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COMPANY SETUP - PAYMENT INFO TAB |
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MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION |
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Check this box if you want to tax customers at different rates. By taxing customers at different rates, we mean if you tax one customer one tax rate and another customer in your customer base at a different rate, check this box. For example, if you have to tax customers differently because of the county or parish depending on where the customer lives you would have to tax customers at different rates.
Do NOT check this box if all the customers in your store are charged the same tax rate. This allows you to set a default tax rate in Company Setup under the General Info tab. |
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The system allows you to decide if you want your employees to be able to adjust the customer's due date when they make their first payment, without taking any additional money.
Click on this check-box to allow employees to change the customer's due date when they make their first payment without taking any extra money.
If this check-box is not checked, the employees would not be able to adjust the due date without processing a separate receipt and only if their user security level was high enough to allow them to take free time receipts. |
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The Use Pre-payments check box, when checked, allows the system to collect and track pre-payments for customers. For example, this is sometimes called "escrow" or "over payments". The money paid in addition to the customer's regular rental payment can be saved and stored in the pre-payment account to be used later. If the customer does not have enough money for the regular payment next month, the pre-payment money could be used to pay the rent due. The customer can also "borrow" money from this account and pay it back later, this is RED MONEY. See also: Prepayment Red Cap
Click in this check box if your company uses pre-payments.
Leave this check box unchecked if your company does not use prepayments. |
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The Use Customer Deposits check box, when checked, allows your customers to add money to an account to be used as a deposit, and to be applied to rent or any other charges. This amount of money is kept separate from the Prepayment balance. The Customer Deposit is a place for the customer to put money aside to be used at a later time.
Click in this check box if your company uses customer deposits.
Leave this check box unchecked if your company does not use customer deposits. |
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The Allow Partial Payments check box, when checked, allows your customers to make partial payments on their rental agreements. Otherwise, when this box is not checked, the system requires your customers to
Click in this check-box if you want to allow the customer's due date to track along with the amount of money paid. This will mean the customer's due date can change during the agreement and may not always be moved a full rental period.
If this check-box is not checked, the system forces the customer to pay in FULL RENTAL PERIODS. |
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Enter a free time reason to be automatically input when you advance the due date on the first payment. A drop-down box reveals a list of free time reasons, previously entered in the Free Time Reason file. If you do not see the Free Time Reason you want to use, click ". . ." beside the drop-down box to access this file.
The ". . ." button is used to access the Free Time Reason file. |
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Enter the number of free time days the user is allowed to advance a customer's NEW agreement without taking money. For example: When a customer makes the first payment, the due date can be adjusted to accommodate the customer's pay day or to make all customers due on the same day of the week. This transaction gives free time days to account for the due date change. |
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Enter the description you want displayed in the Customer screen, the Income Activity menu, the Payment screen and all other Customer Prepayment references in the system to describe the pre-payment amount. |
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The Pre Payment Red Cap field allows you to set a limit on how much NEGATIVE pre-payment money a customer can have. Set this field to 0.00 if you do not allow the customer to have a NEGATIVE pre-payment amount. If there is not a limit to the amount of NEGATIVE prepayment balance a customer can have set this field to 999999.99. |
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In this example, the customer has $5.00 in RED MONEY, so this amount is added to the payment amount. |
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The Customer Deposit Description allows you to customize the name of the "Customer Deposits" option. This name appears on the Income Activity menu and throughout the system to describe the "Customer Deposits" account. |
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The Daily Rate Is field determines how to calculate the daily rental rate for your inventory. The daily rate is needed to calculate partial payments or to move the due date according to the amount of money paid. Choose one or the other. Daily Rate is: Choose this option if you want the daily rental rate to be based on the weekly rental rate. The system will use the weekly rental rate assigned to an inventory item divided by 7 to determine how much each day is worth. Daily Rate is: Choose this option if you want the daily rental rate to be based on the chosen payment method's rate. The system will use the number of bi-weeks or months in the period divided by that bi-weekly or monthly rate to determine how much each day is worth. |
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The Default Payment Method field determines not only the possible default payment method, but also how to use the default payment method. A drop-down box reveals the possible choices: None Choose this option if you do not want a default payment method selected for ANY customer. This will force users to choose the appropriate payment method for every payment processed in the system. This also disables the Default Payment Method field in the Customer File. Choose a specific payment method for which to default ALL customers. This will use the payment method you select as the default for every payment processed in the system. This also disables the Default Payment Method field in the Customer File. For example: If you set this field to Personal Check, all payments taken will default to Personal Check for the payment method. |
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Check this box if your store accepts VISA credit cards. This enables VISA as a payment method on the payment screen.
Leave this box UNCHECKED if your store does not accept VISA credit cards. This disables VISA as a payment method on the payment screen. |
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Check this box if your store accepts MasterCard credit cards. This enables MasterCard as a payment method on the payment screen.
Leave this box UNCHECKED if your store does not accept MasterCard credit cards. This disables MasterCard as a payment method on the payment screen. |
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Check this box if your store accepts American Express credit cards. This enables American Express as a payment method on the payment screen.
Leave this box UNCHECKED if your store does not accept American Express credit cards. This disables American Express as a payment method on the payment screen. |
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Check this box if your store accepts Discover credit cards. This enables Discover as a payment method on the payment screen.
Leave this box UNCHECKED if your store does not accept Discover credit cards. This disables Discover as a payment method on the payment screen. |
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Check this box if your store accepts debit cards. This enables debit cards and electronic checks as a payment method on the payment screen.
Leave this box UNCHECKED if your store does not accept debit cards. This disables debit cards and electronic checks as a payment method on the payment screen. |
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Check this box if your store accepts checks. This enables personal check as a payment method on the payment screen.
Leave this box UNCHECKED if your store does not accept checks. This disables personal check as a payment method on the payment screen. |
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Check this box if your store accepts payroll checks. This enables payroll check as a payment method on the payment screen.
Leave this box UNCHECKED if your store does not accept payroll checks. This disables payroll check as a payment method on the payment screen. |
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Check this box if your store accepts money orders. This enables money order as a payment method on the payment screen.
Leave this box UNCHECKED if your store does not accept money orders. This disables money orders as a payment method on the payment screen. |
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Check this box if your store uses the XCharge® credit card processing software.
Leave this box UNCHECKED if your store does not use the XCharge® credit card processing software. When you check this box for the first time, this message is displayed:
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RECEIPT INFORMATION This section sets the format for the receipt. Enter the information to personalize the customer's rental receipt for your company. |
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The RAM System allows you to decide whether you want the customer to see the remaining balance of the agreement printed on each receipt.
Click in this check-box if you want the rental balance to print on the customer's receipt. If this check-box is checked, the rental balance for the customer's agreement will be printed on each receipt.
If this check-box is not checked the rental balance is not printed on the customer's receipt. |
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The system allows you to decide whether you want the customer to see the number of late payments made printed on each receipt.
Click in this check-box if you want the number of times the customer paid late to print on the receipt. If this check-box is checked, the number of times the customer made a payment when the agreement was late will print on the receipt.
If this check-box is not checked, the times late is not printed on the receipt. |
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The system allows you to decide whether you want the customer to see the early payoff amount printed on each receipt.
Click in this check-box if you want the early payoff amount to print on the customer's receipt. If this check-box is checked, the calculated early payoff amount will print on the customer's receipt.
If this check-box is not checked, the early payoff will not print on the customer's receipt. |
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The system allows you to decide whether you want to list the "Payoff Valid For" on each receipt.
Click in this check-box to print a message "Payoff Valid Through" and the date that the payoff is good through. This date is calculated by the payoff records associated with this agreement in the Payoff file.
If this check-box is not checked, the early payoff date will not print on the customer's receipt. |
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The system allows you to decide whether you want the customer to see the remaining periods printed on each receipt.
Click in this check-box if you want the remaining periods to print on the customer's receipt. If this check-box is checked, the remaining rental periods will print on the customer's receipt.
If this check-box is not checked, the remaining rental periods will not print on the customer's receipt. |
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You must have Use Pre-payments checked in order to see this option.
Click in this check-box if you want the Prepay balance to print on the customer's receipt. If this check-box is checked, the Prepay balance will print on the customer's receipt.
If this check-box is not checked, the Prepay balance will not print on the customer's receipt. |
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You must have Use Customer Deposits checked in order to see this option.
Click in this check-box if you want the Deposit balance to print on the customer's receipt. If this check-box is checked, the prepayment balance will print on the customer's receipt.
If this check-box is not checked, the Deposit balance will not print on the customer's receipt. |
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Enter a personalized message to print on each receipt. |
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If your store is located in Canada, please provide your GST# to be printed on your receipts. If you are not located in Canada, you can leave this field blank. |
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Deferrals in The RAM System refer to the ability to track and limit the amount of free time and late charges that can be given away. |
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Click in this check-box if you want to defer either rent or late fees. If this check-box is checked, the system will allow you to track either rent or late charges or both which are not paid by the customer.
If this check-box is not checked, the system will not allow you to track rent or late charges which are not paid.
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Click in this check-box if you want the maximum amount of deferred rent to be based on a percentage of the agreement balance.
Click in this check-box if you want the maximum amount of deferred rent to be a flat amount. |
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Enter the maximum amount or percentage of rent (or free time) that can be deferred on each agreement a customer is renting. |
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Click in this check-box if you want the maximum amount of deferred late charges to be based on a percentage of the agreement balance.
Click in this check-box if you want the maximum amount of deferred late charges to be a flat amount. |
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Enter the maximum amount or percentage of late fees that can be deferred on each agreement the customer is renting. |
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Weekly / 7 
Some frequently asked questions: (click each question for answer)
PARTIAL PAYMENTS
What is a partial payment anyway?
This feature, when turned on, allows the customer to pay any amount of money toward their agreement and move their due date based on the amount of rent paid. See also: Due Date Calculations |
Why would you want to move a customer's due date without taking enough money?
Normally, rent-to-own agreements would not move a customer's due date without taking enough money. In a normal rent-to-own agreement if the customer did not pay enough money, the customer's due date would not be moved as far. This would change the customer's due date to a different day of the week or month. However, with allow partial payments turned OFF, you are able to keep the customer's due date on the same day of the week or month each time. By NOT allowing partial payments the customer's due date remains on the same day of the week or month, but the amount that the customer has to pay may be more or less each time the customer makes a payment. |
CUSTOMER DEPOSITS
Customer Deposits is an escrow account that customer can use to deposit money into and then use that deposited money to pay rent, purchase items for cash or pay other fees. This account cannot be "borrowed" from. |
Why are there two different ways to track "deposit" or "escrow" money for a customer?
The main reason for the two separate accounts is the way the money is tracked for accounting purposes. The money in "Customer Deposits" is considered a true holding account and the money input in this account can be used for anything in the system. The amount in Customer Deposits can never be a negative amount. See also: Customer Deposits and Customer Prepayments |
Okay, I don't get it. What is the difference between Customer Pre-Pay and Customer Deposits?
Prepay can only come from an agreement. The underpayment of an agreement can cause a Prepay balance to be negative. An overpayment to an agreement will cause the Prepay balance to be positive. The Customer Deposit balance can never be negative. The Deposit balance is the actual cash paid by the customer to be added to the Customer Deposit account. This money can be used as a down payment on a special order item, or the down payment on a layaway. The money from the Customer Deposit account can be used to pay a cash sale or other charge, while the Prepay account can only be used to pay charges in the payment screen. Confused? This checklist may help.
The money associated with an agreement (over or under payment) is separated from money that is considered a down payment or deposit. They are similar but are tracked in (2) two separate income accounts. |
CUSTOMER PREPAYMENTS
Customer Prepayments is like an escrow account, except the money cannot be used for purchasing items for cash. It can also be used to "borrow" money from in cases when the customer does not have enough money to pay a rental payment. |
Why are there two different ways to track "deposit" or "escrow" money for a customer?
The main reason for the two separate accounts is the way the money is tracked for accounting purposes. The money in "Customer Deposits" is considered a true holding account and the money input in this account can be used for anything in the system. The amount in Customer Deposits can never be a negative amount. See also: Customer Deposits and Customer Prepayments |
Okay, I don't get it. What is the difference between Customer Pre-Pay and Customer Deposits?
Prepay can only come from an agreement. The underpayment of an agreement can cause a Prepay balance to be negative. An overpayment to an agreement will cause the Prepay balance to be positive. The Customer Deposit balance can never be negative. The Deposit balance is the actual cash paid by the customer to be added to the Customer Deposit account. This money can be used as a down payment on a special order item, or the down payment on a layaway. The money from the Customer Deposit account can be used to pay a cash sale or other charge, while the Prepay account can only be used to pay charges in the payment screen. Confused? This checklist may help.
The money associated with an agreement (over or under payment) is separated from money that is considered a down payment or deposit. They are similar but are tracked in (2) two separate income accounts. |
See also:
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