Subscription Tier: Starter, Pro
The Availability view gives you a real-time picture of how many of each inventory item are available on any given date range. It accounts for all booked events (including Google Calendar events with parsed items) and shows potential conflicts before you commit to a booking.
The availability view is built into the calendar dashboard as a panel you can open while viewing any date. Click on a date or use the Check Availability button to open it.
Select a start date and end date. The system calculates availability as:
Available = Total Inventory − Booked on Overlapping Events
Where "overlapping events" includes:
- Local events — events created in Apex Rental Pro that span the selected dates
- Google Calendar events — external events whose descriptions contain parseable item text (matched via Item Mappings)
- Weekend blocking — if an event is a "weekend job" (Fri/Sat/Sun), all items are reserved for the full Fri–Sun block regardless of the specific days selected
If an event contains a composite item (e.g., "Tents 40x80"), the availability system expands it into its components (e.g., 2x "40ft End" + 2x "40ft Mid") and deducts those component quantities from stock.
For each item, the availability panel shows:
- Item name and category
- Total owned — your full inventory count
- Booked — how many are allocated to events in the selected range
- Available — how many remain available (
Total − Booked)
Items with zero or negative availability are highlighted as conflicts.
When you add items to an event being created or edited, the system checks availability for the event's dates. If you're adding more than are available, you'll see a warning — but the system doesn't block you from over-booking. The warning is informational so you can decide whether to proceed.
- Google Calendar items require mappings: External Google Calendar events only contribute to availability if their descriptions contain text that matches your Item Mappings. Events without parseable descriptions don't affect availability.
- Weekend blocking can be surprising: If you have a single-day event marked as a "weekend job" on a Friday, all its items are blocked for Friday, Saturday, AND Sunday. This prevents double-booking for the whole weekend. Uncheck "Weekend Job" on the event if you only need the item for one day.
- Availability is calculated live: Each time you open the availability view, the numbers are calculated fresh. On very busy calendars this is fast, but there's no "availability calendar" view that pre-fills all future dates.
- Composite items show as "0 total": In the availability view, composite items (Build Kits) show as available based on their component calculations, not a direct inventory count. Their listed "total" is always 0. Don't be alarmed — look at their calculated availability number.
- Deleted items disappear from availability: If you delete an inventory item that was referenced by past events, those events still show the item name in their data, but the item no longer appears in availability calculations. Consider setting quantity to 0 instead of deleting if you want to preserve historical context.