Vans and trips

A van is a vehicle you sell from. A trip is one selling run in it — out in the morning, back in the evening. Everything else in this section hangs off a trip.

Registering a van

Where

Van Sales → Van Management

Plan

All plans

Permission

Van Sales → Van

Feature

Modules → Van Sales

1. Go to Van Sales → Van Management and click New van. The page is headed Vans.
2. Set the Type — Company-owned or Outsourced.
3. Leave Status on Available.
4. Choose the Location. This is the only required field, and it is permanent — see below.
5. Type the Van number and the Registration plate.
6. Set the Capacity (units) if you want load-out to be checked against it.
7. Choose the Driver and the Sales rep.
8. If the Type is Outsourced, fill in Vendor name and Vendor contact.
9. Add the Last service date and any Notes, then click Save.

There is no separate screen for assigning a driver — the driver and sales rep live on the van record, and you change them by editing it.

Only Location is actually required

Van number, plate, capacity, driver and sales rep are all optional, so a completely blank van saves without complaint.

A van with no number and no plate is displayed as a long internal reference code everywhere it appears — the Vans list, the Van column on trips, and every van dropdown. Always fill in a van number.

Location cannot be changed afterwards

The Location box disappears once the van is saved. A van belongs to the branch you first gave it, permanently — to move it, delete it and register it again.

Setting Status by hand achieves very little

SaleSprint drives the status itself: a van goes Available → Active the moment a trip opens or stock is loaded, and back to Available when its last trip closes.

Setting Closed by hand is the one that has an effect — it blocks trips and stock loads from then on.

Deleting a van is not checked against anything

Unlike a trip, a van can be deleted while it has open trips and stock loaded on it. The confirmation says only “This van will be permanently deleted.”

Its existing trips and assignments stay, and the Van column on them turns into a long internal reference code.

The list

Columns are Number, Type, Plate, Location, Capacity, Driver, Sales rep, Last service and Status. You can filter by status.

The search box does nothing — typing in it does not narrow the list. Use the status filter instead.

On a phone the van cards have Edit but no Delete.

Opening a trip

Where

Van Sales → Van Trips

Plan

All plans

Permission

Van Sales → Trip

Feature

Modules → Van Sales

1. Go to Van Sales → Van Trips and click New trip.
2. Choose the Van.
3. Type a Trip number — optional, but see the warning below.
4. Set the Opened date.
5. Choose the Driver and Sales rep for this run.
6. Enter the Odometer start, and the Route and Notes if you use them.
7. Click Save.

The trip saves as Open and the van flips to Active.

The trip does not inherit the van’s driver

Driver and Sales rep start empty on this form even when the van has both set. Choose them again here, or the trip has none.

One open trip per van

Trying to open a second one is refused. A workspace can raise the limit, but by default a van must have its trip closed before the next one opens.

Load stock first and a trip may be created for you

If you load stock onto a van that has no open trip, SaleSprint opens one silently — with no trip number, no odometer start and no route. See loading stock onto the van.

Open the trip yourself first if you want those details recorded.

Closing a trip

1. On the trip’s row, open the row actions and click Close trip. On a phone there is a Close trip button on the card.
2. The dialog reads Close trip — “Closing ends the selling run for this van.”
3. Enter the Odometer end if you record it. It can be left blank.
4. Click Close trip.

SaleSprint recalculates the trip’s totals from the sales, returns and expenses recorded against it, stamps today as the closing date, and frees the van back to Available if no other trip is open on it.

Closing does not move any stock. Anything still on the van has to be brought back with a van return first.

The list

Columns are Number, Van, Opened, Closed, Sold, Cash, Returned, Expenses and Status. The four money columns are worked out on the server and show — until it has done so.

You can filter by status and by opened date. As on the Vans screen, the search box does nothing.

Traps on this screen

Edit and Close appear on every row, whatever its state

Clicking either on a trip that is already closed tells you so only afterwards: “Only open trips can be edited.” or “Only open trips can be closed.”

The second message is wrong — a trip in Reconciling closes perfectly well despite it.

Two boxes in the edit form look editable and are not

Reopen a saved trip and the Van dropdown still opens and lets you pick — then silently reverts. The Opened date accepts a new date and discards it on save.

Neither is greyed out and neither warns you. To change a trip’s van, delete it and create it again.

A trip with anything recorded against it cannot be deleted. You are told “cannot delete a trip with N live document(s): cancel its assignments, sales, returns, expenses and reconciliations first”.

Related

• Loading stock onto the van
• Van sales overview