You can begin setting up a Rental Contract by clicking on the Register button on the far left, or you can click the +Create New button at the top of the system.

 

Creating a Rental Contract

Please Note: Before you begin setting up a Rental Contract, you need to have already completed the setup of the Rental Contracts module. To see how to set up for rentals, click here: Point of Sale Settings: Rental Contracts.

1. Once your settings have been configured, go to your Register (click on the Register button on the far left).
2. Load the Customer (or create a new Customer in the system, make sure they are saved to your Customer list before you proceed).
3. On the far right side of the Register, click on any of the Customer Action icons. If the Customer already has a Rental Contract saved in the system, you will see the handshake icon highlighted in gold.

4. Find the section for Rental Contracts in your Customer Actions panel and click the + button to start your new contract. Please note that from this area, you can also click the Pay button on an existing Rental Contract listed for the customer.

You are now ready to configure your initial contract for this rental. When you click the + button, the Add Rental Contract panel will open. Here are the steps you need to take (please note that you may want to start by adding your item(s) for Rent to Own in #8, below; those items can be any product saved in the system, so make sure the item(s) in your new contract are saved):

1. Rental Information - Key details about the Customer as well as the name of the Store Location where the Rent Contract is being created will be listed here. Clicking on the links to the highlighted items here (in this example, Customer Name and Phone) will open the Customer detail panel so you can access their full info. Please note that you will also be able to access this panel whenever you click to open an active Rent to Own, either from the Register or from Modules > Rental Contracts.
   
2. Contract Details- You can set the Contract Type to be Rent to Own or Rent Only (rent to rent). For the Payment Frequency, you can set it to be Monthly, Quarterly, or Yearly. In the Term area, you can set the total Number of Months, Years, or Weeks. You can also set your Interest Rate here.
   
   Please Note: These fields, once the contract is initially saved, will also become un-editable, so make sure you get the info in the way you will want it from the start. Read the note above on how to delete the contract if you saved the info the wrong way.
   
   
3. Total Financed - This section details the total amount the customer is financing, the tax, and gives you fields to enter any Rental Credit that may apply or Down Payment that will reduce the total. Please note that these fields are only visible during this initial creation of the contract. Once you save it, either of these fields that have values entered in them will be visible to show those respective values, and any that had nothing entered will not display, and neither can be edited after that initial save.
4. Item Search & Line Items - You can Search for and add the item or multiple items for the Rental Contract here. You can rent as many items as you like in a single contract. This area will display the Line Item(s) being rented in the same manner as the Register, including a thumbnail image. You can manually set the Price, if needed, the Quantity, and by clicking the Price Tag icon in the Discount column, you can set a Line-Item Discount by percentage off or dollar-amount off, as needed.
5. Payment Details - This section displays the base amount for the Monthly Rental Payment, with the interest rate already combined, if any. It will also populate your Monthly Maintenance and Monthly Insurance fee amounts. All three of those fields can be edited, if you need.
   
   Please Note: After you create this initial contract and save it, you will not be able to edit these fields any longer, so make sure they are set correctly. If you save a contract with incorrect numbers, you will need to delete it (go to Modules > Rental Contracts > click on the contract ID Number, find the Delete button near the bottom of the panel and click it), and then re-create the contract with the correct information.
   
   
6. Payments - This area shows how many payments are scheduled and how much each payment needs to be. If you click on Scheduled Payments you'll see a schedule like this one:

In addition to the payment breakdown displayed in the Payment Schedule, you can also click on Next Payment Amount to see a breakdown of the components of just the monthly payment, like this (Estimated Tax not shown in this example):

7. Auto Pay - If you want the system to automatically bill the customer each period, set this to ON. You can also click to Add Primary Card and Add Secondary Card (in case the primary fails for whatever reason). A Secondary Card is not required by our system. Please note that the Credit Card Automated Settings to retry failed card charges in the Settings for Rental Contracts will not work if this setting isn't ON. Here is the interface for adding a card:

If the Primary Card should fail, the Secondary is charged, and no extra fees are charged to the customer. If you plan to allow the customer to mail in checks or make payments in person or by phone, you can set this to OFF.

8. Summary - Once all of the fields in the Add Rental Contract panel have been filled in, the Total Financed and the Due Today fields will be populated with their final amounts.
9. Special Functions  - Upload Signed (Contract) - If you wish to use pre-printed contracts, after you have clicked the Collect Signature button and printed off one of your contract templates, you can scan or photograph them, then click this button to upload them to the Rain system cloud for secure storage.

Print - If you wish to print out the dynamic contract you configure in the Rent to Own Settings area for signature, all fields you entered in that form contract will be auto-filled with the terms you have entered in this panel. You can have the customer initial and sign, then you can either scan the document or photograph it and then it can be uploaded to the Rain system cloud for secure storage. You can also click the button to Collect Signature to load one of your pre-saved contract templates. Please note, this will require an integrated processing terminal that allows on-screen signatures. If you do not do integrated processing with Rain Payments, you will need to use the Upload Signed function.

Once you have completed all steps, click the Save button to finalize the contract. PLEASE NOTE: Most of the fields that are editable in this contract creation panel will be set in stone after this save, so make sure all of your information is correct before you save the contract! If you have incorrect information in any of the areas noted above that are not editable after the save, you will need to delete this contract and recreate it with the correct information. To delete it, go to Modules > Rental Contracts > click on the contract ID Number, find the Delete button near the bottom of the panel and click it, and then re-create the contract with the correct information using the steps detailed above.

 

A Note on Tax

Please Note: The following does NOT constitute official advice from MusicShop360 on how to process your taxes. It is simply information you as a business owner should be aware of regarding best practices typically recommended by tax consultant groups familiar with the Rental Contract/Rental industry.

It may seem logical to include taxes in the total listed in your contracts, but this may not be the best approach.

Consider the following scenario: A shop owner creates rental contracts with a school for 100 band instruments for a term of 36 months. Included in the contract were the taxes, which at the time of signing were 6.5% for the area. A year into the contract, the state legislature increases the state tax to 8.5%.

The owner is now liable to pay the additional tax amount for all items, and any similar contracts, entirely out-of-pocket throughout the rest of the terms. If the owner attempts to increase the monthly payments, he or she will be in breach of contract.

With this scenario in mind, you may wish to adjust your contracts to list pre-tax totals for payment amounts. In this way, the fluctuations of your tax rates will not affect your contracts in any way.

 

Initial Checkout

If an initial or down payment is being made, you will be taken back to the Register where the Customer and a line item for the first Rental Contract payment will be loaded.

Please Note: that since you do all applicable Discounts when creating the Rental Contract, you do NOT have the option of discounting the individual payments in the Register. Global Transaction Discounts (with the % button on the right in the Discount line) and Customer Discounts will not override this. You CAN, however, manually change the Amount field, if needed. The Tax is already figured into the base amount for the Payment, so you will not see tax applied to this transaction.

Here is how a completed payment will show up on the customer's receipt: