Sub-Rentals overview: renting equipment in from suppliers
Got an order you can’t fully cover from your own inventory? Sub-Rentals lets you rent equipment in from another supplier, add it to your catalog as temporary stock, and book it onto customer orders just like gear you own. When the job’s done, you return those units to the supplier — no permanent inventory, no fake assets left lying around.
Think of it as the mirror image of a normal rental: instead of renting your gear out to a customer, you’re renting a supplier’s gear in to cover demand.
When to Use a Sub-Rental
Reach for a sub-rental whenever demand outruns supply:
- Fleet is fully booked — a customer wants five projectors, you only have three, so you sub-rent the extra two from a partner.
- You don’t stock the item at all — a one-off request for a smoke machine you’d never buy outright.
- Covering a gap — some of your own units are out for maintenance and you need short-term replacements.
The supplier’s gear becomes bookable stock for as long as you hold it, then goes back.
Sub-Rentals is an optional module. If you don’t see Sub-Rentals in the main menu, it isn’t switched on for your organization yet — see Enable Sub-Rentals and set permissions.
How It Works, Start to Finish
Every sub-rental follows the same arc:
- Create a sub-rental — pick the supplier and list the items you’re renting in.
- Confirm it — Rentablez turns those items into real, bookable stock units.
- Book those units onto customer orders, exactly like your own inventory.
- Return the units to the supplier once you’re finished with them.
The Sub-Rentals List
Open Sub-Rentals from the main menu to see every sub-rental in one searchable, sortable table. Each row shows:
- Name / number — the sub-rental’s label and reference number.
- Supplier — the vendor you’re renting the gear in from.
- Units — how many stock units this sub-rental covers, plus the number of item lines.
- Sub-rent cost — the total you’re paying the supplier.
- Status — a coloured dot for where the sub-rental is in its lifecycle (see below).
Click any row to open it. Use New Sub-Rental (top-right) to start a fresh one — this needs Sub-Rentals — Write permission.
Sub-Rental Statuses
The status tells you where a sub-rental sits in its journey:
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Draft | Created but not yet confirmed. Fully editable, no stock exists yet. |
| Confirmed | Stock units have been created and are available to book on orders. |
| Dispatched | Units are out on a customer order. |
| Partially Returned | Some units have gone back to the supplier; others are still active. |
| Returned | All units have been returned to the supplier. |
| Closed | The sub-rental is fully wrapped up. |
| Cancelled | The sub-rental was aborted before use, and its stock removed. |
Draft is the only editable state. Once you confirm a sub-rental, the supplier, notes, and item lines become read-only — because real stock now exists against them. Plan your lines before you confirm.
Items: Catalog vs. Ad-Hoc
When you build a sub-rental, each item line is one of two types:
- Existing asset — pick an item that’s already in your catalog. Use this when you’re topping up stock of something you already rent.
- New asset (not in inventory) — type a name for a one-off item you don’t stock, e.g. “Smoke Machine”. Nothing permanent is added to your catalog — the item exists only for this sub-rental.
Each line has a quantity and a flat sub-rent cost — the total amount you pay the supplier for that line (not a per-day rate). A live estimated total adds up as you go.
Adding a Supplier On the Fly
Renting from someone new? You don’t have to leave the screen. Click + Add supplier next to the supplier picker, enter at least a name (phone, email, and GST No. are optional), and the new supplier is created and selected right away.
Turning a Sub-Rental into Bookable Stock
A Draft sub-rental is just a plan — no stock exists yet. Hit Confirm & add stock and Rentablez creates one bookable stock unit per quantity you entered. From that moment, those units behave like any other inventory: they show up when you add items to a customer order and can be dispatched and returned through the normal order flow.
After confirming, a Sub-rented stock units table appears where you can give each unit an asset tag / SKU and a real-world reference (serial, IMEI, or SKU). Each unit also shows its own status — Available, Booked, On rent (with the order number), or Returned to supplier.
See Confirm a sub-rental and manage sub-rented stock units for the full walkthrough.
Returning Units and Cancelling
When you’re done with the gear, select the units and Return to supplier — individually or all at once. Rentablez blocks the return of any unit that’s currently booked or out on rent, so you can’t accidentally hand back kit a customer is still using.
If a sub-rental was never used, you can Cancel it, which removes the sub-rented stock. Cancelling is only allowed while nothing has been booked, dispatched, or already returned. Full details are in Return units to a supplier and cancel a sub-rental.
Access is permission-gated. Anyone with Sub-Rentals — Read can view the list and open a sub-rental; creating, confirming, editing, returning, and cancelling all require Sub-Rentals — Write.