Rentals

The Rentals module provides end-to-end management of rental equipment — from quoting and availability checking through dispatch, active tracking, and return. It integrates with the Proposals and Operations modules to provide a seamless workflow from customer enquiry to equipment fulfilment.

Rentals Overview (Operations Dashboard)

The Rentals landing page provides an operations dashboard showing the current state of all rental activity. The dashboard is divided into four sections:

Due for Dispatch — Planned events with start dates within the next 7 days. These are confirmed bookings ready to be sent out.
Active Rentals — All equipment currently dispatched and on hire.
Overdue Returns — Equipment that has passed its planned return date but has not yet been checked back in. These are highlighted in red.
Returning Soon — Active rentals with a planned return date within the next 7 days.

Summary cards at the top provide a quick count for each section. Each event row shows the equipment class, customer name, order number, quantity, relevant date, and status. Dispatch and Return actions are available directly from each row.

Asset Classes

Asset classes represent categories of rental equipment — for example, "7-Tonne Excavator", "Portable Generator", or "Scaffolding Set". Each asset class defines what kind of equipment is available for hire.

Navigate to Rentals > Classes to see a table of all asset classes. From here you can:

Add new asset classes with the + Add button
View class details including item code, name, description, specification, and status
See the number of individual assets in each class

Asset Class Detail View

Select an asset class to view its details. The detail view includes:

Class information — Name, item code, description, specification, and category
Status — Active or inactive (inactive classes are not shown during quoting)
Inspection Interval — The number of days between required inspections for items in this class (e.g. 180 for six-monthly). Used to calculate the next inspection date when a maintenance survey is completed.
Availability visualisation — A timeline chart showing fleet availability over time, with colour-coded bars for on-fleet, on-hire, maintenance, and unavailable periods

Asset Items

Asset items are individual physical assets within a class. For example, a "7-Tonne Excavator" class might contain items tagged "EXC-001", "EXC-002", and "EXC-003". Each item represents a single unit that can be tracked, allocated, and serviced individually.

Navigate to Rentals > Items to see all individual assets. From here you can:

Add new asset items with the + Add button
View item details including tag, description, status, and which class it belongs to
Track item lifecycle through statuses (e.g. Active, In Maintenance, Disposed)
View inspection tracking fields: Last Inspection, Next Inspection, and Inspection Status
Select multiple items and use Allocate to Maintenance to create or add to a maintenance job (see Maintenance section below)

Rental Events

Rental events are the core records in the rental system. Each event tracks a time-based activity for an asset class. Events are automatically created during the proposal-to-order workflow, but can also be created manually.

Event Types

Events are categorised by type:

Booking — A customer rental. Most events are bookings, created automatically from proposals or orders.
Maintenance — A period where assets are unavailable due to scheduled or unscheduled service.
Blackout — A block of time where assets are unavailable (e.g. regulatory inspections, company shutdown periods).
Acquisition — Records when new assets enter the fleet.
Disposal — Records when assets leave the fleet.

Event Status Lifecycle

Each rental event follows a defined status lifecycle:

Reserved — Equipment is soft-held against a proposal. The reservation reduces availability for other quotes but is not yet confirmed. Created when a salesperson manually creates a booking from a proposal line.
Planned — Equipment is confirmed for a customer order. This is the status after an order is created from a proposal (either automatically or via the Win workflow). Equipment is committed.
In Progress — Equipment has been dispatched to the customer. Recorded via the Dispatch action which sets the actual start date.
Completed — Equipment has been returned. Recorded via the Return action which sets the actual end date and captures condition notes.
Cancelled — The reservation or booking was cancelled. Equipment is released back to the available pool.
Archived — Historical record retained for reporting purposes.

Event Detail View

Select an event from the events table to view its full details. The detail view shows:

Equipment — Asset class, item code, and class name
Quantity — Number of assets requested and the number allocated
Planned dates — The originally scheduled start and end dates
Actual dates — The real dispatch and return dates (set by Dispatch and Return actions)
Proposal context — Linked proposal title, status, and line details
Order context — Linked order title, order number, status, and customer name
Overdue status — Whether the event is past its planned return date
Notes — Any dispatch, return, or condition notes
Story — A full activity log showing all actions taken on this event

Actions

The Actions panel on the event detail page provides:

Dispatch Equipment — Available when status is "Planned". Opens a dialog to confirm the dispatch date and add transport/delivery notes. Sets actual start date and transitions status to "In Progress".
Process Return — Available when status is "In Progress". Opens a dialog to confirm the return date and record equipment condition notes (e.g. operating hours, damage, service requirements). Sets actual end date and transitions status to "Completed". A warning is shown if the rental is overdue.
Add Comment — Add a note to the event's story log.
Add Request — Create a request related to this event.
Add Reminder — Set a reminder for a future action on this event.
Subscribe — Receive notifications when this event is updated.

Allocations

Allocations link specific asset items to rental events. While an event is booked against an asset class (e.g. "any excavator"), allocations determine which specific unit (e.g. "EXC-002") is assigned to fulfil that booking.

Navigate to Rentals > Allocations to manage assignments. The split-pane view shows:

Left panel — A table of all allocations showing event ID, asset item tag, and dates
Right panel — A detail/edit form for the selected allocation

This is useful for operations teams who need to decide which specific unit to send for each booking.

Availability

The availability checker allows you to query whether equipment is available for a given date range. Navigate to Rentals > Availability to access it.

How Availability is Calculated

Availability takes into account:

Total fleet size — How many items exist in the asset class
Existing bookings — Items already allocated to confirmed events
Maintenance events — Items out of service
Blackout periods — Items unavailable for other reasons
Safety buffer — A configurable reserve (set via the Availability Policy) that ensures a margin of spare equipment

Two Checking Modes

Class-based — Check if a given quantity of items is available from an asset class for a date range. This applies the full availability policy including safety buffer.
Specific asset — Check if one particular asset item is available. This checks for direct conflicts and warns if the booking would violate the safety buffer, but does not block it.

Real-Time Availability on Proposals and Orders

When adding rental items to a proposal or order line, availability is checked automatically in real time. As you change the asset class, dates, or quantity, the form updates to show:

Available (green) — Sufficient equipment is available
Limited (yellow) — Some equipment is available but less than requested
Unavailable (red) — No equipment available for the requested period

This real-time feedback helps salespeople create accurate quotes without overbooking.

Availability Policy

The Availability Policy controls how availability is calculated and how rental events are automated. Navigate to Rentals > Policy to configure it.

Booking Strategy

Choose from four strategies that determine how aggressively you accept bookings:

Conservative — Hard limits with safety buffers. No overbooking allowed. Best for high-value equipment where shortfalls are costly.
Optimistic — Allows overbooking based on historical return rates. Best when equipment has predictable return patterns.
Hybrid — Flexible approach that balances availability with customer service.
Procurement-Driven — Automatically triggers procurement alerts when availability drops below thresholds.

Buffer Management

Safety Stock Percentage — The percentage of fleet to hold in reserve (e.g. 10% means 1 in 10 units is kept as buffer).
Maintenance Reserve Percentage — Additional reserve for unplanned maintenance.
Buffer Days After Return — Days to keep equipment unavailable after a return to allow for inspection and servicing.

Automation Settings

Auto-create Rental Event — When enabled, rental events are automatically created or upgraded during the order workflow.
Event Creation Trigger — When automatic creation should happen: on order creation, on proposal creation, or manual only.
Auto Event Status — The initial status for automatically created events (typically "Planned").

Booking Confirmation Windows

Provisional Booking Window — Number of days a Reserved event remains valid before it should be confirmed or released.
Firm Booking Cutoff — Number of days before the planned start when a booking must be confirmed.

Rental Quoting Workflow

The rental system integrates with the Proposals and Operations modules through Solutions. Here is the typical end-to-end workflow:

1. Set Up Solutions as a Rate Card

Before quoting, create Solutions that represent your rental offerings. Each solution should have:

A descriptive title (e.g. "7t Excavator — Weekly Rate")
A rental asset class linking it to the correct equipment category
A set price representing the rate (e.g. £850)
A unit of measure matching the billing period (e.g. "Week")
A category containing "Rental" (this enables rental-specific features in the solution picker)

Solutions act as your rental rate card. Create one solution per equipment class per pricing tier.

2. Create a Proposal with Rental Lines

When creating a proposal for a customer:

Open the proposal and click Add Lines in the Actions card
Select Solution as the line source
Browse or search for the rental solution (rental-category solutions show an availability timeline)
Select the solution to add it as a proposal line — the price, unit of measure, and rental asset class are pre-populated from the solution
Set the start date and end date for the rental period
The system automatically calculates the duration and total price based on the rate, quantity, and duration

Real-time availability status is displayed as you configure dates and quantities.

3. Win the Deal and Create an Order

When a proposal is accepted:

Click Log Win / Loss on the proposal
Select Log Win and complete the order details
Select which proposal lines to copy to the order
The system automatically creates rental events for lines with rental asset classes:
- If a Reserved event exists from the proposal stage, it is upgraded to Planned status
- If no reservation exists, a new Planned event is created

This is controlled by the Availability Policy automation settings.

4. Dispatch, Track, and Return

From the Rentals overview dashboard:

Dispatch — Click the Dispatch button on a Planned event to record the actual start date and add dispatch notes
Track — Monitor active rentals, upcoming returns, and overdue equipment from the dashboard
Return — Click the Return button on an In Progress event to record the actual end date and equipment condition

All actions create story log entries for a complete audit trail.

Availability Timeline

The availability timeline provides a visual representation of fleet availability over time. It can be accessed:

From the asset class detail page — Shows availability for a specific equipment class
From the solution picker when creating proposal lines — Shows availability for the equipment classes referenced by rental solutions
From the KPI dashboard (if the rental availability card is enabled)

The timeline shows daily availability as a percentage, colour-coded for quick assessment:

Green (80% and above) — Good availability
Yellow (40–79%) — Limited availability
Orange (10–39%) — Low availability
Red (under 10%) — Critical — nearly fully booked

Overdue Tracking

The system automatically identifies overdue rentals — equipment that is still "In Progress" but past its planned return date. Overdue events are:

Highlighted with a red "Overdue" badge in the events table
Shown with a days overdue count
Displayed prominently in the Overdue Returns section of the operations dashboard
Flagged with a warning when processing returns

This helps operations teams prioritise follow-up on late returns and manage fleet availability.

Maintenance

The Maintenance feature enables structured tracking of inspection, testing, and repair activities for rental assets. It is available as a sub-feature of the Rentals module — your organisation administrator can enable or disable it under Settings > Modules.

Navigate to Rentals > Maintenance to see all maintenance jobs.

Maintenance Job Types

Inspection & Test — Scheduled or ad-hoc inspection activities. Typically involves a survey (checklist) to capture structured inspection data.
Repair — Repair activities. May or may not involve a survey — simpler repairs can be tracked with status updates and notes alone.

Creating a Maintenance Job

There are two ways to create a maintenance job:

From the Items view — Select one or more asset items using the checkboxes, then click Allocate to Maintenance in the action bar. Choose to create a new job or add to an existing open job. Provide a title, type (Inspection & Test or Repair), and optionally a due date.
From the Maintenance view — Click + Add to create a new job directly. Then add items from the job detail page.

Maintenance Job Detail

Select a job from the maintenance list to view its details. The detail page has two areas:

Left panel — Job form:

Title, description, type, status, due date, assignee, and notes
All fields are editable (with appropriate permissions)

Right panel — Allocated Items and Survey Sessions:

Allocated Items — Lists the rental assets assigned to this job. Use Add to search and allocate more items, or the remove button to unallocate an item.
Survey Sessions — Lists any survey sessions linked to this job. Use Create to start a new survey session — select a survey template and the system creates a session linked to the maintenance job. Click a session to navigate to the survey session detail view.

Maintenance Job Statuses

Pending — Job created, awaiting action.
In Progress — Work has started.
Completed — All work finished. When a linked survey session is completed, the system automatically updates the allocated items' inspection fields (last inspection date, next inspection date, inspection status).
Cancelled — Job was cancelled.

Inspection Tracking

When a maintenance survey session is completed, the system automatically updates the following fields on each allocated asset item:

Last Inspection Date — Set to the survey completion date
Next Inspection Date — Calculated from the completion date plus the asset class's Inspection Interval (configured on the asset class record, e.g. 180 days for six-monthly inspections)
Inspection Status — Set based on the survey outcome

These fields are visible on the Rentals > Items view, making it easy to identify items that are due or overdue for inspection.

Survey Session Context

When viewing a survey session that is linked to a maintenance job, the session detail page shows a Maintenance Job card in the right panel. This card displays the job title (with a link back to the job), status, type, due date, and all allocated items — providing full context for the inspector without leaving the session view.

Customising Rentals

Users can customise the Rentals module to suit their business:

Modify the fields displayed in the events, classes, and items table views by navigating to Settings > Modules > Configure Module View
Adjust the reference lists for event types and statuses under Settings > Reference Lists
Configure the Availability Policy to match your fleet management strategy
Enable or disable the rental availability KPI card on the dashboard