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You can begin setting up a Rental Contract by clicking on the Register Button or you can use the +Create New button. You can configure your Rental Contract settings by clicking the Admin Button with your username in the upper right and going to Settings > POS Settings > Rental Contracts. Click here for more information on how to set up Rental Contracts (links in this article will open in a new browser tab for you): Point of Sale Settings: Rental Contracts

Please Note: If you want to use Autopay to automatically bill your customers' credit cards each month, you will need to use the integrated processing with Music Shop 360 Payments.

 

Creating a Rental Contract from the Register

1. Once your settings have been configured, go to your Register (the fastest way to get to your Register is by clicking on the Register Button on the far left side of the blue Admin Toolbar).
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 Rent to Own 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 Contract. When you click the + button, the Add Rental Contract panel will open.

 

Creating a Rental Contract from the +Create New Button

From anywhere in the system, you can click the +Create New button and start a new Rental Contract.

You'll be asked to load or create the Customer for the new contract. You can search for customers already in the system. You can c lick the customer's name to view full details (the link will open in a new browser tab so you don't lose your place) or if you have the right one, just click anywhere in the customer's info bar to select them. If you have multiple Locations saved in the system, you can also choose the Location at which the rental contract will be fulfilled and serviced. Once you have everything set, click Next at the bottom.

 

Configuring New Rental Contracts

Please note that if you start the contract from the Register, you'll remain in the Register for the steps below. If you create the contract using the +Create New button, you'll be taken to the Rental Contracts list page where you'll configure the contract, then once you're ready to save it, you'll go to the Register to take the initial payment.

Here are the areas of a new Rental Contract you can configure:

1. Rental Information - Key details about the Customer as well as the name of the Store Location where the Rent to Own 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 Rental Contract, either from the Register or from Modules > Rental Contracts.

   Please Note: If you are in the Music industry, you will see fields for School information, as pictured above. All other industries will not have those fields enabled. If you need to set up your School District information, click here to learn how: Point of Sale Settings: 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. 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. You can also add a Security Deposit if you need to take one. This deposit is one that will be returned to the customer after the rental is complete, if everything goes well with the item. Please note that these fields are only editable during this initial creation of the contract. Once you save it, 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 - 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.

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/or Monthly Protection fee amounts. All three of those fields can be edited, if you need. 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. You can also set the Rental Payment to whatever amount you like and click the Lock icon if you want to ignore the automatic amount that populates there. Doing so will likely recalculate the total number of payments needed to pay off a Rent to Own contract, but will not affect a Rent Only contract in that way. 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:

   

7. Auto Pay - If you want the system to automatically bill the customer each period, set this to ON. You can click the Manage link to work with cards already saved for the customer. You can also click to Add Primary Card to add one, and you can 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. 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. Fees- You can have Late Fees on or off in this area, and you can configure any Grace Period you might want to allow and how much to charge for the Late Fee Amount.

10. Rental Item(s) - This area will display the Line Item(s) being rented in the same manner as the Register, including a thumbnail image. You can click the Serial Number button if you haven't yet added that, or you can edit a number that's been added. 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.

11. Contract Functions  - Rental Contracts have several features with buttons at the bottom of which you should be aware:

    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, currently only provided by Worldpay. If you do not do integrated processing with Worldpay, 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 permanently set 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.

 

Initial Checkout

Whether or not 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 Rental Contract will be loaded. If the customer owes nothing today, the line item will still be there so a receipt can be given to the customer to document the start of the contract.

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.

Click here to learn more about working with Rental Contracts: Maintaining and Completing Rental Contracts