Group Codes and Bookings/Hires

In HirePOS, when creating a quote, booking, reservation, or invoice, you have the option to make the booking based on a Group Code rather than specifying a particular item. This is especially useful when you want to reserve or hire an item from a group, such as selecting one 1.7T excavator out of a fleet of five, without identifying the specific unit at the time of booking.

When you use a Group Code, HirePOS will check the overall availability of the items in that group. It will take into account both the specific items already booked on hire and any other general bookings made against the group. If there are conflicts—such as double bookings or the quantity of bookings exceeding the available units in the group—a double booking warning will appear.

If there is availability with no existing conflicts within the group, you can proceed to make the booking using the Group Code alone, rather than selecting an individual item. This is particularly helpful in situations where assets are in different states of readiness across your yard, and when the time for dispatch arrives, you may want to send out the unit that is closest to the gate.

To use a Group Code or Group of Items on a sales record (quote, booking, reservation, or invoice), follow these steps:

1. On the Item drop-down menu in the quote or booking screen, at the top of the list, you will see a blue link titled Show Grouped.

2. Clicking the Show Grouped toggle will change the display to show you the available item groups within your system, instead of individual assets.

3. You can use the search feature to filter and find the desired group, and then add it to your sales record.

4. Groups are easily identifiable in the sales record as the Group Code will be shown in red text, differentiating it from the usual black text for individual items.

You can save a quote, reservation, or booking with a Group Code on it without any issues. However, if you attempt to dispatch or place a Group Code on hire, HirePOS will prompt you to select a specific asset from the group.

When a booking or sales record with a Group Code is ready for dispatch or hire, HirePOS requires you to specify which exact asset has been sent out.

Upon saving the record, you will be directed to a screen where you can select the specific asset dispatched from the group. For example, if you’ve selected the 1.7T Excavator Group, you will need to choose the specific unit (e.g., EX1, EX2, EX3, etc.). The list of available units will be limited to only those that are not currently on hire, as it’s unlikely you would dispatch a unit already out with another customer.

However, this behavior can be modified if necessary—such as in situations where you need to dispatch a unit that hasn’t yet been returned, possibly due to incomplete data entry from a prior hire.

When selecting the specific asset to dispatch, you can arrange the list of available units by:

• Code (alphabetically)

• Purchase Date (selecting the newest or oldest machine)

• Meter Usage (choosing the machine with the most or least hours or kilometers over the past year)

• Utilisation (sorting by the asset that has spent the most or least time out of the yard in the last year)

Once the asset is selected, you can click Save to complete the dispatch of the hire.