Camera hire is a serial-number business. One shooting package might be a body, a set of primes, matte box, follow focus, monitors, wireless video, batteries and media — forty or fifty individually valuable items that go out for a two-day shoot and come back with someone else's tape on them. Productions prep in your bay, test everything, and expect the paperwork to match what is in the cases. Rates are rarely a flat daily figure: weekends charge as one day, weeks come as a block, and long-form jobs get their own terms. The money risk sits in two places — kit leaving without a verified name behind it, and damage nobody wrote down at check-in.
Equipment categories we support
Common challenges in camera rental
High value in small items
A prime lens is worth more than the van and fits in a coat pocket. Tracking at product level tells you nothing — you need to know which serial went out, on whose job, and how it came back.
Packages built from dozens of items
A shooting package is body, glass, support, power, media and monitoring. Assembling it by hand for every booking is slow, and the accessory nobody listed is the one that stops the shoot at seven in the morning.
Who is actually collecting
The account is with a production company, but the person at the counter is a runner nobody has met. Taking a deposit and checking identity before release is standard practice, and a photocopy in a drawer does not hold up later.
Damage arguments weeks later
A scratched filter or a bent rod comes back in a case. Without dated photographs and a condition record from both dispatch and check-in, the conversation with the production accountant becomes a matter of opinion.
Rate cards that are not daily
Weekends charge as one day, weeks come as a block, and long jobs get their own arrangement. Working that out on a calculator per quote is how margin leaks and how two people quote the same job differently.
Weekend turnaround in the bay
Kit comes off a Friday job and goes out again on Monday. It has to be cleaned, tested, recharged, cards cleared and repacked in between, with no single view of which packages are genuinely ready to go.
How Renttix helps
Serialised assets with full history
Every unit is an asset with its own number, and the identifier registry holds barcodes, QR codes, RFID tags and manufacturer serials against it. The asset record carries rental history, maintenance history, days on hire and revenue.
Packages you build once
Save a shooting package as a bundle. Adding it to an order drops in every component as its own order line — each priced from its own rate with the bundle discount applied — grouped under the package name so it still reads as one package on screen. Kit definitions record what a complete unit ships with, and return inspection checks the live composition against that list.
Deposit holds you can part-capture
Place a security deposit as a card authorisation rather than a charge, through Airwallex. On return, capture the full amount, capture part of it against a damage deduction and release the balance, or release the whole hold.
ID verification before release
Stripe Identity runs a document and selfie check through a link the customer opens on their own phone. Verify the account holder or the individual collecting, and set counter handover to warn or block until it passes.
Condition evidence at both ends
Proof of delivery captures photographs and a signature at handover. Return check-in runs a checklist, records a condition grade and photographs, and a failure raises a repair job.
Rate definitions, not arithmetic
Set day, week, month, hour, night or block rates. Choose which days of the week are chargeable so a Friday-out, Monday-back weekend charges as one day, and set minimum hire periods and block rounding once.
Key workflows
Enquiry and quote
The production sends a wish list. Build the quote line by line, with an availability check that warns on anything already committed over the shoot dates, and send it. When it is accepted, the quote converts to an order — and that is where saved packages get added.
Booking and paperwork
Dates, collection or delivery, deposit and hire agreement go on the order. The customer signs electronically, completes an ID check if your policy asks for one, and the deposit hold is placed against the booking.
Prep and camera test
The order appears on the warehouse prep queue. Each item is scanned against its line and the package is staged. The production preps and tests in the bay before it leaves.
Out on the shoot
The package goes out on collection or delivery, with photographs and a signature captured at handover. Extensions and off-hire requests come in through the customer portal instead of a phone call at five to six.
Check-in and settle
Kit is scanned back at the triage gate against a checklist, with condition and photographs recorded. Damage raises a report with a resolution and amount. The deposit is captured in part or released, and the hire is invoiced.
Relevant integrations
Stripe
Takes invoice payments in the customer portal, and runs Stripe Identity document checks.
Airwallex
The deposit rail, running the place, capture and release flow, with the customer authorising the hold on a hosted page rather than reading card numbers down the phone.
Xero
Invoices and credit notes push into Xero against mapped account codes, and customer records stay in step, so the hire ledger and the accounts ledger agree without rekeying.
QuickBooks
The same push route for QuickBooks, including customer and tax code syncing, for camera houses whose bookkeeper already works in QuickBooks rather than Xero.
Twilio
When your driver marks a run en route, Twilio texts the production contact an estimated arrival time and a live tracking link, and the same link shows the signature and handover photographs once the drop is done. Text and email are separate switches, so you can run either or both.
Shopify
Publish dry-hire packages and consumables to a Shopify storefront, bundles included, so straightforward bookings and accessory sales come in without tying up the desk.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. Each unit is a serialised asset with its own asset number, and the identifier registry holds barcodes, QR codes, RFID tags and manufacturer serials against that unit. The asset record carries rental history, maintenance history, total days on hire and revenue, so you can see exactly which body went out on which job.
A deposit can be placed as a card authorisation rather than a charge, through Airwallex, with the customer authorising on a hosted page. On return you capture the whole amount, capture part of it against a damage deduction and release the balance, or release the hold entirely. Each step is recorded against the order.
Yes. Stripe Identity runs a document and selfie check through a link the customer opens on their own phone. You can verify the account holder, the individual collecting on their behalf, or the signatory on a credit account. Depot handover can be set to warn on an unverified collection, or block release until the check passes.
Proof of delivery captures photographs and a signature at handover, with the images tagged by type. On return, check-in runs a checklist at the triage gate and records a condition grade with photographs. Damage reports hold severity, description, images and a resolution with an amount. It all sits against the order and appears in the documents hub.
Yes. Rate definitions cover day, week, month, hour, night and block rates. You choose which days of the week are chargeable, so a Friday-out, Monday-back weekend charges as one day, and you set minimum hire periods and how part-blocks round. The same rules apply across quotes, orders and invoices, so a new starter quotes the same figure as your best salesperson.
The customer portal shows a production their orders and documents, invoices and statements, and lets them raise off-hire requests, extension requests and support tickets. They can pay invoices by card and download their own paperwork. It reduces the calls asking when something is due back or where an invoice went.
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