Equipment fees and deposits, plus waiting lists

Decide what you charge for

A desk can charge for several different things, and they behave differently. A late fine follows a due time that was missed. A usage charge pays for something that is used up or worn. A deposit is held against damage or loss and is expected to come back. A waiver is a charge that someone with authority decides not to collect.

Write each rule in a sentence a borrower can read: what it is for, when it starts and who can waive it. A rule you cannot say plainly is hard to apply at a busy desk, and it is the first one a borrower will dispute.

In vFound Equipment, a site can turn on fees to record late fines, usage charges, deposits and waivers. Fees are off until an owner or manager turns them on, and vFound records what the site took itself and never processes a payment.

Tell borrowers the rules first

A fee is easier to collect when the borrower agreed to it before they took the item. Put the rule in the terms a borrower accepts, and keep the exact words they accepted.

A site can ask borrowers to accept terms or a waiver at checkout and when they book from My vFound. The exact text and the time are kept with the checkout or booking and shown on the receipt.

Condition matters just as much as the rule. Staff can add a condition photo and note as each item goes out, kept beside the return photo, so a damage fee rests on a record rather than a memory. A site can also require training before someone borrows an item, and owners and managers can put a hold on a person’s borrowing.

Record service costs apart from borrower fees

What a borrower owes and what an item costs the site are different numbers. Keep them apart, so a repair bill never hides inside a late fine.

Owners and managers can record the cost of service and work orders for each item, and a site can keep suppliers and purchase orders and receive deliveries against them. Purchase orders are a record only: vFound does not send an order to a supplier or pay one. vFound takes no payment for any of these.

Let a waiting list handle a taken time

When a room, a desk or a popular item is already booked, the usual answer is a no, and the next person asks again tomorrow. A waiting list keeps their place.

Owners and managers can add rooms, desks and parking spaces, and people book them through the same reservation rules as equipment. When a time is taken a person can wait for it and is booked if it comes free. A booking can repeat every day or every one to four weeks, up to 52 times, and staff can drag a booking to a new time on the Booking calendar.

For kit that needs a sign-off, a kit can hold named items, a number from a category and other kits, and a site can name up to three approvers in order.

What vFound does not do

vFound never processes a payment. It does not take a card or collect a fee for you: it records what your site took itself.

Fees are off until an owner or manager turns them on. vFound does not send a purchase order to a supplier or pay one. It is not full asset management: it does not manage devices or do your accounting, so keep a dedicated system if you need those.

A short checklist

1. List what you charge for and write each rule in one plain sentence.
2. Put the rule in the terms or waiver a borrower accepts before checkout.
3. Photograph the condition of anything that can be damaged as it goes out.
4. Decide who can waive a charge, and record the reason when they do.
5. Keep what borrowers owe apart from what the site spends on service.
6. Use a waiting list for rooms, desks and kit that are often taken.

To see these settings on your own kit, request your free trial. It is a 14-day free trial we set up with you, then yearly by invoice. The full list of what the product does is on the equipment checkout software page.