How to Configure Security Deposits?
Protect your equipment without an awkward conversation on every booking. Rentablez lets you set one default deposit rule — like 20% of the rental value — so your team always knows exactly what to collect, and every new order applies it consistently. You can still adjust the deposit on any individual order when a customer’s situation calls for it.
This page covers the one-time setup. To actually collect, refund, and deduct deposits day to day, see How to Collect, Refund, and Deduct Security Deposits.
Where to Configure
Go to Settings → Financial Settings → Security Deposits. Editing these settings requires the Settings (write) permission — without it the fields are visible but locked, and the Save button is hidden.
Which Method Fits Your Business? — Calculation Method
Open the Calculation Method dropdown and pick how Rentablez should work out the default deposit. The default is None until you set it.
| Method | What it does | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| None | No deposit applied by default | You’d rather add deposits manually per order |
| Fixed Amount | The same flat deposit on every rental | A standard deposit for all customers (e.g., a set amount every time) |
| Order Amount % | A percentage of the total rental value | The deposit should scale with the size of the order |
| Asset Security Value % | A percentage of each item’s security value | The deposit should reflect the real replacement risk of the items rented |
Once you pick a method, the matching field appears below it:
- Order Amount % — enter a Percentage of Order Amount (0–100%).
- Asset Security Value % — enter a Percentage of Asset Security Values (0–200%). This uses the security value set on each asset; items without a security value contribute 0, so make sure your assets have that value filled in for this method to work well.
- Fixed Amount — enter the flat deposit amount. All amounts use your organization’s configured currency.
Refundable or Not? — Deposit Type
The Deposit Type dropdown sets whether the deposit is returned to the customer:
- Refundable (default) — held during the rental and refunded when items come back in good condition.
- Non-Refundable — kept as revenue when the order closes; it is never refunded.
This default is applied to each new order but stays changeable per order — until the first collection is recorded against that order’s deposit. After a deposit has been collected, its refundable/non-refundable type is locked.
Require a Deposit Before Dispatch
Turn on Require deposit before dispatch to make deposit collection mandatory: an order can’t be dispatched until its deposit has been collected. Leave it off to keep deposits optional. This toggle saves on its own the moment you flip it — you don’t need to press Save for it.
Chase Late Refunds — Refund Overdue Threshold
Refund overdue threshold (days) controls when an unpaid refund starts nagging you. Once every item on an order has been returned, any deposit refund still outstanding after this many days is flagged as overdue in the notification bell. The default is 7 days; set anything from 1 to 365.
Clicking that overdue alert in the notification bell jumps you straight into the Security Deposit tracker, pre-filtered to the deposits that are waiting on a refund.
Save Your Rule
For the Calculation Method, Deposit Type, and Refund overdue threshold, click Save to apply your changes. (The dispatch toggle is the exception — it saves itself instantly.)
Your default deposit rule is now in place. Rentablez applies it to every new rental order automatically, so no one on your team has to remember what to charge — and they can still override the amount or type on an individual order before its first collection.