PortaPottyBossPro Blog — Porta Potty Rental Software

Rental Tracking: Delivered Dates, Pickup Dates and Days Out on Every Job

Every portable toilet rental has a clock. It starts when the unit hits the ground and stops when it's back on the truck. In Standard, Deluxe, ADA, High-Rise, Hand Wash and Trailers: Setting Up Unit Types we covered what goes out. This article covers how long it's out, and how porta potty rental software keeps track so you don't have to.

The Four Fields of a Rental

Rental tracking in PortaPottyBossPro comes down to four pieces of information on the job:

• Delivered date: the day the units went out.
• Picked-up date: the day they came back.
• Days included: how many days the rental price covers.
• Per-day rate after: what each extra day costs.

The delivered and picked-up dates are recorded as the driver completes the delivery and the pickup. The days included and the per-day rate come from how you set up the rental.

What You See on the Lists

The lists show rental status right with the job, in plain words. A line like "Out since 10/3 (12 days, 4 extra)" tells you the units were delivered on October 3rd, they've been out 12 days, and 4 of those are past the days included. You don't need to open the job or do date math. Glance at the Waiting List or the Scheduled List and you can see which rentals have run long.

Short Rentals and Long Rentals

Rental tracking matters differently depending on the job.

For short rentals like a backyard party, a weekend event or a family reunion, the rental might include a few days. If the customer calls the following Thursday to say they're done, the extra days are real money, and they're easy to miss if you're tracking by memory.

For long rentals like construction projects, the units may be out for months with weekly service. Here the days-out count is less about extra charges and more about knowing what's on site and since when. Many companies bill those projects by the month instead, using monthly accounts.

For seasonal rentals, like a unit at a ball field for the summer or at a farm stand for the harvest, the days-out count lets you see at a glance how long the season has run so far, and plan the pickup when it ends.

Extra Days Without Arguments

The point of tracking days is to bill them fairly and without a fight. When the job is invoiced, the extra days are added automatically as an "Extra rental days" line. The customer sees the delivered date, the days included and the extra days, which makes the charge easy to understand. The details of that line are in Extra Rental Days: Billing the Days a Unit Stays Past the Rental.

The other thing that prevents arguments is telling customers the terms up front. Put the days included and the per-day rate in the estimate, and the customer approves it online before the units go out.

Using Rental Tracking to Plan Pickups

Rental status helps dispatch too. When a short rental is near the end of its included days, it's a good time to confirm the pickup with the customer by text. Two-way texting from the office makes that quick: a short message asking if they're done, and the reply comes back to the office. Then put the pickup on the Waiting List so it gets onto a truck.

On busy weekends, knowing which party and event rentals are due back Monday helps you plan the trucks before the calls come in.

Delivered and Picked-Up Dates Need Real Completes

Rental tracking is only as good as the dates. That means drivers need to tap Complete on deliveries and pickups when they actually happen, not at the end of the week. A delivery completed three days late shortens the rental on paper and costs you extra days. Make it a habit on the first day: drop the units, take a photo, tap Complete.

The same goes for the office side. If a delivery was set up with the wrong days included, the count will be wrong too. Check the rental terms when the job is created, and match them to what the customer approved on the estimate.

What Rental Tracking Isn't

Rental tracking follows the units on each job. It doesn't track units sitting in your yard, and the units don't carry trackers. It tells you what's out, where, since when, and what's owed for the extra time. For most companies, that's the information that's been missing.

Rentals and the Rest of the System

Rental tracking connects to the rest of the software: the units on the job, the driver's Complete taps, the invoice and the customer app, where customers can see their invoices and pay. For how it all fits together, see the porta potty rental software overview.