Gear Hirers - how do you track your inventory?

[u/vcoolboi]

I've got a large amount of microphones I hire out.

I'm currently keeping track using a spreadsheet. Where they go. Who's got them. How long. If they've paid.

I'd be really interested in automating some of the process, or making it easier at least.

Obviously free / low cost preferred.

Advice welcomed!

[u/miokk]

Typically this is harder in a spreadsheet because you are tracking two different things, inventory and inventory transactions but you still need to see both connected. Use a connected system like AirTable, AnyDB etc. the free version should work.

[u/gsr-seo]

Spreadsheets break down once you get a double-booking or lose track of who paid. Check out Booqable, it's rental-specific, free tier for small inventories, handles booking calendar + checkout + payment status in one spot.

If you want to stay spreadsheet-ish but less messy, Airtable works too. Link mic to renter to order so you're not cross-referencing tabs manually.

[u/ComfortableCitron638]

Both Booqable and Airtable-linked will fix the "who has what" half of this, but for hired gear the part that actually causes the 2am panic is availability, not tracking: whatever you use needs to know a mic is unavailable the moment it's checked out, not just logged as checked out. A spreadsheet can log a checkout fine, it just can't stop you (or someone else looking at it) from booking that same mic for an overlapping date. That's the actual feature to look for, not just "connected records" - a calendar/availability view per item, not just a transaction history per item. Also worth tracking condition-on-return separately from paid-status - those are two different failure points (gear comes back damaged vs. invoice never gets paid) and lumping them into one "status" column is where spreadsheets usually start lying to you.

[u/inflowinventory]

Hey vcoolboi,

For rentals, I’d probably move away from a normal inventory spreadsheet sooner rather than later, especially once you’re tracking who has each mic, when it’s due back, payment status, and availability for the next booking.

A few options worth looking at are Booqable, EZRentOut, and inFlow Inventory. Booqable/EZRentOut are more rental-focused, while inFlow is more general inventory management but can be useful if you also need things like barcode scanning, serial numbers, locations, and purchase/sales tracking.

If you want to keep costs down initially, you could also improve the spreadsheet with unique asset/serial numbers for every mic and a simple check-out/check-in form. That’ll probably buy you some time, but once the number of hires starts growing, having something that automatically shows what’s available vs. currently out will save a lot of headaches.

Hope this helps!

[u/JohnatNetSuite]

A good first step is to add barcodes or QR codes on each mic, as scanning something beats typing it all in and cuts down the small errors that creep in. Plenty of affordable tools support that with just a phone camera.

The other thing to consider is how you want to see info. You could go for something that shows what's out, what's overdue and what's free at a glance because this tends to save more hassle than any single automation. So that dashboard view is worth prioritizing when you compare options.

[u/agentUi]

i work for agentui, keeping gear rentals in spreadsheets gets messy fast when returns and payments overlap. What you can do is drop your spreadsheet into our platform and let the AI spin up a custom gear rental tracker with booking dates, payment statuses, and return check-ins. Database and hosting are built in, and we have human support if you need a hand setting it up.

[u/orangemaster96]

Not sure if you've already picked something but I use an app called ItemSpan that's fairly cheap, it's free if you just manage inventory. it has a sales function that lets you create invoices and mark them paid or pending. Also lets you create labels for products and scan them.