Best Practices - Using Equipment times

With the Equipment Times update, every equipment item in a project can have its own planning period and usage period. In this article, we use a band's European tour to show how to give items their own times, hand the tour over to the warehouse, and print a packing slip for each moment equipment leaves or returns.

Before you start

• Every item follows the project's default planning period and usage period until you give it a different time. You only need to change the items that deviate. Read our article about the Equipment Times Update for more information.
• Every item time links to an entry in the project's time schedule. You can create a new entry from the equipment line itself. Read our article about the time schedule of your project for more information.
• To print a packing slip per packing list, you need a document template of the type Packing slip. Add the default template from the template library in settingsConfiguration module > Communication > Document templates.

Give one item its own time

The moving heads are only needed for the festival show in Paris. AV Nerds creates a new time for the show from the equipment line, and links the moving heads to it.

1. Go to the Equipment tab of the project.
2. Double-click the Planning period cell of the item.
3. Click Add new time.
4. Enter a name, such as Paris festival show.
5. Enter the start date and time under From.
6. Enter the end date and time under Until.
7. Click Add time.
8. Double-click the Usage period cell of the item.
9. Select the time you created.
10. Click Confirm to recalculate the factor.
11. Click Save.

The new time is added to the Time schedule tab of the project, so you can select it for other items too. The timeline below the equipment list shows that the moving heads are now only reserved from November 8 to November 9, and are available for other projects for the rest of the tour.

When you change the usage period of an item, Rentman asks if you want to recalculate the factor. Click Confirm to calculate the price of the item based on its own usage period, or Cancel to keep the current factor.

Set a time on several items at once

The rehearsal PA consists of several items that all have the same time. AV Nerds selects them together and links them to the rehearsals in one go.

1. Go to the Equipment tab of the project.
2. Select the items you want to change.
3. Click Edit in the blue bar.
4. Click the Planning period field and select a time, such as Rehearsals Amsterdam.
5. Click the Usage period field and select a time.
6. Click Save.
7. Click Confirm to recalculate the factor.
8. Click Save.

In the Edit equipment window, Rentman only changes the fields you select. When you choose a time, the checkbox in front of the field is selected automatically. All other fields of the items stay the same.

Hand the tour over to the warehouse

Because items now leave and return at different moments, the warehouse works in packing lists. Rentman creates a packing list for every unique pickup or return moment in a subproject. For The Velvet Owls, this gives six packing lists:

The warehouse only sees these packing lists once the project is marked ready to pack. AV Nerds does this when the equipment planning for the tour is final.

1. Go to the Equipment tab of the project.
2. Click the arrow next to Book equipment.
3. Select the project under Ready to pack. (permission-based)
4. Click Save.
5. Go to the warehouseWarehouse module.
6. Select the date of the packing list you want to see.

Each packing list has its own tile in the Warehouse module, with the label Ready to pack. On November 2, the warehouse sees two tiles for the tour. On November 8, it only sees the tile for the moving heads.

Print a packing slip per packing list

The crew that drives to Paris needs a packing slip with only the moving heads on it. AV Nerds prints one slip for the festival show, with the outgoing and the returning packing list.

1. Go to the warehouseWarehouse module.
2. Click print on the tile of the packing list.
3. Click Generate packing slip.
4. (Optional) Select more packing lists under Selected packing lists.
5. Click Generate.

The packing slip shows a separate section for each packing list you selected, with the time of the packing list and the equipment that leaves or returns at that moment.

Move a tour date

The festival moves the band's show two hours later. Because the moving heads are linked to the time Paris festival show, AV Nerds only needs to shift that one time. The items and their packing lists follow automatically.

1. Go to the Time schedule tab of the project.
2. Select the time you want to move.
3. Click Shift in the blue bar.
4. Enter the amount under Quantity.
5. Select a unit under Measuring unit, such as hours.
6. Click Update.
7. Click Save.

The Shift times window shows the old times and the new times before you update them. The duration of the time stays the same. To move a time to a specific date instead, select Shift to a new starting moment and enter a new start time.

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