Rent gear out to customers, track what's out, take a deposit, and handle the return, all from the Shop.
When you'd use this
- Renting BCDs, regulators, wetsuits, tanks, torches or computers to a diver.
- Seeing at a glance what kit is out and what's free.
- Taking a rental fee and a refundable deposit, and settling up on return.
Where it is
Shop → Rental products tab (next to Sale products, Servicing and Sold items).
Setting up your rental gear
- On the Rental products tab, press Add item.
- Fill in the item: name (e.g. BCD), category, size / variant (e.g. M, 12L), quantity owned (how many you have), the rate and whether it's per day / per dive / per week, a suggested deposit, and an optional replacement value (used to suggest a loss charge). If you have more than one tax rate, also pick the item's Tax rate for the hire fee (damage charges carry no tax).
- Save. The item appears in the list with a live status bar: "X of Y free" for today (green = all free, amber = some out, red = none free).
Add one row per size you stock (e.g. a Wetsuit S, M and L are three items): availability is counted per item.
Renting gear out
- Press Rent out gear (or Rent out on a specific item).
- Choose the customer: search your customer list, or just type a walk-in name.
- Set the dates: rented from and due back. The day count is shown.
- Add the items and quantities. Each shows how many are free for those dates: you can't book out more than you have.
- The rental fee and a suggested deposit are worked out for you; adjust either if you need to, and pick how each is paid.
- A money summary shows the fee, the deposit, and the total to collect. If the method you pick has a card surcharge (set on the method in Settings → Tax & payments), the surcharge is added on its own line, on the fee, the deposit, or both, just like a shop sale.
- Tick that the customer agreed to the rental terms, then press Rent out.
This records the rental, holds the deposit, and takes the fee in one go. The items now show as out.
The return
- In Currently out, press Return on the rental.
- Set each item's condition (Good / Fair / Poor / Damaged / Lost).
- If everything's fine, the full deposit is refunded. If something's damaged or lost, enter how much of the deposit to keep, and/or add an extra damage / late charge if the cost is more than the deposit.
- Press Complete return. The gear goes back into the available pool.
A hire can't be marked returned while its deposit is still held: the deposit is settled first (given back, kept, or part of each), then the hire is returned. If you see "Settle the deposit before marking this hire returned", open the return again, or ask a manager if you can't see the deposit.
If the tab shows "Couldn't load this hire's deposit and items", Return and Change stay greyed out until a refresh loads them, so a deposit is never missed. In the same way, if "Couldn't load payments for this hire" or "Couldn't load payment methods" appears in a window, the buttons that move money wait until a refresh works.
Changing or cancelling a rental
Sometimes a customer takes fewer than they booked, or calls it off. In Currently out, press Change on the rental.
- Set the new quantity for each item (you can only go down: to add gear, rent it out again).
- Or tick Cancel this whole rental to end it completely.
- A refund is worked out for you: the value of what they gave back, and never more than you actually collected. Adjust it if you need to, and pick how to pay it back.
- Press Save change (or Cancel rental). The gear you took off goes straight back into the available pool, and the refund shows in your Payments and revenue figures.
If the fee carried a card surcharge, the surcharge that was charged is refunded too, automatically. If you're cancelling a rental that has a deposit held, the deposit is returned as part of the cancel.
Receipts and the German till
Press Payments on a rental to see its money in date order: the hire, any damage or late-return charge, refunds, the deposit taken and the deposit given back or kept. Each has a Receipt (a hire or charge gets a Tax invoice too once your Tax Rate and Tax ID are set in Centre Info → Finance); refunds have no document yet. A deposit's receipt says it isn't a sale, so it carries no VAT, and shows any card fee you charged on it. The same receipts are on Finance → Payments.
Hires returned in the last 30 days are under Returned in the last 30 days (the latest 50), each with the same Payments list, so the deposit you gave back on return is still one click away.
In Germany, a rental fee, charge or refund taken at the desk is signed by your till security device (TSE) and appears in the tax export; a hire paid by payment link is an online payment, so it isn't. Taking a deposit and settling it on return (what you give back and what you keep) are signed too, with no VAT: a kept deposit is compensation for damage or loss, not a sale.
Sending a payment link for the hire
If the customer hasn't paid the hire yet, they can pay it by card on their own phone.
- In Currently out, a rental that still owes shows hire owes and the amount.
- Press Send payment link. The amount starts at what the hire still owes (you can lower it, never raise it).
- Press Create link, then show the QR code, copy the link, or email it.
- When they pay, the payment is recorded on the rental by itself, as an online card payment. There's no card surcharge on a payment link.
Good to know:
- The link covers the hire only, never the deposit (you hold that and hand it back).
- While a link is open, the rental shows it (amount and expiry) with Copy, QR and Cancel. Only one link can be open per rental.
- If they also pay at the desk, DiveOps still records the link payment (the money is real) and warns you, so you can refund the extra.
- Rentals made before 25 September 2026 only have an estimate of the fee, so DiveOps can't tell what they owe: take those payments at the desk.
- You'll only see this if your centre takes card payments online and you can record payments.
How it lands in your finances
- The rental fee, any damage or late charge, and any kept deposit are income (they show in your Reports and revenue figures).
- A held deposit is not income: it's money you're holding and will give back. It only becomes income if you keep it for damage or loss.
- Refunds reduce the figures automatically. If a payment carried a card surcharge, refunding it returns the surcharge too (as the card rules require): you don't have to work it out.
Tips
- Overdue rentals are flagged red in Currently out.
- A rental can stand alone (a walk-in) or later be linked to a course/dive booking.
- Removing an item hides it from new rentals but keeps the history of past ones.
- Your bot quotes from this list. Each active item's name and price (e.g. "Torch · 200/day") is part of what your WhatsApp bot tells customers when they ask what you rent, so keep prices here up to date.