Hourly and daily rentals: how to protect rented goods from accidental sale

Hourly and Daily Rentals: How to Set Rates and Protect Rented Items from Accidental Sale

In retail and service businesses, providing items for temporary use requires a completely different approach to inventory management than regular sales. The rental mode is designed to record the issue of items (from construction tools to wedding dresses and sports equipment), monitor their exact return dates, and keep track of financial guarantees.  

Protection Against Accidental Sales: Automatic Item Reservation 

One of the main tasks when renting out an item is to avoid situations where an item that is currently being used by one customer is accidentally sold at the checkout to another customer. The software provides an automatic reservation mechanism for this purpose.

When you add an item to a rental document and change its status to "Rental started", the item is automatically removed from available stock. Technically, the software creates an internal transfer of the item from the main warehouse to a dedicated third-level virtual warehouse, such as the "Rental item warehouse" or a reservation warehouse. As a result, the item becomes completely unavailable for selection in the standard "Sales" window at the checkout.

In the general list of active rentals, these items are marked with a special invoice icon, providing visual confirmation that they have been reserved.

When the customer returns the item and its status changes to "Rental completed", the item is automatically transferred from the virtual warehouse back to the main warehouse and immediately becomes available for sale or another rental. This helps maintain accurate stock balances.

Flexible Pricing: Hourly and Daily Rentals 

The same item can often be rented for several hours, such as skis, roller skates, or bicycles, or for several days, such as generators or construction equipment. To configure different rates, a dedicated "Rental Directory" is created in the software.

You can add an item to the directory and immediately set two prices for it: an hourly rate and a daily rate. When preparing a rental agreement, the salesperson simply selects the rental type, hourly or daily, and specifies the start date and time and the planned end of the rental period. The software automatically calculates the duration. For example, for a rental from 12:00 to 14:00, the system will record exactly 2 hours. It then calculates the total rental cost based on the specified rate. This means the customer pays for the actual rental period, while the salesperson does not need to calculate the amount manually.

Security Deposit Accounting and Rental Cancellation 

To answer a common question from business owners about financial guarantees: a security deposit is not strictly required by the software. 

Although a security deposit is an important way to protect the business from the loss of expensive items, such as power tools, the system can be configured flexibly. When you trust a regular customer or your business model does not require a deposit, you can simply set the deposit amount to "0" for specific items in the rental directory. Otherwise, the software will prompt you to accept a security deposit before issuing the item, and the amount will be recorded using the appropriate financial document, such as a cash receipt voucher or a receipt. There is also a convenient setting that allows the amount of the deposit to be refunded at the end of the rental to be automatically reduced by the rental charge.

For situations where a customer cancels the service, for example, after reserving a suit and paying a deposit or advance payment but later changing their plans, the software provides a dedicated rental status — "Cancelled". When the document is changed to this status, the software automatically removes the reservation from the item and allows the funds received from the customer to be refunded correctly. The money is refunded using transparent financial documents: a security deposit refund or an advance payment refund based on the issued invoice.

Document Management in One Click 

The system also eliminates the need for business owners to write agreements by hand or prepare them in third-party editors. A complete set of documents can be printed directly from the rental window: a rental agreement, which can include the customer's passport details, a delivery note, a certificate of completed work, and financial receipts confirming the receipt or refund of the security deposit. This makes the rental process transparent, legally documented, and faster for both parties.