The Rental Periods tab in Rental Configuration is where rental periods are established. A rental period must be defined before rental records for either NBC Partnership 2 or Store Managed can be created.

Each period is defined by a store location and description, four dates, and one or more academic terms. Rental periods most often will correspond roughly to your academic term(s). All four dates set for a rental period apply to all rentals, both NBC Rental Partnership and Store Managed rentals, created for that period.

Column	Information
Description	The description you give to a rental period when it’s created. It may closely resemble the name of an academic term, such as FALL 2014 RENTALS, or be more generic, especially if the rental periods includes more than one term, such as MAY-AUG 2014 RENTALS.
Location	The location selected for the rental period when it’s created.
Start	The first day textbooks can be rented. When renting with NBC Partnership 2, this date must be after the date that the NBC Partnership list becomes available for the period.
Refund Exp	The last day a customer can return a rental and receive a full refund of the rental price. This date usually corresponds with your refund expiration date for textbook purchases and/or your drop/add period.
End	The last day a textbook can be rented for the period. This date must be before the store’s due date.
Due	The date rental copies are due back in the bookstore. When renting with NBC Partnership 2, this date must be before the date that the NBC Rental Partnership shipment is due at Nebraska Book.
NBC Return	When NBC Partnership 2 titles are rented in the period, the date that the NBC books must arrive at NBC will automatically appear in this column.
NBCPeriod	When NBC Partnership 2 titles are rented in the period, a numeric code will automatically be assigned to the period by NBC.
NBCPVersion	Will show ‘P2’ for any period that is a NBC Partnership 2 period. Any periods that were Partnership 1 will show ‘P1.’

NBC Rental Partnership Dates

The NBC Partnership list becomes available on set dates for each rental period. Likewise, there is a date by which Partnership titles must be received at NBC. The dates you enter for your store rental period (Start Date, Refund Expiration Date, End Date and Due Date) must fall within these dates.

Multi-Terms in a Rental Period

More than one term can be included in one rental period. If there are a number of special short-term programs for which you’ve defined separate academic terms in Term Maintenance and you want to rent books for these terms, you can include them in the same rental period. For example, if a school has several summer “mini-mesters,” they can be included in the Summer rental period. All terms attached to the rental period will have the same start, refund expiration, end and due date.

Overlapping Rental Periods

Rental periods can overlap, if necessary. If a book is available to rent in more than one open rental period, the cashier will be prompted to select the rental period when the book is rented. The web orders will be assigned the rental period with the latest return date.

For example, if you have several ‘mini-mesters’ in Summer and prefer to have separate rental period for each term, you can do that. Each separate rental term, however, would need to have dates that fall within the Summer NBC Rental Partnership dates. Books rented for any summer rental period would be due at NBC by August 31.

Establishing a Rental Period

Step-by-step instructions to establish a rental period

Access Rental Number Maintenance (Ctrl-J 1012).
Select Rental Configuration from the Hammer options.
Click the Rental Period tab.
Double-click the ellipsis in the grid.
Select the store location that will be renting books.
Enter a description for the rental period (i.e., ‘Fall 2015 Rentals’ or ‘May-Aug 2015 Rentals’).
Enter the Start Date, the day you will start renting books. This date must be after the NBC Rental Partnership list becomes available.
Enter the Refund Expiration Date. This date would typically be the same date as the last day a student can return a textbook purchased for a course.
Enter the End Date. This is the last date books may be rented during this rental period.
Enter the Date Due. This would typically be during the last week of the term.
Check the term(s) included in this rental period.
Click OK.

Editing Rental Period Dates

While you can edit the Start, Refund Exp, End and Due dates, you will want to do so with caution and within limitations. There is no problem editing these dates if no books have been rented for the period. Once books have been rented for the period, if dates are changed, the edited dates no longer match what the student agreed to upon renting.

Editing the Refund Expiration Date

If the Refund Expiration date is changed on the Rental Period tab, it will be in effect only for subsequent rentals for the period; it will not be retroactive for any titles already rented for the period. If the Refund Expiration date has to be changed for the entire period, use the option ‘Reset Period Refund Expiration Date’ under the hammer in Rental Number Maintenance. If the Refund Expiration Date needs to be changed for a single title, use the appropriate <right-click> option on the History or All History tab.

Show Previous Periods

Once a rental period is over (that is, the current date is past the End date) the rental period doesn’t display in the grid unless ‘Show Previous Periods’ in the lower left corner is checked.

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