Knowing that you've got enough stock is important. OnRent Events lets you keep on top of what's available from your opportunity page with shortage highlighting, the opportunity stock screen, and the product bookings screen.
Interested in how availability is calculated? See: how is availability calculated?
Remember, you see what's available for your opportunity in the picker and Add New Opportunity Item screen.
Shortage highlighting
If your opportunity is at the order stage or a reserved quotation, OnRent Events highlights any products and services with a shortage in red in the items list. For accessories, the plus icon will be highlighted in red.
If a product or service has been added to an opportunity more than once, each instance will show as a shortage.
OnRent Events checks availability automatically in the background. As you resolve shortages, the red highlight is removed from those lines. To force a re-check of availability on your opportunity, click Check shortages under Actions.
Opportunity availability
To view what's available for all products on your opportunity, click Availability under Actions in the details pane to bring up the opportunity stock screen. This shows availability for the dates of your opportunity.
For more information, check out our guide: Check availability for an opportunity
Product bookings screen
To view availability for a particular product in the opportunity items list, choose Availability from the blue arrow menu to the right of the item to open the product bookings screen.
We have a guide that runs through this view in more detail, see: View availability for a product
Address Equipment Shortages on an Opportunity
This is a guide on how to view and prioritise equipment shortages on an opportunity to assess delivery risk and take action before your job is impacted.
When to use this
Use the Address Shortages page when you need to:
Identify equipment shortages on an opportunity.
Understand why equipment is unavailable.
Prioritise shortages based on their impact.
Focus on specific types of shortages, such as overbooked or quarantined equipment.
Resolve shortages through available resolution actions.
Before you begin
Before using the Address Shortages page:
The opportunity must contain at least one equipment shortage.
The opportunity must have a reserved status or be at an order stage.
Resolution actions may be unavailable if you do not have permission or if the shortage cannot be resolved.
Steps
Open the Address Shortages page
Open the opportunity you want to review.
Open the Actions list.
Click Address Shortages.
The Address Shortages option is only available when one or more items on the opportunity have a shortage.
Review shortages
Review the list of equipment with shortages.
Only items that currently have shortages are displayed.
Each row shows:
Equipment: The equipment name and either the asset number or Bulk Stock.
Quantity Planned: The total quantity required for the opportunity.
Quantity Short: The quantity currently unavailable for the job dates.
Severity: The impact of the shortage compared with the planned quantity.
Shortage Reason: The system-determined reason for the shortage.
Resolve: An action to help address the shortage when available. If you have a shortage against a Sale item, you will be able to review it, but you will not be able to resolve it as this requires a purchase.
Understand the shortage severity
Review the severity indicator for each shortage.
Severity is calculated automatically based on the percentage of the planned quantity that is unavailable:
Severity | Shortage Percentage |
🟡 Low | Less than 10% short |
🟠 Medium | 10% to 30% short |
🔴 High | More than 30% short |
High-severity shortages are visually highlighted to help you focus on the most critical issues first.
Understand the shortage reasons
Check the Shortage Reason column to understand why the shortage exists.
Possible reasons include:
Overbooked – [Job Name(s)]
Quarantine – Lost
Quarantine – Damaged
For overbooked shortages, the conflicting job name or names are displayed to help identify where the conflict exists.
Filter shortages
Apply a filter to narrow the list of shortages.
You can view:
All shortages
Only overbooked items
Only quarantine-related items
Filtering updates the list without changing shortage calculations or severity indicators.
Resolve a shortage
Click Resolve on a shortage row that requires action.
Depending on the shortage, you can initiate relevant resolution workflows, including:
Sub-renting equipment.
Releasing equipment from quarantine.
If a shortage cannot be resolved or you do not have permission, the Resolve button is disabled. If you have filtered your shortage to focus on quarantines only, you will be able to bulk resolve shortages using the Resolve All button.
Confirm resolution
Review the shortage list after completing a resolution action.
The page updates automatically to reflect the current shortage status:
Short quantities are updated.
Severity indicators are recalculated.
Fully resolved shortages are removed from the list.
Tips
Prioritise high-severity shortages first, as these represent the greatest delivery risk.
Use grouping to investigate common causes across multiple shortages.
Filter the list when focusing on a specific problem, such as quarantine-related equipment.
Review shortage reasons before a resolution so you understand the root cause of the issue.
Pay particular attention to bulk stock shortages, as they may affect larger quantities of equipment.
Common questions
Is there a way to swap out items?
Not right now, but this is something that we're considering for development in the future. If you'd like to see this added to OnRent Events, please reach out via the green help bubble in the bottom right-hand corner of the system to let us know your thoughts!
Can I proceed with an opportunity despite shortages?
By default, yes. Sometimes you might turn around an opportunity quickly and not tell the system that items have been returned from another opportunity, so it flags up as a shortage. If you know that you've got sufficient stock, OnRent Events won't get in your way and prevent you from getting a job booked out. Simply book out as normal. OnRent Events will flag that you've got a shortage at each point.
If you want the system to prevent you from overbooking, head to System Preferences and toggle “Enforce Stock Availability” to NO. Learn more in our guide, see: System Preferences