Maintenance Setup

Equipment maintenance keeps your rental fleet serviced and compliant, scheduling and recording maintenance on each unit, capturing the cost, and taking units out of service while they are worked on. This guide covers the setup and the building blocks you configure before raising any maintenance orders.

How equipment maintenance works

Maintenance in Essential Rental can be scheduled or reactive. Scheduled maintenance fires when a calendar interval is reached (for example every six months) or when a unit's meter passes a threshold (for example every 250 hours). Reactive maintenance is raised when a unit comes back from hire, or by hand at any time.

The unit of work is the maintenance order. An order lists the tasks to carry out on a specific unit. While that order is open and contains tasks that block availability, the unit's status changes to Maintenance and it cannot be shipped on a new rental. Once all the work is recorded and the order is posted, the cost is captured and the unit returns to Available.

Certificates ride alongside maintenance orders. Completing certain maintenance tasks can issue a certificate against the unit (for example a service record or a compliance certificate). Certificates are covered in the Certificates guide.

There are three layers to configure before raising your first order:

Meter types and unit meters: the things you measure on each unit (hours, miles, cycles, and so on) and the current readings.
The maintenance task catalogue: the reusable steps that orders are built from, each with a type, labour classification, and estimated time.
Maintenance rules on item types: the schedule that says which task is due, when, and how often. Rules live on the rental item type and are inherited by each individual unit.

Setup fields

The maintenance-related settings sit in the Maintenance area of the Essential Rental Setup page.

Essential Rental Setup - Maintenance

Maintenance Order Series

The number series used when a new (open) maintenance order is created. Pick any number series already defined in your environment.

Posted Maintenance Order Series

The number series used when a maintenance order is posted (completed and finalised). This can be the same series as Maintenance Order Series if you prefer a single unbroken sequence, or a separate series to distinguish open from posted orders at a glance.

Auto Maintenance on Return

When switched on, any unit returning from hire automatically raises a maintenance order if at least one of its maintenance rules is due. The switch cascades from setup down to each rental item type, and from the type down to each unit, so you can override it at any level. Units that have the flag turned off at unit level are never auto-raised, regardless of this setup value.

Maintenance Due Notice (Days)

How many days in advance of a calendar due date a rule is flagged as "Due Soon" on the maintenance due register and the activity cue on the Role Centre. Set this to 0 to disable the early-warning window and only flag rules that are already overdue.

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Certificate setup fields (certificate types, expiry rules, and so on) also appear in Essential Rental Setup but are covered in the Certificates guide.

Meter types and unit meters

Meter-based rules need something to measure. You define what you measure (meter types), then attach one or more of those meters to each unit.

Meter types

A meter type is simply a code and a description: for example HRS / Hours, MILES / Miles, CYCLES / Cycles. Open the Meter Types list from the Essential Rental menu and add as many types as your fleet requires. There is no fixed list; use whatever labels make sense for the equipment you maintain.

Meters on a unit

Each rental unit (rental item) can carry one or more meters. From the rental item card, use the Meters action (promoted to the card ribbon) to open the unit's meter list. Add a line for each meter type you want to track on that unit. The line records the meter type and the current reading.

You only need to attach the meters that are actually relevant to that unit. A forklift might carry an Hours meter; a van might carry Miles as well. A unit with no meters attached can still be maintained on calendar or event rules.

Recording readings

When a unit comes back from hire, or at any inspection point, use Register Reading on the unit's meter list to log a new reading against a date. The current reading on the meter line updates to match. You can record readings as often as you like; the history of readings is kept.

To see that history, select a meter line and use the Readings action on the meter list. It opens the full reading history for that unit and meter, so you can review every reading logged over time.

Meter-threshold maintenance rules work by comparing the unit's current reading against the reading at the time of the last service (the "last serviced baseline") plus the rule's interval. Once that gap is reached or exceeded, the rule fires.

The maintenance task catalogue

Maintenance tasks are the reusable steps that maintenance orders are composed from. Define your task catalogue once; any number of maintenance rules and orders can reference the same tasks. Open Maintenance Tasks from the Essential Rental menu.

Each task has a code, a description, and a Task Type. The type controls what additional fields are relevant and how the task contributes to the order's cost.

Task Type

Inspection Check

A pass/fail check, such as a visual inspection or a safety check. When the order is worked, the technician records a result (pass or fail) for the check. Use this for any step that is about verifying a condition rather than doing work.

Work Step

A unit of labour, such as an oil change, a belt replacement, or a calibration step. The technician records actual time spent. Use this for any hands-on work step that does not consume a stocked part.

Part Consumption

Draws a stocked inventory item (a spare part or consumable) as part of the task. Set a default item number and quantity on the task; these flow onto the order and can be adjusted at order time. The part quantity is posted against stock when the order is completed.

External

Work carried out by a third party (a contractor or specialist supplier). No stock is drawn; instead the technician records the agreed cost as a monetary amount when the order is completed. Use this for any work that leaves the yard.

Beyond the task type, each task can carry the following defaults that flow onto every order line generated from the task:

Default Instructions: free-text work instructions for the task (a multi-line note). They are copied onto each order line generated from the task, telling the technician what to do, and can be edited on the order line if a particular visit calls for it.
Work Type: classifies the labour (for example Workshop, Electrical, Hydraulics). The work type also carries a labour rate, which is used to calculate the cost of the time recorded. See the next section.
Estimated Hours: the expected time to complete the task. Useful for scheduling and for comparing actual against plan.
Default Item and Quantity: for Part Consumption tasks, the item number and quantity to draw. Editable at order time if the actual requirement differs.
Blocks Availability: when ticked, any open order containing this task will hold the unit in Maintenance status until the task is done. Use this for any task where the unit genuinely cannot go back out while the work is in progress. Clear it for tasks (such as a paperwork check) that can happen without taking the unit off the road.

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Labour applies to every task type. Even an inspection check takes technician time. All four task types can carry a work type and record actual hours, so labour cost is always captured regardless of whether stock is drawn or work is sent out.

Work types and labour rates

A Work Type is a standard Business Central concept that classifies a type of labour. Essential Rental extends each work type with a Labour Rate field. Set this rate for every work type you use in maintenance.

When an order task is completed and actual hours are recorded, the labour cost on that task is calculated as the work type's Labour Rate multiplied by the actual hours. This gives you a consistent, role-based costing model across your whole maintenance programme without needing to price individual tasks by hand.

Work Types are managed from the standard BC Work Types list. Open it, find the work types used for maintenance, and fill in the Labour Rate column for each one.

Maintenance rules

Maintenance rules are what turn the task catalogue into a schedule. A rule says: "for this type of equipment, task X is due when condition Y is met". Rules live on the rental item type and are copied down to each unit of that type.

Trigger types

Each rule has a trigger type that determines what makes it due.

Trigger Type

Calendar

The task becomes due after a fixed interval of time following the last service. For example, every 6 months or every 12 months. The interval is expressed as a date formula (the same format as standard BC date formulas). The due date is calculated from the date the task was last completed on this unit.

Meter Threshold

The task becomes due when a chosen meter has accumulated a set amount since the last service. For example, every 250 hours or every 5,000 miles. You specify the meter type and the interval; the system compares the unit's current reading against the reading recorded at the last service plus the interval.

Event

The task is raised whenever the unit returns from hire. There is no fixed schedule; it fires on every return. Use this for post-hire inspections or cleaning tasks that you want to carry out after every rental regardless of how long the unit was out.

Setting rules on an item type

Open a rental item type card and use the Maintenance Rules action to see and edit the rule list for that type. Add one row per task you want scheduled, setting the trigger type, the interval (for calendar or meter rules), and the task to perform.

Each rule can also name a Produces Certificate Type. When an order task matching this rule is posted, Essential Rental automatically issues a certificate of that type against the unit. This is the link between your maintenance programme and the unit's compliance record. Certificate types are set up and described in the Certificates guide.

How units inherit rules

When a rental unit is created and assigned to an item type, the item type's rules are copied down to the unit. Each unit therefore owns its own copy of the rules, which can be adjusted for that specific machine without affecting the type or other units.

Changing a rule on the item type does not automatically update existing units. If you revise the item type's rules and want to push those changes to units, open the unit's maintenance rules list and use Get Maintenance Setup from Type. This re-pulls the current type rules onto the unit.

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When you re-pull rules from the type, the unit's meters are merged rather than replaced: any reading already recorded on a meter is preserved. Rules, however, are replaced in full with the current type rules. Any rule-level customisations made directly on the unit will be overwritten, so review the unit's rules after a re-pull if you have made individual adjustments.