Long-term Rental: Inventory and Preferences

Tips and Notes | Rent Out Equipment | Rental Returns

Pro

Use this procedure to set up inventory and preferences to track long-term rentals. This example is for piano rentals by the month; adjust for your needs.

1. Add your rental pianos as an inventory item in the normal manner, recording the actual cost and a sales price (not rental price). This adds the pianos value to your inventory and allows you to sell the pianos at any time by listing this item on a sales receipt.

2. Create a second inventory item, with the same quantity, called "Rental Pianos", with a cost and price equal to zero. You will list this item on a sales order when renting out a piano.

Unit Tracking: If you want to track rentals by specific unit, identify each unit with a unique serial number and select the Serial Number Tracking field in inventory for this item.

3. Define a service item with a description of "Piano Rental Charge", with a cost of $0 and a price equal to one months rental charge.

4. If you require a security deposit on rented pianos, set up another service item in inventory called "Piano Rental Deposit" with a $0 cost and the required deposit amount as the price.

Tip: You can map each of these items to the QuickBooks financial software income account you prefer on the Additional Info tab of the item form. See the note about posting the security deposit amount.

5. On the Sales Order page of company preferences:

- Define a custom sales order status of "Rented."

- If you completed Step 4 above, set your sales order deposit requirements to something other than "Require an Initial Deposit."

- Optionally, define a printed sales order message, such as your policy on equipment damage, late charges, or injury liability.

6. On the Financial page of company preferences, select the option to send receipts and vouchers with D etailed Item Descriptions to your QuickBooks financial software.

Related Topics

Add inventory items

Use service items

Serial number tracking

Sales order preferences

Map item financial accounts

Send detailed descriptions to QuickBooks

Long-term rental overview