Subscription Tier: Starter, Pro
Inventory management is the backbone of Apex Rental Pro. It lets you track every piece of equipment you own — from tents and tables to chairs, linens, and inflatables — along with quantities, pricing, and availability across your event calendar.
Navigate to the Inventory section from the sidebar menu. You'll see all of your items organized by category, showing:
- Category — grouping label (e.g., "Tents", "Chairs", "Tables")
- Name — specific item name (e.g., "40x80", "White Padded", "8ft")
- Total — how many of this item you own
- Unit Price — default price per unit (used for revenue estimates and quote building)
- Track Availability — whether this item counts toward availability calculations
Items are sorted by category, with "Linens" categories sorted to the end for convenience.
- Click Add Item.
- Enter the Category, Name, and Total quantity.
- Optionally set a Unit Price (default price used in quotes and analytics).
- Choose whether to Track Availability — if enabled, the item's quantities are deducted when booked on events.
- Choose whether to Require Quote Notes — if enabled, this item will prompt for notes when added to a quote.
- Click Save.
The combination of Category + Name must be unique. You can't have two items with the same category and name.
Click the edit icon on any item to modify its category, name, total, unit price, or availability tracking settings. Changes take effect immediately.
You can update multiple item quantities at once using the batch update feature. This is useful after a delivery or after purchasing new equipment — adjust the "Total" for each item that changed and save all at once.
Click the delete icon to remove an item. This permanently removes it from your inventory. Any existing events that reference this item will still show the item name in their data, but the item will no longer appear in the inventory list or be available for new bookings.
Items with "Track Availability" enabled are included in the real-time availability calculations. When you view the calendar or create a new event, the system shows you how many of each item are available on any given date by:
- Starting with the item's Total count.
- Subtracting quantities allocated to events that overlap with the target date.
- Accounting for weekend blocking — weekend jobs reserve items for the full Fri–Sun block.
- Expanding composite items (Build Kits) into their component parts.
Items with "Track Availability" disabled are still listed in your inventory but don't affect availability counts.
Categories are free-form text labels. Common examples include:
- Tents, Tables, Chairs, Linens, Dance Floor, Bars, Lights, Inflatables, Bounce Houses, Sides
You can create any category you want. Items are grouped and sorted by category throughout the application.
- Category + Name uniqueness: You cannot have two items with the same category AND name. If you try to create a duplicate, you'll get an error. To distinguish similar items, use different names (e.g., "White Padded" vs "Plastic White Folding" under "Chairs").
- Deleting items used in events: Deleting an inventory item does not remove it from existing events or quotes. Those records retain the item name, but the item won't appear for new bookings. If you need to retire an item without losing history, consider setting its total to 0 and disabling availability tracking instead.
- Unit price is a default, not a lock: The unit price on an inventory item is used as a default when building quotes and for analytics revenue estimates. It doesn't force that price on every quote — you can override pricing per quote.
- Component items are hidden: Items flagged as "components" (used in Build Kits) don't appear in the main inventory list by default. They're managed separately under the Build Kits section.
- Availability is date-range based: An item booked for June 5–7 is unavailable on all three days. If you have 10 chairs and one event uses 6 chairs on June 5–7, you have 4 available on those dates but 10 available on June 8.