In Rentman, you can plan your equipment items, kits, cases and accessories. In the Equipment tab of your project you decide what items to plan and how these will display on your quote. In this article we will guide you through planning equipment and the related options.

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How-to video

To quickly understand the basics of equipment planning you can watch the how-to video below. 

Note: This video contains content of additional licenses.

The equipment planning view

In Rentman, you always plan your equipment from the Equipment tab in a project.

On the left, you can see the equipment in your database. On the right, you find a list of all planned equipment. This information will also appear on your quote for the project (depending on your chosen template).

Note: to customize the view you can show or hide columns.

Rentman tip: you can edit values for multiple selected equipment items at once. Select  multiple items and click edit Edit.

Column values

Equipment groups

Equipment groups can be used to separate equipment in planning and documents. You can choose how you want to divide the equipment, for instance for different categories (audio, lights), locations (stages, rooms), or time periods.

Setting times for equipment groups

Every group has a planning period (period equipment leaves the warehouse) and usage period (period you charge on the quote).

By default, a new equipment group will take the same planning and usage period as the project. But you can also manually link the equipment group to a different time period.

Rentman Tip: If you use a standard structure of equipment groups, add them to a project template. When you create a new project select the template, so you won't have to create all the groups every time.

Rentman Tip: If you want to automatically order equipment on packing slips per folder structure or warehouse location, set this up in your document templates.

Add a new equipment group

To create a new equipment group:

1. Click on  + Equipment group
2. Enter a name and select a usage and planning period. By default, the usage and planning period are selected.

You can also set a time duration for the equipment group by clicking on a time period and selecting 'Enter a duration'.

To edit an equipment group, double-click on the equipment group name.

Add equipment group remark 

To add a remark to an equipment group, double-click on the equipment group name. Remarks can be shown in the quotation to describe the equipment group to your customer. Example: use the remark to explain your idea for an area.

Planning equipment items

How it works

In the Equipment tab, you find your equipment list with your items, kits, and cases on the left column. You can use the search function to quickly look for an item in your database.

Planning items from your database

You can plan equipment on your project in several ways: 

• Add items individually - add items individually by double-clicking on the item. This will copy one item from your database to the planning
• Add items in quantity - by clicking on the right side (under the quantity column) a text field will open where you can enter a manual quantity. 
• Add multiple different items at once -  by clicking on the search bar above the item, you can search and select multiple items, and add them all at once.  After selecting the first item, you can continue your search by clicking on the magnifying glass.  
  
  
  
  
• Quickly plan equipment with the use of shortcuts. 

Quickly plan items with the use of shortcuts: 

1. Select the search field with Alt + F and insert search.  
2. Press Enter to select first item row. 
3. Optional: Press Esc to deselect the current row and go back to the search bar 
4. Navigate through the items with the up down arrow keys.
5. Select the number column by hitting the space bar or any number key. 
6. Insert the numbers of items that you would like to add. 
7. Press Enter to add the equipment item to the planning. 

Automatically plan equipment with kits, cases, and accessories

Kits, cases, and accessories speed up your planning process.

Planning kits: The content of a kit (unlike the content of a case) can be changed. Click on chevron_right to open the kit. When kits are opened the number of items in the kit can directly be changed.

If you change the content of a kit inside a project, you can keep the same kit price or edit the kit price based on the new content. To do this, select the kit, click on the More actions more_vert  button and choose 'Edit kit price based on content'.

Planning with accessories: accessories are equipment items automatically or optionally planned in your project when planning that equipment item. Example: when planning a moving head light you might want to add a rain cover if the event is outside.

Adding a temporary item or comment line

Temporary items: Temporary items are useful to add a custom item for a specific project. A temporary item is not in your stock, and will therefore directly show as a shortage.

To add a temporary item:

1. Click next to  + Equipment group  on the More actions more_vert button
   
   
   
2. Choose 'Add temporary equipment'.

Comments: With comments, you can add information to your packing slip or quotation.

To add a comment:

1. Click next to  + Equipment group  on the More actions more_vert button
   
   
   
2. Choose Comment line.

Equipment availability when planning equipment

When planning items, Rentman takes your equipment availability into account. If you plan more items than what you have in stock, the item will become red to highlight the shortage. To see more information on the equipment availability open the availability timeline.

1. Select an equipment item.
2. Click watch_later Open timeline

• Reserving equipment - When your project is confirmed equipment is automatically reserved. By reserving equipment, you make sure that the equipment is set aside for the project.

Planning serial numbers

You can plan a specific item using serial numbers. To do this:

1. Select an item in your project and click the More actions more_vert button 
2. Click "Assign serial numbers". The pop-up screen that opens shows an overview of your serial numbers and their availability.
3. Select your preferred serial number and choose  Confirm  to book it for the project.

The serial number you've selected will be visible on the packing slip and in the booking screen of your warehouse module.

Optional equipment 

You can mark equipment as optional for a project.  This is useful for letting a customer choose between different items, kits or cases. Additionally, this allows you to offer extra items to a customer.

Using default equipment groups

With default equipment groups, planned equipment can be moved to its specified default group by a simple action. This will eliminate the need to select groups while planning, or drag & drop afterwards. The default equipment group can be set for every individual equipment item.
How to move the items to the default groups:

1. Select the items you want to be moved to its default group and click the More actions more_vert button 
2. Click "Place in default group".
3. A popup will appear asking if you are sure you want to do this. Click  Move  to move the items in their default groups. The popup can be hidden by selecting "Skip this popup next time".

The items you've selected will now be in the equipment groups that are defined in the data screen of your equipment module.

Hiding equipment on a quote (but not on the packing slip)

You can hide equipment from quotations and invoices, while still showing it in your packing slip. This way you can avoid filling your documents with items your clients don't care to know about (e.g. cables). You have 4 options to do this:

• Hide an equipment group - Double-click on an equipment group name, and select 'No' in the "Show in price calculation" box
• Price accessories as 0 - Make sure to setup your templates to hide items with price = 0 (take into account that equipment items discounted 100% will not be shown either)
• Default behavior for kit/case content - Set up a kit/case so that its content isn't shown in financial documents
• Override and hide - During document generation, all kit/case content can be hidden (or shown) regardless of the default behavior of the kit/case content