Setting Up Environmental Charges
Setting Up Environmental ChargesThere are essentially three methods for setting up environmental charges in RentalMan. One method is using a combination of master file field settings and control record settings only (Method 1). Another method is using two programs on the Rental File Maintenance (RAMNUM) menu: Environmental Charge Control Maintenance and Equipment Environmental Charge Maintenance only (Method 2). The third method is using a combination of Methods 1 and 2, which will be explained in detail below.
If you only use one type of environmental charge, you can choose either Method 1 or 2 for setting up that charge; however, if you want advanced control over which equipment incurs environmental charges and the amount that is charged, use Method 2. If you use more than one type of environmental charge, you should use Method 3.
Regardless of
the method you use, you must set up at least one miscellaneous charge
item in Miscellaneous Charge Item Maintenance
to use for environmental charges. This item must have a miscellaneous
charge type of either EC=Environment
Charge or TX=Taxes.
You will use this item in your environmental charge setup, whichever
method you choose, and it will be the item that defaults on your rental
contracts when environmental fees are appropriate.
Set up a miscellaneous charge item for each type of environmental fee that you charge. Examples of environmental fees are: Texas Diesel Surcharge, Colorado Special Mobile Machinery (SMM) tax, Virginia Short Term Rental tax, EPA charge, and so on.
Before describing the different methods of using the environmental charge functionality, a general overview of pertinent control records is provided.
Use this control record for your base level of charging environmental fees. First, turn on environmental charges, and then indicate whether to calculate fees based on a percentage of the contract's rental amount or to use the price in the miscellaneous item you set up as the environmental charge. This control record also holds the percentage you are using to charge environmental fees (if you are not using the item's price), and the number of the miscellaneous charge item. This setup applies the environmental charge item to all rentals for all category/classes.
If your environmental fees are specific to certain equipment and cannot be determined by category/class, set Select certain equipment to Y. When this is set to Y, the system checks the last 15 characters of the Miscellaneous (EMMISC) field in Equipment Maintenance, and only applies environmental charges to equipment with those 15 characters populated. Use control record RAEQM3 to split the Miscellaneous field and label the new field that constitutes the last 15 characters.
Expand on environmental charges via this control record. You can choose to include damage waiver and delivery and pickup charges in the total amount from which the system calculates the environmental fees. You can also set the system to tax the environmental charges. If you want to exempt certain category/classes of equipment from environmental charges, set the Use ECSMM for all equip setting to Y, and then use the Charge SMM/EPA Tax field in Category/Class Maintenance to indicate which category/classes are exempt.
If you do not want environmental charges to be applied to customers based on the EPA Charge setting in Customer Master Maintenance, set the Use CMEPAC for SMM chg field to N in this control record. This setting is used primarily in situations where you charge SMM tax. No customers are exempt from SMM tax, so setting Use CMEPAC for SMM chg to N ensures that all customers get charged the SMM environmental fee, regardless of the EPA Charge setting in their customer master record.
The following subsections describe the settings for each method. Several examples are provided to aid in making a decision on which method to use for your organization.
Method 1 is using a combination of master file field settings and control record settings for establishing your environmental charges. You might choose to use this method if you only use one type of environmental charge, and you use the same charge amount/percentage for all of the equipment to which environmental charges apply. The critical control record settings are as follows:
This subsection lists only those fields that are critical for setting up environmental charges on rental contracts.
In order to use this method, the Use EPA charge field must be set
to Y.
For the Calc
based on rental $ field, set this to Y
to calculate environmental fees as a percentage of the rental amount
on the contract (set the percentage in the EPA
percent field in this control record). If you set this
field to N, the environmental
charge is the amount in the Regular
Price field for the miscellaneous charge item that you enter
in the EPA Item # field in
this control record.
For the Select
certain equipment field, set this to Y
if you want to calculate environmental charges like Colorado's Special
Mobile Machinery (SMM) tax only on certain equipment. If you
set this to Y, you would go
to control record RAEQM3 and
set the Break Misc into 2 fields
field to Y, and enter Decal Number (or similar)
as the heading in the 2nd Misc field
heading field. For more information, read the Category/Class
Master File (EQPCCMFL) and Equipment Master File (EQPMASFL) subsections
below.
NOTE: You would not use
this setting if you have set the Use
ECSMM for all equip field in the EPACH2
control record to Y.
In the EPA charge field, do not enter a charge. Enter the heading that you want to see on reports and on the Create Rental - Review screen for your environmental charges.
If you set the Select certain equipment field to Y in the EPACHG control record, set the Break Misc into 2 fields field to Y in this control record, and enter Decal Number (or similar) as the heading in the 2nd Misc field heading field.
This subsection lists only those fields that are critical for setting up environmental charges on rental contracts.
In the first two fields, indicate whether
you want to include damage waiver, delivery charges, and pickup charges
in the rental contract total when calculating environmental charges.
Set the Use
CMEPAC for SMM chg field to Y
if you only want to apply environmental charges to customers who have
the EPA Charge field set to
Y in their customer master
records.
If you want to exempt certain category/classes
from environmental charges, enter Y
in the Use ECSMM for all equip
field. The ECSMM field is the Charge
SMM/EPA tax field in the category/class master file. If
the ECSMM field is set to N
for certain category/classes, and the Use
ECSMM for all equip field is also set to Y
in this control record, environmental charges are not applied to those
category/classes.
If the Select certain equipment
field in the EPACHG control record is set to Y,
the system looks at the setting in the Charge
SMM/EPA tax field in the category/class master file when a
rental reservation/quote is entered to determine whether it should
calculate an estimate of the SMM/EPA charges for the reservation/quote.
When using environmental charges that are county-specific like SMM tax, set the Make county required field to Y in this control record to require users to enter a valid county on customer job master records.
Back to top
The master file fields settings for Method 1 are as follows:
Create a miscellaneous item for the environmental charge you will be using. This item must have a miscellaneous charge type of either EC=Environment Charge or TX=Taxes. If you are NOT applying environmental charges as a percentage of the contract amount, ensure that you have entered a Regular price for the environmental miscellaneous charge item.
If the Use CMEPAC for SMM chg field in the EPACH2 control record is set to Y, then set the EPA Charge field to Y for only those customers that you want to apply EPA charges against.
When
dealing with charges like SMM tax and the Texas diesel surcharge (non-EPA
charges) that must be charged, the Use
CMEPAC for SMM chg field is set to N,
and this customer master setting is not used.
When using environmental charges that are county-specific like SMM tax, enter a valid county in the County field. First, set the Make county required field to Y in the CNTYRQ control record to require users to enter a valid county on customer job master records, and set up valid counties in County Code Maintenance.
When using environmental charges that are county-specific like SMM tax, set the Charge SMM tax field to Y in County Code Maintenance for the appropriate county master records.
Use the Charge SMM/EPA Tax field to indicate whether you want environmental (non-SMM) charges to default on rental contracts for equipment in this category/class. In order for this functionality to work, you must also set the Use EPA charge field to Y in control record EPACHG to automatically add an environmental charge item to rental contracts.
Since
SMM taxes are equipment specific, the setting in the Charge
SMM/EPA Tax field only indicates if the category/class falls under
SMM regulations, and whether to calculate estimated SMM taxes for rental
reservations/quotes for the category/class.
If the Select certain equipment field in control record EPACHG is set to Y, and the Break Misc into 2 fields field in control record RAEQM3 is also set to Y, an extra Miscellaneous field (with a user-defined label) displays in Equipment Maintenance. Enter a decal number for either SMM taxing or EPA charge purposes in this extra field.
When you set the Select certain equipment field to Y, the system calculates environmental charges only for equipment where there is information in the last 15 characters of the Miscellaneous field (EMMISC) in the Equipment Master File (EQPMASFL). These last 15 characters are typically the equipment's decal number, and they come from breaking the Miscellaneous field into two fields in the RAEQM3 control record to make the extra 15-character field.
Back to top
Scenario for Method 1:Your organization operates only in Colorado, and the only environmental fee it charges is a 2.50% Special Mobile Machinery (SMM) tax on certain pieces of rental equipment in several category/classes. Your settings are as follows:
Control Record Settings:
CNTYRQ
Make county required - Y
RAEQM3
Break Misc into 2 fields - Y
2nd Misc field heading - Decal Number (or similar)
EPACHG
Use EPA charge - Y
Calc based on rental $ - Y
Select certain equipment - Y
Detail sequence # - 9000
EPA percent - 2.50
EPA Item # - SMM (or similar)
EPA Stock Class - MISC (or similar)
EPACH2
Include DW in calc'd amt - N
Include Del/PU in amt - N
Tax EPA like DW - N
Use CMEPAC for SMM chg - N
Use ECSMM for all equip - N
Master File Settings:
Miscellaneous Charge Item Master
Create item SMM (or similar) with a miscellaneous charge type of TX=Taxes.
County Code Master
Charge SMM Tax field - Y (for all applicable counties)
Customer Job Master
County field - Enter a valid county (this field is required in this scenario)
Equipment Master
Decal Number (or similar) field - Enter the county SMM decal number only for equipment that is taxed
Category/Class Master
Charge SMM/EPA Tax field - Enter Y for the category/classes that are assigned to equipment for which you charge SMM tax. This setting is only used to calculate estimated SMM tax charges when you enter a rental reservation/quote for a category/class with this field set to Y.
Back to top
Method 2 is using two programs on the Rental File Maintenance (RAMNUM) menu: Environmental Charge Control Maintenance and Equipment Environmental Charge Maintenance only. Use this method if you only use one type of environmental fee, but you want to have more control over which category/classes are charged that fee and how much they are charged.
You cannot
use this method if you want to include damage waiver and delivery and
pickup charges in the overall rental contract amount that the system uses
to calculate the amount to charge for environmental fees.
There are NO control record settings related to this method. The master file settings are as follows:
Create a miscellaneous item for the environmental charge you will be using. This item must have a miscellaneous charge type of EC=Environment Charge. If you are NOT applying environmental charges as a percentage of the contract amount, ensure that you have entered a Regular price for the environmental miscellaneous charge item.
Use the Environmental Charge Control Maintenance program to enter the environmental miscellaneous charge item you want to default into rental contracts. Enter this at the location level, and enter the minimum and maximum charges for that location. These charges apply unless you set different ones at the category/class level in Equipment Environmental Charge Maintenance.
Use the Equipment Environmental Charge Maintenance program to enter the environmental charges to default on rental contracts for one or all locations and one or all category/classes. Indicate whether you want to use a flat rate, a percentage, or a daily, weekly, or monthly rate, and then enter the rate amount and the minimum and maximum charges allowed.
Scenario for Method 2:Your organization only uses one type of environmental fee that is not specific to customers or certain pieces of equipment, but the fee does vary by location and by category/class. For location 001, the environmental fee is a flat $10.00 for category/class 010-3100, and $15.00 for category/class 025-4250. For location 002, the environmental fee is 1.50% for category/class 011-0210, and 2.25% for category/class 600-0002. Your settings are as follows:
Master File Settings:
Miscellaneous Charge Item Master
Create item EPA (or similar) with a miscellaneous charge type of EC=Environment Charge.
Environmental Charge Control Master
For Location 001 - enter item number EPA with a minimum charge of .00 and a maximum charge of 15.00.
For Location 002 - enter item number EPA with a minimum charge of .00 and a maximum charge of 9,999.00.
Equipment Environmental Charge Master
For Location 001 - category/class 010-3100 - enter a Flat rate type with an amount of 10.00, a minimum charge of .00 and a maximum charge of 10.00.
For Location 001 - category/class 025-4250 - enter a Flat rate type with an amount of 15.00, a minimum charge of .00 and a maximum charge of 15.00.
For Location 002 - category/class 011-0210 - enter a Percent rate type with an amount of 1.50, a minimum charge of .00, and a maximum charge of 1.50.
For Location 002 - category/class 600-0002 - enter a Percent rate type with an amount of 2.25, a minimum charge of .00, and a maximum charge of 2.25.
Back to top
Method 3 is a combination of Methods 1 and 2 where you set up control records, master file settings, and the two programs: Environmental Charge Control Maintenance and Equipment Environmental Charge Maintenance. Use this method when you need to charge more than one type of environmental fee.
All control records and master file settings related to environmental charges were explained in previous sections of this topic, so they are not repeated here.
Scenario for Method 3:Your organization uses two types of environmental fees. One type is a fuel surcharge of 5% based on rental delivery and pickup amounts for some of your customers, and the other type is an EPA fee of $10.00 charged for your 220-0321 category/class of equipment. Your settings are as follows:
Control Record Settings (for the fuel surcharge):
EPACHG
Use EPA charge - Y
Calc based on rental $ - Y
Select certain equipment - Y (this stops the fuel surcharge from being charged as a percentage of the contract's rental amount)*
Detail sequence # - 9000
EPA percent - 5.00
EPA Item # - FUEL (or similar)
EPA Stock Class - MISC (or similar)
*Setting Select certain equipment to Y causes the system to check the Equipment Master File (EQPMASFL) to determine if the last 15 characters in the Miscellaneous (EMMISC) field are populated for any equipment. If it finds no equipment with these 15 characters populated, all rental amounts are skipped in the fuel charge calculation.
EPACH2
Include DW in calc'd amt - N
Include Del/PU in amt - Y
Use CMEPAC for SMM chg - Y
EPACH3
EPA Charge on sales - Y (to optionally add the fuel surcharge against delivery and pickup amounts for sales orders/invoices.)
Master File Settings (for both fuel surcharge and EPA fee):
Miscellaneous Charge Item Master
Create item FUEL (or similar) with a miscellaneous charge type of EC=Environment Charge.
Create item EPA (or similar) with a miscellaneous charge type of EC=Environment Charge.
Customer Master
EPA Charge field - Enter Y for customers that will receive the fuel surcharge for deliveries and pickups.
Environmental Charge Control Master
For Location XXX - enter item number EPA (or similar) with a minimum charge of .00 and a maximum charge of 10.00
Equipment Environmental Charge Master
For Location XXX - category/class 220-0321 - enter a Flat rate type with an amount of 10.00, a minimum charge of .00 and a maximum charge of 10.00.
Environmental Charge Control Maintenance
Equipment Environmental Charge Maintenance
Miscellaneous Charge Item Maintenance
Back to top