A subrental is equipment you rent from another company for a set window, usually to cover a big event weekend. You add it under Inventory → Subrentals, and PortaPro gives you real units you can book on jobs like your own, but only between the dates you have them. When they go back, PortaPro records what they cost.
Add a subrental
PortaPro creates one unit per quantity, numbered SR12-01, SR12-02 and so on. These numbers sit outside your own unit numbering and are never included in printed tag orders.
Booking subrented units
How subrented units are counted
| Where | Subrented units |
|---|---|
| Inventory product cards (stock, available) | Counted only on the days you have them, with a note like *Incl. 10 subrented* |
| Availability and the job wizard's unit list | Counted only inside the subrental window |
| Reports → Units Deployed | Counted only inside the window, marked *(subrented)*, with a Subrented tile |
| Dashboard "Equipment Products" unit count | Never counted (that number is the fleet you own) |
| Printed tag orders, asset tag numbering, GPS tags | Never counted |
Before the subrental starts and after it ends, the units do not appear in stock at all.
What it costs a job
Job & Route Profitability charges each job its share of the rental: the days the units were on that job × the cost per unit per day. Event units reserved on the pickup are counted on the delivery job, which is where the money is. In the job drilldown it appears as Subrented equipment.
Edit, pick up, return, cancel
From the row's menu:
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| Edit | Change dates, quantity, rate, vendor, yard or notes. Shortening the window is refused while a booking would fall outside it. Lowering the quantity only removes units that were never booked. |
| Mark picked up | Moves the subrental from *Scheduled* to *Picked up*. |
| Return to vendor | Enter the Final cost and Returned on date. The units leave your inventory and the cost is recorded as an expense under Equipment Rental (Subrentals). Refused while any unit is still out on a job or booked for an upcoming one. |
| Update final cost | After return, change the amount when the vendor's bill arrives. The expense updates to match. |
| Cancel subrental | Only while none of its units is booked. No expense is recorded. |
If you use QuickBooks Online with Push expenses to QuickBooks turned on (and the Equipment Rental (Subrentals) category mapped to a QuickBooks account), the subrental expense goes there too, so do not also enter the vendor's bill in QuickBooks. Expenses are not sent to QuickBooks Desktop, so there you record the vendor's bill in QuickBooks yourself.