How to Create a Rental Package | Latner Software Documentation

A package bundles the equipment, transport and charges that always go out together, so a hire controller adds one line to a rental contract instead of six.

Overview

Sometimes you want to group items together. An portable building goes out with a delivery, a pick up and however you also want to track everything inside the portable building too. A package is that memory written down once, and allows customer to see a single invoice line.

A package is a reusable set of detail lines that goes onto a Rental Quote or Rental Contract as a single Package line.
Packages live at Rental › Configuration › Packages. The list shows active packages only, and only an active package can be added to a quote or contract.
The Pricing Type is chosen when the package is created and cannot be changed afterwards. Details Only prices every line on its own; Header Only prices the whole bundle at one rate held in Rental › Configuration › Rental Rates.
A package line can be Equipment, Transport, Admin, Fuel, Damage, Labour or Stock. Sub hire equipment, sanitation lines and other packages can't go inside a package.
Every line carries an Include By Default? flag, so optional extras can live in the package and only get charged when someone ticks them on.
On the contract the package becomes a parent line and the included details become numbered sub-lines beneath it (3, 3.1, 3.2 and so on).

Before You Begin

You need the permissions to see and create packages, and it's worth knowing where the one relevant setting sits before you start.

Requirement	Where to Find It
Packages permission - lets you open the screen at all	Security › Configuration › Permission Groups, under Rental › Configuration
Create Package permission - lets you create packages and package details	Security › Configuration › Permission Groups, under Rental › Option
Allow Packages without Details on Quote and Contracts - optional, off by default	Security › Settings › Rental
Rental rates for the equipment you plan to bundle	Rental › Configuration › Rental Rates

The setting sits under the Rental module and is off out of the box

Leaving Allow Packages without Details on Quote and Contracts switched off is the safer choice. With it off, a package added to a quote or contract must have at least one detail line ticked, and a Header Only package must also have at least one line flagged as a main detail. Switch it on and Latner will accept a package with nothing selected, which - as the setting's own description warns - can leave the package billed incorrectly.

Creating the Package

Step 1 - Open the Packages screen

Go to Rental › Configuration › Packages. The list shows each package's name, description and pricing type. Inactive packages are filtered out of this screen entirely.

The Packages screen - Create Package is the only entry on the Options menu

Step 2 - Create the package header

Click Options › Create Package. All three fields are required.

Name - must be unique across every package. Reusing a name is rejected with Duplicate Item already exists.
Description - what the hire controller sees against the package line on the contract, so write it for them.
Pricing Type - Header Only or Details Only. Choose carefully: once the package is saved the field is greyed out and its tooltip reads Pricing Type cannot be changed.

Pricing Type is the one decision you can't undo, so it's worth pausing on

Details Only keeps a rate or a charge on each individual line, and the customer sees the bundle itemised. Use it when the package is a convenience rather than a price. Header Only charges the whole bundle at one package rate and the lines beneath it carry no price of their own. Use it when you sell "the lift and light package" for a single weekly figure.

Step 3 - Add the first detail line

Saving takes you straight to the new package with the Add Package Detail dialog already open. Set the Line Type first, because every other field on the dialog changes with it. For an Equipment line:

Equipment Class - required. Choosing it fills in the Description and pulls that class's default rates out of your rental rate configuration, so you rarely have to type a rate at all.
Equipment Model and Equipment - optional. Use them to pin the package to a particular model or a particular machine. A model has to belong to the equipment class you picked.
Quantity - how many of the item the package puts on the contract.
Rental Rate Variation and the rate block below it (Pricing Method, Rate Type, Rental Rate, Minimum Charge and the rest) - these appear on Details Only packages only.
Include By Default? - required. Yes puts the line on the contract automatically.

An equipment line on a Details Only package - the daily and weekly rates arrive pre-filled from Rental Rates rather than being typed in

Step 4 - Add the remaining lines

Back on the package, use Options › Add Package Detail for each further line. The line types available are Equipment, Transport, Admin, Fuel, Damage, Labour and Stock. Everything other than equipment takes a flat charge instead of a rental rate:

Transport - choose a Transport Type (Delivery, Pick Up, Customer Collection or Site Move) and enter the Transport Charge. Both are required.
Admin - choose the Item (an active admin charge) and enter the Admin Charge. Both are required.
Labour needs a labour type, Fuel a fuel type, Stock a stock item and Damage a description.

A delivery line - transport, admin and stock lines take a charge, not a rate

The cleaning fee is saved with Include By Default? set to No, so it sits in the package as an optional extra

Step 5 - Check the order and the defaults

The Package Details tab is what a hire controller effectively sees when they pick the package, so it's worth reading it back once. To reorder lines, right-click a row and choose Move Up or Move Down - the line numbers rewrite themselves. To change a line, double-click it (or tick it and use the pencil) to open Update Detail Lines. Deleting a line removes it for good and renumbers everything below it.

The finished package - Include By Default tells you what will be ticked before anyone opens a contract

Right-click is the only way to reorder package lines

Setting Up a Header Only Package

A Header Only package is priced as a whole, so its detail lines drop the rate block and pick up three fields you won't see on a Details Only package.

Max Quantity (optional) - caps how much of this item can go out under the package. Its tooltip puts it plainly: Optional Maximum Quantity that can be added as part of this package. Used to prevent undercharging of packages. A quantity above the cap is flagged as an error on the contract.
Main Detail Line? - marks the line that drives the package's status. The package header line reads Reserved, On Rent, Off Hire or Returned from its main detail lines; if no line is flagged, it falls back to all of them.
Revenue Proportion - the share of the package's revenue attributed to this line when the package is invoiced.

Max Quantity, Main Detail Line? and Revenue Proportion replace the rate block on a Header Only package

The Package Details grid shows Main Detail and Revenue Proportion only for Header Only packages

Give the package a price

A Header Only package has no price until you give it one in Rental › Configuration › Rental Rates. Open the rate you want it on, click Options › Add Rate Details, set Line Type to Package and pick the package. Only Header Only packages appear in that list - a Details Only package is priced by its own lines and can't be given a package rate.

A package rate on the rental rate list - one weekly figure covers the whole bundle

Using the Package on a Contract

On a rental quote or contract, choose Options › Add Details and set Line Type to Package. Picking the package opens its lines in a Package Details table with the Include boxes already ticked to match the package's defaults. Untick what isn't wanted, adjust a quantity, and use Package Multiplier to put several copies of the same configuration on the contract at once (up to ten).

The package's own defaults decide what's ticked - the optional cleaning fee starts unticked

Saving creates the package header line plus one sub-line for every detail you ticked.

Line 3 is the package; 3.1 to 3.3 are the lines that came with it. The unticked cleaning fee simply isn't there

After Creation

The package is Active straight away and available on every rental quote and rental contract in the tenant - packages aren't branch specific.
Nothing is reserved or charged by the package itself. It only does work when someone adds it to a quote or a contract.
Changing a package later affects future use only. Contracts that already carry the package keep the lines and prices they were given at the time.
A Header Only package still needs its package rate in Rental › Configuration › Rental Rates, otherwise it goes onto a contract with no price.

Deleting a package from the Packages list doesn't delete it - it sets the package to Inactive, which removes it from the list and from the package picker on quotes and contracts. There is no status filter on that screen, so an inactive package can't be found or reactivated from the UI. If a package only needs a change, edit it instead of deleting it, and if you delete one by mistake, ask Latner support to set it back to Active.

FAQs

I picked the wrong Pricing Type. Can I change it?

No. Pricing Type is disabled from the moment the package is saved, on both the create dialog and the package's General Details card. Create a new package with the right pricing type and set the old one to Inactive.

Why can't I add sub hire equipment or a sanitation line to a package?

Those line types are deliberately excluded from Add Package Detail, along with the Package line type itself, so a package can't contain another package. Add sub hire and sanitation lines directly to the contract instead.

The rate fields have disappeared from Add Package Detail. What happened?

You're on a Header Only package. Rental rates, the pricing method and the rental rate variation only appear on Details Only packages, because a Header Only package is priced once at the header from a package rate in Rental › Configuration › Rental Rates.

Do the Revenue Proportion percentages have to add up to 100?

No. They're treated as relative weights and normalised when the package is invoiced, so two equipment lines at 40% and 30% split the package revenue between them in a 4:3 ratio. They only affect how the invoice's revenue is attributed across the equipment - never the amount the customer is charged.

Why won't my package save onto a contract?

Almost always one of two rules. With Allow Packages without Details on Quote and Contracts off, at least one detail line must be ticked (Packages must have at least one detail line), and a Header Only package must also have a main detail line among those ticked (Packages with Header pricing must have at least one main detail line). Tick the missing line, or flag one of the package's equipment lines as a main detail line.

My contract shows the package line as Reserved when the machine is already on rent. Why?

A package header line takes its status from its main detail lines. If the line that actually went out isn't flagged as a main detail line, it isn't counted. Check Main Detail Line? on the package's equipment lines - when no line is flagged at all, the header falls back to every sub-line.

Can I put more than one of the same package on a contract?

Yes. Use Package Multiplier on the Add Details dialog and Latner creates that many copies of the package line, each with its own sub-lines. The limit is ten per go.

The Create Package option isn't on the Options menu.

You're missing the Create Package permission, which sits under Rental › Option in Security › Configuration › Permission Groups. Viewing the Packages screen is a separate permission (Packages, under Rental › Configuration), so you can be able to read packages without being able to create them.