Documentation
Equipment Rentals
Run a rental counter with Simple Forms: customers sign the rental agreement on their own phone and scan a QR sticker on each item they take; staff scan the sticker to check it back in. You always know what is out, who has it and when it is due.
How it works
- Stickers — every kayak, bike or tool gets a QR label.
- Agreement — the customer scans the QR code at your counter, fills in the rental form on their phone, scans the stickers of the items they take and signs.
- Out — those items show as Out on that agreement, with the return time.
- Back in — staff scan the sticker and tap Returned OK or Returned with damage.
Every signed agreement becomes a protected PDF with the customer’s details, the items, any known damage with photos, your terms and the signature.
Setup checklist
About 20 minutes the first time. Everything is under Forms in your dashboard.
| 1. Your time zone | Equipment → Settings → Your time zone. Return times on agreements are read in this time zone, so set it first. |
|---|---|
| 2. The rental form | Build a Form and pick Equipment rental agreement under Rentals & bookings. Change the terms to your own and Save. The template already has the equipment field, the return date and time, and a signature. |
| 3. Return date and time | In the builder, open the date field and set Used for to Return date of the rental; do the same for the time field. This is what makes overdue alerts work. (The template has this already.) |
| 4. Add your items | Equipment → Add equipment — a name (e.g. Kayak) and how many; each gets its own number and sticker. If you already number your items, enter Your own number. Record any existing damage now with photos so the first renter sees it. |
| 5. Print the stickers | Print all labels or select some and Print labels for selected. Labels print 12 per Letter page (2.5″ squares); weatherproof label stock lasts longest outdoors. |
| 6. Link stickers to the form | Equipment → Settings → Rental form a sticker opens: choose your rental form. A customer who scans a sticker with the phone camera then gets the form with that item already added. |
| 7. Counter PIN | Equipment → Settings → Counter PIN (4–6 digits) so staff can check items in without your login. |
| 8. The counter QR code | On the Forms page, click QR next to your rental form and print it for the counter or the door. |
Renting out
The customer scans the counter QR code, fills in their details, taps Scan equipment and points the phone at each sticker. Each item appears in the form with its name. If an item has known damage, the form shows it with the photos and it is printed in the PDF, so the customer accepts the condition as recorded before signing.
After signing, the items are Out on that agreement. The customer gets a copy of the PDF by email; you get the submission in Submissions.
- If an item is rented again before it was checked in, the old rental is closed and flagged not checked in.
- Staff can fill in the form for a customer on a counter tablet — the steps are the same.
Returns and damage
Scan the item’s sticker with any phone. Logged in to YourProDesk, or after entering the counter PIN, you see who has it, since when and when it is due, and these buttons:
| Returned OK | The item is available again. |
|---|---|
| Returned with damage | Add a note and photos. They are linked to that agreement and become the item’s known damage, so the next renter sees it. |
| Record damage | For an item that is in — e.g. damage found during a check. |
| Repaired | Clears the known damage once it is fixed. |
Nobody needs to look up the agreement: each item knows which agreement it is out on.
Staff and the counter PIN
On a sticker page, staff tap Staff and enter the counter PIN. It unlocks only check-ins and damage for your equipment — nothing else in your account — and stays open on that phone for 12 hours, or until they tap Lock this phone. Five wrong tries lock the PIN for 10 minutes. Change the PIN when someone leaves.
Customer self-return
For a drop-off spot without staff, switch on Customers can return items themselves under Equipment → Settings. A customer who scans a rented item then sees Confirm return, with an optional photo and note. Anything they report is added as known damage marked reported by customer, so check those items before the next rental. Anyone holding the item can do this, so leave it off when staff check items in.
Overdue items
An item still out 30 minutes after its return time shows as Overdue on the Equipment page (with an Overdue filter) and on its sticker page — on every plan that includes equipment.
| Email to you | Pro and Business: we check every hour and email you the items that have just become overdue, with the renter and the due time. One email per item. |
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| Reminder to the customer | Optional, per form, and off unless you switch it on: in the builder, open the equipment field and tick Email the customer a reminder if items are overdue. One polite reminder per agreement, from your business name. |
Overdue needs a return date on the agreement (setup step 3). Without a return time, the item is due at the end of the return day.
History, search and export
- Equipment lists each item as Available, Out (with the renter and due time), Overdue or with damage. Open shows the item’s full history; Agreements lists every agreement it was rented on.
- In Submissions, each agreement shows its items and whether they came back. Filter by item to see everyone who rented it.
- Search by name, email or any answer and Export to Excel (Starter and above) — e.g. all rentals last month.
Disputes and proof
A signed agreement is a protected record (included in the 1 credit the signed submission uses). The PDF gets a verification page and a line on every page with a link to verify.yourprodesk.com, and its fingerprint is recorded on a blockchain ledger, signed by YourProDesk and anchored in a public blockchain, so it can be checked even without YourProDesk. Anyone — the customer, an insurer, a card company — can open the link or scan its QR code, see when it was signed, and add a copy of the PDF to check that it was not changed.
Together with the known-damage photos the customer saw before signing and the photos taken at return, this is usually all you need to settle a damage claim or a chargeback.
What each plan includes
| Free | Rental forms (up to 3 forms) — no equipment tracking. |
|---|---|
| Starter | Up to 25 items with stickers, branding, search and Excel export. |
| Pro | Up to 200 items, plus overdue emails and customer reminders. |
| Business | Unlimited items, and your forms on your own domain (e.g. forms.yourcompany.com). |
On every plan, each signed agreement uses 1 credit. See Simple Forms pricing, and the Simple Forms guide for everything else about building and sharing forms.