Rental contracts in Sapera provide a structured solution for managing and periodically charging the rental of items, including serial number items. A rental contract is a template that defines the rental's terms: which product instances are rented out, how often charging occurs, whether invoices or sales orders are created, and when charging starts. The charging itself takes place by "running" the contract, whereby Sapera automatically creates the relevant trade documents for the linked customers.
The rental contract module is an optional add-on feature in Sapera. Contact the sales department for information about purchasing it.
A rental contract (of the type Rental) is the central template that drives periodic charging. It is used directly via the "Run" function, which opens a dialog where you select which contracts and customer contracts should be charged — Sapera then creates sales orders or invoices for the linked customers.
The customers linked to a rental contract are created as customer contracts (see the article on Customer contracts). Customer contracts refer back to the rental contract as a template. Sales orders and invoices created from runs are shown in the history popup and can be opened directly from there.
Rental contracts differ from subscriptions in that they include a "Rented out" panel, where you specify the concrete product instances or serial number items rented out to the customers.
From Financial, navigate to "Sales" and then "Rental contracts". You are now on the overview of rental contracts.
If you cannot see the menu item, you most likely do not have permission for it. Contact support.
The overview shows all rental contracts in a table with filterable columns. You can double-click a row to open the editing screen for the selected contract.
Column selection is enabled, so you can customize which columns are shown via the column selector in the top corner of the grid.
System name: The internal name of the contract, used for identification in the system. The system name cannot be changed after creation.
Display name: The name shown to users and on trade documents.
Period: The charging frequency for the contract. Possible values: Daily, Weekly, Every other week, Monthly, Every other month, Quarterly, Semi-annually, Annually.
Invoicing method: Indicates whether the run creates an Invoice or a Sales order.
Start date: The date the contract uses as a basis when calculating periods.
Expected next run: The system's calculation of when the next charge is expected, based on the start date, period and most recent run.
Last run period: The date range covered by the most recent run, i.e. which period was last charged for.
Date: The time the contract was created, shown with date and time.
Subscription is paused: Shows whether the contract is currently paused, which stops future charges.
Deleted: Shows whether the contract is marked as deleted.
Integrated with Billwerk: Shows whether the contract is integrated with Billwerk. This column is only shown if Billwerk is configured in the system.
Create (plus icon): Always active. Opens the editing screen for creating a new rental contract.
Edit (pencil icon): Requires that a contract is selected in the list. Opens the editing screen for the selected contract. Double-clicking a row has the same effect.
Remove (cross icon): Requires that a contract is selected. Deletes the selected rental contract. Sales orders and invoices already created from previous runs are not affected.
Pause / Activate: Requires that a contract is selected. This is one and the same button whose text changes depending on the contract's current pause state. When the contract is active, the button shows "Pause" and stops future charges. When the contract is paused, the button shows "Activate" and resumes the charges.
Show runs: Requires that a contract is selected. Opens the Subscription archive popup with a log of all runs for the contract, including date, method, status and any errors.
Show history: Requires that a contract is selected. Opens the history popup with a list of the invoices and sales orders created via runs of the contract.
Run: Always active. Opens the Run dialog, from which you can run charging for one or more contracts and their linked customers.
Report export: Always active. Exports the displayed list to a report.
Reload: Always active. Reloads the data in the overview.
Click "Create" or double-click an existing contract to open the editing screen. The screen is laid out with fields on the left, a Lines panel and a Rented out panel on the right, plus the "Subscriptions" and "Attachments" tabs at the bottom.
At the top of the editing screen a warning is shown if the contract is paused.
Org. unit: The organizational unit the contract belongs to. Cannot be edited.
Last run period: The date range covered by the most recent run.
Expected next run: The system's calculation of the next charging time.
Managed in Billwerk / UUID: Only shown with Billwerk integration. Shows the Billwerk UUID if the contract is synchronized.
System name: The internal identification name. The field is locked and cannot be changed after the contract has been created for the first time.
Display name: The name shown on trade documents and in the overview.
Period: Select the charging frequency from the dropdown: Daily, Weekly, Every other week, Monthly, Every other month, Quarterly, Semi-annually or Annually.
Start date: The date used as a basis for period calculation. Selected via the date picker.
Period adjustment: Controls how the period is adjusted relative to linked customer contracts. Possible choices: "Adjust start to follow subscription" (periods are calculated from the contract's start date) or "Follow the subscription contract's start" (periods are adjusted to follow the individual customer contract).
Create sales order or invoice: Select whether the run should create an Invoice or a Sales order.
Creation state: Only shown with the "Invoice" choice. Possible choice: Draft.
Creation state for sales order: Only shown with the "Sales order" choice. Possible choices: Draft, Bulk invoicing, Started.
Number of periods to include on the first run: Specifies how many periods are included the first time the contract is run for a customer contract. Number input.
Accrual (Distribution type): Controls how amounts are accrued in the accounts depending on the period type.
Add line with display name to invoice/order: Checkbox. Automatically adds a text line with the contract's display name to the created trade documents.
Add line with period to invoice/order: Checkbox. Automatically adds a text line with the charged period to the trade documents.
Add line with subject: Checkbox. Adds a line with the subject from the customer contract to the trade documents.
Add line with serial number: Checkbox. Adds a line with the serial number of the rented product instance to the trade documents. Note: This function requires that a Text product is configured in the settings. If the text product is not set up, a warning is shown below the checkbox.
Should be integrated with Billwerk: Checkbox. Only shown if Billwerk integration is configured in the system. Indicates whether the contract should be synchronized with Billwerk. The field is read-only if the contract is already active in Billwerk.
The "Lines" panel shows the product lines charged on each run. Here the items or services included in the charge are added and edited, with the fields Number, Name, Quantity, Price excl. VAT, Price incl. VAT, Total and Total excl. VAT.
The "Rented out" panel is unique to rental contracts and is not shown on subscriptions. Here the concrete product instances or serial number items rented out are specified. The list shows a column with the product instance/serial number plus the total number of rented instances.
In the panel there are buttons to move selected lines up and down in the order, as well as to remove selected lines. The "Quantity" field is shown below the list and reflects the current number of registered instances.
Save and close: Saves changes and closes the editing screen.
Run: Active only for saved contracts. Runs charging directly for this specific rental contract.
Show history: Active only when the contract has run at least once. Opens the history popup with invoices and sales orders from runs.
Show runs (Subscription archive): Only shown for administrators. Opens the run log for the contract.
Text product: Only shown if a text product is configured in the settings.
Try to synchronize to Billwerk again: Only shown on a failed synchronization to Billwerk. Restarts the synchronization.
The "Subscriptions" tab in the editing screen shows a list of the customer contracts linked to this rental contract. A customer contract binds a specific customer to the rental contract template and controls charging for exactly that customer. From the tab you can create and manage customer contracts directly.
The "Attachments" tab allows you to attach documents to rental contracts. Columns in the list: Title, File name, Content type, Created on.
Actions in the tab:
Add: Adds a new attachment. Files can also be dragged directly to the tab via drag-and-drop.
Delete: Requires that an attachment is selected. Deletes the selected attachment.
Download: Requires that an attachment is selected. Downloads the selected attachment.
The Run dialog is opened by clicking "Run" in the overview. The dialog shows a structured list of all customer contracts currently ready for charging.
Next run: The date of the next scheduled charge for the row.
Type: Run kind, e.g. whether it is a scheduled or manual charge.
Rental contract: The name of the rental contract the row belongs to.
Customer: The customer to be charged.
Debtor category: The customer's customer category.
Customer subscription: The numeric ID of the customer contract.
Select all (checkbox): Selects all rows in the list at once.
Run: Active when at least one row is selected. Creates a sales order or invoice for the selected customer contracts and periods. The button is disabled if no rows are selected.
Reload: Reloads the list of ready-to-run contracts.
Double-clicking a row in the dialog opens the associated customer contract.
The "History" popup is opened from either the overview or the editing screen. It shows a list of the trade documents created via runs of the contract.
Rental contract: The name of the rental contract the history line belongs to.
Customer: The charged customer.
Date: The date the trade document was created.
Sales order: The number of the created sales order, if the charging method was Sales order.
Invoice: The number of the created invoice, if the charging method was Invoice.
Cancelled: Indicates whether the created sales order or invoice has subsequently been cancelled.
Double-clicking a history line opens the associated trade document directly.
The "Subscription archive" popup is opened via the "Show runs" button in the overview or via the button in the editing screen (administrators only). It shows a log of all runs for the contract.
Columns in the archive: Created on, Subscriptions (names of the involved contracts), Created by, Date, Invoicing method, Status, Split invoice/order per customer.
From the archive you can select a run and use "Show history" to see the invoices and sales orders that resulted from that specific run. The "Show error" button is active if there are registered errors on a selected run.
If you have any questions, you are welcome to contact support.
Want to know more?
Read more in these related articles:
New / edit rental contract
This article walks through how to create and edit rental contracts in Sapera
New / edit customer contract (rental contract)
This article walks through how to create a new customer contract in Sapera
Customer rental contract
Customer-facing printout of a rental contract that generates a contract document with the contract's number based on the selected invoice or sales order.
