A tent system is a tent you can put up at more than one size, like a 40' frame tent that goes up 40×40, 40×60 or 40×80 from the same ends and mid sections. You set the system up once. After that, booking a tent means picking a size, and PortaPro works out the sections, legs, tops, stakes or ballast and sidewalls behind it, checks they are free for the dates, holds them, and prices the tent.
Tent systems are for tents built from sections. A pop-up canopy or a single fixed-size tent can stay an ordinary product or a kit.
Set up a tent system
- 40' Frame: two 20' ends plus 10' and 20' mids (40×40, 40×60, 40×80 and so on), white and clear tops.
- 40' Sectional Pole: a pole tent built from end and mid sections.
- 12 m Clearspan: a structure tent in metres.
Or click Build your own to start from a blank system.
Basics
Parts
What goes out with every tent: per tent, per end, per mid, per leg (for example 4 base plates per leg, 2 ratchet straps per mid). Each part is an item from your stock. A part can be set to be pulled without being held, which is shown as (pull only) when you book.
Stock
How many of each piece you own.
Prices
Price each tent in one of two ways:
The same tab sets the separate charges: sidewalls (per foot, and a lower rate if the customer installs them), staking, Ballast, per unit, and Install labor, per tent or Install labor, per sq ft. Leave a charge blank to not charge it.
Units
Show sizes in sets how sizes read across the app: Feet (40×80) or Metres (12×25 m). PortaPro stores sizes exactly either way, so you can switch at any time.
Book a tent
In the job or quote wizard, on the equipment step, tent systems show as a card: "Any size its sections build. Availability is checked section by section." Click it to open the tent sheet ("Pick the size and how it goes up.").
If anything is short for the dates, the sheet names exactly what, like "Short 1 40' Frame end set". The button then reads Add tent anyway: everything that's free is held, and the rest shows as short on the booking.
Counted pieces can't be double-booked. If two people book the last end set for the same Saturday at the same moment, only one gets it; the other booking holds what's left and shows the rest as short. Moving a job to new dates works the same way: pieces still free on the new dates move with it, and anything booked elsewhere by then shows as short on the tent.
A sent quote holds its tent too, sections and legs included, for as long as your quote holds last (see Item Movement). When the quote becomes a job, the job takes those pieces.
The tent goes on the booking as one line named by its finished size, such as 40×80 Frame Tent – Clear Top, with sidewalls, staking, ballast and install labor as their own lines. That is all the customer sees on the quote, invoice and PDF; the sections stay internal. Those charge lines say Follows its tent: they change when the tent changes.
The site's ground
Edit a service location and set Ground (for tents): Grass or dirt, Asphalt, Concrete, Pavers, or Deck or rooftop. Every tent booked at that site starts from it.
Changing a tent on a saved job
With Item Movement turned on, open the job, edit its items, and click Change tent on the tent line. The same sheet opens; saving re-holds the sections for the new size and updates the price and the tent's charge lines. A tent that is already loaded or out can't be changed from here. Removing a tent also removes its charge lines.
Staked tents and utility locates
When a tent is staked, PortaPro adds a Call 811 for utility locate task to the job, due a few days before install. Set it in Settings → Tent Systems:
The task shows on the job's Tents card. If the tent stops being staked before anyone has called, the task is removed.
Permits
PortaPro flags tents that will likely need a permit, using a planning guide you set in Settings → Tent Systems:
On the job, the Tents card shows the flag (Permit needed, Permit applied for, Permit approved, No permit needed) with the reason. Change it as the permit moves along, or click Re-check after changing the tents or the layout. This is a planning guide: the fire marshal or building department decides.
Permit packet (PDF) puts together what an inspector usually asks for:
If your county has its own permit form, upload it in Regulatory Forms and bind fields to Tent sizes, Number of tents, Total tent area (sq ft), Sidewalls (Yes / No) and Tent anchoring (staked / ballast).
Pull sheets and returns
On the pull sheet, a tent line shows its finished size and how it is built, with each section and part under it. Counted pieces show how many are held (for example 8 counted); tops show their unit numbers.
When the tent comes back, count it in under Count back: on the pickup job (office or driver app), or in Inventory → Warehouse → Returns. Enter how many of each counted piece came back and click Save the count. Anything short is recorded as missing and taken off how many you own. Count back works whether or not Item Movement is on. Tops are checked in one by one like other tracked equipment, and a top that needs washing goes to the cleaning queue.
Event layouts
A tent from a tent system can be drawn on an event layout. Select it and drag the square handle on its far end to make it longer or shorter: the other end stays put and the length snaps to the sizes the sections can build. The Length field in the inspector does the same with Shorter / Longer, shows how it would be built, and warns about anything short for the event's dates.
The Order tab compares tents by size: a drawn 40×80 matches a booked 40×80, and a drawn 40×60 next to a booked 40×80 shows as one more drawn and one not drawn. Sections and tent charges aren't listed. The drawing never changes the booking: change the tent's size on the job or quote.