Leased Storage Overview

Purpose of this document

This document outlines the setup and processing related to the Leasing process and Invoicing when Food Banks lease out a portion of their storage space. 

Ceres Object release 6.00.00 is required for the functionality described in this document.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Overview
• Setup
• Processing Leased Storage Transactions
  • Pallet Receipt
  • Pallet Pickup
  • Viewing Pallet Entries
  • Billing Lessees
  • Leased Storage Statement
  • Available Leased Storage Bins

Overview

Leased Warehouse Storage functionality was added to Ceres to support those food banks that have excess warehouse capacity and lease this excess warehouse space to third party entities for a fee. This document outlines the setup and processing related to the leasing process and invoicing. Often times this leasing is for freezer or cooler space, so the examples may call it “Cold Storage Leasing.”

Setup

1. Set up a new Receivables Account and Revenue G/L Account for Leased Storage transactions. G/L Accounts can be accessed by selecting “Search” from the Dynamics 365 Business Central Banner and entering “Chart of Accounts” in “Tell me what you want to do” then selecting “Chart of Accounts” from the results in the Go to Pages and Tasks section OR by selecting the “Chart of Accounts” menu action (if present) from your Role Center home page.

Note: Make sure the Direct Posting field on the General FastTab IS NOT toggled on the Accounts Receivables-Cold Stge account and IS toggled on the Cold Storage Revenue account.

2. Set up a new Agency Posting Group for Leased Storage Transactions. Agency Posting Groups can be accessed by selecting “Search” from the Dynamics 365 Business Central Banner and entering “Agency Posting” in “Tell me what you want to do” then selecting “Agency Posting Groups” from the results in the Go to Pages and Tasks section OR by selecting the “Agency Posting Groups” menu action (if present) from your Role Center home page.

The Posting Group is linked to the new Receivable G/L Account that was set up in Step 1. 

3. Create a new Parent Agency Card called LEASED STORAGE. The only fields that are required are No. and Name. 

4. Complete the setup on the Leased Storage FastTab on the Agencies & Receivable Setup page. Agencies & Receivable Setup can be accessed by selecting “Search” from the Dynamics 365 Business Central Banner and entering “Agencies & Receivable” in “Tell me what you want to do” then selecting “Agencies & Receivable Setup” from the results in the Go to Pages and Tasks section OR by selecting the “Agencies & Receivable Setup” menu action (if present) from your Role Center home page.

Complete the setup on the Leased Storage FastTab as follows:

1. Toggle the Enable Leased Storage field.
2. Link the Revenue Account field to the new Revenue Account you set up in Step 1. 
3. Fill in the Parent Agency No. with LEASED STORAGE (the Parent Agency created in Step 3).

5. Set up a new Leased Storage Location. Locations can be accessed by selecting “Search” from the Dynamics 365 Business Central Banner and entering “Location” in “Tell me what you want to do” then selecting “Locations” from the results in the Go to Pages and Tasks section OR by selecting the “Locations” menu action (if present) from your Role Center home page.

In the below example a new LS-DRY Location was created. 

Create at least one Zone for the leased storage transactions. More Zones can be set up if necessary.

Create at least one Bin for each Zone. Check the Leased Storage field in the Bin setup for each Bin that will be used for leased storage transactions.

6. Create an Agency Card for each Lessee. Link each Agency to the LEASED STORAGE Parent Agency. You do not need to fill in the UNC Activity Status, FBC Program Category, or FBC County Code fields.

Setup storage fees for each Agency from Related à Fees and Discounts à Leased Storage Fees.

Create one line for each Leased Storage Code and specify the One-time Handling Fee and per Billing Period Fee for each.

7. Create a LEASDSTOR Agency Journal Batch. Journal Templates can be accessed by selecting “Search” from the Dynamics 365 Business Central Banner and entering “general journal templates” in “Tell me what you want to do” then selecting “General Journal Templates” from the results in the Go to Pages and Tasks section OR by selecting the “General Journal Templates” menu action (if present) from your Role Center home page.

Select the “AGENCY” Journal Template then select Related à Template à Batches

                Create a new Agency Journal Batch with the following:

Name: LEASEDSTOR (or something similar, used to identify that the batch is for leased storage)

Description:   Leased Storage Billings

No. Series: Must be blank

Processing Leased Storage Transactions

Pallet Receipt

1. The Leased Storage Journal is used to receive pallets of products that are being stored. The Leased Storage Journal can be accessed by selecting “Search” from the Dynamics 365 Business Central Banner and entering “leased store” in “Tell me what you want to do” then selecting “Leased Storage Journal” from the results in the Go to Pages and Tasks section OR by selecting the “Leased Storage Journal” menu action (if present) from your Role Center home page.

2. Update the fields in the Journal. 

Entry Type: Select Receipt

Posting Date: Input the date the pallets were received. Generally, this is the same as the Movement Date.

Movement Date:  The date the pallets were stored.

Agency No:  The lessee’s Agency No.

Location Code:  Select the Location where the pallets are stored.

Bin Code: You may only select an empty bin. The Leased Storage Pallets column shows you the number of pallets in the bin (for all Agencies).

No. of Pallets:  Enter the number of pallets, as a positive number, that were received.

Description:  Enter a short description

3. The Duplicate for Bins Action duplicates the line you are on for each Bin you select from the Bin List that appears. The only difference in the new lines is the Bin Code. You cannot select a Bin with Leased Storage Pallets on hand.

4. Select Post to post the Journal.

Pallet Pickup

1. The Leased Storage Journal is also used to record the pickup of pallets that are being stored. The Leased Storage Journal can be accessed by selecting “Search” from the Dynamics 365 Business Central Banner and entering “leased store” in “Tell me what you want to do” then selecting “Leased Storage Journal” from the results in the Go to Pages and Tasks section OR by selecting the “Leased Storage Journal” menu action (if present) from your Role Center home page.

2. Update the fields in the Journal.

Entry Type: Select Pickup

Posting Date: Input the date the pallets were requested to be picked up. Generally, this is the same as the Movement Date.

Movement Date:  The date the pallets were picked up.

Agency No:  The lessee’s Agency No.

Location Code:  Select the Location where the pallets are stored.

Bin Code: You may only select a bin that currently stored this Agency’s pallets. The Leased Storage Pallets column shows you the number of pallets for this Agency.

No. of Pallets:  Enter the number of pallets (as a positive) that were picked up.

Description:  Enter a short description

3. The Duplicate for Bins function duplicates the line you are on for each Bin you select from the Bin list that appears. The only difference in the new lines is the Bin Code.

4. Select Post to post the Journal.

Viewing Pallet Entries

1. Once the leased storage transactions have been posted, you can view them from the Agency Card, Related à History à Leased Storage Entries. They can also be viewed by drilling down on the Leased Storage Pallets field from Location à Bins.

Billing Lessees

1. The Agency Journal is used to calculate and process the leased storage fees. The Agency Journal can be accessed by selecting “Search” from the Dynamics 365 Business Central Banner and entering “Agency Journal” in “Tell me what you want to do” then selecting “Agency Journals” from the results in the Go to Pages and Tasks section OR by selecting the “Agency Journals” menu action (if present) from your Role Center home page.

2. Select the LEASEDSTOR Batch that you set up in Step 7 above.

3. To calculate the fees, select Process à Calculate Leased Storage Fees. 

4. Update the fields, as necessary.

Document Date:  This is the date used with the Payment Terms Code from the Agency Card to calculate the Due Date.

Document No.:  This Document No. will be appended with -01 and incremented for each Invoice. (i.e., If you enter LS-OCT, the Document No. will be LS-OCT-01, LS-OCT-02, etc.)

Description: Enter a brief description

No. Select which Agencies you would like to calculate leased storage fees for.

Date Filter:  Date range to look for new receipts. The Posting Date on the Agency Journal will be the last date. 

Note: Ceres does not restrict you from billing the same date range twice so please track your dates used carefully.

5. Click OK to calculate the fees.

6. Review the Agency Journal Lines that were created. Fees are calculated as follows.
   
    
   1. Total No. of Receipted Pallets on the full Date Filter x One-time Handling Fee for the Agency/Location based on Leased Storage Agency Fees (i.e., if your Date Filter is 10/01/23..10/31/23, the lessee will be charged for all Receipt entries in October 2023).

2. Total Pallets on Hand at the day before the first day of your Date Filter x per Billing Period Fee for the Agency/Location based on Leased Storage Agency Fees. (i.e., if your Date Filter is 10/01/23..10/31/23, the lessee will be charged for the total No. of Pallets on hand at 09/30/23).

3. Total Pallets on Hand at the 15th day of your Date Filter x per Billing Period Fee for the Agency/Location based on Leased Storage Agency Fees. (I.e., if your Date Filter is 10/01/23..10/31/23, the lessee will be charged for the total No. of Pallets on hand at 10/15/23).

7. Select Post to post the Journal.

Leased Storage Statement

1.  The Leased Storage Statement can be accessed by selecting “Search” from the Dynamics 365 Business Central Banner and entering “leased storage statement” in “Tell me what you want to do” then selecting “Leased Storage Statement” from the results in the Go to Reports and Analysis section OR by selecting the “Leased Storage Statement” menu action (if present) from your Role Center home page.

2. Update the fields as necessary.

Print Company Address:  Toggle the field to print your Company Address on the Statement.

Parent Agency No.:  Enter the Parent Agency No. for Leased Storage. This will select all Leased Storage Agencies. You can also enter a No. filter to limit the statement to selected Leased Storage Agencies.

Date Filter:  Posting Date range to report (both Agency Ledger & Leased Storage Ledger).

Available Leased Storage Bins

1. The Available Leased Storage Bins be accessed by selecting “Search” from the Dynamics 365 Business Central Banner and entering “available leased” in “Tell me what you want to do” then selecting “Available Leased Storage Bins” from the results in the Go to Reports and Analysis section OR by selecting the “Available Leased Storage Bins” menu action (if present) from your Role Center home page.

2. Toggle the Show All Leased Storage Bin if you want to show all bins regardless if they are empty. Leave this field untoggled if you only want to show empty bins.