With Rentals & Bookings on the same store, the Subscriptions & Memberships app can charge a rental’s card every period: “$49 a month until you return it”. Rentals & Bookings books the unit and tracks the return; this app charges each period. The rental appears in both apps.
Which billing to use #
Rentals & Bookings can bill a rental by the period in three ways:
| Billing | Who charges | Where it is set up |
|---|---|---|
| An invoice each period | Rentals & Bookings sends a Shopify invoice with a payment link. Works at POS, with B2B and with quotes. | Ongoing and fixed-term rentals |
| Another app’s subscription plan | That app charges the card. | Subscription apps and purchase options |
| SI Subscriptions & Memberships | This app charges the card each period with its own rental plans. | This page |
With this app, Rentals & Bookings knows each period is paid, the booking shows “Billed by SI Subscriptions & Memberships” with Manage in SI Subscriptions & Memberships, and ending the rental in either app ends the billing.
Before you start #
- Rentals & Bookings installed on the same store, on any plan.
- Rental products set up in Rentals & Bookings. The setup guide’s Rental products step checks it.
- The Subscriptions app embed turned on in your theme (for the recommended setup below).
Make a rental plan #
- Open Plans and create a plan of type Rental.
- Add its frequencies (for example every month) and the rental products or variants it is for. A rental plan only attaches to rental products.
- Leave out the free trial and the sign-up fee: rental plans have neither, because the first period is paid at checkout.
- Save. On the product page, the rentals calendar offers the plan next to the one-time rental.
How rental plans are added to the cart #
Choose it in Settings › General › Rental subscriptions:
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| A separate “Rental plan” line (recommended) | The rental line pays the first period, and a “Rental plan” line next to it carries the plan. Each period after is charged at the rental’s own price for one period. Works with every rental product. The app makes a hidden product called “Rental plan” for these lines; leave it as it is. |
| The plan on the rental product itself | The plan sits on the rental line, priced by the plan. “Use the plan on the rental itself only if your rental products have a fixed price per period.” |
When a rental ends #
- The customer clicks End rental in their account: “We’ll ask you to return the item by the end of the period you’ve paid for.”
- Staff click End rental on the subscription’s page, or end the rental in Rentals & Bookings.
- Checking the item in at the rentals desk ends the subscription.
When a customer ends a rental sets the billing after that: Use the rentals app’s setting (default), Stop billing at the return date or Keep billing until the item is back. Late days after the return date are Rentals & Bookings’ late fees.
What’s different for rentals #
- A rental can’t skip a charge, and can’t be paused while the item is out.
- When every retry of a failed payment fails, the subscription isn’t paused or cancelled: the item is asked back by the end of the paid period (“Payment failed: the item was asked back.”). A new card still retries the charge.
- Rental plans can’t be prepaid, sent as gifts or billed on a set day.
- Kits can’t be rented on a subscription.
- Rentals are booked in Rentals & Bookings, so New subscription in this app doesn’t book them.
Good to know #
- The subscription’s page in this app has a Rental card with Open booking, the return date and whether the item is with the customer.
- If you remove this app, Rentals & Bookings marks its rentals “Billing app removed” and offers Switch to invoice billing for each one.
- If you remove Rentals & Bookings, existing rental subscriptions keep billing, but no new rental plans can be sold.
