In this article, you'll learn what happens when you book a delivery that needs more units than you have free on those dates, and how an admin approves or declines it. It means you can say yes to a customer on the phone and sort out the shortage after, without it slipping through.
Asset Tracking has to be switched on first. If you don't see Asset Tracking in your menu, turn it on in Features.
There's no setting to turn on for this. Your stock is counted per size, per day: every delivery holds a unit of its size from the delivery date until it's due back. Any booking can go below zero on a day, but when it does, it waits for an admin to say yes or no. Each booking is approved on its own.
Seeing the shortage on the new-job form
When you pick a job type that delivers a unit, the new-job form shows a rental box with Unit, How many, Rental days (and Rate, if that size has rates in your price book). Once you've chosen a size and a date, it tells you what's free.
- Choose the job type, the size under Unit, and the date.
- Read the line under the fields:
- Green means there's room, for example "3 of 5 free for these 7 days". If it ends with "this takes the last", you're booking the last one.
- Red means you're short. It says how many are free on the tightest day, then "this booking would oversell" and the size.
- If there's an earlier date that fits, the red box says "The earliest date it fits is" with the date, and a Use button with that date. Click it to move the job there.
- If you leave the date as it is, the box says "Booked as is, it waits for an admin's approval."
When you click Create on a booking that's short, the web form asks you to confirm before it books it. Say OK and the job is created and waits for approval.
What the job shows while it waits
Open the job and look at its Rental block. You'll see a yellow box titled Needs inventory approval that says how many units the job asks for, how many are free on the tightest day, and the earliest date it would fit.
If you're an admin, you'll see two buttons:
- Click Approve anyway to keep the booking as it is.
- Or click Decline to turn it down.
Everyone else sees "An admin has been notified." The CRM also sends a push notification titled Booking needs inventory approval with the job number, the size, the date and how many are free.
Approving from the Availability tab
If several bookings are waiting, it's quicker to answer them in one place.
To open Availability:
- In the menu, click Asset Tracking.
- Click the Availability tab.
At the top you'll see Waiting for approval, listing each booking with its job, customer, how many units of which size, and the date. Click a row to open the job.
- Click Approve to book it anyway.
- Or click Decline to turn it down.
Below the list is the Free units, next 28 days table. A booking that's waiting still holds its slot, so a day it oversells shows as -1, in red. Hover a number on the web (or tap it on the app) to see how it's worked out.
After you approve or decline
- Approved: the booking keeps its slot and the job's Rental block shows an Approved oversell pill, so you know to find a unit for it.
- Declined: the slot is released and the Rental block says "The oversell was declined — pick another date or size, or cancel the job." Move the job to a date or size that fits and the warning clears.
On the phone app
All of this works the same in the app. The new-job form shows the same free count, warning and Use button. The job's Rental section has Needs inventory approval with Approve anyway and Decline, and Asset Tracking's Availability tab has the Waiting for approval list with Approve and Decline.
Related articles
- Tracking your rental units with Asset Tracking
- Putting a unit on a job
- How to add units to your inventory
- Linking price book items to your units
- How to create jobs