Designing your checkout steps

The checkout flow builder lets you design what a customer sees and does while booking, beyond just paying. You stack steps such as text, questions, waivers and signatures into a custom checkout, in the order you choose.

Where to find it

Click Checkout in the left sidebar (under Website), or go to Settings → Checkout steps. The page is titled "Checkout Flow": "Design what your customer sees and signs at checkout."

It has two tabs. Client view is what customers see: two cards, Payment security and ID verification (Stripe Identity), sit above the Checkout Steps builder. Business side holds the steps your staff follow at pickup and return. See Requiring extra bank verification for payments and Requiring a photo ID before high-value bookings.

The builder

The left side is headed Add Checkout Step. Under Step Types you click a type to add it. Your steps appear under Checkout Order, headed Checkout Steps, in the order customers meet them. Each step has ↑ and ↓ buttons to move it and an × to remove it. A step that only shows for some products or dates is tagged COND. With none it says "No steps yet." You can have up to 100 steps.

A pill at the top shows where you stand: DRAFT · unpublished changes, Published (briefly, after you publish), or Live · all changes published. It also counts your steps, for example "4 checkout steps · 2 conditional".

Your edits are a draft until you click Publish changes. Customers see the published version only. If publishing fails you see "Couldn't publish:" and the reason.

The right side toggles between Edit and Preview. Preview shows "Full Checkout Preview". Use Simulate booking of to pick a product, and fill in Days and Guests, to see which steps that booking would show. The preview filters by product only, and steps with a date rule show "Shown only when:" and the rule.

Step types

• Text Block — "Notice, instructions, or terms with optional checkbox". Fields: Body text, Require checkbox acknowledgement, and Checkbox label (starts as "I have read and understand").
• Questionnaire — "Custom questions — short text, long text, or multiple choice". Click + Add question. Each has a Question prompt, a type (Short text answer, Long text answer, Multiple choice (single) or Multiple choice (multi)), + Add option for choices, and its own Required tick, off by default. Required questions must be answered before the customer can continue to review, and the booking is refused if they are not. Multiple choice questions also have Stop the booking for these answers (see below).
• Single Add-on — "One chargeable extra with a custom price (e.g. a specific upgrade or service)". Fields: Price (USD), Billing (Flat per booking, Per day or Per person), Description, Required add-on (cannot decline) and Pre-selected by default.
• Waiver — "Attach a liability or policy waiver the renter must accept". Pick the Waiver policy from the ones you have made. If there are none you are told to create one first. Required to complete booking can be turned off to make it optional.
• Signature — "Capture the renter's signature inline at checkout". Fields: Prompt shown above signature pad (starts as "Sign to confirm your booking") and Signature required.
• Checkbox — "A single agreement checkbox the renter must tick". Fields: Checkbox label (starts as "I agree to the terms") and Required to complete booking.
• File Upload — "Ask for a license, insurance proof, or any document". Choose Accepted file types (Images only (JPG, PNG, HEIC), Documents (PDF, DOC) or Any file type) and What this collects (Other document, Photo ID / driver's licence, Proof of insurance or Photo). Choosing Photo ID files it as the customer's ID, so Customer View will not ask again. Upload required to complete booking makes it compulsory.
• Delivery Calculator — "Charge for delivery based on distance from your shop". See the next section.

Settings on every step

• Title — what the customer sees.
• Before or after payment? — Before payment or After payment. After payment, a file upload is asked for on the confirmation page. The Delivery Calculator must be before payment, because it changes the amount owed.
• Available in admin booking — also show this step on the admin New booking page, so staff can fill it in when they create a booking.
• Show this script for and Show this when, below.

The Delivery Calculator step

This is where you set what delivery costs. Customers who use it get a delivery fee added to their booking, and the booking then appears as runs on the Dispatch board. See Coordinating deliveries and pickups for the day.

Fields:

• Starting point — your shop or warehouse address (for example "123 Main St, Apple Valley, UT 84737"). It is shown to the customer as the origin.
• Fee — Distance-based or Flat rate.
• Distance-based charges for miles. A new step starts at $3.50 per mile with 10 free miles.
• Rate (USD per mile) — what you charge per mile (up to $1,000).
• Free miles — miles you do not charge for (up to 10,000).
• Allow customer to pick round-trip (otherwise one-way only) — when ticked, the customer chooses One way or Round trip.
• Flat rate charges the same Flat delivery fee (USD) every time. The customer still enters an address but sees no miles or rate. They can still choose One way or Round trip (it does not change the price, only whether you pick the gear back up). A flat-rate step with a fee of $0 cannot be published ("is set to Flat rate with no fee — enter a flat delivery fee above $0 before publishing").
• Delivery required to complete booking — when ticked the customer must add delivery. When off, they get an opt-in box named after the step title.

How the fee is worked out in distance mode: the miles over your free miles, doubled for a round trip, times your rate. For example, 25 miles away, 10 free miles, $3.50 a mile, round trip: (25 − 10) × 2 × $3.50 = $105. A delivery that falls inside the free miles costs $0, and the customer cannot add it. There is no minimum-fee setting.

What the customer sees: a Delivery address box with suggestions ("Pick an address from the list and the miles and fee are worked out for you"), then Total distance, Free miles, Billable miles, Rate, Drive time and Delivery fee, and "Delivery fee confirmed" once added. Distances are real driving distances when Renta's map service is available and a starting point is set. If not, Renta estimates the distance from how long the address text is. The Manual distance (miles) box appears for a distance-based step only where the map service is not set up at all.

On the admin New booking page, the same calculator has a Save as my delivery rules button that copies the rate and free miles you typed onto every Delivery step in your checkout.

Stopping a booking based on an answer

Some answers mean you cannot take the booking, for example a driver under your minimum age. Use Stop the booking on a step to stop the customer there.

• Multiple choice questions (single or multi): tick Stop the booking for these answers, then tick which answers bar the booking, and write the message the customer should see. Turning it on also makes the question Required, so skipping it does not get round the rule. Short and long text answers cannot be judged, so the option is not offered there.
• Checkbox and required acknowledgement steps: tick Stop the booking if this isn't ticked. A customer who does not tick the box cannot book, and sees your message.

The customer sees your message in red, the Continue button stays off, and the booking is also refused when they try to reserve, so it cannot be skipped. Staff creating or editing a booking in the admin only see the same message as a Warning for staff and can carry on. The stop-the-booking rule only applies to steps shown Before payment.

Example, minimum driver age: add a Questionnaire step with the question "Driver 22 or older?" and two options, Yes and No. Tick Bars booking, tick No, and write "Drivers must be 22 or older to rent this." Publish changes.

Who sees a step and when

• Show this script for — All products (always shown), Only specific products... or All products except..., then pick products.
• Show this when — a date rule: Always (whenever the products above match), Rental crosses midnight (the return is on a later calendar day than pickup, in your shop's time zone), Rental longer than N hours (exactly N hours does not count), or Pickup on certain weekdays (at least one day must stay selected). Until a customer has picked dates, a step with a date rule stays hidden, and if they change their dates and it no longer applies, their answer to it is cleared.

Example

You add a Waiver step set to Only specific products... with your motorized items ticked, and a Questionnaire about overnight storage set to Rental crosses midnight. A customer booking a kayak for an afternoon sees neither. A customer booking a jet ski from 10 PM to 1 AM sees both. You click Publish changes so customers get the new flow.

Good to know

• Steps run in the order you arrange them.
• Both rules are optional. A step left on All products and Always shows for every booking.
• This is separate from Notes your staff see during checkout, which are internal reminders for your team.

What your staff do at pickup and return (Business side tab)

• Start flow (Pickup): Require a pickup checkout turns the whole pickup checkout on or off. When it is on you can switch Readings (hours and miles), Condition (photos and video), and Checklist on or off. Payment check blocks Start until the rental is paid, either confirmed by Stripe or recorded by staff as cash or other, and applies even if the pickup checkout is off. Only an owner can turn the Payment check on or off. Owners can always start anyway with a reason. See Starting a rental: the pickup checkout and the payment check.
• Finish flow (Return): Require a return checkout turns it on or off, with switches for Readings & Condition, Checklist, Work orders, Additional charges, Reviews, and Deposit. With the return checkout off, Renta stops collecting security deposits and damage charges automatically and your team charges or refunds them by hand. See Finishing a rental: the return checkout.
• Pickup checklist card — type your own items under Checklist item label, with add, remove and up and down buttons and Save. Every item needs a label.
• Return checklist card — read-only. Its items come from the maintenance tasks you flagged to show on the return, so change them in Maintenance templates.
• Each flow card has its own Save button. Only an owner or manager can change these settings.