ZedCarHire Platform

ZedCarHire is a cloud-based, multi-tenant car rental and fleet management Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform purpose-built for Zambian car hire businesses. It consolidates fleet records, customer relationships, hire transactions, double-entry accounting, GPS tracking, marketplace listings and ZRA Smart Invoice compliance into a single, integrated system accessible from any modern web browser or via the dedicated mobile Progressive Web App (PWA).

Who is it for?

• Independent car hire operators with one to five vehicles who need to professionalise their operations.
• Growing rental fleets (5–50 vehicles) needing accounting integration, GPS visibility and ZRA tax compliance.
• Large operators and outsourcing brokers requiring multi-user collaboration, vehicle profitability tracking and Smart Invoice certification for VAT reporting.

Platform architecture at a glance

Core capabilities

Onboarding a new company on ZedCarHire takes three steps: registration, identity verification and first login. The entire process is typically completed within one business day.

Step-by-step registration

1. Submit your company application

   Visit zedcarhire.com and click Register Your Business. Provide your company name, TPIN, contact phone, primary email and a director's name. Upload a clear photo of your business certificate of incorporation and the director's NRC.

2. Wait for approval

   The ZedCarHire team verifies your details against the PACRA registry and ZRA TPIN portal. Approval normally completes within four business hours during weekdays.

3. Receive your approval email

   You will receive an email confirming approval with a secure link to set your administrator password.

4. Set your password and sign in

   Choose a strong password (minimum 8 characters, mixed case, with at least one digit). You will be redirected to the company dashboard.

5. Complete your company profile

   Navigate to Profile and add your logo, physical address, bank details and tagline. These appear on every invoice, quotation and public listing.

6. Activate your 30-day Free Trial

   Your trial begins automatically on first login with 10,000 free tokens (worth K10,000) and full access to all platform features for 30 days.

System requirements

• Browser: Latest two versions of Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari. Internet Explorer is not supported.
• Internet connection: Minimum 1 Mbps recommended. The PWA caches data for short offline use.
• Mobile: Android 8.0+ or iOS 13+. Install the PWA via your mobile browser's "Add to Home Screen" option.
• Screen: Optimised for displays 1024 × 768 and above; fully responsive on tablets and phones.

ZedCarHire uses a transparent pay-as-you-go token model. There are no fixed monthly fees. You only pay a small commission, drawn from your prepaid token balance, when a new hire is created. The commission rate depends on the plan you select.

Plan comparison

Choosing a plan

• Operate fewer than 3 vehicles? Start with the Starter plan and a token balance of K2,000–K5,000.
• Operate 4–50 vehicles? Growth is the sweet spot — unlimited vehicles with all reporting and GPS.
• VAT registered or planning to be? Choose Premium to unlock real-time ZRA Smart Invoice submission.

How to upgrade or change plan

1. Open the Subscriptions page from the sidebar.
2. Locate the plan you want and click Switch to this plan.
3. Confirm — your existing token balance carries across to the new plan unchanged.
4. The commission rate applied to new hires updates immediately.

The Token Account is the prepaid wallet that powers your hire commissions. This section is a summary — for the complete deep-dive, see the dedicated Token Account User Guide.

4.1 Commission formula

Whenever you create a new hire, the platform calculates and deducts commission instantly using:

4.2 Topping up

1. Open the Token Account

   Sidebar → Token Account. The page displays your current balance, utilisation bar and a token calculator.

2. Transfer payment

   Pay to the MTN Mobile Money number or bank account shown under "Payment Methods". The minimum top-up amount is K1.

3. Upload proof of payment

   Take a screenshot of the SMS confirmation or bank statement, enter the amount and click Submit Payment Proof.

4. Wait for approval

   The ZedCarHire team reviews your proof, typically within 2–4 hours during business hours. You receive an email when tokens are credited.

4.3 Statement & alerts

The Token Statement page shows a month-by-month log of every credit and debit (top-ups, trial grants, hire commissions, manual credits). Use the month selector to switch between periods and the Print button to generate a printer-friendly version for your accountant.

The platform sends automatic email reminders at three thresholds:

The Fleet module is where you record every vehicle you operate. Each vehicle's record drives hire pricing, marketplace listings, service scheduling, profitability tracking and — for Smart Invoice users — ZRA item registration.

5.1 Adding a vehicle

1. Open Manage Cars

   Sidebar → Manage Cars → click Add New Vehicle in the top-right.

2. Fill in the vehicle details

   Make, model, registration number, year, owner, ownership type (owned vs outsourced), local hire rate, out-of-town rate, current mileage and service interval.

3. Specifications

   Type (sedan, SUV, minibus, etc.), transmission, passengers, doors, fuel type, vehicle location.

4. Marketplace settings (optional)

   Tick List on portal to expose the vehicle to public-portal customers. Add a description and upload a vehicle photo (JPG/PNG/WebP, max 5 MB — auto-resized to 800 × 600).

5. Smart Invoice fields (Premium only)

   If Smart Invoice is enabled for your company, two extra fields appear: UNSPSC Classification (searchable) and Tax Type. These are sent to ZRA on save.

6. Save

   On save, the vehicle is stored locally and (for Smart Invoice users) registered with ZRA via the VSDC items/saveItem endpoint. A confirmation dialog reports the outcome.

5.2 Vehicle status

5.3 Service tracking

Each vehicle has a last service mileage and next service mileage (last + service interval). When you record a service via Service Vehicle:

• The cost is logged in your expenses ledger automatically.
• Last/next service mileage is updated.
• Dashboard alerts appear when a vehicle is within 500 km of its next service.

5.4 Vehicle Asset Register

The Vehicle Asset Register page captures the accounting view of each vehicle: purchase cost, accumulated depreciation, net book value, insurance details and fitness expiry. Used by the audit pack and balance sheet.

5.5 Vehicle Profitability

The Vehicle Profitability page summarises, per vehicle:

• Total revenue earned
• Total expenses (service, fuel, repairs, depreciation, monthly payouts for outsourced)
• Net profit and margin
• Utilisation rate (% of days on hire)

Use it to identify under-performing vehicles and decide which to keep, sell or replace.

Every hire must be linked to a customer record. The Customer module stores identity, contact, license and optional ZRA TPIN information for each individual or organisation that rents from you.

6.1 Adding a customer

1. Open Manage Customers

   Sidebar → Manage Customers → Add New Customer.

2. Capture required identity

   Full name, primary phone, NRC, address, driving license number. Optionally upload a clear scan/photo of the NRC.

3. Capture alternative contact

   Required: an alternative contact name, NRC and phone — used as next-of-kin / referee for any disputed hire.

4. ZRA Tax PIN (optional)

   If the customer is VAT-registered, enter their 10-digit TPIN. This is sent to ZRA on Smart Invoice registration; otherwise a default value is used.

5. Save

   For Smart Invoice users, the customer is automatically registered with ZRA via branches/saveBrancheCustomers. A confirmation dialog reports success or failure.

6.2 Duplicate protection

NRC is enforced as a unique key per company — the system blocks creating two customers with the same NRC inside the same tenant. On the PWA, phone number is the duplicate guard.

6.3 Editing & viewing

Click the View button on any customer row to see their full profile and uploaded NRC. Edit opens the same form pre-populated. All hires linked to a customer are visible in their profile, including totals spent, average hire length, late returns and favourite vehicle.

6.4 Customer ratings

After a hire is closed, you may rate the customer (1–5 stars) with optional notes. Aggregated ratings appear on the customer profile and influence the default deposit suggestion on future hires.

A hire is the core financial event on the platform. The lifecycle has four stages: Quote → Hire Out → Hire In → Close. Each transition is timestamped, audited and reflected in your accounting ledgers.

7.1 The hire lifecycle

7.2 Creating a hire

1. Open Hire Out

   Sidebar → Hire Out (or click New Hire from any vehicle row).

2. Select the customer

   Search by name, phone or NRC. If the customer is new, click Add New Customer inline — they will be created and selected without leaving the page.

3. Select the vehicle

   Only "Available" vehicles appear. The page auto-fills the daily rate.

4. Set dates and pricing

   Rental date, planned return date, number of days. The system computes hire amount = rate × days. You may apply a discount.

5. Capture deposit

   Enter the deposit amount, deposit type (cash, transfer, MoMo) and a reference. The deposit is held against the hire and reconciled at close.

6. Confirm

   Click Hire Out. The system: (a) deducts commission tokens, (b) creates the hire record, (c) moves the vehicle to "On Hire", (d) posts a journal entry for the deposit, and (e) generates a PDF hire agreement.

7.3 Returning a vehicle (Hire In)

From the Manage Hires page, click Hire In on the active hire:

• Record actual return date (system flags late returns automatically).
• Add extras: extra days, additional km charges, fuel top-up, damages.
• Final amount is calculated. Deposit is applied. Balance is either paid by customer or refunded.
• Vehicle status returns to "Available".

7.4 Cancellations & deposits

If a hire is cancelled before collection, open it from Manage Hires and click Cancel. You will be asked whether to refund or retain the deposit (per your terms). Cancelled deposits are visible in the Cancelled Deposits report. Commission tokens are not automatically refunded — contact support if a refund is appropriate.

7.5 Hire documents

For every hire the platform can generate, on demand:

• Quotation PDF (with customer details, vehicle photo, terms & conditions)
• Hire agreement PDF (signed when the vehicle is collected)
• Tax invoice — for Smart Invoice users, this is the ZRA-stamped invoice with QR code
• Receipt for deposit and final payments

ZedCarHire integrates with the Zambia Revenue Authority's Virtual Sales Data Controller (VSDC) to provide real-time tax invoice submission. The integration is opt-in and only activates for companies that (a) are on the Premium plan, (b) have completed Device Initialization with ZRA, and (c) have toggled Use Smart Invoice in System Settings.

8.1 Prerequisites

• A valid 10-digit TPIN registered with ZRA.
• VSDC credentials issued by ZRA after Smart Invoice on-boarding.
• An active Premium plan on ZedCarHire.
• The platform-wide Smart Invoice flag enabled by ZedCarHire (visible as a new menu group in your sidebar).

8.2 Setup sequence

Smart Invoice requires four sequential setup steps. Each step must succeed before the next can be performed.

1. Device Initialization

   Sidebar → Smart Invoice → Device Initialization. Enter your TPIN (pre-filled from your company profile), branch ID (typically 000) and device serial number. The platform calls initializer/selectInitInfo and on success stores your VSDC device details locally.

2. Fetch Standard Codes

   Smart Invoice → Standard Codes → Fetch from ZRA. Downloads the reference data (tax types, payment methods, units of measure, country codes, etc.) via code/selectCodes. Stored in si_code_classes and si_codes. Re-fetch any time the codes update on ZRA's side.

3. Fetch Item Classification Codes

   Smart Invoice → Item Classification → Fetch from ZRA. Downloads several thousand UNSPSC commodity codes via itemClass/selectItemsClass. Stored in si_item_classes. Required before any vehicle (item) can be registered with ZRA.

4. Activate Smart Invoice

   System Settings → ZRA Smart Invoice card → toggle Use ZRA Smart Invoice ON → Save. From this point onward, every customer and vehicle you add is automatically registered with ZRA, and every closed hire generates a Smart Invoice.

8.3 Per-operation behaviour

8.4 Debugging Smart Invoice

Every VSDC request and response is appended to admin/logs/smart_invoice_debug.log. The log includes:

• Timestamp and event type
• Full request payload sent to ZRA
• Full response received (or cURL error if connection failed)
• Resolved VSDC URL and HTTP status code

Within the admin UI, every Smart Invoice action displays both a SweetAlert with the result and an expandable debug panel showing the request/response side-by-side.

8.5 Switching environments (Sandbox → Production)

The VSDC base URL is stored in system_vsdc_settings. The platform ships pointing at ZRA's sandbox. After certification, ZedCarHire updates this row to the production URL. Per-company overrides are supported but rarely used.

ZedCarHire ships with a complete double-entry accounting engine. Every financial event — a hire, a deposit, a payment, an expense, a service, a token top-up — is automatically posted to the general ledger. No manual journal entries are required for routine operations, but they are supported for adjustments.

9.1 Standard reports

9.2 Revenue recognition policy

Configurable in System Settings → Revenue Recognition Policy:

• Recognise at Rental Date (default): The full hire value is booked to the month the hire starts. Simple and fast — appropriate for most SMEs.
• Daily Pro-Rata: Revenue is spread across the actual days of the hire. A hire from 28 Jan to 5 Feb is split proportionally between January and February. Required by IFRS 15 strict reporting.

9.3 Expenses & cashouts

Use Manage Expenses to log every operating cost — fuel, repairs, salaries, rent, fees. Each expense is linked to a category (configurable in System Settings) and optionally to a specific vehicle. Outsourced vehicle payouts are recorded as Cashouts, which flow into the income statement automatically.

9.4 Export formats

• PDF — Print-ready, branded with your logo and address. Used by all reports.
• Excel (XLSX) — Tabular exports for further analysis. Available on the major reports.
• CSV — Raw data downloads from the general ledger and statement pages.

Optional vehicle telematics — supported on Growth and Premium plans. The platform integrates with major GPS hardware vendors via standard protocol adapters.

10.1 Configuring a tracker

1. Open Tracker Configuration from the sidebar.
2. Select the vehicle and enter the device IMEI, SIM number and protocol (e.g. GT06, Teltonika, Concox).
3. Save — the platform begins polling for position fixes within minutes.

10.2 Live view

Vehicle Tracking shows all active vehicles on a single map with their current location, speed and ignition state. Click any vehicle marker for trip history and a 24-hour timeline replay.

10.3 Reports

Tracking Reports exports daily distance, idle time, geofence breaches and over-speed events to PDF or Excel for any vehicle over any date range.

The ZedCarHire mobile app is delivered as a Progressive Web App (PWA). It installs from the browser, requires no app store and offers offline-capable read access to your fleet, customers and hires.

11.1 Installing the PWA

• Android (Chrome): open zedcarhire.com/pwa → menu (⋮) → Add to Home Screen.
• iOS (Safari): open zedcarhire.com/pwa → Share → Add to Home Screen.
• The app icon appears on your home screen. Launching it opens a full-screen, app-like experience.

11.2 Features

• Add vehicles, customers and new hires from your phone.
• Snap photos directly to vehicle profiles or NRC fields.
• View live KPIs (active hires, today's revenue, fleet status).
• Receive push notifications for low token balance and pending approvals.
• Smart Invoice submissions work identically to the desktop portal.
• Read access continues for up to 24 hours offline using cached data.

Available at Sidebar → System Settings. Administrator-only. Lets you customise platform behaviour without affecting other tenants.

12.1 Operational toggles

• Auto-redirect when overdue — sends users to Manage Hires when overdue vehicles exist.
• Block actions when overdue — prevents new hires, expenses and services while overdue vehicles exist.
• Show overdue alerts — displays dashboard banners for overdue and upcoming returns.
• Upcoming returns threshold — how many days ahead to surface upcoming returns (1, 2, 3, 5 or 7 days).

12.2 Revenue Recognition Policy

Choose between Recognise at Rental Date (simple) and Daily Pro-Rata (period-accurate). Reporting only — does not change hire pricing or VAT computation.

12.3 Hire Terms & Conditions

Your custom T&Cs appear on every public vehicle listing and on the hire agreement PDF. Leave blank to use the ZedCarHire system default. The textarea accepts plain text; numbered sections are recommended.

12.4 Bank Accounts & Expense Categories

Manage the bank accounts your business operates and the categories used to classify expenses. These feed the financial reports.

12.5 ZRA Smart Invoice

Visible only when ZedCarHire has activated Smart Invoice on the platform. Toggle Use ZRA Smart Invoice ON to begin sending customer, vehicle and hire data to ZRA. See section 8.

13.1 Authentication

• Passwords are hashed using bcrypt with a per-user salt. Plaintext passwords are never stored.
• Session cookies are HTTP-only and use secure transport in production.
• Failed login attempts are rate-limited.
• Password reset uses single-use, time-limited tokens delivered by email.

13.2 Transport security

All production traffic is encrypted in transit using TLS 1.2 or higher. The certificate is renewed automatically and monitored. Localhost development traffic is permitted over HTTP for convenience only.

13.3 Multi-tenant isolation

Every database query is scoped to your company_id. There is no shared user, customer, vehicle, hire or report data between tenants. Super admin staff have a separate portal and never see operational data unless they impersonate a tenant for support — and every impersonation is logged.

13.4 Backups

Production databases are backed up nightly and retained for 30 days. File uploads (NRCs, vehicle photos) are mirrored to redundant storage. Backups are encrypted at rest.

13.5 Data ownership & export

You own your data. At any time you may request a full export of your tenant's data in CSV/JSON format by emailing support@zedcarhire.com. The platform delivers the export within five business days.

13.6 Smart Invoice data

Customer TPINs and NRCs sent to ZRA are transmitted over HTTPS to ZRA's VSDC endpoint. The platform logs every submission for audit purposes for a minimum of seven years, in line with ZRA record-keeping requirements.

14.1 Common issues

14.2 Reset workflows

• Forgotten password: click Forgot password on the sign-in page; a reset link is emailed.
• Stuck PWA: close the app, clear the browser site data, reopen — service worker re-installs cleanly.
• Stale standard codes: Smart Invoice → Standard Codes → Refresh from ZRA.

If you cannot resolve an issue using this manual, reach the ZedCarHire team through any of the channels below. Premium subscribers have access to a dedicated WhatsApp support group with 24/7 coverage.

Useful links