How to Create a Sub Hire Order | Latner Software Documentation

A Sub Hire Order is the order you place on a supplier when you hire a machine in for a customer, and Latner raises it for you the moment you add the sub hire line to the rental contract.

Overview

Go looking for a New button on the Sub Hire Orders screen and you won't find one, and that's deliberate. A sub hire only exists because a customer needed something you didn't have, so the order starts life on the rental contract and the Sub Hire Orders screen is where you find and work the orders that already exist. Unlike a Purchase Order, a Sub Hire Order is built for rentals: it carries the supplier's hire rates and the dates the machine is on hire, so the supplier's invoices can be raised for the right period alongside the ones you send the customer.

Adding a Sub Hire Equipment line with a supplier on it either raises a new Sub Hire Order for that supplier or adds the line to one that's already open.
Latner keeps one Active order per combination of rental contract, supplier, supplier site and branch, so several machines hired from the one supplier for the one job land on the one order.
The order's Start Date and Expected Off Hire Date stretch to cover the earliest start and the latest expected off hire of its lines.
Supplier Contact defaults to the contact on the supplier site you chose, and is the address the order is emailed to.
From the order you send the order to the supplier, add expenses they pass on, and record their invoices.

Before You Begin

You'll need the following in place before you can raise a Sub Hire Order.

Requirement	Where to Find It
Add Rental Contract Details permission, to add the line that creates the order	Security › Configuration › Permission Groups › Rental › Option
Sub Hire Orders or Rental Contracts permission, to open the order once it exists	Security › Configuration › Permission Groups › Rental › Screen
Add Sub Hire Order Expense Details and Email Sub Hire Order permissions, for the last two steps	Security › Configuration › Permission Groups › Rental › Option
An active supplier with an active site, and a contact on that site	Suppliers › Suppliers
A rental contract that is still open, for the customer you're hiring the machine for	Rental › Rental Contracts
Global Sub Hire Minimum Markup and Auto Create Sub Hire Order Invoices (both optional)	Security › Settings › Rental
Sub Hire Order PDF Template ID, if you want to send the order as a PDF	Security › Settings › PDF Templates

The Rental settings that shape sub hire. Managed For Sub Hire Equipment is a separate feature for machines you already hold; leave it off when you're hiring in a supplier's own machine

If Global Sub Hire Minimum Markup is set, Latner checks every sub hire line against it and refuses to save one that falls short. An equipment class can carry its own minimum markup, which takes precedence over the global figure. Users with the Allow Rates below Sub Hire Minimum Markup permission aren't checked.

Creating the Sub Hire Order

Step 1 - Add a Sub Hire Equipment line to the contract

Open the rental contract from Rental › Rental Contracts, choose Options › Add Details, and set Line Type to Sub Hire Equipment. The form changes shape: the Equipment Model and Equipment Number pickers disappear, because you aren't allocating a machine out of your own fleet.

Equipment Class - required. It drives the description, the customer rates and any class-level minimum markup.
Sub Hire Equipment Number - free text, pre-filled from the equipment class. Replace it with the supplier's fleet number as soon as you know it.
Quantity, Start Date/Time and Exp. Off Hire Date/Time - default from the contract header, and set the dates the Sub Hire Order will cover.
Description - filled from the equipment class, and editable.

The Customer Rental Rates tab is what your customer pays, and Latner fills it from the customer's rate book for that equipment class as soon as you pick the class.

For the full detail on the line itself, see How to Add Sub Hire Equipment to a Rental Contract.

Customer rates arrive pre-filled from the rate book, with the contract's default additional items listed underneath

Step 2 - Choose the supplier and enter their rates

Switch to the Sub Hire Rental Rates tab. This is the only place the supplier fields appear, and choosing a supplier here is what decides which Sub Hire Order the line lands on.

Supplier - required. Only active suppliers are listed.
Supplier Site - required, and pre-filled with the supplier's first site. It stays disabled until a supplier is chosen, and you can create a new site from the field if the one you need doesn't exist yet. The site's contact becomes the Supplier Contact on the order.
Pricing Method and rates - if the supplier has Sub Hire Rental Rates set up for that equipment class, Latner fills them in when you pick the supplier. If they don't, enter what the supplier quoted you.

Supplier and Supplier Site live on the Sub Hire Rental Rates tab, above the rates the supplier charges you

Step 3 - Check the markup

Select Calculate Markup. Latner prices both sides of the line for the dates on it and shows the difference as a percentage in Markup (Sub Hires). The button and the field are hidden when either side uses Operator Pricing, which markup isn't calculated for.

Supplier rates of $65 daily and $260 weekly against customer rates of $98 and $395 return a markup of 41.8%

Step 4 - Save the line

Save adds the line and reopens the form so you can add the next one. Save and Finish adds the line and closes the form. Either way, saving is the moment the Sub Hire Order is created.

The saved sub hire line on the contract, with the required additional items added as sub lines 1.1 to 1.4

Step 5 - Open the Sub Hire Order

The contract's Sub Hire Orders tab now lists an Active order for that supplier. Select the order number to open it. You can also reach every order from Rental › Sub Hire Orders, which is the screen to use when you're working from the supplier's end rather than the customer's.

The Sub Hire Orders tab on the contract - one order per supplier, site and branch

The Sub Hire Orders screen. The Options button is greyed out because orders are never created from here

Step 6 - Check the order and add your notes

The order carries the branch, the rental contract it was raised for, the supplier, supplier site and supplier contact, and the dates spanning its lines. Three things are worth setting before you send it:

Supplier Contact - change it if the order should go to someone other than the site's default contact. Their phone number follows automatically.
Internal Notes - for your own team. These stay in Latner.
External Notes - for the supplier. These are the notes that belong on the order you send them.

The Sub Hire Order, linked back to the rental contract it was raised for and to the supplier it was raised on

Step 7 - Add any expenses the supplier is passing on

Float fees, yard charges and the like aren't part of the hire rate, so add them as their own lines with Options › Add Sub Hire Order Expense. Pick an Expense Type, which fills the Description for you, then enter Unit Cost (excl.) and Qty - Total Cost (excl.) calculates itself.

The Options menu on a Sub Hire Order. Email Sub Hire Cancellation stays greyed out until a line on the order has been cancelled

Expense lines are the only lines you can add to a Sub Hire Order by hand; equipment lines come from the rental contract

Step 8 - Generate the PDF

Choose Options › Generate Sub Hire Order PDF. The PDF is rendered in the background and appears on the Sub Hire Order PDF History tab once it's done, so every version you've ever produced stays on the order.

Each generated PDF is kept on the order with the date and the user who generated it

Step 9 - Email the order to the supplier

Choose Options › Email Sub Hire Order. The supplier contact's email is filled into To, and the subject and message come from your branch's Sub Hire Order email settings. Leave Sub Hire Order PDF blank and Latner generates a fresh PDF and attaches it; pick one from the list to send a version you generated earlier. Select Submit to send.

The email is addressed to the order's Supplier Contact, and leaving the PDF field blank attaches a freshly generated one

After Creation

The order shows on the contract's Sub Hire Orders tab and on Rental › Sub Hire Orders, with the status Active.
Add another sub hire line for the same supplier, site and branch and it joins this order rather than starting a new one, widening the order's dates if it needs to.
Sent emails are listed on the Sent Emails tab, and generated PDFs on Sub Hire Order PDF History.
Creating an external transport docket for a sub hired machine offers to add the transport to the existing Sub Hire Order, which puts the freight on the same order as the hire.
Supplier invoices raised against the order are listed on the Supplier Invoices tab. With Auto Create Sub Hire Order Invoices enabled, invoicing the customer generates the matching supplier invoice for the same period; with it disabled, you raise each one yourself with Options › Invoice Sub Hire Order.
Returning the equipment on the rental contract completes the matching line on the order, once there's nothing left to invoice the supplier for. When every line is completed or cancelled, the order moves to Completed.
Margins across your sub hires are reported on the Sub Hire Profitability tab of the home screen dashboard.

Once a supplier has invoiced a line, that line can no longer be cancelled or moved to a different order, and the order itself can't be cancelled. If you've picked the wrong supplier, change it on the rental contract line before the first supplier invoice is raised - Latner will then move the line onto the right supplier's order and create one if there isn't an active one already.

FAQs

There's no button to create a Sub Hire Order. Where is it?

There isn't one, by design. A Sub Hire Order is created for you when you save a Sub Hire Equipment line with a supplier on it, on a rental contract. The Sub Hire Orders screen is for finding and working orders that already exist, which is why its Options button is greyed out.

I added two sub hire lines and only got one Sub Hire Order. Is that right?

Yes. Lines are grouped onto one active order per rental contract, supplier, supplier site and branch, which is what you want when you're hiring several machines from the one supplier for the one job. The order's dates widen to cover both lines.

Can I add an equipment line straight onto the Sub Hire Order?

No. Only Expense lines can be added, edited or deleted on the order itself - everything else mirrors a line on the rental contract, so that's where you change it. Trying to edit another line type tells you Only Expense Lines can be edited directly on the Sub Hire Order, and an expense line that's already been invoiced can't be edited or deleted either.

I chose the wrong supplier. Can I change it?

Edit the contract line and pick the right supplier. Latner moves the line onto that supplier's Sub Hire Order, creating one if there isn't an active one already, and cancels the line on the old order. It can't do this once the supplier has invoiced the line, so change it early.

Latner won't save my line and says it doesn't meet the minimum markup. What now?

The gap between your customer rates and the supplier's rates is below the minimum markup set for that equipment class, or below Global Sub Hire Minimum Markup if the class doesn't set one. Either lift the customer rates, negotiate the supplier rates down, or ask for the Allow Rates below Sub Hire Minimum Markup permission. Use Calculate Markup to see where you stand before you save.

Generating the PDF fails. Why?

Almost always because no template is configured. Latner reports There is no Sub Hire Order PDF Template ID configured when Sub Hire Order PDF Template ID is blank in Security › Settings › PDF Templates and there's no generic fallback set for your environment.

Do I have to enter the supplier's invoice myself?

Only if Auto Create Sub Hire Order Invoices is switched off. With it on, invoicing the customer for the rental contract also generates the supplier invoice for the same period. Either way you can raise one on demand with Options › Invoice Sub Hire Order, which is blocked once the order is Completed or Cancelled.

What happens to the order when the equipment comes back?

Returning the equipment on the rental contract completes the matching line on the Sub Hire Order, as long as there's nothing left to invoice the supplier for. When every line on the order is completed or cancelled, the order itself moves to Completed.