ProkatOS Blog
Articles on rental automation, item tracking, payments and growing a rental business.
What a rental CRM should do
A practical rental CRM checklist covering item catalogs, bookings, payments, deposits, maintenance, permissions and reporting.
Rental managementRental management without spreadsheets
When spreadsheets stop working for rentals and how to migrate customers, items, balances and history safely into CRM.
Rental managementA configurable catalog for any rental business
Item types, custom fields, kits, serialized and quantity-based stock for different rental models.
Rental managementDeposits, debts and partial payments in rentals
How to separate payments, deposits, discounts and charges so every rental balance remains clear and auditable.
Rental managementHow to measure rental item utilization and profitability
Utilization, downtime, revenue, maintenance and payback metrics for purchasing and retirement decisions.
Rental managementLocal or cloud database for a rental business
How to choose CRM data hosting and prepare migrations between an on-premises server and the cloud.
Rental managementHow to migrate rental data from Excel to CRM
A staged migration of reference data, customers, items, active rentals and balances without stopping operations.
Rental managementCash shifts in a rental business: keeping the till honest with hired staff
How to close a shift in a rental business: expected cash, the count, discrepancies and matching card payments with the terminal.
Rental managementCard acquiring for rentals: connecting the bank terminal to your CRM
How to connect a Sberbank or ARCUS2 terminal to a rental CRM: payment, refund to the card on cancellation, settlement and no manual amounts.
Rental managementOnline booking: taking equipment reservations from your website
A step-by-step ProkatOS guide: turn on online booking, choose points, equipment and tariffs, set the hours, share the link and hand over equipment for a booking.
Rental managementHow to try ProkatOS for free: download, install and sign in
A step-by-step guide: download the rental software, install it on Windows, get a free trial with your email, connect other computers and the web app.
Rental managementRental agreement template: what every equipment rental agreement needs
A rental agreement template for bikes, scooters, SUP boards and other equipment: required clauses, deposit, damage and late return. Downloadable Word file.
Rental managementEquipment handover report and checkout photos for rentals
Why a rental needs a handover report, what to put in it and how condition photos at checkout and return help you win damage disputes.
Rental managementSecurity deposits for rentals: how much to take and how to handle them
How big a deposit to take for a bike, scooter or SUP board, why not to hold ID documents, how to write deposit terms and when to withhold.
Rental managementE-signatures on rental agreements: are they valid and how to set them up
Can a rental agreement be signed on a tablet or by a link, what a simple electronic signature is, what evidence to keep and how to do it in ProkatOS.
Rental managementQR labels on equipment: checkout and return by scan
A ProkatOS guide: print QR labels for bikes and equipment, scan with a phone or barcode scanner and hand out equipment in seconds.
Rental managementA customer damaged or did not return equipment: what to do
Step by step: what to do when equipment comes back damaged, the customer is late or disappears. Withholding the deposit, a written claim, the police and how to prepare.
Rental managementHow to start a SUP or bike rental: costs and payback
Where to start a rental business: location and fleet, startup costs, a payback example, paperwork and automation from day one.
Rental managementRental seasonality: how to earn and not lose money in winter
How to get through the off-season: winter lines, long-term rentals, equipment service, working with your customer base and planning purchases from last season's data.