In short
Track rented construction equipment separately from purchases: record each item at the gate with the supplier, site, challan number, quantity and rate, keep it marked on rent until it is returned, record its condition on return, and check the on-rent list against what is physically on site every week.
Shuttering plates are hired for the second slab. The slab is cast, the plates are stacked in a corner, and the next site needs them in three weeks, so nobody sends them back. Six weeks later the rental bill arrives for every one of those days, and nobody can say whether the plates were in use or in the corner.
A rental is not a purchase
Cement bought is gone into the building. Plates, props, scaffolding, a mixer or a vibrator on hire are still somebody else’s, and the bill depends on how long you keep them. Recording rentals the same way as purchases hides the one thing that matters about them: whether they are still out.
Record it at the gate
- The supplier, the site, and the stage it was hired for.
- The challan number.
- What came, and how many: forty plates, sixty props, one mixer.
- The rate and what it is per: a day, a month, a piece.
- The date it arrived, and its status: on rent.
Mark returns, with condition
When equipment goes back, mark it returned and note its condition: good, fair or damaged. Most rental disputes are about damage that is claimed weeks after a return, and a condition recorded on the day, ideally with the supplier’s driver standing there, settles them before they start.
Moving equipment between sites
When hired equipment moves from one site to another, record it against the new site from the day it moves, so each site carries the rent for the days it actually used it. Otherwise the first site pays for the second site’s slab and both sites’ costs are wrong.
In Sitegride a procurement entry can be a purchase or a rental. Rentals carry an on-rent or returned status and the condition on return, alongside the challan, rate and quantity, so the list of what is still out is always one filter away.
Questions this answers
Record each rental separately from purchases, with the supplier, site, challan number, quantity, rate and date, and keep it marked on rent until it is returned. Check the on-rent list against the site every week and send idle equipment back the same day.
The supplier, the site and stage it is for, the challan number, what came and how many, the rate and what it is charged per (day, month or piece), and the date it arrived. On return, add the date and the condition: good, fair or damaged.
Keep a live list of everything marked on rent and walk the site with it weekly. Anything not in use goes back, and is marked returned with its condition on the day, so the rental bill stops when the use stops.
Sitegride puts sites, sales, purchases, labour and money in one place, in English and Gujarati.