Beta feature - visible only on your account
You're one of a small group of customers trying per-item equipment times ahead of general availability in Q4 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:
- Planning: set a time per equipment line, with bulk and group editing still available.
- Warehouse module: the overview now shows packing moments - one entry per pickup or return date, instead of whole subprojects.
- Project status: the subproject status becomes a pure project-management status, with a new warehouse progress indicator.
Nothing about your existing data changes: no projects, equipment, or history are converted. You only see a difference where you choose to set individual item times.
Before you start
Set up your packing slip template first.
Packing slips are becoming their own document type so you can print one per packing moment. There is no default template yet, so before you rely on this in the warehouse: go to your document template library, add a new packing moment template, and build at least a basic layout. Without this, staff won't have a paper packing slip to print per moment.
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.
- 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.
Items you don't 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. |
| 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.
- 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
The warehouse overview now shows a card per packing moment - every unique pickup or return date in a subproject — instead of one card for the whole subproject.
- Cards appear in both tile and list view, show the time prominently, and are marked Going out or Returning. They still keep the project context you're used to.
- A moment's status is derived automatically from the status of its items (Confirmed → Prepped → On location → Expected back → Returned → Delayed) — you can't set it manually on the moment itself.
- You can bulk-book several packing moments at once from list view.
- You can assign specific warehouse workers to individual moment cards.
- 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
- 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 "not taken"
If an item shouldn't go out after all — damaged, over-ordered — mark it as not taken in the booking screen (permission-based, available on web and in the app). The rest of the packing moment isn't blocked: its status is driven by the remaining items. The planner sees the skipped item flagged in the Equipment tab, and you can undo the marking at any time.
Delaying an item
Select the item, pick a new end date, and Rentman automatically creates a <item name> - Delayed time schedule entry using the original start time and the new end date. Delaying a whole group where items have different start times creates one delayed entry per unique start time, so nothing gets merged incorrectly.
Project status change
Because packing moments now carry the warehouse status, the subproject status becomes a pure project-management status:
Inquiry → Concept → Option → Confirmed → In progress → Finalizing → Completed
- In progress is set automatically once the first item is booked in the warehouse.
- Finalizing is set automatically once all equipment from every packing moment is back in the warehouse.
- Completed 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Turn it on once the plan is locked — its packing moments immediately appear in the warehouse overview and the crew can start preparing.
- On launch, every existing subproject starts out not ready to pack, so you can roll this into your workflow gradually rather than all at once. From the project list, you can also bulk-mark several subprojects as ready to pack in one action.
- 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.
A separate warehouse permission lets specific user roles see all packing moments regardless of ready-to-pack status — useful for warehouse managers who need full visibility of everything coming up. This permission is switched on for every user role by default at launch, so your warehouse overview won't suddenly look emptier unless you choose to restrict it later.
Known limitations during beta
- No default packing moment document template is included yet, see Before you start above.
- Rentman Mobile app coverage for the new warehouse overview, booking, and return booking is still rolling out.