Checking the availability of your equipment can be done in two ways in Rentman. The first option is to quickly check the availability of your equipment by making use of the quick availability lookup button at the top of your screen. The second option is to consult the equipment timeline within the Equipment module or when planning equipment on a project. Both options will be discussed in this article. 

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Equipment availability calculation

Planning period: The equipment availability is calculated based on the planning period of the equipment. An item planned on a project becomes unavailable for the whole length of its assigned planning period.

Equipment movement: Also equipment movements in the Warehouse module can affect availability.

Repair

: When equipment is in repair, you can choose to make it unavailable until the repair is completed.

Equipment shortages

When you add an equipment item to a project, it is automatically planned on that project. However, if you have planned more of an item than you have in stock, your project will have a shortage of this item. In your availability timeline, a shortage will be marked with a red line.

Item shortage on multiple projects

It may occur that two (or more) projects have a shortage of the same item, in the same time period.

For example: You have planned a DJ booth on 2 different projects. If these projects are planned within the same time period, you have planned 2 DJ booths at the same time. If you only have 1 DJ booth in stock, you therefore have a shortage of 1.

In this example, both projects have a shortage of the same item. You can give one of these projects priority for this item. You do this by reserving this equipment item for that project.

Solve shortages (subrenting)

You can solve shortages by adding a subrent.

Quickly check availability 

You can easily check if a certain equipment item is available in a certain period by making use of the timelapse quick availability lookup button at the top of your screen.  

For example: You have a potential customer on the phone, and you quickly want to check if the equipment item "Pioneer DJM 900 DJ Mixer" is available from the 1st to the 3rd of August. Instead of having to browse through your equipment database and your timeline, you can easily and quickly check if this item is in fact available during this specific time period. 

You can quickly check the availability of your equipment items by following the following steps:

1. Click on the timelapse icon at the top right of your screen. 
   Optional: Keyboard shortcut: ALT + /
2. Search for the equipment item by typing at least three letters of the equipment name. 
3. Select the relevant timeframe
4. The amount available will show. This amount can both show available equipment as well as shortages. 

Equipment timeline

1. Go to the Equipment tab of a project or to the category Equipment module.
2. Select an item/kit/case.
3. Click the watch_later "Open timeline" icon to view your equipment on the timeline.

The timeline in the Equipment tab of your projects displays inventory data of the selected articles in color coded bars. When hovering over any color coded bar, a note will appear, showing you more in-depth details about the equipment. For a full list of color code meanings, click on the "Legend" button in the upper right of the timeline.

From the top to bottom, the bars in the equipment timeline are:

Equipment name:  This topmost bar displays the amount of an item that is (un)available after planning. Subrentals will also be into account for this quantity. You will see a red bar when you have planned more than you have available.

Warehouse stock: This bar shows you how much of the equipment you have available in your warehouse stock (excluding any subrentals). If equipment is reserved for a project, this number will decrease.

Projects: The projects line shows you all projects on which you have planned the specific equipment within the respective time frame. 

The brown bar is the current open project; the gray bars of various shades and outlines are other projects which the equipment has been planned on. The number in the bar signals the quantity of planned equipment for that project.

Subrentals

: If you subrented this item, this will show in the equipment timeline as a blue bar.

Reserve equipment for a project

By reserving equipment, you can give "Project A" priority over "Project B" if they both have a shortage of the same equipment item. The items that you reserve will then be confirmed for "Project A" first. In this case, you don't have to worry about the shortage on "Project A" growing even bigger when this item is planned on even more projects.

Reserve equipment for projects in Pending

If the status of your project is Pending, equipment will not be automatically reserved for this project.

You can manually reserve equipment when a project is in Pending status:

1. Go to the Equipment tab of the project.
2. Click on "Reserve equipment" on top of the tab.

Reserve equipment for Confirmed projects

When you confirm a project, Rentman automatically reserves all the available equipment. You can also modify this reservation:

1. Open your project, and go to the Equipment tab.
2. Select  the item that you want to reserve.
3. Open the watch_later Timeline.
   
   
   In this example, our item is planned on two projects at the same time. In this time period, there are only 3 of our item in stock. However, both of these projects need 2 of our item.
4. Click the project that you want to reserve equipment for.
   For this example, we will choose Concert.
5. In the field "Reserved for project", enter the amount of this item you want to reserve.
   
   
6. Click  Save

2 units of this equipment have now been reserved for the project Concert. The "Warehouse stock" bar will reflect this reduction in available stock.

Change equipment allocation for projects

When clicking on the dropdown icon next to "Own equipment" in the reservation screen, you will get a view of where your equipment is located.

You can change your equipment allocation between projects when periods overlap. In this case, you can remove your items from "Project A" and assign them to "Project B". You can do this is by clicking on the project bar and changing the number of items you want to reserve in the pop-up screen. Select the amount of equipment you want to reserve from your warehouse stock by setting a number in the “reserved for project” field and save.

Project status: effect on the availability

The status of your project affects the availability of your equipment. It also determines whether the planned equipment items are reserved for the project, or not. See below for an overview:

Project's status	Planned equipment is subtracted from the equipment availability during the project period	Planned equipment is reserved on the project
Cancelled	No	No
Inquiry	Yes	No
Pending / Concept	Yes	Optional*
Confirmed / Prepped / On location	Yes	Yes

* by default, equipment is not reserved for projects that have a pending or concept status. However, you can always manually reserve equipment for pending projects.