Equipment times update: schedule equipment the way your projects really run

Real productions rarely move in one piece. On a five-day festival, the lighting truss goes out on Monday for rigging, the projectors in the same "Main stage" group aren't needed until Wednesday, and some of the rigging equipment comes back early on Thursday. Until now, every item in an equipment group shared one planning period, so your planning followed the group, not the job.

We've always built Rentman together with you, our users, and a lot of you have asked for the same thing: more flexibility in how you schedule your equipment. From 26 October onwards, the Equipment times update brings that into Rentman, letting you set equipment times per item, not just per group.

Now you can:

• Give any equipment item its own times, so it follows the job, not the group
• Keep your availability accurate, so equipment you don't need yet stays free for other jobs
• Keep quotes organized in the equipment groups you intended
• Give your warehouse a clear daily view of what goes out and what comes back

Built from your feedback

Your feedback kept pointing to the same situation: multi-day projects where items in one group go out and come back on different days. To give them separate times, many of you split equipment into extra groups. That worked, but it cluttered quotes and packing slips, and it made availability harder to trust.

So we started with the planning itself, then followed it all the way through to the warehouse, your project statuses, and your documents.

What's new with the Equipment times update

Plan each item on its own schedule

Give any equipment item its own planning and usage period. Pick a moment from the time schedule on the equipment line, or create a new one from the same dropdown. Items you don't change keep following the (sub)project default, so you only touch what's different.

Back at the festival, the projectors can stay in the "Main stage" group but aren't planned until Wednesday. Rentman shows them as available on Monday and Tuesday, so they can go out on another job first. That means fewer shortages and double-bookings, and more use of the equipment you already own.

Tip: Need to change several items at once? Select them and bulk-edit their times, or edit a whole equipment group in one go.

Pack what's due today

When the planning for a subproject is done, mark it as Ready to pack, and its packing lists appear in the warehouse. The warehouse overview now shows a packing list for every pickup or return date, each as its own tile, so your crew sees only what's due that day.

See where every project stands

Project statuses now keep up on their own. A project moves to In progress when the first item is booked out, and to Execution done once all its equipment is back. When your invoicing and wrap-up are done, mark it as Complete. Along the way, a warehouse progress indicator shows at a glance whether a project is on track.

A note on document templates: If you use custom templates, use the equipment block to show each item's times. The equipment group block shows one time range for the whole group.

What happens to your existing projects

Your existing projects stay the same, with equipment group times copied over to each equipment item. If you don't need different times per item, you can keep working exactly as you do today.

Using the Rentman mobile app? Make sure you and your crew are on version 55 or later. Older versions won’t show all your projects once the Equipment times update reaches your workspace.

Using custom quote or packing slip templates? Since planning times now live on individual items, your templates need the equipment block, rather than the equipment group block, to display times. This only applies to new projects. Projects that are already running won’t be affected.

What's next

On its own, this update makes your planning more accurate. It's also the foundation for what comes next, like moving equipment straight from one project to another without needing to return to the warehouse in between. We'll keep building it step by step, together with you, so keep the feedback coming.

Get started with the Equipment times update

The Equipment times update arrives in workspaces from 26 October onwards. Want the full picture? Check out our guide to the Equipment times update.

Prefer to see it in action? Watch the webinar recording for a walkthrough of what’s changing and answers to the questions other Rentman users asked live.

Got questions or ideas? Join the conversation in the Rentman Community to swap tips with other users and our team.

The Equipment times update is available for all users with Rentman's Inventory product. Feel free to reach out to your CSM or Rentman's support team for help.