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. 

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.

Cross-docking overview

Rentman's cross-docking overview provides you with a unified summary of all the items leaving or returning to the warehouse in the next 12, 24, or 48 hours that have an overlap. 

You can use this overview to effectively save significant amounts of time and energy in your warehouse.

To know more about cross-docking overview and how to use it, read this article.

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:

* 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.