The Role Centre is the home page Business Central opens when you sign in. Essential Rental brings one of its own, and adds a rental menu and a set of cues to four of the standard ones. A cue is a tile that shows a count and opens the list behind it.
How it fits in
Business Central gives every user a role, and the role decides which Role Centre they start on. Essential Rental adds one role, Essential Rental Business. Its Role Centre is the page named Essential Rental Business Manager Role Centre. Nobody is given that role automatically: each person picks it, or an administrator sets it for them.
People who stay on a standard role still get the rental content. On the Business Manager, Accountant, Sales Order Processor and Accounts Receivable Administrator roles, Essential Rental adds an Essential Rental menu to the navigation bar and the same cues to the home page. See What is added to the standard Role Centres.
→
The standard roles carry the fuller rental menu. The rental Role Centre's own menu has four entries, all of them setup and fleet records. The menu added to the four standard Role Centres has more than twenty, including quotes, orders, shipments, returns and invoices. The cues are the same on all five.
Switching to the rental role
Choose the settings icon at the top right, then My Settings.
Open the list on the Role field. It is headed Available Roles. Choose Essential Rental Business.
Choose OK.
An administrator can do the same for someone else: search for User Settings, open that person's line and change Role.
A role changes the home page and its menus. It does not change what a person is permitted to do.
What is on the rental Role Centre
From top to bottom the page has a navigation menu, an action bar and three parts.
Example Hire Ltd
Essential Rental
NewAvailability Calendar
Essential Rental
Rentals
42Active Rentals
3Overdue Returns
3Stock to Fleet Items Tasks
1Lost Items to Write Off
3Stock to Fleet Fixed Assets Tasks
1Scrapped Items Tasks
1Scrap Requests
Maintenance
6Open Maintenance Orders
4In Progress Maintenance Orders
2Open Pre-Flight Orders
5Maintenance Due Soon
1Maintenance Overdue
Compliance
7Certificates Expiring
2Certificates Expired
Global Equipment
2Requests to Fulfil
1Units to Receive
3Open Requests
Fleet and Assets
Fleet and Assets
1Fleet and Asset Mismatches
Illustration. The real screen can differ in detail. The rental Role Centre with all four cue groups showing, and the Fleet and Assets part below them. The top line carries the company name, here a made-up one. Business Central sets the groups side by side where there is room. A red or amber number in the drawing stands for the coloured bar the real tile shows: these are the colours the tiles start with. The two standard parts further down, Activities and Report Inbox, are left out.
Navigation menu
The navigation bar has one menu, Essential Rental.
Essential Rental menu
Essential Rental Setup
Opens the setup page for the whole extension. See Rental Setup.
The list of Rental Items, one for each unit in the fleet.
Other rental pages, such as Rental Quotes, Rental Orders, Shipment Orders and Return Orders, are not on this menu. Find them with search (Alt+Q), or go in through a cue.
Action bar
The action bar has a New menu with one entry, and one action beside it.
Actions
New, then Rental Quote
Opens a new, blank customer card. It does not start a rental quote. To start one, search for Rental Quotes. See Rental Quote.
Availability Calendar
Opens the Rental Availability Calendar, a timeline of what each unit is doing: on hire, on quote or in maintenance. See Availability Board.
Parts
The rest of the page is four parts, one below the other.
One cue, Fleet and Asset Mismatches, in a part of its own. See Fleet and Assets.
Activities
A standard Business Central part: the finance cues that the Accountant role also has. It is not part of Essential Rental.
Report Inbox
A standard Business Central part: reports that were scheduled and have since been run.
What is added to the standard Role Centres
Essential Rental extends four standard Role Centre pages: the ones behind the Business Manager, Accountant, Sales Order Processor and Accounts Receivable Administrator roles. Any other role that uses one of those pages sees the same additions. There are two.
An Essential Rental menu, placed first in the navigation bar, ahead of the standard menus.
The Essential Rental cues, placed below the standard Activities cues, with the Fleet and Assets part straight after them. On the Accountant Role Centre the standard intercompany cues, where they are shown, sit between the standard cues and the rental ones.
Illustration. The real screen can differ in detail. The Business Manager Role Centre with the Essential Rental menu open. The row under the menu names is that menu's entries, all of them drawn: the real screen may not have room to show them all at once. One group of each cue part is drawn. The headline, the standard actions, the rest of Activities, the other rental cue groups, the Fleet and Assets part and the parts further down are left out.
Essential Rental menu on the standard Role Centres, in order
Setup
A sub-menu with three entries: Essential Rental Setup, Rental Price Lists and Report Selection - Rental. See Rental Setup, Rental Price Lists and Reports.
Shipments waiting to go out, and those already posted. See Rental Shipment.
Return Orders, Posted Return Orders
Returns waiting to be posted, and those already posted. See Rental Return.
Maintenance Orders, Posted Maintenance Orders, Maintenance Due, Maintenance History
Workshop orders, finished orders, the list of work falling due, and the history of work and spend for each unit. See Maintenance Orders.
Global Equipment, Global Equipment Transfers, Transfer Request Inbox
The fleet across the group of companies, your transfer requests, and the requests other companies have made of you. Global Equipment opens the page named Global Equipment Overview. See Global Equipment.
Location Transfers
Moves of equipment between locations inside this company. This entry is on the Business Manager Role Centre only. On the other three, find the page with search. See Location Transfers.
Rental Invoices, Posted Rental Invoices
The standard lists of sales invoices and posted sales invoices, each showing rental invoices only. See Rental Invoice.
Every menu entry is always shown. Unlike the cues, the maintenance and Global Equipment entries are not hidden when those features are not in use.
The cues
The cues sit under the heading Essential Rental, in up to four groups: Rentals, Maintenance, Compliance and Global Equipment. One more cue, Fleet and Asset Mismatches, sits in its own part headed Fleet and Assets. They are the same on the rental Role Centre and on the four standard ones. Choose a cue to open the list behind it.
Every number is worked out afresh each time the Role Centre is opened or refreshed. None is a stored figure that waits for a job to bring it up to date. If the page has been open for a while, refresh it before you rely on a number.
Where a cue depends on a date, it measures from your work date. That is the Work Date in My Settings, and is normally today.
Seven cues start with a colour, so they stand out when there is something to deal with. Overdue Returns, Lost Items to Write Off, Maintenance Overdue, Certificates Expired and Fleet and Asset Mismatches turn red, and Certificates Expiring and Maintenance Due Soon turn amber, as soon as their number is 1 or more. At 0 they are plain. The other cues have no colour until someone gives them one. See Setting up cues.
Rentals
This group is always shown. Four of its seven cues count journal lines that Essential Rental has prepared and left for a person to check and post, so a number above zero means work is waiting. Overdue Returns and Scrap Requests count documents that are waiting for you.
Rentals
Active Rentals
Rental documents whose Status is Released. That means released orders, and released quotes as well. Opens Rental Orders, showing the released orders. Released quotes are in the number but not in that list, so the number can be higher than the lines you see.
Overdue Returns
Rental orders with equipment still out past its end date: at least one line that has shipped, has not come back, and has a Rental End Date before your work date. Bill Once lines and lines with an Off-Hire Date are not counted. An order counts once, however many of its lines are overdue. Opens the Overdue Returns list, where you can extend the orders. See Overdue Returns.
Stock to Fleet Items Tasks
Item journal lines waiting to be posted to take stock out of inventory and into the fleet. It counts lines of entry type Negative Adjmt. that have a quantity, in the journal named by Default Item Journal Template and Default Item Journal Batch on Essential Rental Setup. If either of those is blank, the count is not narrowed by it. Opens Item Journals on that batch. See Stock-to-Fleet.
Lost Items to Write Off
Item journal lines waiting to be posted to write off lost stock. A line is added when a return is posted with a stock item marked as lost. It counts lines of entry type Negative Adjmt. that have a quantity, in the batch named by Lost Item Journal Batch. With no lost batch set, the number is zero. Opens Item Journals on that batch. See Lost Items.
Stock to Fleet Fixed Assets Tasks
Fixed asset journal lines waiting to be posted to record the cost of units brought into the fleet. It counts lines with FA posting type Acquisition Cost on two journals: the FA G/L journal batch named by Default FA G/L Journal Template and Acquisitions FA G/L Journal Batch, and the FA journal batch named by Default FA Journal Template and Acquisitions FA Journal Batch. Which one a line goes on depends on the depreciation book. Opens the FA journal at its batch when only that journal has lines waiting, and otherwise the FA G/L journal at its batch.
Scrapped Items Tasks
Fixed asset journal lines waiting to be posted to dispose of a unit's fixed asset. A line is added when a lost unit is linked to a fixed asset and you chose to dispose of it, and when a scrap request is processed for a unit linked to a fixed asset. It counts lines with FA posting type Disposal in the batches named by Disposals FA G/L Journal Batch and Disposals FA Journal Batch, and opens the journal with lines waiting in the same way as the cue above. See Lost Items and Scrap Rental Items.
Scrap Requests
Scrap requests not yet processed, whatever their status: Open, Pending Approval or Released. A processed request moves to Posted Scraps and drops out of the count. Opens Scrap Requests. See Scrap Rental Items.
Maintenance
This group, and Compliance below it, are shown only when Maintenance is part of your Essential Rental subscription. In a production environment the Maintenance subscription must be active. In a sandbox the groups show unless it has been made inactive.
Maintenance
Open Maintenance Orders
Maintenance orders with status Open: raised but not yet started. Pre-flight orders are not included. Opens Maintenance Orders, showing those orders.
In Progress Maintenance Orders
Maintenance orders with status In Progress. Pre-flight orders are not included. Opens Maintenance Orders, showing those orders.
Open Pre-Flight Orders
Pre-flight orders that are Open or In Progress. A pre-flight order holds preparation work that must be finished before a unit ships. Opens Maintenance Orders, showing those orders.
Maintenance Due Soon
Calendar maintenance rules that fall due between your work date and the number of days ahead set in Maintenance Due Notice (Days). It counts rules, not units: a unit with two rules due counts twice. A calendar rule with no earlier service on record is treated as due on the work date. Opens Maintenance Due, showing the lines with status Due Soon.
Maintenance Overdue
Calendar rules whose due date is before your work date, and meter rules whose current reading has reached the reading at which the work is due. It also counts rules, not units. Event rules have no schedule and are never counted. Opens Maintenance Due, showing the lines with status Overdue.
Compliance
Shown under the same condition as Maintenance. Both cues count certificates whose Lifecycle State is Active, so a certificate that has been superseded or revoked is never counted.
Compliance
Certificates Expiring
Active certificates whose Expiry Date falls between your work date and the number of days ahead set in Certificate Expiry Notice (Days). Opens Certificates, showing those certificates.
Certificates Expired
Active certificates whose Expiry Date is before your work date. A certificate with no expiry date is not counted. Opens Certificates, showing those certificates.
Global Equipment
This group is shown only when Global Equipment Hub Company is filled in on Global Equipment Setup and Global Equipment is part of your subscription, by the same rule as Maintenance. The numbers are read from the hub company and count transfer lines, one for each unit asked for.
Global Equipment
Requests to Fulfil
Lines other companies have raised against your fleet that have status Requested or Fulfilled: they are waiting for you to fulfil or ship. Opens Transfer Request Inbox.
Units to Receive
Lines you asked for that have status In-Transit or Checked In: the units are on their way to you or checked in, and you have not yet posted the receipt. Opens Global Equipment Transfers.
Open Requests
Lines you asked for that have status Requested or Fulfilled: they are still with the other company and not yet shipped. Opens Global Equipment Transfers.
Fleet and Assets
This part is always shown. Its one cue checks every unit linked to a fixed asset, which can take a moment, so it is counted in the background in a part of its own and the other cues do not wait for it. The number can appear a little after the rest. If the count fails or takes longer than two minutes, the cue keeps the figure it had, with no message.
Fleet and Assets
Fleet and Asset Mismatches
Units whose rental status and fixed asset disagree: the fixed asset has been disposed of while the unit is still in the fleet, or the unit is Scrapped or Sold while its fixed asset is still on the books with no disposal waiting on a journal. Opens Fleet and Asset Mismatches. See Scrap Rental Items.
Setting up cues
A cue can carry a coloured indicator, a bar along the top of the tile, that changes with its number. Essential Rental gives seven cues a starting colour: Overdue Returns, Lost Items to Write Off, Maintenance Overdue, Certificates Expired and Fleet and Asset Mismatches red (Unfavorable), and Certificates Expiring and Maintenance Due Soon amber (Ambiguous). Each is plain at 0 and coloured from 1. These are company-wide settings, added when Essential Rental is installed or upgraded and in every new company. Where a cue already had a company-wide setting, it is kept, and a colour a person has set for themselves always wins. The other cues start plain. Each person can set their own.
On the Role Centre, open the menu beside the Essential Rental heading above the cues, and choose Set Up Cues.
The Cue Setup page opens, with one line for each number in the rental cues.
On the line for the cue, enter Threshold 2 first and then Threshold 1. Threshold 2 must be the greater of the two, and Business Central refuses the line otherwise.
Choose a style for each of the three ranges: Low Range Style, Middle Range Style and High Range Style.
Close the page.
Cue Setup
Cue NameLow Range StyleThreshold 1Middle Range StyleThreshold 2High Range StylePersonalized
Illustration. The real screen can differ in detail. Six of the twenty lines. Certificates Expiring, Certificates Expired and Maintenance Due Soon show the colours they start with: plain below 1, coloured from 1. The two maintenance order cues start with no colour. Maintenance Overdue has been changed by this person: no overdue rules shows green, one to five shows amber, and six or more shows red.
Cue Setup columns
Cue Name
The name of the cue. You cannot change it. Most names match the tiles. The three Global Equipment cues have longer names here, each beginning Global Equipment. Two lines, MTD Rental Revenue and Outstanding Rental Invoice Amount, belong to numbers that have no cue on the Role Centre. Leave those alone.
Low Range Style
The colour when the number is below Threshold 1.
Threshold 1
The number at which the middle range starts.
Middle Range Style
The colour when the number is from Threshold 1 up to and including Threshold 2.
Threshold 2
The number above which the high range starts.
High Range Style
The colour when the number is above Threshold 2.
Personalized
Ticked as soon as you change a line. Clear the tick to go back to the company's setting for that cue, which for the seven coloured cues is the starting colour, or to no colour if the company has none.
The styles are None (no colour), Favorable (green), Unfavorable (red), Ambiguous (amber) and Subordinate (grey).
What you set here is yours alone. An administrator can set colours for everyone on the standard Cue Setup page, found with search: lines for the table named Essential Rental Cue with User Name blank are the company's settings. The seven starting colours are lines of this kind, so an administrator can change them or delete them there. Where a person has their own setting for a cue, it wins over the company's.
Settings that change what the cues count
These fields are on Essential Rental Setup. See Rental Setup.