The ROI report helps you understand how profitable your rental products are.
It compares the revenue generated from rentals with the purchase cost of your inventory to calculate the Return on Investment (ROI) for each product.
This helps you answer questions like:
Which products have already paid for themselves?
Which products generate the most profit?
How long does it take for inventory to recover its purchase cost?
Before you start
To calculate ROI, Booqable needs to know the purchase price of your inventory.
You can set this using the Default purchase price on your product or by entering purchase costs when adding stock.
If no purchase price is recorded, the ROI report cannot calculate profit or ROI.
Setting a default purchase price
You can set a Default purchase price on a product so that new inventory automatically receives a purchase cost.
To set it:
Go to Inventory
Open a product
Click on the Pricing tab
Scroll down and enter a Default purchase price
Save changes
When you add stock, this value will automatically be filled in.
You can always change the purchase price when adding or removing stock if the actual cost of the items differs.
The default purchase price is also used for existing inventory when generating historical reports, ensuring ROI calculations work even for products added earlier.
Inventory tracking types
The way purchase costs are recorded depends on how your product tracks inventory.
Individually tracked products
Some products track individual stock items, such as cameras or generators. Each item can have its own purchase price.
When adding stock:
The default purchase price is automatically applied
You can change the purchase price for individual items when adding them
You can also edit the purchase price later per stock item
The ROI report calculates costs based on the purchase price of each individual item.
Quantity-tracked products
Some products track quantities instead of individual items, such as cables, chairs, or small accessories.
These products can also have a default purchase price.
However, when adding or removing stock in bulk, you can specify the purchase price per item for that stock adjustment.
For example:
You add 5 cables with a purchase cost of €1 per cable
Later, you remove 1 cable and specify that it cost €1
The ROI report calculates costs using the purchase price recorded for those quantities, ensuring accurate profit calculations.
You can review and update these purchase costs later in the Stock activity tab of the product.
Viewing and editing stock activity
For quantity-tracked products, purchase costs are recorded through stock activity entries. These entries represent actions such as adding or removing stock.
You can review and edit these entries in the Stock activity tab of a product.
To view stock activity:
Go to Inventory
Open a quantity-tracked product
Click the Stock activity tab
This tab shows a history of stock changes, including:
Stock added or removed
Purchase cost per item
Purchase date
Availability period
This information is used by the ROI report to calculate the purchase cost of your inventory.
Editing purchase cost or purchase date
If the purchase cost or purchase date was entered incorrectly, you can update it.
To edit a stock activity entry:
Open the Stock activity tab
Find the stock entry you want to update
Click Edit
Update the purchase cost or purchase date
Save your changes
Updating this information will ensure the ROI report calculates profit and return on investment correctly.
How purchase cost is calculated
The Purchase cost shown in the ROI report represents the total cost of the inventory that was available during the selected reporting period.
This includes inventory that:
Was available during the reporting period
Was purchased earlier but still part of your inventory
Was removed during the reporting period
Inventory that was removed before the reporting period started or temporary stock used for short-term rentals is not included.
This ensures the ROI report reflects the actual inventory that generated revenue during the selected period.
When purchase cost is not shown
If a product has no purchase cost recorded at all, the report will display a dash (—) instead of a value.
This means that no purchase price has been entered for the product or its inventory.
Because ROI calculations require a purchase cost, the following columns will also show a dash:
Purchase cost
Profit
ROI
To resolve this, add a default purchase price or enter purchase costs when adding stock.
ROI calculation example
Here is a simple example of how ROI is calculated.
A rental company purchases 5 cables for €10 each.
Total purchase cost:
5 × €10 = €50
Over time, these cables generate €120 in rental revenue.
Profit is calculated as:
€120 revenue − €50 purchase cost = €70 profit
ROI is then calculated as:
€70 ÷ €50 = 140% ROI
This means the cables have already returned their purchase cost and generated additional profit.