Add External Object to Booking

This feature is very useful for rental companies that cross-hire equipment from other suppliers. It makes it possible to make bookings of Equipment / Objects that belong to other Suppliers when in-house equipment is not available. 

The Suppliers are added as Contacts in farmerswife, and on their Contact card their equipment is added as Object Classes – i.e. it is not needed to add all individual equipment of the supplier to the database. As mentioned above Object Classes are used for this feature. 

Therefore make sure the Object Class exists before adding information to the Suppliers. The Class should correspond to a specific type of Equipment, in order to make the Equipment interchangeable either with your in-house Equipment or different suppliers’ Equipment. Make sure the Supplier is in the Contact database, if not add new. 

Existing Suppliers are found in Contacts, and Suppliers should belong to the Contact Type “Globals”. 

Add Object Classes to Supplier
 

1. To add the Object Classes to the Supplier click on the Supplier Details Tab.
   
2. Add the Object Class by clicking on the Dropdown menu icon > Add > Select the Object Class Add Object of External Supplier to Bookings.
   
   
   
   
3. Set the Supplier Rate of the Object. Click on the Object Class > Rate window of the Object Class opens > Add the Rate.

Book External Supplier Object

When booking an Object Class it is possible to allocate the Objects belonging to the Class. If there are no in-house objects belonging to the Class available farmerswife can automatically allocate the External Supplier Object.

Related settings in the Toolbox > Settings > Class / Object:

• Allocate Object When Booking Object Class: Possible settings are No, Yes, or Ask. The setting makes it possible for farmerswife to automatically search for and allocate the next available Object belonging to the Class. In the example below the setting is “Ask”.
  
  
• Auto Book External Object When No Object Found: With this setting, farmerswife will automatically book an External Object if there is no in-house Object available.

Make bookings in the Longform 

1. Highlight the days you wish to make the Booking on.
   
2. Open the Toolbox and select tab Object Classes.
   
3. Drag the Object Class onto the Longform and drop.
   
4. Assign the Project.
   
5. Pop-up “Allocate Objects For Class” > Yes or No.
6. Pop-up “Type Quantity” (only when selecting Yes in the previous Pop-up).

Below there will be two examples:

1. Make the Booking and in the pop-up “Allocate Objects for Class” select “Yes”.
   
2. Make the Booking and in the pop-up “Allocate Objects for Class” select “No”. The Class is booked, but the Object is TBD (to be decided)

Example 1

Make the Booking and in the pop-up “Allocate Objects for Class” select “Yes”. If there are no available Objects in-house an external Object belonging to a Supplier has automatically been booked (provided the setting is checked in the Toolbox, see p 3).

The status of the External Supplier Object is preliminary, to ensure that you have checked availability with the Supplier before setting the Object status to confirmed. To confirm the booked Object left click on the Object. In the menu select External Object and Confirmed.

Add Object of External Supplier to Bookings. To replace with another External Supplier Object, left-click on the Object, go to “Replace With External From” and select another Supplier.




Example 2

Make the Booking and in the pop-up “Allocate Objects for Class” select “No”. The Class is booked, but the Object is TBD (to be decided).




To add an external supplier Object to a Booking, where no Object has been booked

1. Left-click on the Class Object Booking
   
2. In the menu select “Replace With External From”
   
3. Select from which Supplier to hire the Object / Equipment.