Texada Knowledge Base

Rental: GateWay

Getting Started

About GateWay

Provides a conceptual overview of GateWay.

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GateWay is a web-based, self-service, and reporting platform designed for you and your customers.

Your customers can use GateWay as a reference tool to check their account activity, invoices, and rentals.

They can use the platform to engage in a virtual dialogue with your company by updating their rental contract due dates, as well as submitting pickup requests, service requests, and billing inquiries directly to you.

GateWay further enables you to expand your business relationship by enabling your customers to browse and buy or rent your equipment from you online, similar to online retailers, such as Amazon.

GateWay and SRM

GateWay works closely with your SRM (Systematic Rental Management) application as an interface for specific information of interest to your customers. See: “About GateWay and SRM” for more information.

GateWay Components

GateWay is comprised of three main components:

administration panel
customer access portal
ecommerce website

Administration Panel

The administration panel is the back-end control panel for the customer access portal and ecommerce website. It is used exclusively by high-level users from your own company. Use the administration panel to control all aspects of GateWay for your customers’ company(s), such as:

user profiles and access
all application settings including contact emails, divisions, and automatic email templates
ecommerce website content including products, image carousels, headers, footers, and popup notifications
HubSpot integration setup and maintenance
orders
customer payments
equipment service requests

Customer Access Portal

The Customer Access Portal is the equivalent of viewing your account information at a typical online retailer, such as Amazon. The customer access portal is used by both your company’s users and your customers’ users.

When users log into GateWay, they land in the customer access portal. Your users can use this component to control their user access and preferences for themselves, as well as users at their company. Your users can view information about any equipment they are renting or have rented in the past. In addition, customers can view any invoices that are issued to them.

Your customers can use the customer access portal to interact directly with you online by submitting pickup requests for the equipment they no longer need, service requests for equipment that needs repairs or maintenance, and billing inquiries if something seems wrong with an invoice. Your customers can view their rental contracts and update the due dates if they need the equipment for more or less time than anticipated.

Ecommerce Websites

Your ecommerce website is the equivalent of shopping at an online retailer, such as Amazon, except that you control how the content is organized and presented. You can build an ecommerce website to enable your customers to browse, rent, or purchase your equipment online.

Company Structure

GateWay has a highly flexible, customizable company and user hierarchy that you can use to make the application fit your company’s unique needs.

For example:

Your customer, ABC Construction, has three sister companies: ABC Paving, ABC Consulting, and ABC Landscaping. You can set up GateWay to give each sister company their own GateWay accounts with their own access permissions and setup or you can link their accounts to ABC Construction’s account, and have all the sister companies under the main company.

How your users use GateWay is dependent upon the type of user, their available permissions, and the component of GateWay they are using. See: “About Users in GateWay” for more information on each user type.

How Administrators Use GateWay

GateWay Administrators (Your company administrator)

Texada creates your GateWay Administrator profile and assists them with creating their login and password. The GateWay Administrator logs into the administration panel component of GateWay. In the administration panel, the administrator creates new users including company administrators, manages the permissions for all users, and configures the settings for the customer access and ecommerce components of GateWay. On a day-to-day basis, the GateWay Administrator ensures that the information in the administration panel is up to date.

Company Administrators (Your customers’ company administrator)

Your company’s GateWay Administrator can create a Company Administrator user for each of your customers’ companies. The Company Administrator receives a login email inviting them to create their GateWay user profile. The administrator logs into the customer access portal and creates new users, and sets up their access and notifications. On a day-to-day basis, the Company Administrator manages the user profiles for any companies associated with their account and pulls reports and other reference information for their company.

How Your Salespeople Use GateWay

The Salespeople users in GateWay are your salespeople, rather than your customers’ salespeople. A salesperson can create their own account in GateWay or have your GateWay Administrator create one for them. The salesperson receives an email inviting them to complete their registration in GateWay. On a day-to-day basis, the salesperson logs into the customer access portal and ecommerce components to assist your customers with using the platform or perform authorized actions, such as off-renting items, on your customers’ behalf.

How Your Customers Use GateWay

Customers With Access

Customers with access can either register themselves at the customer access portal login page or be added by a GateWay or Company Administrator. Either way, the customer receives a welcome email inviting them to complete their registration. They log into GateWay’s customer access portal and can set up their profile and notification preferences. On a day-to-day basis, they can use the customer access portal to view information about their rentals and invoices, submit pickup and service requests, create billing inquiries, and update contract due dates and purchase order numbers. Customers can also download copies of their contracts and invoices as well as export the lists of rented equipment and invoices as a spreadsheet for reporting purposes.

Customers with access can use the ecommerce component of GateWay to shop and make purchases in your store if the ecommerce component is enabled by the GateWay Administrator.

Customers Without Access and Guests

Customers without access register a GateWay account at the customer access portal login page, then receive an email inviting them to log in to the ecommerce website to browse your equipment for sale and rent. Guests can access the ecommerce website without registering. On a day-to-day basis, both customers without access and guests can use your ecommerce website to rent and purchase equipment from you online as well as view the details of their orders.