Moving a booking through its lifecycle

These buttons move a booking forward through its lifecycle. Which ones you see depends on the booking's current status. You never see a button for a step that does not apply yet.

Where to find it

Bookings → open a booking → buttons in the top-right of the page. Reopen rental and Reopen booking are backward moves, so each asks you to confirm first.

How it works

• pending → Confirm (to confirmed) or Cancel (to cancelled).
• pending_payment → Confirm (to confirmed) or Cancel (to cancelled). There is no Start from this status; a booking confirms first.
• confirmed → Start (to active, meaning the customer now has the equipment) or Cancel. Start opens the pickup checkout. See Starting a rental.
• active → Finish (to completed) or Cancel. Finish opens the return checkout. See Finishing a rental.
• completed → Reopen rental (back to active) to undo a finish made in error. Renta warns that this can re-open inventory and affect your reports.
• cancelled → Reopen booking (back to pending) if a booking was cancelled by mistake. This does not bring back a payment or a deposit hold, so you re-confirm it like a new booking.
• expired → Cancel (to cancelled) only.

Start can be blocked until the rental is paid

By default, Start will not go through on a booking that is not paid. The pickup checkout shows "Rental not paid yet — Start is blocked" and lists what is owed. An owner can start anyway by giving a reason; managers and staff can only do so if an owner allowed it. The full rules are in Starting a rental.

This check also applies if your shop has the pickup checkout switched off. In that case Start moves the booking straight to active, and if the rental is unpaid you get a "Start this rental before it's paid?" box (for people allowed to override) or an error (for everyone else).

Example

A customer arrives for their jet ski with the booking marked confirmed. You press Start, finish the readings and checklist, and press Submit. If the booking still shows $50 owed, the Payment step blocks you until the balance is collected or an owner starts it anyway.

Good to know

• Confirm and Cancel only change the status. Start and Finish open checkouts. Start does not charge the customer. Finish carries out your deposit choice and any extra charges you added; see Finishing a rental.
• Payments, refunds, and deposits are handled from the booking's More menu (see refunds and cancellations) and the Payments & Documents tab.
• On an active booking, Edit Pickup in the More menu reopens the pickup details without blocking on payment. On a completed booking, Edit Dropoff reopens the return details.
• Reopening a cancelled booking is blocked if another booking has since taken the same dates.