Asset tracking for a rental company is a vital part of daily operations. Problems that may arise due to poor tracking methods range from minor to major such as turnover delays, inventory management concerns, or even damages and loss. Using a manual tracking system through a ledger, spreadsheet, or even legacy software without modern functions can be time-consuming and prone to errors.
If you are running a rental operation, no matter the niche, investing in rental tracking software with features that can complement your business is advisable. Below is some information we can share to paint a clearer picture of what rental tracking software is, its implementation, and how it works.
Features and Benefits
Rental tracking software is designed to take a huge amount of workload from its user, tasks that are usually time-consuming and burdensome can be easily automated.
Let’s take a look at our bottom line. A rental company gains profit from assets that can repeatedly be used by its customers, the more time the assets are in production, the more money they can make. Therefore, it is only natural that the tools you invest in can protect and prolong your assets.
While scouting for a modernized rental tracking software, you should consider looking for the following features:
- Location tracking (Eg. GPS tracking especially for more expensive rental assets)
- Provides an overview of your inventory
- Time tracking while in production (currently rented out)
- Ability to schedule preventive maintenance
- Shows real-time information about the condition of your assets
- Intuitively provides reminders such as the number of stocks available
- Rental sales summary
Rental tracking software also provides access to a broader perspective of your business. Information that has been previously unavailable could be easily extracted with a click of a button.
Types of Tracking for a Rental Business
The main benefits of rental tracking software revolve around three essential types of tracking, time, location, and reports.
Time
When we talk about time in a rental business, it refers to how much time the asset is in production or rented out. Assets can be rented hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, or even longer depending on the contract. Tracking time is also important for preventive maintenance that can expand the lifespan of your asset. Remember that if we lose track of time, we lose track of money.
Location
Different types of location-tracking technology have been introduced and are continuously being innovated. With the help of location trackers such as global positioning systems (GPS) and satellite tracking, rental companies are given an additional layer of security by installing these systems on expensive assets such as vehicles, heavy equipment, etc. Modern rental tracking software can show you the real-time location of your valuable assets.
Reports
Tracking reports are important for the long-term planning of your business. It is hard to predict what comes next without historical data. All businesses enter a yearly planning phase where they identify milestones, targets, and strategies to break boundaries or prepare for the next business cycle.
Businesses that operate blindly without studying reports are taking a huge risk. Modern rental tracking software should have convenient ways to generate and save information that can be used to future-proof your business.
Implementation
When implementing rental tracking software, these common steps are important for users to fully grasp the upcoming changes and utilize them at full capacity:
- Selection: Software selection should be based on what features you need for your business.
- Demo Integration: If your company has legacy software and other services connected to it, there will be a need to integrate them into the new software. Rental integration teams will be able to ensure that all services are connected and fully functional once you go live.
- User Acceptance Test: Change wouldn’t happen without acceptance. Users need to test out the new system and check for errors. In most cases, users realize how efficient the software can be.
- Go Live: Able to use the software to its full potential.
Working with your Rental Tracking Software
Whether you have a full workforce, a family business, or a humble one-man team, you must identify a rental workflow. To do this, features that are important for certain departments should be specified. While using the software, you will be able to observe that certain features are important for sales, marketing, operations, administration, accounting, and finance.
Once you have identified each function, a new and convenient workflow will emerge. Possibilities like a better eCommerce integration can be explored, Inventory management would be easier, extracting reports would be faster, and you will never miss a scheduled maintenance.
