How to Change Equipment From Reserved to On Rent

Moving a rental contract line from Reserved to On Rent is the moment the hire actually starts: the equipment leaves your yard on paper, the line becomes billable, and Off Hire and Return open up.

Overview

Reserving equipment isn't the same as hiring it out. A Reserved line means the machine is committed to that contract and held back from everyone else, but as far as Latner is concerned it hasn't gone anywhere yet. Two things can move it On Rent.

Completing a transport docket is the normal route. Creating a Delivery or Customer Collection docket moves the line to Pending Delivery or Pending Collection, and completing that docket puts it On Rent.
Manual On Hire is the shortcut for jobs with no transport to record, such as a customer who picks the machine up off the counter. It moves a Reserved line straight to On Rent without a docket, and it has to be switched on first.
Either way, the rental contract itself moves from Reserved to Active as soon as the first line goes On Rent.
Reverse On Hire undoes a manual or delivered on hire and puts the line back to Reserved.
Quantities can be split. Put two of five units On Rent and the remaining three stay behind on their own Reserved line.

Before You Begin

The transport docket route needs nothing turned on. Manual On Hire and Reverse On Hire do.

Requirement	Where to Find It
Allow Manual On Rent switched on	Security › Settings › Rental
Manual On Hire permission	Security › Configuration › Permission Groups › Rental › Option
Reverse On Hire permission	Security › Configuration › Permission Groups › Rental › Option
An equipment number allocated to the line	The Equipment Number column on the contract's Details tab

Allow Manual On Rent lives in the Rental module of Global Settings and is off until you switch it on

Manual On Hire and Reverse On Hire are separate permissions, so you can let a team put equipment On Hire without letting them undo it

The setting gates the whole feature, not just the menu. With Allow Manual On Rent off, the On Hire option disappears from the contract's Options menu and the underlying request is refused even if someone has the permission. Turning the setting back off later doesn't undo anything already put On Rent.

Where a Reserved Line Sits

Open the rental contract and look at the Detail Status column on the Details tab. Equipment lines that are committed but not yet gone show Reserved, and each one carries a sub-status telling you what it is waiting for.

Pending PO or Payment - no invoice on the contract has been paid, and either the customer is cash on delivery or the contract has no purchase order recorded.
Pending Delivery Creation - the line is ready to go and just needs a docket (or a manual on hire).
Pending Equipment Allocation - the line is already on a docket but no specific equipment number has been picked.
Pending Run Up Inspection - the line is on a docket and an inspection is still open or waiting for approval.

Two Reserved equipment lines with their equipment numbers already allocated - the charge and sanitation lines beneath them stay Pending until the equipment moves

A line showing Pre-Allocated rather than Reserved is waiting on equipment that isn't available yet. You can't put it On Rent, and you don't have to do anything - Latner promotes it to Reserved automatically once the equipment frees up.

Putting Equipment On Rent With a Transport Docket

This is the standard path and the one that leaves the cleanest audit trail, because the delivery or collection is recorded as well as the status change.

Step 1 - Create the delivery or collection docket

From the contract, choose Options › Transport › Create Delivery (or create a customer collection docket if the customer is picking up). The line moves from Reserved to Pending Delivery, or to Pending Collection for a customer collection. The step-by-step for each docket type is covered separately.

How to Create an Internal Delivery Docket

How to Create an External Delivery Docket

How to Create a Customer Collection Docket

Line 1 has moved to Pending Delivery now that a docket exists, while line 2 is still Reserved and waiting for one

While that docket is open, the line is committed to it. It appears in the Manual On Hire window in a second, read-only table rather than as something you can select, with a link straight to the docket holding it up.

The read-only table in Manual On Hire naming the open docket - the fastest way to find out which transport is blocking a line

Step 2 - Complete the docket

Open the transport docket and choose Options › Complete Transport. Fill in Qty Delivered for each line, or use Select All to accept the full quantity, then select Complete. On an internal docket the driver can do this from their mobile device instead.

Completed Date - defaults to now; change it if the delivery happened earlier.
Driver - optional, and recorded against the docket rather than the rental line.
Qty Delivered - anything less than Qty Required is a partial delivery. The undelivered balance splits onto a fresh line, and on an internal docket a new docket is raised for it.

Complete Transport with the full quantity accepted - leaving Qty Delivered below Qty Required is what triggers a partial delivery

Step 3 - Check the line

Back on the contract, the delivered line now reads On Rent and the contract header has flipped to Active. Lines that weren't on the docket are untouched.

Line 1 is On Rent off the back of the completed docket while line 2 stays Reserved, and the contract itself is now Active

A docket won't complete if the equipment has an open inspection, if no equipment number has been allocated, or if the line is still Pre-Allocated. Clear the inspection or allocate the equipment first rather than reaching for Manual On Hire, which doesn't run those checks.

Putting Equipment On Rent Manually

Use this when there is genuinely no transport to record - a counter collection, a machine already sitting on the customer's site, or a docket that was never raised.

Step 1 - Open Manual On Hire

On the rental contract, choose Options › On Hire › Manual On Hire.

The On Hire sub-menu - each entry is gated by its own permission, and greys out when there is nothing in the right status to act on

Step 2 - Enter the quantities

The window lists every line currently in Reserved. Set Qty To On Hire against the lines you're releasing, or use Select All to fill in the full quantity on every line at once. Leave a line at 0 and it's ignored.

Qty Required - the quantity reserved on that line. You can't enter more than this.
Qty To On Hire - how much is actually going out. A smaller number splits the line, leaving the balance Reserved.

Manual On Hire with the full quantity selected on line 2 - only Reserved lines are listed here

Step 3 - Select On Hire

Select On Hire. Every selected line moves to On Rent and the contract becomes Active. At least one line needs a quantity above 0 or the window won't submit.

Both equipment lines are now On Rent, one through a completed docket and one through Manual On Hire

Reversing an On Hire

If a line went On Rent by mistake, Options › On Hire › Reverse On Hire puts it back. It works on any On Rent line, whether it got there through a docket or manually.

Set Qty To Reverse against the lines you're pulling back, or use Select All. A partial reversal splits the line, leaving the balance On Rent.

Reverse On Hire lists the completed docket behind each line, so you can see what you'd be contradicting before you commit

If any selected line came from a completed delivery or collection docket, Latner asks you to confirm. The docket is deliberately left alone - only the rental line and the equipment move.

The confirmation that appears when a reversal would contradict a completed docket

The reversed lines go back to Reserved, the equipment returns to Reserved, and the line's start meter reading is cleared.

Both lines back in Reserved after the reversal - note the contract header stays Active

Reversing an on hire does not put the contract back to Reserved, and it does not cancel or reopen a completed transport docket. If the delivery genuinely didn't happen, reopen or cancel the docket separately.

After the Equipment Goes On Rent

The equipment record's Rental Status becomes On Rent, and its quantity moves out of Reserved into On Rent. The customer, site and contract show on the equipment's Customer Details panel.
The line's Start Meter Reading is captured from the equipment's current meter reading.
Any open Run Up or Rental Return inspection on that equipment is marked Incomplete.
Recurring sanitation dockets attached to the line start their schedule.
The line becomes billable. Rental invoicing skips lines that are still Reserved, Pending Delivery, Pending Collection or Pre-Allocated.
The rental contract moves to Active, and Off Hire and Return become available for the line.

The equipment record showing Rental Status On Rent, with the customer, site and contract it went out on

Going On Rent is what makes a line billable, but it isn't what sets the charge period. Charging runs from the line's Start Date, so putting a line On Rent three days late doesn't shorten the bill - correct the Start Date if that's what you meant.

FAQs

There's no On Hire option in the contract's Options menu. Why?

Either Allow Manual On Rent is off under Security › Settings › Rental, or your permission group has neither Manual On Hire nor Reverse On Hire. The whole On Hire menu is hidden unless the setting is on and you hold at least one of the two.

Manual On Hire is there but greyed out.

Hover it and the tooltip tells you which of the three reasons applies: you don't hold the Manual On Hire permission, there are no lines in Reserved to put On Hire, or the contract is Completed, Cancelled or Lost.

One of my lines is in the second table in Manual On Hire and I can't select it.

That line already has an open transport docket, so it sits in Pending Delivery or Pending Collection rather than Reserved. Complete the docket to put the equipment On Rent, or cancel it if it was raised in error - the line then goes back to Reserved and becomes selectable.

I get an error saying the line has no Equipment Number allocated.

A line booked against an equipment class still needs a specific machine before it can go On Rent. Allocate the equipment number on the Details tab first. Sub hire lines need a Sub Hire Equipment Number instead.

Can I put out only part of the quantity?

Yes. Enter less than Qty Required and the line splits: the quantity you entered goes On Rent and the balance stays on a new Reserved line, which you can release later. Partial deliveries on a transport docket behave the same way.

Does Manual On Hire skip the run up inspection?

It does, and that's worth knowing before you rely on it. Completing a transport docket is blocked while an inspection is open, but Manual On Hire doesn't run that check - it puts the line On Rent and marks any open Run Up or Rental Return inspection as Incomplete. If run up inspections matter to you, deliver on a docket.

Does reversing an on hire cancel the delivery docket?

No. Latner warns you that the selected lines are linked to completed transport dockets and then leaves those dockets exactly as they are. Only the rental line and the equipment go back to Reserved.

Does the contract go back to Reserved when I reverse everything?

No. The contract stays Active once it has been activated, even if every line is reversed to Reserved. If the contract shouldn't have been started at all, cancel it instead.

My line says Pre-Allocated, not Reserved.

Pre-Allocated means the equipment isn't available yet - it's still out on another hire. Those lines can't be put On Rent and their transport dockets can't be completed. Latner promotes the earliest Pre-Allocated line to Reserved automatically as soon as the equipment becomes available.