RW Elephant likes dates and times. In fact, he wants to keep track of all of the important dates and times for each of your Orders.
For each Order, you’ll be able to include the Event Start Date and Time. Once you choose this time, all of the other Date and Time fields will auto-fill but you can make adjustments as necessary. You may include Dates and Times for the following:
- Event Start
- Event End
- Delivery Window Start
- Delivery Window End
- Return Window Start
- Return Window End
- Off-the-Shelf Time
- Restock Time
The Event, Delivery, and Return Windows are fairly self-explanatory. However, the Off-the-Shelf and Restock times might not be even though they are the most important times on the Order.
In the world or Rentals, you know that the beginning of the Delivery window probably isn’t the beginning of when you need the Items to be available. Rather, you might need to pull Items into a staging area in your warehouse a day or two before. Perhaps some Items need to be assembled before they go out for delivery. Alternatively, you may want to load your truck the night before an early morning drop-off. Whatever the reason, you can use the Off-the-Shelf Time as the time you want the Items to first be available for your Order.
Likewise, the Restock time is for the Time that the Items will be available to go out for another Order. Sometimes this is immediately at the end of the Return Window. Other times you may require cleaning, repackaging, or other steps after an Item is returned before it is available for another rental.
The Off-the-Shelf and Restock Times are the most important times on the Order because all Item availability is based on these two times.
If you own 1 Samantha Chair and add it to an Order, you won’t be able to add it to any other simultaneous Orders. RW Elephant uses the Off-the-Shelf and Restock times to make sure you never double book any Items.
If you ever have trouble on an Order with Item availability (something shows up as 0/10, for instance, but you don’t think that seems right), always check and recheck your Off-the-Shelf and Restock times first. If those aren’t correct, you’ll have difficulties with the whole Order.
At times, you may find that not all of your pieces have the same Off-the-Shelf & Restock Times on any given Order. For instance, maybe your Linens needs some extra lovin’ after an event but your couches can flip fairly quickly between events.
If you find yourself with cases like this one, check out our Alternative Times feature.
Set up how you would like RW to auto-fill your Order Dates & Times with Default Order Times.
If ever your Order Times are not within a reasonable time frame, you’ll get an Order Times Alert. RW will alert you to double-check your Order Times so that you have enough time at each step.
Keep in mind that Sale Orders do not have Restock Times and Wishlists DO NOT check for Item availability between the Off-the-Shelf and Restock Times.