Scaffolding hire is not a day-rate business. A scaffold goes up and then it stands — earning weekly hire for six weeks, or nine months, while the site around it changes. Meanwhile the yard is trying to account for tube, fittings and boards by the tonne across twenty live contracts, with adaptations, part off-hires and returns happening every week. Then there is the paperwork: inspections recorded, handovers signed, and a history that has to be produced the day the principal contractor asks for it. Software matters here because the money and the risk sit in the same place — knowing exactly what is standing, on which site, since when, and whether the record behind it holds up.
Equipment categories we support
Common challenges in scaffolding hire
Hire clock keeps running
A scaffold earns from the day it goes up to the day it comes down, and that can be nine months. Getting the on-hire date, the weekly cycle and the off-hire right across every live contract is where margin quietly leaks.
Inspection records on demand
Scaffolds need checking before first use and at regular intervals after, plus after alteration or bad weather. When the principal contractor asks for the history, it should not mean ringing a foreman and searching a van.
Tube and fittings never balance
Materials go out by the tonne and come back short. Without a running count of what was issued to each site and what actually returned, losses only surface at the annual stock check, long after anyone can recover them.
Adaptations change the contract
Sites ask for extra lifts, loading bays and crash decks mid-hire. Each variation changes the standing charge and the scope of what has to be inspected, and if it is not recorded the same week it never gets billed.
Wasted loads and wasted days
Gates locked, no crane slot booked, ground not ready. A wagon turned away costs a day of transport and a squad standing idle, and the office usually hears about it when the driver rings from the gate.
Applications, PO numbers and retentions
Main contractors pay against their own purchase order, their site reference and their valuation dates. An invoice missing any of those gets parked in someone's tray, and a parked invoice is a cash-flow problem.
How Renttix helps
Weekly rates that hold
Rate definitions run on a weekly or monthly base unit with minimum hire periods, chargeable days and an extra-day rate for part weeks. Set the charging start anchor once and every contract bills the same way.
Invoice runs by billing cycle
Give each account an invoice run code and billing period, then let the invoice run raise every standing hire in one pass. Invoice batches show exactly what will be billed, per order, before anything is sent.
Inspection regimes and certificates
Testing and inspections lets you define your own regime with its own interval, reminder days and scope. Results and certificates store against the asset, and overdue kit can warn at booking or be blocked outright.
Bulk stock counted properly
Tube, fittings and boards are set up as quantity-based products, so Renttix tracks units out against each order and units back at check-in. Stock take and the depot stock report reconcile the yard against the book.
Sites as projects
Group a customer's orders under a named project with its own site address, reference and contact. Every hire, adaptation and invoice for that scaffold sits on one record instead of a loose list of orders.
Dispatch board and proof
Plan erect, adapt and dismantle calls on the dispatch calendar with vehicles and drivers assigned. The app returns signature, photos and GPS, and a failed call records why — no access, not ready, refused.
Key workflows
Enquiry and take-off
Log the enquiry against the customer and site, then build a quote from your catalogue and rate definitions. Send it as a tokenised link the client can read, comment on and sign electronically.
Contract on, materials allocated
Convert the accepted quote into an order under the right project, carrying the site address, purchase order number and client reference. Availability is checked as lines are added, so the yard is not double-booked.
Load out and erect
The yard picks the order by scan, the load goes onto a dispatch run with a vehicle and driver, and the crew captures the handover, photos and signature on site.
Standing hire and variations
While the scaffold stands, inspection visits are scheduled and recorded, adaptations are added as new lines on the live order, and the site raises extension or off-hire requests through the customer portal.
Dismantle, count back, bill
Book the dismantle and collection, check materials back in by scan with condition captured, then let the invoice run raise the final charge to the off-hire date with any shortages applied.
Relevant integrations
Zapier
Quote accepted, order created and order completed fire as Zapier triggers, so a scaffold going on hire can land in the sheet or channel your contracts managers already watch. Enquiries come back the other way as a draft quote for the hire desk to price.
Google Maps
Site addresses are geocoded for route planning, depot service areas and day optimisation, so erects, adaptations and dismantles sequence sensibly instead of criss-crossing the county.
Twilio
When a driver marks a job en route, Renttix can text the site contact an ETA and a tracking link through your own Twilio account, so the gate is open when they arrive.
Xero
Invoices, credit notes and payments post straight to Xero, so a weekly hire billing run lands in the accounts without anyone re-keying it.
Sage Business Cloud
For yards already on Sage Business Cloud, invoices, customers and supplier records sync across rather than being typed into two systems every week.
Calendar feed
Subscribe to the dispatch iCal feed and contracts managers see the week's erects, adaptations and dismantles in the calendar they already keep open.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. Rate definitions can use a weekly or monthly base unit with a minimum hire period, chargeable days and a lower extra-day rate for part periods. A hire stays open until an off-hire is recorded, and the invoice run bills each cycle from the charging start date. The final invoice reflects the part period at the end.
Set them up as quantity-based products rather than serialised assets. Renttix then tracks quantities out against each order and quantities back at check-in, with condition captured on return. The depot stock report shows what should be in the yard, and stock take reconciles that against a physical count, so shortages surface per contract rather than once a year.
Two things happen here. Statutory and internal test regimes — towers, hoists, harnesses and other serialised kit — are handled by testing and inspections, with intervals, reminders, results and certificates on each asset. Inspection visits to a standing scaffold are scheduled as recurring dispatch jobs against the site.
Yes. Lines can be added to a live order as the scaffold changes, and the extra materials bill from the date they go on. Extension requests raised by the site through the customer portal queue for a dispatcher to approve, which pushes the expected return date. Everything stays on the same order and the same project record.
Renttix has suspensions. Charging can be suspended for a date range at company, place, depot, account, order or order-line level, each with a reason recorded. The invoice batch carries a suspension amount against the affected lines, so the reduction shows on the invoice itself rather than being cleaned up with a credit note afterwards.
Yes, through sub-rentals. Raise a purchase order against the supplier, record the supplier price, and track each transit leg with its own proof of delivery — supplier to site, site to depot, depot back to supplier. The cross-hire sits on the customer's order like any other line.
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