How to Set Up Usage-Based (Meter) Pricing?
Renting out vehicles, generators, or equipment where distance or run-hours matter as much as time? Usage-Based (Meter) Pricing lets you bundle a usage allowance into each rental rate — say 200 km per day — and automatically charge for anything beyond it. Set the included allowance and a few excess-usage rate slabs once on the item, and Rentablez handles the overflow math when usage is recorded on the order.
Feature availability. Usage-Based (Meter) Pricing is an optional module enabled per organization (typically for vehicle and equipment rental businesses). If you don’t see a Usage Pricing column on the Pricing tab, the module isn’t turned on for your account — contact your administrator or the Rentablez team to have it enabled.
How Meter Pricing Works
Meter pricing sits on top of your normal rental rate. Each rate line has two parts:
- Included usage — the allowance bundled into the rental rate, expressed in your organization’s usage unit (for example, km) per rental unit of measure (per day, per week, and so on).
- Excess charges — a set of slabs that price any usage above the included allowance. Each slab covers a usage range and a rate per unit.
Example: A car is rented at your daily rate with 200 km included per day. The customer drives 350 km, so 150 km is excess — and that 150 km is billed against your excess-usage slabs.
The usage unit shown throughout the dialog (km in these examples) reflects the unit configured for your organization. Wherever you see a unit below, read it as your own.
Before You Start
- The item must already have at least one rental rate — a UOM and price row on the Pricing tab. Usage pricing attaches to a rental rate line, so items with no rental pricing won’t show the option. See How to Set Pricing for Variants?.
- Usage pricing applies to chargeable rate lines only. A line marked as a No Charge Item won’t accept usage pricing.
- You need write access to inventory (the
assets.writepermission) to add or edit usage pricing.
Setting Up Usage-Based Pricing
Open the Pricing Tab
- Go to Inventory and open the item you want to configure.
- Click the Pricing tab.
- You’ll see the Pricing Information table listing each variant and UOM with its base price. When the meter module is on, an extra Usage Pricing column appears on the right.
Open the Usage Pricing Dialog
- Find the rate row (variant + UOM) you want to meter.
- In the Usage Pricing column, click the Add icon (a plus) — or the Edit icon if usage pricing already exists on that row.
- The Usage Pricing dialog opens.
Set the Included Usage
- In the top field, enter the allowance bundled into this rate — for example,
200. - The hint beside the field reads as your unit included per the rate’s UOM (for example, “km included per day”).
Included usage must be zero or more. If you plan to add excess charges, the included allowance must be greater than 0 — Rentablez asks you to set it first.
Add Excess-Charge Slabs
Slabs price the usage that goes beyond the included allowance.
- Under Excess charges, click + Add to create a slab.
- Fill in the slab’s row:
| Column | Meaning |
|---|---|
| From | Start of this slab’s excess-usage range |
| To | End of the range (the last slab is locked to ∞) |
Rate (currency/unit) | What you charge per unit of usage in this slab |
- Add more slabs to build a tiered structure — for example, a lower rate for the first block of excess and a higher rate beyond it.
- Click Save.
Example — tiered excess for a car (200 km/day included):
| From | To | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 100 | 12/km |
| 101 | ∞ | 18/km |
A customer who drives 350 km on a one-day rental uses 150 km of excess: the first 100 km at 12/km and the remaining 50 km at 18/km.
The last slab is always open-ended (∞). Rentablez automatically extends the final slab to cover every unit beyond its start, so no matter how much a customer uses, the excess is always priced. You can’t set an upper bound on the last slab.
Rules the App Enforces
When you save, Rentablez validates the setup so slabs stay clean:
- Included usage can’t be negative.
- Set the allowance before adding excess charges — slabs require an included usage greater than 0.
- Every slab’s rate must be greater than 0.
- “To” must be greater than “From” on each bounded slab.
- Slabs can’t overlap — each slab’s From must be higher than the previous slab’s To. Rentablez auto-chains the next slab’s From for you as you set each To.
If a rule fails, an error message points to the specific slab so you can fix it before saving.
Reviewing Your Setup
After saving, the Usage Pricing column summarizes the configuration for each rate line:
- The included allowance (for example, “200 km/day”).
- Each excess slab as a range and rate (for example, “1–100 km ·
12/km” and “101–∞ km ·18/km”).
To change it later, click the Edit icon on the same row, adjust the allowance or slabs, and save again.
How Excess Is Billed on Orders
Usage-based pricing defines how excess is priced; it doesn’t record usage on its own. The actual meter readings are captured when the item is dispatched and returned during rental operations, and the recorded excess is charged against the slabs you set here. Set the item up once, and every rental of that item applies the same allowance and excess rates automatically.
Your organization can also require meter readings at dispatch and return (an operations setting), so metered assets can’t be handed over or brought back without a reading. Ask your administrator if you want this enforced.