Equipment categories and service rules

Every piece of rental gear belongs to a category. Categories decide how stock is counted and hold the service rules. They live under Settings, then Categories in the Equipment group.

The nine categories you start with

A new dive center comes with BCD, Regulator, Tank and Dive computer tracked individually, and Wetsuit, Fins, Mask, Boots and Weights as pools. Regulator carries a 12-month service rule; Tank carries a yearly visual inspection and a hydrostatic test every five years. Tank is also set up the way most dive centers run tanks: a rental records only the size and the quantity, and it is Included in every fun dive, charged per trip, with no own tank offered online. A dive center that already had a category named Tank got the same settings on it, with its most common tank size as the standard size. None has a rental price yet.

The list

Each category is a row with its name, its tracking mode, its service rules as small labels such as "Valve service · every 18 months", the bundles it is part of ("In: Full set, Light set") and a Disabled label when it is switched off. On the right are the Enabled switch and a pencil. Drag the rows to set the order of the Equipment page and the rental dialog. A category included in every fun dive carries an Included mark, and a serialized category whose rentals pick no specific item a No item picked mark.

Add or edit a category

Press Add category, or the pencil on a row:

• Name, unique.

• Tracking mode, as two options, each with a sentence that says what it means:

  • Serialized: every item is recorded on its own, with its label, size and service history.
  • Pooled: only the number in stock is recorded, per size.

  Once a category has items or stock, the choice is shown locked with the reason.

• Pick a specific item on a rental, a switch shown for serialized categories only. On, the rental desk picks the exact item for every unit, as before. Off, the rental desk records only the size and the quantity, and each item keeps its own service history. See Rent gear out.

• At booking, as two options:

  • Guests choose: guests and your team say for this category whether they bring their own, rent it or do not need it, as for any rental gear.
  • Included in every fun dive: every fun dive booking gets a line for this category by itself, see below. Nobody is asked whether they need it.

• With Included in every fun dive, three more settings:

  • Charged: Per trip or Per dive.
  • Standard size, shown when the category has several sizes: the size a booking gets unless the guest or your team picks another. Left empty, the first size in size order is used, such as 10L before 12L.
  • Guests can say they bring their own, a switch, off by default. On, the booking page offers I bring my own for it. Your team can mark a guest as bringing their own either way.

• Service rules: each rule is a Rule name and "every N months", from 1 to 120. Add rule sits under the last rule. Up to 20 rules. Rules only have an effect on serialized categories, where they mark items as due on the Equipment page; for a pooled category the window says they have no effect.

Save with Add category or Save changes.

Included in every fun dive

A category set to Included in every fun dive puts one line on every fun dive booking by itself, in the same step that creates the booking: a booking your team makes, one made online, one made together with others, and one scheduled from a request for a number of dives. Course bookings get no line. The line carries a size: the size picked when booking, else the size on the diver's profile when the profile has one for that category, else the Standard size. A size the category does not have is refused.

• The line is not rental gear. It never needs a rental, the rental desk does not hand it out, and a booking whose only gear is included has nothing to fulfil.
• Inside a bundle, an included category is skipped: nobody is asked its size, renting the bundle adds no line for it, and the bundle's price stays the same. See Bundles, a kit rented as one item.
• The trip page counts the lines per size, so you know how many tanks of each size to load. See The trip page.
• It is priced from the price list: the Per trip rate once per booking, or once for every dive of the booked trip when it is charged per dive. Without a price it costs nothing and the estimate shows no line for it. On the guest's bill the included line lands as its own line, such as "Tank 15L, included", per trip or per dive, and a guest who brings their own leaves it off. See Bills.

Switching a category to Included in every fun dive gives every upcoming fun dive booking, from today on and not cancelled, its line at the standard size. A booking that already asked for that category keeps the request as its included line, at the size it asked for, so nothing is counted twice. Switching back to Guests choose removes the lines from upcoming bookings; past bookings keep theirs. Changing the Standard size changes no line that already exists.

Prices

The category window has no price fields. Rental prices are set in Settings, then Price list, section Equipment; see The price list. If you may see prices, the foot of the list has an Open price list button and the window of a new category reminds you of it. A category with no price rents at no charge. A category with several sizes can also have a price per size, for example a surcharge for 15L tanks; see The price list.

Disable instead of delete

There is no delete. The Enabled switch on each row takes a category out of circulation: it cannot be picked for a new rental, is not offered to guests, is hidden on the Equipment page and cannot be added to a bundle. Existing rentals and stock stay. A disabled category included in every fun dive adds no line to new bookings.

Limits

Up to 50 categories, disabled ones included. Item labels in serialized categories must be unique across the whole dive center, archived items included, not only within the category.