EquipCalendar

Schedule and track your events and equipment with ease

Rental Damage Protection: What you should know

Let’s face it, when it comes to earning a living, being a business owner is probably up there as one of the most stressful and difficult positions to be in, yet the overall experience can be highly rewarding, especially if you take the necessary steps and measures to ensure that your business runs as smoothly and as efficiently as possible. As far as difficulty levels go, equipment rental businesses are especially frustrating as you are trusting others with your products, relying on them to not only respect them, but to also return them back to you in as good a condition as when you rented them out in the first place. For this reason, SaaS (software as a service) products are proving extremely popular amongst equipment rental businesses all over the world, as they are not only helping to make life easier, they’re actually helping to make the businesses more efficient, and therefore more lucrative and rewarding. Here we’ll be taking a look at the benefits of SaaS products for rental equipment businesses. 

They allow you to easily keep log of your inventory – There are a number of different types of equipment rental businesses currently in operation, with some common examples including: furniture rental, wedding rental, inflatable rental, storage rental, and more. The more products and pieces of equipment that you currently offer out for rental, obviously the more difficult it will become to keep a log of all of your current inventory. Say for example, you hire out chairs for large parties or functions. You may hire out 200 chairs, yet only receive 199. That missing chair may not sound like much to some people, but it is still your property, it is still a part of your inventory, and it will still cost money to replace. SaaS products allow you to easily log all of your inventory, know what is there and what, if anything, is missing, and exactly how much of each item you have available. What’s more, if products are returned damaged or in poor states of repair, you can not only make a note of this, you can refer back to the software, find out which customer(s) returned it in its damaged condition, and then take the next necessary steps. 

They prevent double-booking and general problems with orders – Say you rent out marquees for weddings, parties, outdoor events etc, and currently have 20 in your inventory. You may have one client who has ordered 11 for a social event they’re throwing. That will leave you with 9 left. Now, say a wedding party orders 10 marquees yet when it comes to being delivered, you discover there are only 9 remaining, you will have some explaining to do and some angry customers that will probably not use your service again. SaaS products however, will allow you to simply open the application, take a look at how many marquees you have available for rental, how many are out for hire, and the date when they’ll be returned. Before processing any orders, a quick look at this info will tell you, and your customers, all that is needed to be known, making life much easier for everybody involved. 

They make it much easier to organize tasks – Another great benefit of these products is that they make it much simpler to organize tasks to do with the day to day running of your business. You can easily log the dates when certain products are due to be rented out, which products are being rented out, how many of each you’re renting out, and when they should be returned. All of this is accessible via a few clicks of a few buttons. Everything you need to know about each order will be right there on the screen for you and all of your employees, which again, makes life so much simpler. 

The Secret Weapon of a Rental Business Owner: A Well Managed Inventory

If you are in the rental business, then you already know that the most important item that will determine the success of your business is the inventory that you have on hand and your ability to manage it properly. Unfortunately, this can be something that is difficult to do if you don’t have the right tools in place.

There are many ways that you can manage your inventory, but one of the best ways is to have a system that will keep track of everything for you. When you are in the rental business, you will need to be able to track orders so that you can eliminate orders becoming lost or misplaced. This can help you to eliminate any issues that are related to discovering that you are missing something that your customers need.

You should also have a system in place that will help you track the trends in the market so that you will know what the demand for your products is. This will help you to determine exactly what you need to keep in stock and when you need to add to your inventory of supply. Along with this, your system should be able to determine the minimum amount of products that you should have in your inventory.

Another benefit that you will have when you manage your inventory is the ability to better handle rush orders. Since rush orders are not typically something that you can plan for, you will be able to determine exactly when the product will be available as well as how quickly you can get them ready to be sent out for the order. This can greatly improve your response to rush orders.

You will also find that you are able to improve the amount of time that it takes to deliver equipment to your customers as well. When you have a system that will help you to know where your inventory is and when it is scheduled to be returned, you will be able to determine exactly when you will be able to deliver new orders to your customers.

Not only will this help you to run your business more effectively and efficiently, you will also be able be able to maximize profits as well. By having an inventory that is managed properly, you will be able to determine which items are not being used frequently so that you can consider removing them from your product line.

Managing your inventory properly can be one of the biggest benefits to any rental business owner. It will help improve turnaround time as well as customer service and you will always know exactly what you need to have in stock in order to fulfill all of your customers’ needs.

Since there are many different ways that you can manage your inventory, you should select a method that makes the most sense for your business structure. However, a computer system is probably the simplest and most reliable system to use and can help keep your inventory in proper shape.

Rental inventory is easy with EquipCalendar views

Wide Selection" by Emilio Labrador is licensed under CC BY 2.0

You know your rental inventory in and out, right?  You know you have a bunch of these and a bunch of those, right?  You know if you have red and/or white and/or blue ones, right?  Well, maybe rental inventory isn't so simple after all.  It gets easier with EquipCalendar.

Enter your inventory item name, your maximum inventory level and that's all you need to start scheduling your rentals.  Once you get a few events into the system, behold the calendar views!  There is one for tasks and one for inventory levels.  Each of those can be viewed and scrolled by the day, week or month, but let's focus on the inventory view.

The inventory calendar shows your entire inventory totals for quoted, confirmed, max available and remaning available.  Drill down to the day level and you'll see hour by hour how much of your inventory is rented or available. How is that for knowing your inventory in and out?


Free 14 day trials have launched!

Today, we're proud to announce a 14 day free trial of our equipment rental software.  Best of all, no credit card is required to get started.  At the end of 14 days, a regular subscription costs just $59 a year thereafter.  It's simply the best deal in inventory management software around.

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Customer service means knowing your rental inventory inside and out

Businesses and companies often struggle for customers. From economic hardships to customer attraction, some companies just aren't cut out to be a force in an already competitive and tight market. While some companies are just destined to not be, there are some companies that are failing when they shouldn't be. These companies might manage several employees, have an impressive customer base, and even have some money channeled for marketing/advertising, but these facts mean little when you talk of customer service and inventory. If you own a company, but you aren't keeping an idea of your inventory, there will be consequences for you and your company. Knowing the amount and the kind of inventory you hold will make it extremely easier to provide to rental customers.

Why is it important?

You might be wondering what is so important about knowing your inventory. For some company owners, inventory poses no special problem, as they keep a routine eye on it constantly. For others, their own inventory may be a mystery to them, and its unknown availability is a consistent problem in running the business. Think of this as an example. If you work as a waiter at a popular restaurant, how important is the inventory for customers? The restaurant mainly deals with food inventory, and if you are constantly telling the customers you are out of this or out of that, they might reconsider and end up picking a different restaurant. The same goes for any business. If you are consistently out of stock, or if you are always unaware of the type and number of inventory, you are doing yourself a great disservice. Now, the question is, how do I keep track of my inventory?

How to keep track of your inventory?

Knowing the inventory will make you seem very professional with your customers and, in doing this, you are essentially providing good customer service. There are several programs and products available for inventory tracking. Once you are looking for a tracker, you will find there are several ones available for both use and purchase, making you able to keep track of your inventory in no time. One of them is EquipCalendar, a program specially devised to help its users in keeping track of their inventory. With EquipCalendar you will never be out of stock again, as it will serve as a easy to use tool for increasing your customers’ satisfaction.