For a student to be able to rent, a customer record must exist for the customer. The customer records can be created in Inventory Control, in Accounts Receivable (if applicable) and during the transaction, if necessary, at the cash register. Customer records can also be imported from your registration office or accounting office. Check with PrismCore Support for more information on this, if necessary. In addition, customers can create their own customer record during a transaction on the website.

Customer records can be viewed and edited, if security permits at the following places:

In ICS, Inventory Management > Mail Order > Customer Maintenance <Ctrl+J 156>
In IAS, Accounting > Receivables > Parameters > Customer Maintenance
In PrismCore Admin > Accounting > Receivables > Customer Maintenance <Ctrl+J 212>.

Email Address

An email address is required when renting textbooks. Any emails sent to the customer in regards to rentals (reminders, charges for rentals not returned or authorization failed) will be sent to the email provided by the customer.

Only one email address per customer is available.

The store must set policy in regards to which email addresses are acceptable. Some stores accept only the student’s official email address while others accept other email addresses.

The email address is stored in the customer’s record in Customer Maintenance. If necessary, the email address can be edited by accessing the customer record. If an email fails due to an inaccurate email address, the address can be edited on the customer record.

Cannot Rent to This Customer

There is a setting in Customer Maintenance that controls whether or not a student can rent. If a customer is flagged as ‘Can’t Rent’ and attempts to do so, at the register, the message “Cannot rent to this customer. Customer has rental prohibited flag set” displays.

Whether or not this parameter is automatically checked when a student is charged for rentals not returned depends upon how ‘Mark RNR’s as Can’t Rent’ is set in Rental Configuration.

Can’t Rent Setting

To view the ‘Can’t Rent’ flag, search for and display the customer record in Customer Maintenance then click the Advanced button. You can check and uncheck ‘Can’t Rent’ as necessary.

Mark RNR’s as Can’t Rent

If ‘Mark RNR’s as Can’t Rent’ is checked in Rental Configuration and a student is charged for a rental not returned or a rental is closed without the rental being returned, the ‘Can’t Rent’ box on the student’s record will be automatically checked. The student will not be able to rent again until you manually uncheck the box for that student.

If ‘Mark RNR’s as Can’t Rent’ is unchecked in Rental Configuration and a student is charged for a rental not returned or a rental is closed without the rental being returned, the ‘Can’t Rent’ box on the student’s record will be not be automatically checked. The student can rent without restrictions.

Additional Information

A customer can rent more than one copy of the same book, providing each copy is assigned a unique rental barcode XREF.

If a student doesn’t return a rental and then attempts to rent it again using the same rental barcode, the following message will display: “XREF is already in use somewhere is the system. Item will not be added.” In Rental Number Maintenance, you could search by Rental XREF to locate the record and verify that the XREF is assigned to a previous rental.