Beta feature - visible only for particular accounts
You are one of a small group of customers trying per-item equipment times ahead of general availability in mid-October 2026.
Please note that behavior may still change before the full launch. Found something odd or have feedback? Reach out to your Rentman contact - we read every note during the beta.
Today, equipment times are tied to the whole equipment group, so a lighting truss and its projectors are reserved for the same full period even if they actually go out on different days. With this beta, every item can have its own planning and usage period. Three things change as a result:
Before you start
A default packing slip template is included in your template library.
Packing slips are becoming their own document type so you can print one per packing moment. A default packing moment template is already available in your document template library, so your crew will have a paper packing slip to print per moment right away. Want a different layout? Head to the template library to customize it.
Setting a time on equipment item
- Open the Equipment tab of a project.
- Click the Planning period or Usage period cell on an equipment line. A dropdown opens listing the time schedule entries available for the main project and the subproject you're in - hover any entry to see its exact start and end date/time.
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Select an entry to assign it to that item, or choose + Add new time to create one on the spot (just give it a name and start/end) - it's assigned to the line as soon as you save.
Any time you create this way through the dropdown is also added to the project's Time Schedule tab, so it's available to reuse on other items too.
Items you do not touch simply keep following the project's default planning period - you never have to set times item by item unless you want to deviate.
Editing multiple items at once
| Bulk edit | Select several items and use the edit action to apply one planning/usage period to all of them in one go. |
| Equipment group edit | Apply one period to an entire equipment group at once - handy when only one item in the group needs to deviate later, and everything else can stay on the group's time. |
Special cases
- Combinations: content items inside a combination inherit the combination's time and can't be given a different time from the combination or their siblings. For virtual combinations this is slightly more subtle: each item inside a virtual combination gets its own planning period, but all items still share the same usage period, so factors for the whole virtual combo calculate correctly.
- Sales projects: if you don't need planning/usage times at all, you can set a duration only.
- Pricing: the total price and factor recalculate automatically based on each item's own usage period, so partial-period rentals are billed correctly.
The Warehouse module: packing moments
| Because items can now leave and return on different days, the Warehouse module works in packing moments. The overview shows one tile per pickup or return date instead of one tile per subproject, and your crew sees only the equipment going out or coming back at that moment. |
- A moment's status is derived automatically from the status of its items (Confirmed → Prepped → On location → Expected back → Returned → Delayed) - you cannot set it manually on the moment itself. The moment always takes the lowest status among its items: if every item is On location except one that's still Confirmed, the packing moment stays on Confirmed until that item catches up.
- You can bulk-book several packing moments at once from list view.
- You can assign specific warehouse workers to individual moment tiles.
- You can add a note to a specific moment: from the project's Notes section, mark a note "visible in warehouse" and choose which moment(s) it applies to.
- Warehouse overview filters (date, status) now work per moment —-filtering by date shows you the moment's date, not the full subproject range.
Booking a packing moment
Booking equipment itself does not change - everything below works exactly like it always has.
What's new is a dedicated packing moment packing slip document type: your existing document templates keep working exactly as they are, and this new packing slip type sits alongside them so you can print one specifically for each packing moment.
- Book items manually using the arrow icons, or use "Book everything" (web) to book all remaining items in the moment at once.
- Scan additional items beyond what was planned if needed.
- If a container's actual contents differ from what was planned, a container-content matching screen lets you update the contents before booking it out.
- Scanning respects your configured scan preferences, using a real scanner where available.
Marking an item as "Leave equipment behind"
If an item shouldn't go out after all - damaged, over-ordered - mark it as 'leave behind' in the booking screen (permission-based).
The rest of the packing moment isn't blocked: its status is driven by the remaining items. For this beta, marking an item as not taken removes it entirely from the project rather than just flagging it - a simpler MVP approach while we explore a better version of this down the line.
Project status change
Because packing moments now carry the warehouse status, the subproject status becomes a pure project-management status:
Cancelled → Inquiry → Draft → Pending → Confirmed → In progress → Execution done → Complete
- In progress is set automatically once the first item is booked in the warehouse.
- Execution done is set automatically once all equipment from every packing moment is back in the warehouse.
- Complete is still set by you once the project is fully wrapped up.
- A new warehouse progress indicator (grey = not in warehouse yet, green = on track, red = one or more moments behind schedule) sits alongside your existing project progress indicators.
Warehouse statuses — Prepped, On location, Returned, and any custom warehouse statuses you created — no longer appear in the Subproject status dropdown in the Projects module.
If you created custom warehouse statuses in Configuration module, these statuses are not deleted. They no longer appear in the Subproject status dropdown list in the Projects module when you work on a project.
If you use a custom "Ready to Pack" status today: please see below.
Marking a subproject "Ready to pack"
Many teams today create a custom "Ready to Pack" warehouse status and have the project manager set it manually once planning is finalized - it's essentially the digital version of walking a packing slip over to the warehouse.
Because custom warehouse statuses are moving off the subproject, that workaround gets a proper, built-in replacement: a Ready to pack toggle in the Equipment tab of a Project.
- Leave it off while you're still finalizing the equipment plan — the warehouse won't see (or start on) that subproject's packing moments yet, so nobody packs too early.
- Click on 'Hidden' so it will switch to 'Visible' once the plan is locked - its packing moments immediately appear in the warehouse overview and the crew can start preparing.
- Once an item from a subproject has already been booked in the warehouse, the toggle can no longer be switched back off — it's disabled with a tooltip explaining why.
- If a warehouse manager books an item from a subproject that isn't marked ready to pack yet, they'll get a heads-up, and the subproject is automatically marked ready to pack for them.
Known limitations during beta
- Rentman Mobile app coverage for the new warehouse overview, booking, and return booking is still rolling out.