Create a sub-rental and add items

Got an order you can’t fully cover from your own inventory? A sub-rental lets you rent the missing gear in from a supplier, track what it costs you, and — once confirmed — book those borrowed units onto customer orders just like your own stock. This page walks through creating a sub-rental and adding the items you’re renting in.

Sub-Rentals is a gated feature. The menu item appears only when your organization has the Sub-Rentals feature turned on. To create or edit one you also need the Sub-Rentals — Write permission (sub-rentals.write); read-only users can view the list but won’t see the New Sub-Rental button. See Enable Sub-Rentals and set permissions.

Start a New Sub-Rental

  1. Open Sub-Rentals from the main menu. You’ll land on the list of existing sub-rentals.
  2. Click New Sub-Rental (top-right). The create screen opens.

A brand-new sub-rental starts in Draft status — nothing is committed yet, and you can freely edit everything until you confirm it.

Choose the Supplier

Every sub-rental is tied to one supplier — the vendor you’re renting the equipment in from.

  1. In the Details card, open the Supplier (source) dropdown.
  2. Start typing to search your vendors, then pick one.
  3. (Optional) Add a note in Notes — e.g. delivery details or who arranged the hire.

Add a Supplier Without Leaving the Page

Renting from someone new? You don’t have to break off and go to the Vendors screen.

  1. Click + Add supplier (below the dropdown), or type a new name and pick the add-new option.

  2. In the Add supplier dialog, fill in:

    FieldRequired?
    Supplier nameYes
    PhoneOptional
    EmailOptional
    GST No.Optional

  3. Click Add supplier. The new vendor is created and selected on your sub-rental automatically.

Add the Items You’re Renting In

The Items section is where you list what you’re sub-renting. Each row is one line. A fresh sub-rental starts with one empty line.

For every line, set the Item type:

  • Existing asset — pick an item that’s already in your catalog. Choose it from the Asset dropdown (searchable).
  • New asset (not in inventory) — an ad-hoc item you don’t stock. Just type a New asset name (e.g. “Smoke Machine”). This is handy for one-off gear you’ll never own.

You can switch a line between the two at any time. On an existing-asset line, use + Sub-rent an asset not in inventory to turn it ad-hoc; on an ad-hoc line, use Choose an existing asset instead to go back.

Then finish the line:

  • Quantity (required) — how many units you’re renting in. Must be at least 1.
  • Sub-rent cost — the flat total you’re paying the supplier for this line. This is a single lump cost for the line, not a per-day rate.

To add another line: click Add item. To remove a line: click Remove on that row (you must keep at least one line).

As you fill in costs, the Estimated sub-rent cost at the bottom updates live — it’s the sum of every line’s sub-rent cost, so you can see your total supplier spend at a glance.

Save the Sub-Rental

When your supplier and items look right, click Create sub-rental. The sub-rental is saved as a Draft and you’re taken to its detail screen.

Draft is fully editable. While a sub-rental is in Draft you can change the supplier, tweak notes, and add, edit, or remove item lines — then click Save changes. Once you confirm it, the details and items become read-only.

A few things the app checks before it saves:

  • A supplier must be selected.
  • There must be at least one item line.
  • Every existing-asset line needs an asset picked; every ad-hoc line needs a name.
  • Every line’s quantity must be at least 1.

What Happens Next

Creating the sub-rental only records your intent to rent the gear in — it doesn’t yet create bookable stock. When you’re ready, use Confirm & add stock on the detail screen to materialise the individual units and make them available to book on customer orders.

Head to Confirm a sub-rental and manage sub-rented stock units for the next step.