How to Create an External Delivery Docket | Latner Software Documentation

An external delivery docket is how you send reserved equipment out to a customer on a transport supplier's truck, so the job is booked with the carrier, the cost is captured against a Purchase Order, and the delivery charge still follows the equipment onto the customer's invoice.

Overview

Sooner or later the yard runs out of trucks. An external docket is the same delivery job, handed to a carrier instead of one of your drivers - and because someone is now invoicing you for it, Latner asks for two numbers instead of one: what the supplier charges you, and what you charge the customer.

An external delivery docket is created exactly where an internal one is - on the rental contract, under Options › Transport › Create Delivery. The only difference is setting Fulfillment to External.
Switching to External reveals Supplier and Supplier Delivery Cost, makes the Delivery Charge mandatory, and greys out Driver.
The cost has to be less than the charge. Going the other way needs the Allow Transport Cost To Be Greater Than Charge permission, and a tenant can insist on a margin with Minimum Markup for External Transports.
Saving asks whether to raise a Transport Purchase Order against the supplier. If the equipment is already sub hired from that same supplier, Latner offers to put the cost on that Sub Hire Order instead - and that offer always comes first.
The Purchase Order carries a single Transport line for the cost you entered, and may be confirmed and receipted automatically depending on your settings.
Answering No to the prompt isn't final. Options › Create Purchase Order on the docket raises it later.
External dockets are the only ones that can produce a Transport Order - the document you send the carrier.

Before You Begin

Nothing has to be switched on to create an external delivery docket, but these permissions decide who can, and these settings decide what happens to the money afterwards.

Requirement	Where to Find It
Create Delivery permission - to see the Transport menu on a rental contract at all	Security › Configuration › Permission Groups › Rental › Option
Create Purchase Order permission - to raise the Transport Purchase Order, at creation or afterwards	Security › Configuration › Permission Groups › Financials › Option
Allow Transport Cost To Be Greater Than Charge permission - to save a docket where the supplier costs more than the customer pays	Security › Configuration › Permission Groups › Rental › Field
Generate Transport Order PDF and Email Transport Order permissions - to send the carrier their order	Security › Configuration › Permission Groups › Transport › Option
Create Transport Purchase Orders - whether Latner prompts you, always raises the Purchase Order, or never does	Security › Settings › Transport
Auto Receipt Transport Purchase Orders - when that Purchase Order is confirmed and receipted	Security › Settings › Transport
Minimum Markup for External Transports - the margin the charge must carry over the cost	Security › Settings › Transport
Allow Assigning Drivers to an External Transport - whether the Driver field stays available on an external docket	Security › Settings › Transport
Transport Order PDF Template ID - the template used for the document you send the carrier	Security › Settings › PDF Templates

The Transport settings. Only the Docket Number Format is shared with internal dockets; the other four exist for external ones

The supplier you pick has to be Active and needs at least one site, because the Purchase Order is raised against a supplier site and takes its purchase tax from there. A supplier with no site is rejected with There are no sites created for the Supplier, and the whole docket fails with it.

Creating the External Delivery Docket

Step 1 - Open the contract and start a delivery

Open the rental contract, then choose Options › Transport › Create Delivery. There is no separate "external" menu item - internal and external are the same form, decided by one field inside it.

The contract needs something to send: if no line is still Reserved or Pre-Allocated, Create Delivery is greyed out with the tooltip Nothing to Deliver.

The Transport submenu. Create Delivery opens the same form whichever way the job is going to be driven

Step 2 - Switch Fulfillment to External

The form opens as Create Delivery with Fulfillment on Internal. Click External and three things change at once.

Supplier appears and is required. It only lists suppliers with a status of Active.
Supplier Delivery Cost appears and is required. This is what the carrier bills you.
Driver greys out with the tooltip Only applicable for Internal transport, unless Allow Assigning Drivers to an External Transport is enabled.

Switching back to Internal clears the supplier again, so pick the fulfillment before you fill anything else in.

The form with Fulfillment on External. Supplier and Supplier Delivery Cost have appeared, and Driver is greyed out

Step 3 - Pick the delivery charge

On a contract docket you don't type the customer's charge in. Click Delivery Charge and tick one of the transport charge lines already sitting on the rental contract - the picker only offers Delivery lines that haven't been used on another docket. If the contract hasn't got one, Create New adds a transport line to the contract without leaving the form.

On an internal docket this is optional. On an external one it isn't: save without a charge and the field is flagged Required.

The Delivery Charge picker showing the contract's unused $220.00 delivery line, with Create New underneath

Step 4 - Enter the supplier's cost

Type what the carrier is charging you into Supplier Delivery Cost. Latner checks it against the delivery charge before it will save.

The cost must be less than the charge. A cost that meets or exceeds it flags the field and blocks Save.
The Allow Transport Cost To Be Greater Than Charge permission waives that check for people who need it, typically because the delivery is being absorbed.
If Minimum Markup for External Transports is set, the margin has to clear it too, and a docket that doesn't is refused with Transport cost does not meet the minimum markup of followed by the percentage. With no markup configured the message is Transport cost cannot be higher than transport charge.

Step 5 - Set the timing, addresses and lines

The rest of the form is the same as an internal docket.

Due Date / Time - required, and defaults to the contract's delivery date.
From Address and To Address - the branch address and the contract's delivery address. The carrier works from these, so correct them here rather than in a phone call later.
Delivery Instructions - copied from the contract and editable.
The table at the bottom lists the lines this docket can carry. Give each one a Qty Actioned, or click Select All. Saving with everything at zero is rejected with At least one piece of equipment must be selected for transport.

The finished form. Cost $150.00 sits under a $220.00 charge, and the scissor lift has a Qty Actioned of 1

Step 6 - Answer the Purchase Order prompt

Click Save. Because this is an external docket, Latner asks Do you want to create a Transport Purchase Order? before it commits anything.

Yes - creates the docket and raises a Purchase Order against the supplier for the cost you entered.
No - creates the docket without one. You can raise it later from the docket.
Cancel - abandons the save and leaves you on the form.

The prompt can be turned off for the whole tenant with Create Transport Purchase Orders: Skip prompt and always create answers Yes for you, and Never create answers No.

The Create Purchase Order prompt, which only appears once Fulfillment is External

If any line you selected is already on an Active Sub Hire Order from the same supplier, a different question comes first - Do you want to add this Transport to the existing Sub Hire Order for <supplier>? Answering Yes puts the transport cost on that Sub Hire Order as its own Transport line and no Purchase Order is raised, which keeps the whole sub hire on one order. Answering No falls through to the Purchase Order prompt.

Step 7 - Confirm what was created

Latner confirms with Transport Purchase Order Generated and offers a link straight to the new docket. If you answered No, or a Purchase Order couldn't be raised, the title reads Transport Order Generated instead - the wording reflects what actually happened, not what you asked for.

The confirmation. The title names the Purchase Order because one was actually raised

After Creation

The docket is created with status Open and a Delivery Method of External. Its External Transport panel carries the Supplier, the Transport Cost, and a link to either the Purchase Order or the Sub Hire Order the cost went to.
The contract's equipment lines move to Pending Delivery, and the delivery charge line is now attached to this docket and can't be used on another.
The Purchase Order is raised against the supplier's site, sourced from the rental contract, with one Transport line described as RC-<contract number> Delivery, quantity 1, at the cost you entered. Its ETA is the docket's due date.
Auto Receipt Transport Purchase Orders decides what happens next: Creation confirms and receipts it immediately (so it reads Fully Received straight away), Completion waits until the docket is completed, and Manual leaves it Open for you.
The docket appears on Rental › Transport Dockets, and on the Transport Allocation board under the supplier's own lane rather than a driver's.
It does not reach the mobile app unless a driver has been assigned to it, so an external docket is normally completed from the desktop once the carrier confirms the job is done.
External dockets never ask for a Take 5 checklist - that requirement only applies to internal ones, since it's your driver you're supervising.
Completing the docket puts each delivered line On Rent and moves the contract from Reserved to Active.

The new docket. Delivery Method reads External and the External Transport panel links straight to PO0024

The Purchase Order. It is already Fully Received because Auto Receipt is set to Creation, and the line is described RC-38 Delivery

The docket's Options menu. Transport Order PDF, Email Transport Order and Create Purchase Order are the external-only entries; Create Purchase Order is greyed out because one already exists

Once the Purchase Order exists, the docket stops being freely editable. Changing the supplier is refused with Cannot Update Transport Supplier as a Purchase Order is already raised, and the cost can only be changed while that Purchase Order is still Open - after it has been receipted you'll get Cannot Update Transport Cost as a Purchase Order is not Open. Get the supplier and the cost right before you answer Yes, or cancel the Purchase Order first if they turn out to be wrong.

FAQs

Supplier and Supplier Delivery Cost aren't on the form. Where are they?

Fulfillment is still on Internal. Both fields are hidden until you switch it to External, and they disappear again (clearing the supplier) if you switch back.

Save won't go through and the Supplier Delivery Cost is highlighted. Why?

The cost isn't below the delivery charge. Latner won't let you pay a carrier more than you're charging the customer unless you hold the Allow Transport Cost To Be Greater Than Charge permission, and if your administrator has set Minimum Markup for External Transports the gap has to clear that percentage as well. A blank or zero cost is flagged the same way - an external docket has to have one.

The Driver field is greyed out. How does the job get to someone?

It doesn't go to one of your drivers - that's the point of an external docket. Send the carrier a Transport Order instead, from Options › Generate Transport Order PDF or Options › Email Transport Order. If you genuinely do need to name one of your own people on an external docket, ask your administrator to enable Allow Assigning Drivers to an External Transport under Security › Settings › Transport.

I answered No to the Purchase Order prompt by mistake. Do I have to start again?

No. Open the docket and choose Options › Create Purchase Order, which raises exactly the order the prompt would have. It's greyed out when the docket already has one (A Purchase Order has already been raised for this Transport Docket), when the cost is on a Sub Hire Order instead, when the docket is cancelled, or when the docket has no supplier or no cost to order against.

Nothing appeared even though I answered Yes. Where is the Purchase Order?

Check Create Transport Purchase Orders under Security › Settings › Transport. On Never create the answer is ignored and no order is raised. The other case is a docket added to an existing Sub Hire Order - that always takes precedence, and the cost is on the Sub Hire Order line rather than a Purchase Order. The docket's External Transport panel shows which of the two it went to.

Generate Transport Order PDF is greyed out or errors. Why?

Greyed out means the docket is internal - the tooltip reads Only available for External Transport Dockets. If it's external and still fails, either there's no Purchase Order on it yet (Cannot generate a Transport Order for a Docket without a Purchase Order) or no Transport Order PDF Template ID has been configured under Security › Settings › PDF Templates.

The Purchase Order is already Fully Received and I haven't done anything. Is that right?

Yes, if Auto Receipt Transport Purchase Orders is set to Creation - Latner confirms and receipts the order the moment it's raised, because the carrier's work is booked and there's nothing to physically receive. Set it to Completion to have that happen when the docket is completed, or Manual to do it yourself.

I picked the wrong Fulfillment. Can I change it on the docket?

Use Options › Convert to Internal (or Convert to External the other way). Latner cancels the docket and creates a replacement of the other type carrying the same lines - converting to internal clears the supplier and cost, and converting to external asks for them, along with the same Purchase Order prompt. Editing the docket directly won't do it: a supplier on an internal docket is rejected with Cannot set Supplier for Internal Transport.

Latner asked me to confirm the From Address after I clicked Save. What was that?

Some of the lines you selected aren't coming out of your yard. When a line is on a sub hire order the machine is at that supplier's site, and when it was hired from another branch it's at that branch - so Latner asks which address the carrier should actually collect from, and warns you when one docket mixes them. Pick the right pick-up point and the docket saves normally.

The customer is cash on delivery and Latner won't create the docket. What now?

A cash-on-delivery contract has to be paid before the equipment goes anywhere, so the docket is refused with Cannot create transport linked to a COD rental contract with no paid invoices until the contract has a paid invoice against it. This applies whoever is driving. Take the payment first, or ask your administrator about Allow Create Transports for unpaid COD Rental Contracts under Security › Settings › Rental.

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