Each sub-rental tracks what the supplier charges and what those units earned. Amounts leave out tax. Only staff with the costs permission can see them.
What a sub-rental costs #
- Line cost: from the supplier’s rates over the sub-rental’s dates, or the amount you typed. It’s saved on the line, so a later rate change never rewrites an old order.
- Delivery and fees: shared between the lines by units.
- Charges: anything extra from the supplier.
Charges #
Under Add a charge, choose Late return, Damage, Loss, Freight or Other, then enter the amount and a note. If the sub-rental is already Closed, see below. A charge changes your margin. It doesn’t change the customer’s order.
Bill a charge to the customer #
Press Bill the customer on a charge to send it on. This uses the extra charges in Rentals & Bookings Regular: a new charge order goes to the customer, and the first order stays as it is. You decide each time. Nothing is billed by itself.
The supplier’s invoice #
When the invoice comes in, enter its total under Supplier invoice. The page shows the difference from what you expected, so you can query it before you pay. Then press Close.
When the supplier bills after you’ve closed #
Suppliers often bill late: damage they found, a lost unit or an extra day. You don’t need to reopen anything. On the Closed sub-rental, use Late supplier bill in the cost card:
- Choose the kind of charge and enter the amount.
- Under What is it for?, say what the bill covers. This is required.
- Press Add.
Your margin and the supplier’s total update, and the sub-rental stays Closed. The history shows the bill and who added it, and the charge says Late bill, added by with their name. If the invoice total changed too, update it under Supplier invoice, and that goes in the history as well.
You can still press Bill the customer on a late bill. If you keyed one in wrong, press Remove. The history keeps both the bill and the removal. Once a late bill is on the customer’s order, it can’t be removed.
In reports, a late bill counts in the month of the sub-rental it belongs to, not the month the bill arrived. WooCommerce’s cost of goods picks it up the next time it works out that order’s cost.
Only staff who can manage sub-rentals can add a late bill.
Cancellation fees #
If a supplier charges you for cancelling, open the Cancelled sub-rental and add a Cancellation fee the same way, saying what it’s for. A Cancelled sub-rental takes this fee and nothing else, and the fee is its whole cost: the lines and fees don’t count, because the supplier never filled the order. Reports count the fee as money spent with that supplier, with no units.
A Declined sub-rental takes no charges.
Margin #
The sub-rental page and the order’s Sub-rentals box show the revenue on those units, the cost and the margin. Revenue is the customer’s line, shared by units: if four units were rented out and one was sub-rented, a quarter of the line counts.
If WooCommerce’s cost of goods is on, sub-rental costs are added to the order line’s cost too. You can turn that off in the settings.
The report #
Rentals › Reports › Sub-rentals shows a date range with:
- Totals: units, unit days, cost, revenue and margin.
- By supplier and By product.
- Buy instead?: products where you’ve spent more on sub-renting than one would cost to buy, using Cost to buy one on the product.
Press Export CSV to download it. Declined and cancelled sub-rentals aren’t counted.
Approvals #
If you set Needs approval above in the settings, a sub-rental over that amount can be saved as a draft, but it can’t go to the supplier until someone with the approve permission presses Approve.
If someone raises the total after it was approved, it needs approving again. Supplier charges you add later don’t, because they record what the supplier actually billed.
Finished sub-rentals #
A Closed, Declined or Cancelled sub-rental is locked. You can read it and print it, but its lines, dates, fee and earlier charges can’t change, and it can’t be reopened. Two things can still be added: a late supplier bill on a Closed one and a cancellation fee on a Cancelled one. Both are covered above, under “When the supplier bills after you’ve closed” and “Cancellation fees”. The supplier invoice total can also still be entered on either.
