Sales Igniter Sub-Rentals lets you rent from a supplier when your own stock runs out. You cover the units a booking is short from the order screen, the customer’s order stays as it is, and you see what came in, what has to go back and what the job really made.
This page covers how a sub-rental works, the first one from start to finish, and the board where you follow them. The pages after it cover suppliers, receiving and returning, costs and reports and settings, emails and developers.
Sub-Rentals needs Rentals & Bookings Regular. It is included in Ultimate and can be bought on its own. Until you make your first sub-rental, your availability works exactly as it did.
How a sub-rental works #
A sub-rental is an order you place with a supplier. It holds one or more lines, and each line covers some units of one booking.
- Your stock stays yours. A sub-rental never adds to your stock. It lowers what the booking needs from your own stock, for the booking’s dates only.
- A sub-rented unit stays with its booking. It can’t be sold to another customer, even when that booking is cancelled.
- Your customer’s price doesn’t change. Nothing on the customer’s order is repriced. Only you see the supplier’s costs.
- Nothing tells a supplier by itself. Emails go out when you press Send.
Statuses #
- Draft: you’re still working on it. It covers nothing, so the booking stays short.
- Requested: the request has gone out. It covers the shortfall, and the booking shows Awaiting supplier.
- Confirmed: the supplier said yes.
- Received: the units are with you.
- Returned: the units have gone back.
- Closed: the supplier’s invoice is in and you’re finished.
- Declined and Cancelled: it covers nothing any more, and the booking is flagged short again.
You can change which status starts covering under settings.
Your first sub-rental #
- Add a supplier under Rentals › Suppliers. A name is enough to begin with, and an email address lets you send requests. See Suppliers.
- Open an order and change a line’s dates, or add a line, so your stock falls short. The warning says how many units are missing.
- Press Sub-rent the 1 missing unit. You’ll see the same button in the Short dialog on a kit, and on Rentals › Bookings › Edit.
- Choose a supplier. If the supplier lists this product, its rate fills in the cost. Otherwise type a cost.
- Check Collect by and Return by. They start from the booking, with the days you set in the settings before and after it. The dialog tells you if the dates are tight.
- Press Save and email the request, or Save as draft if you aren’t ready. A draft saves the new dates but doesn’t cover the shortfall, so the booking stays listed as short until you send it.
The line now shows Awaiting supplier on the order, and the sub-rental has its own page.
Under Who can overbook: Nobody, staff with the sub-rent permission can still sub-rent a shortfall, because a sub-rental brings the units in and isn’t an overbooking.
A booking that’s already short #
Some bookings go short after the fact, for example when a unit goes in for repair. They show up under Rentals › Sub-rentals › Short and in Needs you on the Rentals dashboard. Press Sub-rent on the row to open the same dialog. You can add the line to an open sub-rental with the same supplier rather than starting a new one.
Kits #
When a kit is short, each short part gets its own line. Tick Use this supplier for the other short parts of this kit too to put them all with one supplier. If you untick it, every short part still needs a supplier before you can save.
The board #
Rentals › Sub-rentals lists every sub-rental, with tabs for what needs doing:
- Short: bookings your stock can’t hold, not yet covered.
- To send: drafts waiting to go out.
- Awaiting supplier: sent, no answer yet.
- Collect this week: confirmed units to pick up.
- Out, Return due and Overdue: units you hold, and when they go back.
- To close: returned, waiting for the supplier’s invoice.
When a booking changes #
If you extend, shorten, swap or cancel a booking, its sub-rental isn’t changed for you. The line is marked as no longer matching, the sub-rental page says so, and Needs you lists it. Press Update the supplier order to bring the dates back in line with the booking, then Send change to tell the supplier. If every order on a sub-rental is cancelled, Cancel and send closes it and tells the supplier.
