KSIDol Documentation > KSIDol Modules > Rental (DoliLocation)

Rental module (DoliLocation) user guide

A non-technical guide for rental businesses: set the module to your trade, publish your fleet, quote and book, hand goods over the counter, record condition reports, handle deposits and damage, and print the papers your customer signs.

10trade presets

18capabilities you can switch on or off

45screens, in 5 languages

6printable documents

1. What the module does

DoliLocation turns your Dolibarr into a rental management tool, from the first enquiry to the closed file, without you ever leaving the software your team already knows.

It covers the whole working cycle: quote, booking, preparation, departure, return, invoicing and closing of the file.
It knows the difference between an article you rent out in quantity and a physical unit you can identify, follow and immobilise.
A trade preset and eighteen capabilities shape it, so a bike-hire shop and a plant-hire depot do not get the same screens.
It lives inside Dolibarr: your customers, products, warehouses, projects and staff stay where they are, and the module adds its own tabs to those records.
It is translated screen by screen, with 725 translation keys per language across its five languages, so nothing is left half in English on a French or Spanish desk.
Version 1.0.1, published by KSI 30 under the GPL v3 licence, compatible with Dolibarr 18.0.6 to 24.0.2 and tested step by step on each of those versions. One single offer at 365 € excluding tax, companion shop connectors included, on https://www.ksidol.io

2. Choosing your trade, and what that choice settles for you

On the first run you pick the trade closest to your business, and the module pre-sets itself instead of asking you forty questions.

Ten presets are available: plant and construction equipment, events and receptions, vehicles, audiovisual, sound and lighting, light mobility such as bikes and scooters, rooms and spaces, trailers and light commercial vehicles, medical and paramedical equipment, IT and office equipment, and linen, tableware and light catering.
The preset switches on the capabilities that make sense for you and leaves the others out of sight.
The eighteen capabilities are: preliminary quote, site or event file, delivery and collection, rounds, identified units, meters in kilometres or hours, departure and return condition reports, security deposit, damage and withholdings, insurance, excess, fuel and consumables, cleaning and hygiene, licences and qualifications, sub-renting, counter till, public mini-site and shop channels.
Nothing is locked in: every capability can be turned on or off one by one afterwards, as your business grows into them.

3. The dashboard

The dashboard is the screen you open in the morning to see where your rental activity stands.

It gathers the state of your rental business in one place, so you do not have to open each file to know what is going out and what is coming back.
It has its own permission, separate from the right to create or modify: a manager or an accountant can read the figures without being able to touch a file.
What it shows follows the capabilities you enabled, so you are not reading columns about deposits or meters if your trade does not use them.
It is the entry point to the module menu: the fleet, the planning, the counter and the rounds.

4. Making an article rentable

A rentable article is an ordinary Dolibarr product or service to which you add the few pieces of information a rental needs.

You declare the time unit you charge in, and the minimum duration below which you do not rent the item out.
You declare the rentable quantity, which is what the module will protect against overbooking.
You declare two lead times that belong to your workshop reality: the preparation time before a departure, and the refurbishing time after a return.
From then on the product record also shows the rental history of that article, so you can see at a glance what it has been through.

5. The fleet: units, identifiers, conditions

When an item has to be followed individually, you describe it as a physical unit and the module keeps its life story.

Each unit carries its serial number, and relies on the lot and serial tracking built into Dolibarr rather than on a parallel numbering of its own.
A unit can hold several identifiers at once, including a barcode, so the sticker on the machine, the engraved number and the maker's reference all lead to the same unit.
Each unit has a condition and a warehouse, which is how you know not only what you own but where it currently is.
A unit can be immobilised, with the reason stated: maintenance, repair, inspection, internal use or decommissioning. An immobilised unit stops being offered for rent.

6. How the module decides an item is available

Availability is computed on real intervals, not on a day-by-day grid, which is what lets a busy depot work properly.

A period that ends frees the capacity for the one that starts the same day, so a return in the morning and a departure in the afternoon follow each other without the module declaring a clash.
Preparation and refurbishing lead times are part of the calculation: a machine that needs cleaning is not offered to the next customer before it is ready.
A temporary option holds capacity for a while and then expires on its own, so an abandoned enquiry does not freeze your fleet for ever.
Confirmation is handled as a single indivisible step: two people confirming at the same second cannot both take the last available item.

7. Prices: durations, tiers, seasons

Rental pricing is rarely one price per day, so the module lets you describe your real rate card and then explains what it applied.

You build grids by duration, with tiers, so a week costs less than seven days and a month less than four weeks.
You build grids by season, for trades where high season and low season are not charged alike.
When several rules could apply, a priority order decides between them, so the outcome is predictable rather than accidental.
A simulator shows which rule was applied and, just as importantly, why the other rules were set aside, which is what you need when a customer questions a figure.
When the file is committed, a price snapshot is frozen on it: changing your rate card later never rewrites a file already engaged.

8. Booking: the temporary option, then the file

The module separates the moment you hold the goods from the moment you commit, because an enquiry is not yet a rental.

You first place a temporary option, which reserves the capacity while the customer makes up their mind.
If nothing happens, the option expires by itself and the capacity goes back into circulation without anyone having to remember it.
If the customer says yes, the option becomes a rental file, and that confirmation is the step protected against two simultaneous bookings.
Where your trade works with a preliminary quote, the file can start as a quote and only become a confirmed booking once the customer accepts.

9. The rental file day to day

The rental file is the one place that holds everything about one rental, and its status tells your whole team where it stands.

It moves through clear steps: draft, quoted, confirmed, in preparation, ready, out, back, then closed.
It carries priced lines, the customer, the dates, the departure warehouse and, when relevant, the project for the site or the event.
It stays linked to the native Dolibarr records that go with it, the quote it came from and the sales order it is invoiced on, so you never keep the same rental twice in two places.
It carries the staff assigned to it, so the people who prepare, deliver and take back the goods are named rather than assumed.
Closing the file is a deliberate act, which is what makes the difference between a rental that is finished and one that is merely back in the yard.

10. The counter and scanning

At the counter you work with a scanner and short screens, because a queue of customers is no place for a long form.

You scan a code, either a barcode or a serial number, and the module recognises straight away whether it is an article or one precise unit.
The scanned item goes into the basket, and the module places the matching temporary options for you.
The counter is a capability of its own, so trades that never serve over a desk simply do not see it.
Using the counter is governed by its own permission, which lets you open it to a shop assistant without opening the whole module.

11. Departures and returns: condition reports

The condition report is your proof of what the goods looked like when they left and what they looked like when they came home.

One report is filled in at departure and one at return, and they record the condition observed, the meter reading, the fuel level, the accessories handed over and a free comment.
The same report model is used in both directions, so the two pages read side by side and a difference is obvious.
Partial returns are supported: when only part of the goods comes back, you record that part and the rest stays out.
A return report is what feeds the rest of the day: the deposit decision, a damage report if needed, and the refurbishing time before the next departure.

12. The security deposit

The deposit is recorded, not taken: the module keeps the commitment without touching your accounts.

A deposit is registered on the file with its amount, so everyone can see what the customer has pledged.
No accounting entry is produced as long as nothing is withheld: a deposit sitting on a file never pollutes your books.
Returning the deposit means closing it, with or without a withholding, which is a deliberate and traceable act.
Deposits have their own permission, so you can reserve that decision to the people who are allowed to make it.

13. Damage and withholdings

When goods come back damaged, you record a report rather than a note in the margin.

A damage report states its type, a description of what happened, who is held responsible and an estimated amount.
It is attached both to the rental file and to the unit concerned, so the history follows the machine and not only the customer.
It is the natural basis for a withholding on the deposit: the figure you keep is explained by a document instead of a verbal claim.
It can be printed and handed over, which is how a disagreement turns into a conversation about a written statement.

14. The papers you print and have signed

Six documents cover the paperwork of a rental from the contract to the driver's run sheet.

The rental contract, the departure and return note, and the condition report, that last one being a single model used at departure and again at return.
The damage report and the deposit certificate, for the two moments where a customer most wants something in writing.
The round sheet, for the person who drives out with the goods and comes back with signatures.
They print from the file they belong to, with your usual Dolibarr letterhead, so what the customer signs looks like your company.

15. The module lives inside Dolibarr: eight added tabs

Rather than build a parallel world, the module adds a tab to the native Dolibarr records your team already opens every day.

On a product, the tab that makes the article rentable, with its time unit, its minimum duration and its rental history; on a customer, all the rental files of that customer.
On a quote, the rental periods carried by the lines, together with the electronic signature of the Dolibarr core, timestamped and archived; on a sales order, the rental file linked to that order.
On a shipment, the delivery and the collection; on a warehouse, what the depot holds and what has gone out of it.
On a user, what that member of staff is responsible for; on a project, the rental files attached to the site or the event.
The module also creates native Dolibarr records for you, quotes, orders, projects and shipments, with shipments created as drafts so no stock movement ever happens behind your back.

16. Logistics and rounds

When you deliver and collect rather than hand over at a counter, the work is organised as rounds.

A delivery round and a collection round group the stops of one vehicle, so a driver gets one list instead of a pile of files.
Each round prints its own run sheet, which is the paper that goes in the cab and comes back annotated.
Delivery and collection, and rounds, are two separate capabilities: you can deliver without ever organising rounds.
Logistics has its own permission, so the depot can plan the day without being able to change prices or close deposits.

17. The public mini-site and shop channels

Your customers can book without you, either on a small public space or from your online shop.

The public mini-site is a booking space for your customers, who do not need a Dolibarr account to use it.
Shop channels connect the module to an online shop, and two companion connectors are provided: WooCommerce and PrestaShop 8, both included in the price.
What arrives from a channel lands in the module as a normal rental file, so your team keeps one single way of working.
Channels have their own permission, which keeps the connection settings away from the counter staff.

18. What runs by itself: three scheduled tasks

Three background tasks do the dull work that nobody should have to remember.

The first releases expired temporary options, so capacity held by abandoned enquiries goes back on sale.
The second retries shop channel deliveries that failed, so a momentary network problem does not cost you a booking.
The third checks the integrity of the rental journal, which is how you find out that something is wrong before a customer tells you.

19. Who is allowed to do what

Ten permissions let you give each person exactly the part of the module their job needs.

Reading rental files, creating and modifying them, and deleting them, which are three different levels of trust.
Configuring the module, which is the administrator's business and nobody else's.
Using the counter, managing the planning and managing logistics, for the three day-to-day jobs of a rental business.
Managing deposits and managing shop channels, two decisions you usually want to keep in few hands.
Reading the dashboard, which can be granted on its own to someone who needs the figures and nothing else.

20. Frequently asked questions

The questions rental businesses ask before they start, answered plainly.

Which Dolibarr versions does it run on? From 18.0.6 to 24.0.2, tested version by version on 18.0.6, 19.0.4, 20.0.4, 21.0.4, 22.0.5, 23.0.4 and 24.0.2, with PHP 8.1 to 8.3 and MariaDB 10.11.
Does the deposit take money from my customer? No. The deposit is recorded and not charged, and nothing reaches your accounts unless you decide on a withholding and state the reason for it.
Do I have to use the public mini-site and the shop connectors? No. They are capabilities you switch on if you want them; many businesses run the module entirely from the counter and the planning.
In how many languages does it work? Five, across all forty-five screens, with 725 translation keys per language so every screen is fully translated.
What does it cost and where do I get help? One single offer at 365 € excluding tax, companion shop connectors included, published by KSI 30 under the GPL v3 licence, available on https://www.ksidol.io and supported through https://www.ksidol.io/contact