Process FAQ

This page explains the reasons behind the way we do things. This can be useful to provide perspective when you believe something is inefficient, redundant, a waste of time or just plain annoying.

Rental Process

Why do we use JotForm

We need to know who we are renting to and this is an efficient way for us to collect the info.

For commercial projects, this captures the entity renting, who is responsible for paying, L&D, etc...

For students projects (which are only student projects if they're for SCAD class...otherwise it's commercial), we need to know

• The main players involved (Director, Producer, DP)
• Who Pays for it (which is the actual renter. DP might select the gear, but if Producer Pays, Producer is the renter).

Why re-approve order when changes are made? It's stoopid!

Approving (& signing) the order serves 2 Purpose:

• Accepting the Terms & Conditions (i.e. the Agreement)
• Acknowledging that this is the list of equipment we ordered and client approved it.

Yes, the T&C can be signed once and that is good enough for the contract to be valid.

HOWEVER, if the list of equipment we send out & put on the invoice is different than what the client approved, it opens us up to disputes:

• I did not approve this specific piece of equipment!
• Why am I being charged more than what I approved?

Usually, these kinds of objections get raised when things go wrong (i.e. L&D) and approving the exact, actual list of gear that they rent is a total CYA move. We'd rather not let a judge decide who's right.

Is that not what the checkout form signature for? Actually no. The checkout form signature is "proof of delivery" A list of the items delivered and an acknowledgement that they are now responsible is anything happens to the gear. It does not mean this is what they AGREED to rent.

Why is order frozen once payment is received? It's stoopid!

When a payment amount for $X is received, there MUST be a matching accounting transaction that says "we received $X from this customer". That is what an invoice is. This is why we issue & post the invoice to the accounting software.

In addition, legally, the INVOICE needs to match the ORDER gear list, because INVOICES are what get paid and analyzed and contested when there is a dispute (more CYA).

If, AFTER payment is received & invoice is posted (since they must match) something happens that changes either the total amount due, or the composition of the order, then we need to make adjustments.

Substitute Gear, add $0 items, etc... If the total $ amount does not change, you can just void the old invoice and issue a new one and that's OK because the payment can still be matched on the accounting side.

Remove Gear We need to issue a refund to the client. This NEEDS to be matched in the accounting side to balance the books. If we just remove the gear from the order, and say "I'll refund $160" then how is that processed on the accounting side? Does the $160 include the tax that we also need to refund?... So many things....but this is relatively straightforward... Remove the item from the order Go to invoice and "Create a credit memo" On the Credit Memo, you keep the thing that you've removed from the order and remove everything else... (huh!) Issue & Post... this is the refund. Management will go in Stripe and issue the actual refund. This can now be matched.

Adding Gear Adding gear, once an invoice has been paid, requires another new payment. But the invoice has already been paid. You can't ADD to a paid invoice. You can't ADD another invoice for the same rental. Only 1 invoice per rental is allowed. Again, this has to be matched in accounting. So...the solution is to create a totally separate order... And yes, they have to Approve & sign that order TOO!

Swapping out Gear - Lower Total $ This is a pain in the ass is what it is. Don't do it!

• Modify the order to swap the gear
• Create a Credit Memo for the invoice
• Remove Everything
• Add a TEXT item with a "Refund Replace X by Z" with the PRICE DIFFERENCE as the cost.

Swapping out Gear - Higher Total $ An even BIGGER pain in the ass. Really don't do it! This one creates a bit of legal exposure... Leave the original invoice alone.

• Create a NEW order for the NEW gear
• Add a TEXT *sale* item with a NEGATIVE price that is the cost of the original gear on the old order.
• Call it "Remove original XYZ from paid order"
• Remove the old gear from the original order
• Approve new Order, pay new order, issue & post new invoice (once paid)

Expendables Process

Why label every sharpie & other expendable nik-nak? It's stoopid!

Labeling everything is time consuming & a pain in the ass. That's why everything with a barcode, we don't label but instead we use the barcode... But lots of small nik nak is left...

Here are the goals we're trying to achieve:

• Have Accurate inventory in CurrentRMS so we know if we have enough on hand to fulfill an order.
• Have a speedy way to check out a pile of expendables when there is a line of student out the door.
• Avoid mistakes when the wrong thing with similar name is selected ($0.25 for a $12 hank of rope...)

Every expendables being labeled allows someone to bring a pile of stuff to the desk and allows you to zip through them right then and there. If we don't have everything labeled, the alternatives are:

• A list of items with a code - Can have mistakes (is it dark blue or electric blue tape, is it a fine point sharpie, regular sharpie, etc...)
• Barcode on the wall bin - Need to leave the computer, look at the code and scanner is tethered to computer. Slows things down.

Why is every expendables sales and order in current? It's stoopid!

At the end of the day, we MUST keep track of how much of what we sell so we know when to reorder. The alternative is doing physical inventory frequently...you really want to go there?

Creating an order in current and having the expendables as Bulk let's current to the heavy lifting of keeping track.

Yes, adding a new client for every order when SCAD gets in session is a pain, but really, it's 30 seconds: a name and an email (okay, editing the organization to give student pricing is a bit longer).

As a bonus, we can keep track of spending by client.