How to Create New Customer Sites From a Rental Contract

Customer sites record the exact place equipment is going, and Latner lets you create a new one from inside the rental contract you are already working on, so you never have to stop and set the site up somewhere else first.

Overview

Not every job happens at the customer's front door. A builder might run five projects at once, each with its own street address, its own site supervisor and its own phone number, and a rental contract needs to point at exactly one of them. The Customer Site field on a rental contract does that, and it can create the site for you on the spot.

A customer site is a permanent record of a delivery location: its name, address, site contact, phone and (optionally) transport run.
Every customer starts with one site, named after the customer code with _Main on the end. It is created automatically with the customer and carries the customer's own address and contact, which is why it usually matches the billing address.
You can create additional sites without leaving the contract, from the Create New button at the bottom of the Customer Site dropdown.
As soon as the site is saved it is selected on the contract, and its address, site contact, phone and email are copied onto the contract for you.
The site is then available for every future contract for that customer, and it shows on Customers › Customers Sites, on the customer's Sites tab and on the CRM map.
If you only need a one-off address, you can type over the contract's Address field instead. That address is stored on the contract as its delivery address, but it is not saved as a site and cannot be reused.

Before You Begin

Creating a site from a contract needs a couple of permissions, and one optional setting changes what the site form will accept.

Requirement	Where to Find It
Create Customer Site permission	Security › Configuration › Permission Groups, under Customers › Options
Create Rental Contract permission	Security › Configuration › Permission Groups, under Rental › Options
Edit Rental Contract permission (only needed to change the site on a contract that already exists)	Security › Configuration › Permission Groups, under Rental › Options
Mandatory Customer Site Contact Fields setting (optional)	Security › Settings › Customers
A customer chosen on the contract	The Customer field on the rental contract - the site is created against whichever customer is selected

Mandatory Customer Site Contact Fields under Security › Settings. First Name and Phone are always required; Last Name and Email are the two you can add

If Mandatory Customer Site Contact Fields includes Email, the site contact you pick has to have an email address on it or the save is refused with email is a mandatory field for contact, and the rental contract itself will also insist on a Site Email. Either edit the contact first or pick one that already has an email.

On the Create Rental Contract dialog the Create New button is shown to everyone, but the save is rejected if your permission group is missing Create Customer Site. On an existing contract's Customer Details card the button is hidden instead, so if it is not there, that permission is the first thing to check.

Creating a Site While Creating a Rental Contract

Step 1 - Open the Create Rental Contract dialog

Go to Rental › Rental Contracts and choose Options › Create Rental Contract.

The Rental Contracts screen. The Customer Site column shows which site each existing contract is pointed at

Step 2 - Choose the Customer first

Search for the customer in the Customer field and select them. Do this before you touch Customer Site: the new site is created against the selected customer, so if you open Create New with no customer chosen, Latner tells you No customer is selected to create the site for and closes the form again.

If the customer already has sites, one of them may be filled in for you. Clear it and carry on if the job is at a new address.

The Create Rental Contract dialog with the customer selected. Branch and Charge Days Per week are already defaulted; Customer Site is still empty

Step 3 - Open the Customer Site field and click Create New

Click into Customer Site. The dropdown lists that customer's active sites with their addresses, so you can check the site does not already exist. Create New sits at the bottom of the list.

The Customer Site dropdown. Only the selected customer's active sites are listed, with Create New at the bottom

Step 4 - Fill in the site details

The Create Site dialog opens over the contract. Everything on it except Transport Run is required.

Site Name - what everyone will recognise the location by, on contracts, dockets and the sites list. Site names are not unique, so make it specific enough to tell two jobs apart ("Northshore Hamilton Stage 3", not "Stage 3").
Branch - pre-filled with the branch on the contract. Change it if the site is serviced out of a different branch.
Site Contact - searches the selected customer's contacts. This dropdown has its own Create New button, so you can add a brand new contact here without leaving the form.
Site Phone - filled in automatically from the contact you pick. You can type over it if the site has its own number.
Address - the delivery address for the site. See the next step.
Transport Run - optional. If you set one, it is copied onto every rental contract that uses this site, which saves picking it each time.

The Create Site dialog. Branch has come across from the contract, so only the name, contact, phone and address are left to enter

Step 5 - Search for the address

Start typing in Address and pick a match from the suggestions. Choosing a suggestion captures the map coordinates along with the street address, which is what lets the site appear on the CRM map and on the transport screens, so it is worth picking a suggestion rather than typing the address out.

Use the flag on the left to search a different country, and the pencil icon to type an address by hand when there is nothing to match against - a paddock, a lot number or a new estate with no street number yet.

Address suggestions as you type. Picking a suggestion also stores the coordinates, which is what puts the site on the CRM map

Step 6 - Save the site

Click Save. Latner confirms with a Site <number> Created message, and the number is a link straight to the new site's page if you want to add anything else to it, such as delivery instructions or a damage waiver.

The completed Create Site form. Site Phone was filled in from the chosen site contact

Step 7 - Check what carried across to the contract

The dialog closes and the new site is already selected in Customer Site. Latner also copies across, from the site:

Address - the contract's delivery address, from the site's address.
Site Contact, Phone and Email - from the site contact. An existing site contact you had already chosen for the same customer is left alone.
Charge Days Per week - only if the site itself has one set.

All of these are still editable, so a one-off change of delivery address on this contract does not affect the site.

The contract after the site is saved. Address, Site Contact, Phone and Email have all come across from the new site

Step 8 - Save the rental contract

Fill in the rest of the contract and click Save. Latner opens Add Details so you can go straight on to adding equipment; Cancel that if you want to come back to it later.

The saved contract. The new site is on the Customer Details card, and Ordered By has defaulted to the site contact

Adding a Site to a Contract That Already Exists

The same Create New button is on the Customer Site field everywhere it appears, so you are never stuck once a contract is saved.

On the contract itself. Open the contract and click the Customer Site value on the Customer Details card. The card switches into edit mode, the combo opens with Create New at the bottom, and Save on the card commits the change. This needs the Edit Rental Contract permission.
Options › Update Customer. Use this when the contract is being reassigned to a different customer - the Customer Site field on that dialog has the same Create New.
Options › Create Site Move. Use this when equipment that is already on rent is physically relocating. The New Customer Site field there also has Create New, and the site move raises the transport and the charge for the relocation. Editing the site on the Customer Details card only changes the paperwork, so use the site move when something actually has to be shifted.

The Customer Details card in edit mode on a saved contract, with Create New available at the bottom of the Customer Site list

After Creation

The site gets a Site Code automatically: the first four characters of the name with spaces removed, in capitals, plus a three digit sequence. "Northshore Hamilton Stage 3" becomes NORT001. You cannot set it yourself.
The site's status is Active, so it appears in the Customer Site dropdown on every later contract for that customer.
The site contact you chose is linked to the site automatically and shows on the site's Contacts tab.
The site inherits the customer's sales tax.
The site is listed on Customers › Customers Sites, on the customer's Sites tab, and - because the address was geocoded - on the CRM map.
Anything the create form does not ask for can be added on the site's own page afterwards: delivery instructions, sales rep, damage waiver, environmental levy, charge days per week, billing contact and assigned rental rates.

Customers › Customers Sites. The new site has been given the code NORT001 and is Active

Sites cannot be deleted, so a site created by mistake stays on the list. Retire it with Options › Deactivate Site on the site's own page, which takes it out of the dropdowns without touching the contracts that used it. A customer must always keep at least one active site, so deactivating the last one is refused with At least one customer site needs to be active.

FAQs

The Create New button isn't at the bottom of the Customer Site list. Why?

On an existing contract's Customer Details card the button only shows when your permission group includes Create Customer Site, so that is the first thing to check. On the Create Rental Contract dialog the button is always shown but the save fails without the permission, which looks the same from the outside. Ask your administrator to add Create Customer Site under Customers › Options.

I clicked Create New and the form closed straight away with a message about no customer.

The site has to belong to a customer, so Latner will not open a blank site form. Select the Customer on the contract first, then reopen Customer Site and click Create New.

Can I just type the address on the contract instead of creating a site?

Yes. The contract's Address field is its own delivery address and you can type over whatever the site put there. It is fine for a one-off, but that address is only stored on the contract - it is not saved as a site, it will not turn up in the Customer Site dropdown next time, and it will not appear on the customer's Sites tab or the CRM map. For anywhere you will hire to more than once, create the site.

A site I know exists isn't in the Customer Site dropdown.

The dropdown only lists Active sites belonging to the customer on the contract. If the site was deactivated, reactivate it with Options › Activate Site on the site's page. If it was created against a different customer it will never show here, and saving a contract with a mismatched site is refused with Site '<name>' does not belong to Customer '<name>'.

Where does Site Phone come from, and can I change it?

It is copied from the site contact you choose, as a convenience. Type over it if the site has its own number - a site office or a supervisor's mobile. The number is stored on the site, so it comes across to every contract that uses the site, and changing it on one contract does not change the site.

The save failed with a message that email is a mandatory field for contact.

Your Mandatory Customer Site Contact Fields setting includes Email, and the site contact you picked does not have one. Add an email to that contact, pick a contact that has one, or use Create New on the Site Contact field to add a contact with an email address. The same setting is why the contract may insist on a Site Email.

What is the _Main site I keep seeing?

It is created automatically when the customer is created, named after the customer code with _Main on the end, and it uses the customer's own address and contact - which is normally the billing address. It is a real site like any other, so it can be renamed, edited or deactivated once the customer has another active site.

Does creating a site here move equipment or charge anything?

No. Creating a site only creates the record and points this contract at it. To relocate equipment that is already on rent, use Options › Create Site Move on the contract, which raises the transport and the site move charge.

Can two sites have the same name?

Yes - site names are not checked for duplicates, even within one customer. Only the site code is unique, and Latner generates that. It is worth agreeing a naming convention with your team, because the site name is what appears on contracts, dockets and reports.

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