Getting Started with Rental Inventory & Sales Manager Google Sheet Template – Initial Setup


In this post, we will see how we can do the initial set up for the template to customize it for our rental business.

Step 1: Enter Business information

Enter our Business Information in the Settings sheet. This information will be used to auto-populate in our Invoice.

Enter Business Details in Rental Business Manager template


Step 2: Enter List of Asset Categories

Please enter groups in which you would like to categorize your assets or products.

Enter list of Asset Categories or product categories in Rental Business


There are two key benefits of categorizing your rental assets or products. 1) We can analyze our business performance by identifying categories that bring more revenue versus those that do not. 2) We can make data entry in orders easier by first selecting Asset Category and the Asset drop down list becomes a shorter list to pick from. We have entered 4 Asset categories for this demo.


Step 3: Enter the list of Assets or Products in Assets sheet

Let’s enter assets and its related information.  Please make sure that your first asset is in row 6.

Enter list of Rental Assets or Products

  • ASSET ID: Unique identification of Asset. This has to be unique. Please do not repeat the same ID or leave the field blank.

  • ASSET NAME: Name of the asset. This needs to be unique.

  • ASSET CATEGORY: Choose the Asset category to which each item belongs. The Asset Categories we had set in the Settings sheet will be used to populate this drop down list.

  • ASSET DESCRIPTION: Description of the rental asset , as needed in our business.

  • STARTING QUANTITY: This is the quantity of the asset owned by the business when we begin using the template. This is entered only once and does not have to be updated daily. If you have rented items out, please include them here. This number needs to reflect all the assets currently owned (rented out or not). When we decide to retire an asset in the future or buy more assets, we can handle that separately. We will discuss that later.

  • TAXABLE: In our business, if we have assets that are not taxable, we can enter NO. If tax is applicable, just leave it blank. By default, tax will be applicable.

Step 4: Enter Customer information

In the Customers sheet, we will enter the list of our customers.

Enter list of customers and their data

Please make sure that your first asset is in row 5.

  • Customer ID and Customer Name should be unique here. Do not leave them blank.

  • Enter Shipping and Billing Addresses. Enter Email and Phone Number. These details can be displayed on the invoice automatically.

  • We can also add additional columns in this table. 2 Custom Columns are available that you can rename and use for your needs.

Step 5: Set up Invoice Sheet

Invoice sheet is the printable invoice that can be automatically created for any rental order. This sheet is very customizable to suit your needs.

First, let’s update the logo. Click on the logo and delete the existing logo. Now click on the insert ribbon and select image. Select image over cells option to insert your preferred logo. 

Change Rental Business Logo on Invoice

Now, your logo will appear on the invoice when printing.

Then, let’s review the fields that are displayed on the invoice.

Rental Business Invoice – Customize Invoice easily – Ready to print or export to PDF

There are 4 key sections in the invoice: Customer Information, Order Information, Rental Asset Information and Order Total Information. The invoice sheet is fully automated and for each order, all we have to do is to type order number to create the invoice. However, before we begin creating invoices, it is recommended that we review the field displayed in the invoice and customize to suit our business needs.

 

Customer Information (8 fields)

Invoice for Rental Business – Customer Information

Order Information (5 fields)

Invoice for Rental Business – Order level information

Rental Asset Information (8 fields)

Invoice for Rental Business – Asset Information

Order Total Information (6 fields)

Invoice for Rental Business – Order Total Information

Please review all the fields to make sure that the invoice meets your business needs. All these sections are customizable.

  • If you do not need a certain field, just click on a field name and press the Delete key.

  • If you need to choose another field instead, click on the field name. You will see a drop down menu to choose from a list of available fields. Just select the one you need.

The changes made will be automatically saved so no need to save the file manually.

To know more about how the Rental Inventory & Sales Manager Google Sheet Template works, go through our next article Rental Inventory & Sales Manager (GS) - How does it work?