Every rental business owner knows that having to throw away or repair products that are returned damaged is almost inevitable.
Booqable has worked to make this unfortunate and hopefully uncommon event as streamlined a process as possible.
How it works
When an item is returned damaged, you will either wish to.
Remove it from your inventory altogether.
Remove it from your inventory, and schedule the arrival of replacement stock in your inventory.
Place it as temporarily unavailable while it is being repaired.
You can achieve all of these scenarios in Booqable, with a combination of different steps to make sure these damages are accounted for, and your stock levels are adjusted accordingly to prevent any incorrect reservations in the future.
In all scenarios, it all starts from the individual reservations page in Booqable.
1. How to handle security deposits when returning damaged products
For products that are damaged, but will return to your inventory after repairs have been conducted, follow these steps to charge the security deposit.
1. Click on the order in question from the reservations page of your Booqable main menu.
2. Move the order status from picked up to returned to finalize the booking.
3. Select all check buttons (as displayed in the image below).
4. (Optional) In case you want to keep the security deposit, enter the amount that will be held, as well as the reason for not returning the deposit.
5. Click the green Return 2/2 items.
5. (Optional) If you decide to keep the security deposit because items are returned damaged, you can take them out of the inventory or make them temporarily unavailable for repair.
In both scenarios, you’d need to mark an item as 'Returned' that is lost or damaged to finalize the booking.
This is done by selecting all check buttons (as displayed in the image below) and clicking ‘Return 2/2 items’.
In case you want to keep the security deposit, add the amount that will be held + the reason for not returning the deposit.
The amount will be deducted from the security deposit.
💡 Note: A custom line will automatically be added to the order with the security deposit amount kept and the reason once you proceed. If you need to charge more than the security deposit amount, you can add another custom line charge.
6. To make the product unavailable for rent while it’s being repaired, follow the steps outlined in How to schedule downtime for your products.
2. Removing damaged items from inventory
1. To delete the product from your inventory, you must first hover your mouse over the damaged product, and click the blue View in inventory link.
2. On the correct stock item, click the trash bin icon on the right-hand side to permanently delete this item.
3. Otherwise, to delete a bulk product, adjust the number by clicking on the minus symbol or entering a negative amount.
4. You also have the option of leaving a note in the product section and in the order section that the item was lost, and the date this occurred.
💡Note: Deleting products from the inventory will not make you lose any data, this will remain registered in the reports section (reports > product performance) which provides a perfect overview of deleted items.
5. If you want to have the replacement value registered. This can be done within the inventory panel of this product by manually adding a column (see below) and naming it something like replacement value, or replacement cost, and adding the amount:
3. Scheduling replacement stock
If you know you will order more stock to replace this damaged item, Booqable has worked to automate that event as much as possible with advanced stock settings.
1. In the inventory panel of this product, click the blue Add stock items button.
2. In the pop-up box, click the arrow button next to Advanced settings.
3. In the Available from field, enter in the date you will receive the new stock in your store. You can also fill in the Available till field if this is only temporary stock (used by seasonal businesses or those subletting items). Click the Add stock item button.
4. Conducting routine maintenance on a product
To mark a product as unavailable for maintenance, check out our downtime feature and learn all the steps from the following article: How to schedule downtime for your products.
You're all set!
You have now successfully learned how to handle product damages, repairs, and maintenance in Booqable.