Hire Items

Hire items are reusable pieces of equipment that you rent out for events — vases, arches, plinths, candelabras, and table accessories. Unlike flowers that are bought fresh and used once, hire items go out, come back, and go out again. The system tracks how many you own, where they are, and whether they’re free on a given date so you never accidentally double-book.

​

What are hire items?

Think of hire items as any physical item your business owns and lends out for events. Common examples include:

• Ceremony pieces — arches, plinths, pedestals, aisle markers
• Table accessories — candelabras, lanterns, vase collections, table runners
• Vessels — glass cylinder vases, urns, compote bowls, terracotta pots
• Structural items — flower walls, backdrops, stands, frames

Because you own a fixed number of each item, the system needs to know exactly how many are available so it can warn you before you overcommit.

​

How hire items work

Hire items are a special type of ingredient. When you mark an ingredient as a hire item, it gains stock tracking and date-based availability checking. This means:

• You set how many you own (your stock level)
• The system checks every confirmed event to see how many are already reserved on a given date
• If you try to add more than you have, a conflict warning appears

This all happens automatically. You add hire items to your quotations the same way you add any other ingredient — search for it, select it, and the system handles the rest.

​

Setting up a hire item

To create a new hire item, add it as an ingredient and turn on the hire item setting:

1. Go to your Ingredients list and click New Ingredient
2. Give the item a clear name (e.g., “Gold Arch” or “Glass Cylinder Vase — Large”)
3. Toggle Is Hire Item to on
4. Set the stock level to the exact number you own — if you have 4 glass cylinder vases, enter 4
5. Add a photo so your team can identify it quickly
6. Save the ingredient

The stock level is the most important field. It tells the system your total inventory, which drives every availability check from that point forward.

​

Availability checking

Every time you add a hire item to a quotation, the system checks whether that item is free on the event date. It does this by looking at all other events on the same date and counting how many of that item are already reserved.

​

Which event statuses reserve stock?

Not every event holds hire stock. Only events that have moved past the quoting stage count towards availability:

• Quote Accepted — the client has agreed, so stock is reserved
• Order Finalisation — the order is being prepared, stock is reserved
• Order Created — the order is confirmed, stock is reserved
• Completed — the event has happened (items should be returned, but stock is still counted until cleared)

​

Which statuses do NOT reserve stock?

• Draft — you’re still building the event, nothing is committed
• Quote Sent — the client hasn’t accepted yet, so stock stays free for others
• Follow Up — still in the sales process, nothing is committed
• Cancelled — the event is no longer happening
• Archived — the event has been filed away

This means you can send quotes to multiple clients for the same date without worrying about hire item conflicts. Stock only gets reserved once an event reaches Quote Accepted or beyond.

​

Stock conflict warnings

If you try to add a hire item that is already fully booked on the event date, the system shows a stock conflict warning. This warning tells you:

• Which item is affected
• How many are available on that date
• How many are already reserved and by which events

The warning stays visible so you can decide what to do — adjust the quantity, swap the item for something else, or choose to overbook.

​

Adding hire items to quotations

You add hire items to your quotations the same way you add any other ingredient. Open the quotation builder, search for the item by name, and add it to the relevant group. The system automatically checks availability in the background and flags any conflicts. Because hire items are ingredients, they flow through to your recipes, costings, and shopping lists just like flowers and sundries do.

​

Overbooking

Sometimes you know you can borrow or sub-hire an item from another company, or you’re confident one event will cancel. In these cases, the system lets you overbook — it won’t block you from adding more items than you own. However, the conflict warning stays visible on the event so you and your team always know there’s a potential problem to resolve.

​

Tracking returns after events

Getting your hire items back in good condition is just as important as sending them out. After each event, we recommend running through a quick checklist:

1. Check every item against the event’s hire list — make sure everything came back
2. Inspect for damage — scratches, chips, dents, missing parts
3. Update your stock level if an item is permanently damaged and can’t be reused
4. Invoice the client for any lost or damaged items if your terms allow it

Staying on top of returns keeps your stock levels accurate and prevents you from quoting items that are sitting broken in a cupboard.

​

Common questions

​

What’s next?