Rental cancellation: how to properly return the advance payment, deposit, and goods to the warehouse

In the rental business (from carnival costumes to construction tools or wedding dresses), situations often arise when a customer’s plans change.

The «Product Rental» mode in Torgsoft is designed specifically to record the release of products for rental, monitor rental periods, reserve items for specific dates, and automatically calculate the service fee and security deposit. 

However, businesses may face unforeseen circumstances, which can raise the following questions: 

The program provides a clearly defined procedure for handling such situations.

Configuring the program to correctly cancel a rental

To ensure that a transaction can be cancelled quickly and that financial documents are generated automatically, the program must first be configured.

To do this, go to Document → Trade with invoice issuance → Rental tab and open «Rental Settings». This window contains an extremely important parameter: «Refund the rental fee when the rental is cancelled». If you enable this setting, when the document status is changed to «Rental Cancelled», Torgsoft will automatically offer to refund the money that the customer paid as payment (an advance payment) for the rental service itself.

How to cancel a rental and refund the advance payment (rental fee)

When a customer reserves a product in advance, they often pay the rental fee immediately when the document is created, as financial confirmation of their intention. If they later cancel the service, this amount must be correctly refunded from the cash register or bank account.

Procedure:

1. Find the required document on the «Rental» tab.

2. Change the document status by clicking the «Rental Status» button and selecting «Rental Cancelled» (or «Rental Revoked»).

3. The program will check whether any payments have been made. Thanks to its built-in error-prevention algorithms, Torgsoft accurately determines whether the rental payment was actually received. If no prepayment was made, the refund window will not appear, preventing an accidental payout of excess funds from the cash register.

4. If the customer did make an advance payment, and you have enabled the «Refund the rental fee when the rental is cancelled» setting, the system will automatically open the financial form for refunding the invoice prepayment. You will be able to issue a cash disbursement order or process a cashless refund, returning the customer’s money for the service that was not provided.

Refunding the security deposit: full and partial refunds

A security deposit is a guarantee amount without which the physical release of a product for rental (changing the status to «Rental Started») is usually not possible, unless you have set a zero deposit in the directory.

When a customer cancels an active rental or returns an item at the end of the rental period, the security deposit must be refunded. To do this, use the «Refund Security Deposit» button, or the system will automatically offer to refund it when the document is changed to the «Rental Completed» status. A financial document for the security deposit refund is then generated.

Releasing the product from reservation and returning it to the warehouse

Another critically important aspect of cancelling a rental is the movement of the product itself within the system. The rental option in Torgsoft is designed so that when a document is changed to the «Currently Rented» status (or when the product is reserved for rental), the product is physically transferred from the main warehouse to a special third-level virtual warehouse (for example, «Products for Rental»). This provides automatic reservation: the item is securely blocked, and no other salesperson can accidentally sell it at the cash register.

What happens when a rental is cancelled or completed? 

You do not need to make any manual transfers. As soon as you change the rental status to «Rental Cancelled» or «Rental Completed», the program automatically returns the product from the third-level warehouse to your regular main warehouse. The reservation is removed, and the product immediately becomes available for new reservations by other customers or for regular retail sale.

Therefore, cancelling a rental in Torgsoft is a fully controlled process in which a single click on the «Rental Cancelled» button resolves three tasks at once: it releases the product from reservation, automatically generates documents for refunding the advance payment, and safely settles the customer’s security deposit.