Is equipment in BizOS the same as stock?

No. BizOS keeps equipment (what your business owns and gets back) in its own catalogue, separate from stock items. Taking a drill to a job or renting a generator out never reduces stock, never shows in a sale picker and never changes your stock value.

Can BizOS show who has a particular tool right now?

Yes. Every piece of equipment in BizOS shows its current holder, such as a technician with a job, a technician's kit, a customer's site or a rental customer, since when and until when, with a full history of hand-overs, returns, losses and repairs.

Can two people book the same equipment for the same dates in BizOS?

No. BizOS refuses any booking or hand-out that overlaps a time the unit is already booked or out, and a pool cannot be issued beyond its free count. There is deliberately no override.

Does BizOS work for scaffolding and shuttering rental?

Yes. BizOS tracks scaffolding as a pool with a count, sends it out on a delivery challan, records returns in parts, charges each returned batch only up to its return date, and bills rent on an ordinary GST invoice with the deposit held against the rental.

How does BizOS count rental days?

BizOS counts calendar days in IST, inclusive: out Monday and back Wednesday is 3 days, out and back the same day is 1. It then applies the minimum days, the cheapest mix of monthly, weekly and daily rates, and any late days at the late rate.

How are rental deposits handled in BizOS?

A BizOS rental deposit is a payment with its own receipt, held against that rental. It is not customer credit or revenue until applied, can be applied only to that rental's bills, and is otherwise refunded or released as credit.

Is the Rentals add-on included in BizOS bundles?

No. Rentals is a separate BizOS add-on that is not part of any bundle. Tracking equipment on jobs comes with the Jobs module; renting equipment to customers needs the Rentals add-on.

Does BizOS store customers' ID proof for rentals?

Only if you switch it on. BizOS keeps ID proof as photos only, shows them only to people who run rentals, audits every view, never prints or sends them, and deletes them automatically 30 to 365 days (90 by default) after the rental ends.

Equipment & rentals

"Who has the core cutter?" "Did the ladder come back from the Anna Nagar site?" "How many scaffolding pipes are still out with that builder?" Tools and equipment are expensive, they move between people and sites every day, and they are not stock: they are meant to come back. BizOS keeps a separate equipment catalogue that records who holds each thing and since when, and with the Rentals add-on rents the same equipment to customers on a challan, with a deposit and a proper GST rent bill.

In short

Equipment in BizOS is what your business owns and gets back (drills, meggers, ladders, generators, scaffolding). It is a separate catalogue, never a stock item, so taking it out never reduces stock and it never appears in a sale picker.
Two kinds of equipment entry: a unit entry has one tagged record per physical thing (tag such as CUT-01, serial number, printable QR label); a pool entry is a count, such as 200 scaffolding pipes.
BizOS records custody: who holds it (a team member, with a job or as their own kit, or a customer, left at their site or on rent), since when and until when, with an append-only history of every hand-over, return, loss and repair.
BizOS refuses double-booking with no override. A unit already booked or out cannot be booked or taken for an overlapping time, and a pool cannot be issued beyond its free count.
Taking equipment never blocks a job. BizOS reminds a technician what is still with them when they finish a job, but never stops the job moving.
Rentals are a separate BizOS add-on, sold outside every bundle. A rental moves Draft → Booked → On rent → Returned → Closed, or is Cancelled before anything goes out.
BizOS prices rent by one rule: calendar days in IST counted inclusively, a minimum number of days, the cheapest mix of monthly, weekly and daily rates, late days at a late rate, and partial returns charged piece by piece.
A rental deposit in BizOS is a payment held against that rental, with its own receipt. It is never treated as customer credit or revenue until applied, and is applied only to that rental's own bills, refunded, or released as credit.
ID proof for rentals is the business's choice in BizOS: off, optional or required. Photos only, visible only to people who run rentals, every view audited, and deleted automatically after the retention period you set.

Why equipment is not stock

An item in inventory is something that leaves: when you sell it or use it on a job, the quantity goes down. A drill taken to a job is not consumed, and a generator on rent is not sold. Treating them as stock would make every stock report, reorder suggestion and Tally stock figure wrong. So BizOS keeps equipment in its own catalogue, under Items & stock → Equipment, and nothing you do with equipment writes a stock movement.

A business that both sells and rents the same model of drill keeps two entries: the item it sells, and the equipment it rents.

Unit or pool?

	Unit	Pool
For	Things you tell apart: a core cutter, a megger, a generator	Things you count: ladders, props, scaffolding pipes, chairs
Each piece has	A tag built from the entry's code (`CUT-01`), serial number, condition and a status (available, out, in repair, lost, retired)	Nothing of its own; the entry has a quantity
Labels	Print labels prints an A4 sheet of 24 labels with the tag and a QR code; the BizOS mobile app scans it	Not needed
Returns	One unit comes back	Partial returns are normal: 150 of 200 back today

A pool piece marked lost leaves the count at once; marking it found puts it back.

Who has what: custody

Every time equipment leaves the store, BizOS opens a custody record:

With a team member for a job: "With Ramesh since 12 Oct · for JOB-0142".
With a team member as their kit: the tools a technician keeps. A kit is never overdue.
Left at a customer's site for a job.
On rent to a customer, through a rental (below).

Each record can carry a due-back date. Returns record how many came back, how many were damaged and how many were lost. The history of every hand-over, transfer between people, job change, loss, find, damage report and repair is kept as an append-only trail, with optional condition photos.

No overlaps, and no override

If a unit is out or booked for 10–14 October, BizOS refuses a booking or hand-out that overlaps those dates, names what is in the way and says when it frees up. There is no "book anyway" switch. An overdue unit still counts as out until it is returned. You can set a gap to keep free between two uses, for cleaning, checks and travel, under Settings → Work setup → Equipment & rentals → Gap between two uses (none by default).

Overdue equipment

Equipment is overdue when it passes its due-back date, or, for equipment taken for a job with no due-back date, a set number of days after the job is marked done (one day by default, Overdue after the job is done in the same settings page). A daily check at 09:15 IST notifies the holder, at most once a day, sends one summary to the people who hand out equipment, and fires the equipment.overdue workflow trigger.

Equipment on jobs

On a job, the equipment panel shows what has been taken for it. A technician can take, return or keep equipment for themselves on jobs they work on, or leave it at that job's site. In the BizOS mobile app this is the job's equipment section, with QR scanning and an Equipment with me list.

When a technician completes a job, BizOS lists anything still with them for that job with Return or Keep for next job. It is a reminder only: equipment never stops a job being completed.

Two money figures can follow equipment onto a job, for the roles allowed to see them:

Cost: days out × the equipment's internal daily rate, so the job shows what the tools cost you.
Charge: Add as charge puts one service line on the job at the equipment's job charge rate × days, once per hand-out, if you bill customers for tool use.

Renting equipment out

Rentals need the Rentals add-on, which is not part of any bundle; see Plans & billing for the current price. A rental is its own numbered document (RNT-0001 by default), never deleted, only cancelled.

1
Create the rental
Pick the customer and the equipment. Each line copies the equipment rates (day, week, month, minimum days, late rate, deposit per unit, SAC and GST rate) and you can change them for this customer.
2
Book it
Booking holds the equipment for the dates. BizOS refuses the booking if anything overlaps. With no due-back date, it is held for the minimum days.
3
Take the deposit
Record the security deposit as a payment against the rental. The customer gets a receipt and the money sits in the cash drawer of whoever took it.
4
Send it out
Choose Send out, pick the units or quantity going out, and add transporter and vehicle if needed. BizOS sends a delivery challan the customer confirms from a link on their phone.
5
Take it back
Record returns in as many parts as they come back, with anything damaged or lost. A damage or loss charge, transport or diesel can be added as extra charges.
6
Bill and close
Use Bill till today for a running bill at any time, or Final bill once everything is back. Close the rental when everything is back, billed and the deposit settled.

Where rentals are a fit

Scaffolding and shuttering: pools of pipes, plates and props out on several sites, coming back in parts over weeks.
Event equipment: generators, lights, sound, chairs and tents, booked for dates and refused if they clash.
Tool hire: breakers, drills and core cutters rented by the day.
Medical equipment: oxygen concentrators, hospital beds and wheelchairs rented by the week or month against a deposit.

How does BizOS calculate rent?

The rent rule is the same for the estimate on screen and the bill:

Rule	What it means
Calendar days in IST, inclusive	Out Monday, back Wednesday = 3 days. Out and back the same day = 1 day. The time of day never changes the count
Minimum days	A rental is charged for at least the line's minimum days
Cheapest mix	Days are priced at the cheapest combination of monthly (30-day), weekly (7-day) and daily rates
Late days	With a late rate set, days past the expected end are charged at that rate, taxed at the line's GST rate
Partial returns	Each return closes a batch on its own date, so pieces that came back early stop costing the customer from that day
No double billing	Each bill covers the dates after the previous bill up to the bill date; the boundary day is never billed twice

Rent is billed on an ordinary invoice, so it is numbered, shared, paid and chased like any other bill, and it flows to GST reports and Tally as a sale. Rent lines never refer to a stock item, so a rent bill can never reduce stock. Each line shows the pieces, the per-piece charge, and a note of the days and rate used.

The challan

When equipment goes out, BizOS sends a delivery challan (Rule 55 of the CGST Rules covers goods that move for a reason other than a sale). It is valued at the equipment's replacement value, carries no tax, and the customer confirms receipt by link or one-time code. The confirmation is evidence only, as for every BizOS delivery note.

Deposits

A security deposit is a payment held against the rental:

It gets a normal receipt and counts in the cash drawer.
It is never offered as customer credit and is not revenue until applied.
It can be applied only to that rental's own bills.
It can be refunded (never more than is held; a cash refund comes out of the refunder's cash drawer), or released as credit on the customer's account, which is recorded in the audit log.

A rental can be closed only once the deposit's held balance is zero, and cancelled only before anything went out and with no deposit held. See Receipts, advances & credit for how deposits differ from advances.

ID proof

Under Settings → Work setup → Equipment & rentals, ID proof is Off (the default), Optional or Required. Required means a rental cannot be sent out without one.

Photos only. There is no ID number field.
Visible only to people who run rentals, and every view is recorded in the audit log.
Never printed on a PDF or challan, never sent on WhatsApp or a share link, never shown to the assistant or the API.
Deleted automatically after the period set in Delete ID photos after (30 to 365 days, 90 by default), counted from the day the rental ends.
A proof still kept from the same customer's earlier rental can be reused if you choose to.

Reminders and automation

A daily check at 09:30 IST fires rental.due_tomorrow and rental.overdue (at most once per rental per day) and notifies the rental's assignee, or everyone who rents equipment out if there is none. rental.sent_out, rental.returned and rental.closed fire as they happen. Rental fields can be used in WhatsApp templates, so a due-back reminder to the customer is a workflow away.

Still open

GST on damage and loss recovery is charged at the line's GST rate by default; the treatment is awaiting CA confirmation, so check it with yours. Rental deposits are not pushed to Tally yet. Rentals are managed on the web; the mobile app shows equipment on rent but has no rental screens.

Who can do what

Role	Equipment	Rentals
Owner, Admin	Everything, including the settings	Everything, including the ID-proof setting
Manager	Catalogue, rates, write-offs, hand out and take back for anyone, bookings	Everything
Accountant	View the catalogue with values and who has what	View rentals, deposits, refunds and rent bills; no ID proof
Office staff	Hand out and take back for anyone, bookings, lost, found and repair; sees rent rates, not cost	Create, send out, take back, bill, handle deposits and ID proof
Field technician	Sees names and availability, no money; takes, returns and keeps equipment for themselves on their jobs	None

Common questions

Is equipment in BizOS the same as stock?: No. BizOS keeps equipment (what your business owns and gets back) in its own catalogue, separate from stock items. Taking a drill to a job or renting a generator out never reduces stock, never shows in a sale picker and never changes your stock value.
Can BizOS show who has a particular tool right now?: Yes. Every piece of equipment in BizOS shows its current holder, such as a technician with a job, a technician's kit, a customer's site or a rental customer, since when and until when, with a full history of hand-overs, returns, losses and repairs.
Can two people book the same equipment for the same dates in BizOS?: No. BizOS refuses any booking or hand-out that overlaps a time the unit is already booked or out, and a pool cannot be issued beyond its free count. There is deliberately no override.
Does BizOS work for scaffolding and shuttering rental?: Yes. BizOS tracks scaffolding as a pool with a count, sends it out on a delivery challan, records returns in parts, charges each returned batch only up to its return date, and bills rent on an ordinary GST invoice with the deposit held against the rental.
How does BizOS count rental days?: BizOS counts calendar days in IST, inclusive: out Monday and back Wednesday is 3 days, out and back the same day is 1. It then applies the minimum days, the cheapest mix of monthly, weekly and daily rates, and any late days at the late rate.
How are rental deposits handled in BizOS?: A BizOS rental deposit is a payment with its own receipt, held against that rental. It is not customer credit or revenue until applied, can be applied only to that rental's bills, and is otherwise refunded or released as credit.
Is the Rentals add-on included in BizOS bundles?: No. Rentals is a separate BizOS add-on that is not part of any bundle. Tracking equipment on jobs comes with the Jobs module; renting equipment to customers needs the Rentals add-on.
Does BizOS store customers' ID proof for rentals?: Only if you switch it on. BizOS keeps ID proof as photos only, shows them only to people who run rentals, audits every view, never prints or sends them, and deletes them automatically 30 to 365 days (90 by default) after the rental ends.