How to understand and setup the general Rental Setup

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The General Rental Setup in Business Central lets you control how rental items move between locations, when transfer orders are posted, and how rental quantities and durations are handled. You can configure these settings per customer, or use a blank line as the default for all customers not specifically defined.

You set the default rental location code to decide where items go when allocated. If a location has the Transit checkmark set on the location card, the system creates one transfer order instead of two, which simplifies the shipment and receipt flow.

You use the Implied Direct Transfer field to decide whether outbound and inbound transfer orders post shipment and receipt in one go. This matters when rental periods should start at delivery rather than at shipment.

How the General Rental Setup table works

Unlike a normal setup table, the General Rental Setup can carry many lines. You can create one line per customer, plus one line with a blank customer that acts as the default. When you enter a customer that does not have its own line, the system falls back to the setup on the blank line.

This gives you flexibility to handle most customers with a single default configuration while still being able to define special handling for specific customers when you need it.

Setting the default rental location code

The default rental location code is the location you send the item to when you allocate it. You can use an allocated location for a specific customer, or for a non-specific customer when you are just renting an item out and do not yet know who the renter is.

If you rent out a lot of gear to a single customer and want to control item availability at that customer’s site, you can create a dedicated location for them. For example, you might set up a location called “Customer 50000” so you can keep track of what is currently out at that customer.

How Transit on the location card affects transfer orders

If you add a default location that has the standard Transit field checkmarked on the location card, the system only creates one transfer order. You post the shipment of that transfer order when the item goes out, and you post the receipt of the same transfer order when it comes back. This keeps the flow simpler.

With the two first lines set up without transit, you create two transfer orders: one shipping from the allocated location to the basic location, and one moving it back from the basic location to the allocated location.

You can also mix the flow. In one example you ship from a basic location through a transit location and then default the return to an available location, where you handle the item and put it back on the basic location. You could even ship to the allocated location, use the in-transit location to hold the transfer order, and then return the item to a different location for handling.

Default rental category and units of measure

You set up the default rental category, which is the combination of resources and units of measure. A rental category can hold more than one unit of measure code, so you are not limited to a single unit per category.

Implied Direct Transfer and rental period timing

The Implied Direct Transfer field controls how transfer orders post. If you select outbound, the outbound transfer order posts both shipment and receipt in one go. You can do the same for inbound, or for both. When set, the system does not distinguish between shipment and receipt but posts them together.

This is where timing matters. If you ship an item to an allocated location and it takes two days to drive out to the customer, you may want to start the rental period when the item is received at the customer’s site. In that case you split the posting: you ship in one go, and two days later you post the receipt.

If you are renting out wheelbarrows from a local shop where the rental starts immediately, you can set up direct posting of both shipment and receipt at once.

Duration precision, quantity precision and swap settings

You use Rental Duration Precision to determine the precision of the duration setup in the rental category, which is useful if you post in very specific time intervals. Quantity Precision is the rental quantity you can round up.

The Swap on Manual Release checkmark controls whether releasing the sales order automatically performs the swap when the item is a rental item.

The Keep Transfer Order While Sales Order Exist field means the transfer order is not deleted as long as the sales order exists. The transfer order is only deleted once the sales order is fully posted.

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