to today.
Bill To - the date charges are calculated up to. It needs to be on or after the last off hire date on the contract.
Invoice Type - choose Final Invoice so every remaining line is picked up, not just the returned ones.

The final invoice preview, showing the rent and the admin charges that were still outstanding

Step 3 - Complete the contract

Back on the contract, choose Options › Complete Rental Contract.

Complete Rental Contract now selectable, at the foot of the Options menu

If the customer still has a deposit sitting against the contract, Latner asks first: There is a deposit remaining on this Rental Contract. Do you still want to complete? Answer No if you meant to refund or allocate it, or Yes to complete anyway.

Step 4 - Check the result

You'll see Rental Contract Completed and the Contract Status at the top of the screen changes to Completed.

After Completion

The contract's status is Completed and every detail line is marked as completed, so the contract stops showing up as live rental work.
The contract can no longer be invoiced, and cycle billing skips it from then on.
Off Hire, Return, Add Details, Invoice and most of the other actions in the Options menu are greyed out, so the contract can't be changed.
The off hire and return dates on the contract can no longer be changed.
New purchase orders can't be raised against the contract.
Reopen Rental Contract appears in the Options menu in place of Complete Rental Contract.
The completion is recorded against the contract, so you can see who completed it and when on the audit trail.

The Options menu on a completed contract, with Reopen Rental Contract in place of Complete

Completing is not the same as cancelling. A completed contract keeps its invoices and its history and can be reopened with Options › Reopen Rental Contract, which puts it back to Active. If the contract should never have been raised at all, use Cancel Rental Contract instead.

FAQs

Complete Rental Contract is greyed out. Why?

At least one equipment or sub hire equipment line on the contract is not Returned yet. Hover over the option and the tooltip says so. Off hire and return the outstanding lines, then try again. The option is also unavailable on contracts that are already Completed, Cancelled or Lost.

I get "Cannot complete a rental contract with an open Inspection".

Your business has Block Completing Rental Contract with Open Inspection switched on in Security › Settings › Rental, and an inspection linked to one of the contract's lines is still Open or Pending Approval. Complete or cancel that inspection, then complete the contract. Return inspections raised automatically when equipment comes back are the usual culprit.

I get "Cannot complete rental contract with detail lines that aren't fully invoiced".

There are still chargeable amounts on the contract, and the message lists each one with its value. Raise a Final Invoice with a Bill To date on or after the last off hire date, then complete. It is worth reading the list first: a large unexpected amount usually means a line was off hired but never returned, or a rate was changed after the last invoice.

Completion is refused because of a transport.

A transport raised for the contract is still open or attempted. Complete it from the transport docket, or cancel it if it is never going to happen, then complete the contract.

Can I complete a contract that has no lines on it?

No. A contract needs at least one detail line before it can be completed. An empty contract that will never be used should be cancelled instead.

Do contracts ever complete themselves?

Yes. When cycle billing raises Final Invoice type invoices, Latner completes each contract in the run that meets all the usual conditions. Any contract that doesn't qualify is simply left as it was, so it is worth checking the contracts you expected to close after a final billing run.

I completed the wrong contract. Can I undo it?

Choose Options › Reopen Rental Contract and the contract goes back to Active. You need the Reopen Rental Contract permission, and it won't work if the customer has since been made inactive.

Does completing a contract stop it being billed?

Yes. Only Reserved and Active contracts can be invoiced, so a completed contract is skipped by both manual invoicing and cycle billing. Reopen it if you genuinely need to bill something more.

Watch the Demo

Prefer to watch it? Step through the same flow here.