This is what happens in the video
With Rental Management in Business Central, the rental period does not start when you create the sales order. It starts when you post the transfer order that moves the goods out of your base stock and ships them to the customer. The actual posting date on the transfer order determines the start of the rental period, not the date you originally planned.
If you ship a day earlier or a day later than planned, the shipment date on the sales line updates automatically to match the actual posting date. This keeps your rental billing aligned with when the customer actually received the goods.
You can set up the transfer order to post both the shipment and the receipt at the customer location in a single step.
How the rental period starts in Rental Management
In Rental Management, the rental period begins when you post the transfer order that moves the items out of your base stock. In practice, this means the rental clock starts the moment you ship the stock to the customer.
Take a sales order created with a 10-day rental for the customer. The order shows an expected shipment date of September 18 and an expected return date of October 3. These are your planned dates, but the rental period is tied to the actual posting, not the plan.
Posting the transfer order to ship the goods
When you enter your transfer orders, you can find them from the transfer order list, or you can navigate to them directly. From the warehouse perspective, it looks like a normal transfer order list.
Real life rarely matches the plan exactly. Say you ship the goods a day later than expected because of a delay, so you set the posting date to September 19. When you post the transfer order, you ship the goods out of your base stock and receive them at the customer’s allocated location.
You can configure the setup to post the shipment and the receipt in a single step, so you do not have to handle them separately.
The shipment date drives the rental start
After posting, go back to the sales order. The shipment date has changed to reflect the actual posting date. The shipment date on the sales line of type resource is what determines the start of the rental period.
This is the detail worth keeping in mind. Your planned dates set expectations, but the posted shipment date is what counts for the rental billing. If you ship on September 19 instead of September 18, the rental period starts on September 19.
Q&A
When does the rental period start in Rental Management?
The rental period starts when you post the transfer order that moves the goods out of your base stock and ships them to the customer. It does not start when you create the sales order.
What happens if I ship the goods on a different date than planned?
The shipment date on the sales line updates to match the actual posting date. If you planned to ship on September 18 but post on September 19, the rental period starts on September 19.
Which field determines the start of the rental period?
The shipment date on the sales line of type resource determines the start of the rental period.
Can I post the shipment and the receipt at the same time?
Yes. You can set up the transfer order to post the shipment from your base stock and the receipt at the customer’s allocated location in a single step.