Creating an Order
Ways to Create an Order
- From the New dropdown menu in the Dashboard header
- From the Sales Orders list
- From an Account's orders list
- From a Quote Request
- From an existing Order via duplicating
- From an existing order's selected line items (used for creating rental extensions and L&D orders)
- From a webstore checkout, when a customer buys items online (the order arrives paid and invoiced)
Order Types
There are nine order Types.
"Sales & Rentals", "Rentals Only", "Extended Rental", "Security Deposit", "Assets Only", "Maintenance" and "On Spec Rental" type orders start off in your Default Order Status (Draft unless you change it in your Order Settings), then move to a contracted order and finally to a "Returned" or "Closed" order status. These order types have a Return Date.
"Sales Only" and "Loss & Damage" type orders have fewer statuses because they're not ordinarily returned. They do not show a Return Date.
Extended Rental Orders
An extension orders continues your Weekly Discount Schedule from the previous order. To create, select the line items to be extended and then select Bulk Actions -> New Order from Selected Line Items and then select "Extended Rental" as the order type.
Learn more about Extended Rental Orders
Loss & Damage Orders
You can create L&D orders that use the item's replacement price as the line item unit price. There are two ways to create:
- From the New Order button (rare).
- The more common way to create an L&D order is to select the line items in Lost or Damaged status, then select Bulk Actions → New Order from Selected Line Items and then select "Loss & Damage" as the order type.
Security Deposit Orders
Some prop house accept or require "Security Deposits" to set up an account. This is common with Canadian prop houses (often CA$2,000 ) as compared to American prop houses who prefer Certificates of Insurance or COIs.
These deposits can be tracked with statuses like Requested, Received, Ready for Pickup, and Returned.
Propcart uses orders and not invoices to manage security deposits so they don't artificially increase or decrease your sales and tax reports (which depend on invoices, not orders).
On Spec Rental Orders
Renting items "On Spec" (also called "On Memo") lets customers take multiple options for a short trial period — typically 2–3 days — before committing to a final selection. It's common for wardrobe customers doing fittings or prop masters doing a "Show & Tell": three shirts go out, one fits the character, two come back.
The items that don't make the cut are returned within the On Spec window. Most prop and costume houses charge around 35% of the first week's (or first month's) rental rate to cover the handling — picking, processing, and restocking the rejects.
To enable On Spec rentals in Propcart, set your duration and percentage in your Order Settings.
Until the On Memo / On Spec percentage is set, you can't choose the "On Spec Rental" type, whether on a new order, with Change Order Type or with New Order from Selected Line Items. Quote requests can't be converted to orders either while your Default Order Type is "On Spec Rental".
Assets Only Orders
"Assets Only" orders track your own equipment rather than customer rentals. One common use is for a production company to track their own props and sets for internal projects. Another use is for assigning gear to a crew member — one order per employee for their radio, scanner and phone.
These orders only accept items with the Asset purchase type. If you try to add an item of any other purchase type, Propcart will refuse it and tell you why.
Assets Only orders are never invoiced, so their Billing tab is disabled and have no Billable Duration.
Maintenance Orders
"Maintenance" orders track items that are temporarily out of circulation but aren't rented to anyone: an item pulled for repair, sent out for cleaning, being refinished or repainted, or held for a safety or quality inspection.
While a Maintenance order is open, its items are unavailable to everyone else — customers, employees and other departments — exactly as if they were rented out.
Unlike "Assets Only" orders, Maintenance orders accept any purchase type, because the item going into the shop is usually an ordinary rental item. And you might add service line items to explain the work to be done.
Maintenance orders are never invoiced. Their Net Amount is always $0, every line item's extended price is $0, their Billing tab is disabled, and they have no Billable Duration.
Setting up an account for Maintenance orders
Every order needs an Account, so create one per shop or department — for example "Repair Shop", "Wardrobe Cleaning" or "Photo Studio" — and use it for these orders. Don't grant any of its contacts webstore access, so the orders never appear in a customer's order history.
A Return Date is required
Maintenance orders require a Return Date. Use your best estimate of when the item comes back, and update it as the estimate changes.
Propcart only marks an item as unavailable for the dates between its Pickup Date and Return Date. A line item with no Return Date is skipped entirely, which means the item stays bookable by customers the whole time it's sitting in the shop.
This is why the Return Date can't be left blank. If you don't know when an item will come back, set the date well into the future and pull it in later.
Creating one from damaged line items
The quickest way to send items to the shop is straight from the order they came back on. Select the damaged line items, then choose Bulk Actions → New Order from Selected Line Items and select "Maintenance" as the order type.
A Send to Maintenance? prompt confirms the new order's dates: it starts today and returns after your Initial Rental Term (from your Order Settings). Its line items are created "Rented Out", so the items are held out of circulation right away. Change the order's Return Date once you know when the items will be back.
Statuses on a Maintenance order
Maintenance orders use the same statuses as any other order. "Rented Out" is the status to use while the item is away being worked on — it reads oddly on a repair, but it's the status that holds the item out of circulation.
Only items with a physical rental purchase type — Asset, Daily Rental, Flat Rate Rental, Per Use Rental and Weekly Rental — are held as unavailable. An item with a For Sale or Free purchase type can still be booked by someone else while it's on a Maintenance order.
Changing Order Type
You can change an order's type using the Change Order Type Order Menu action, with these exceptions:
- An order can't be changed to or from "Loss & Damage", or to "Extended Rental". Create those with Bulk Actions → New Order from Selected Line Items instead.
- An "Extended Rental" order can only be changed to "Sales & Rentals" or "Rentals Only". This detaches it from its original order, which can't be undone, and its pricing restarts at the first week. It can't be detached while it has its own Extended Rental or L&D orders.
- "On Spec Rental" requires the On Memo / On Spec percentage in your Order Settings.
Note that to change the order type, all line items on the order must be compatible with the order type, the same rule that applies when adding items. "Rentals Only" orders only accept rental purchase types, "Sales Only" orders only accept sales purchase types (including services), and "Assets Only" orders only accept the Asset purchase type.
Order Statuses
There are seventeen order Statuses that indicate where the order is in its lifecycle.
- Draft: A sales rep is actively building the order.
- On Hold: The order has been sent to the customer as a quote for review and approval.
- Requested: "Security Deposit" orders only. The deposit has been requested from the customer.
- Confirmed: The customer has confirmed or approved the quote / order. The crew can start picking and preparing the order.
- In Progress: Work on the order has started. On a Confirmed "Sales Only" order, the Move to WIP button sets this status.
- Ready for Pickup: The order is on the dock ready for pickup.
- Canceled: The customer canceled the quote or order. Typically orders are canceled before they are picked, otherwise a restocking fee is charged.
- Unscheduled: The customer hasn't confirmed a pickup date, and so the line items are excluded from checking for double booking conflicts.
- On Memo / On Spec: The order has been released for a few days (the On Spec period) for fittings (wardrobe) or "Show & Tell" (hand props).
- Rented Out: The order has been picked up by the customer.
- Received: The items are back at your dock but haven't been checked in yet. On a "Security Deposit" order, the deposit has been received.
- Partially Returned: At least one line item has been returned, but not all have been returned or marked as lost or damaged.
- Returned: All line items have been returned on-time without loss or damage.
- Returned Late: All line items have been returned and at least one line item has returned after the expected return date. You might create an extended rental order for those late items.
- Returned with L&D: All line items have been returned and at least one line item was marked lost or damaged. You might create an L&D order for those items.
- Sold: The final status for "Sales Only" and "Loss & Damage" type orders.
- Closed: The order has been reviewed by management and all extensions, L&D and invoicing have been accounted for. See Closing Orders.
Account
An Account is required to create an order.
To avoid having this requirement slow you down, create two accounts titled "New Account Pending" and "Misc Jobs".
Selecting an account will import that account's Buyer Emails, Billing Address, tax region and terms into the order, which you can then modify. A new order also gets your Credit Card Fee if the account's preferred payment method is Credit Card or Apply Credit Card Fee to all Orders? is on in your Order Settings.
Wrapped accounts and accounts marked Action Required can't be selected.
If you change the account on an existing order, Propcart asks before changing its tax region, terms or Credit Card Fee to the new account's. The new account also carries over to the order's Extended Rental and L&D orders.
See Creating an Account to learn more.
Dates & Billable Duration
An order's Billable Duration is automatically determined by its Pickup Date and Return Date. It represents the number of weeks used to calculate an order's price, or the number of days if you switch the order's pricing interval to "business days" or "calendar days". New orders use the Initial Rental Term and Default Pricing Interval from your Order Settings.
Notice a "Grace Day" is included which is standard industry practice and buyers expect it. There's no way to disable the automatic Grace Day.
Billable Duration only applies to rental type orders: "Sales & Rentals", "Rentals Only", "Extended Rental" and "On Spec Rental".
Sales type orders (e.g. "Sales Only" and "Loss & Damage") lack a Return Date and do not have a Billable Duration. "Security Deposit", "Assets Only" and "Maintenance" type orders do have a Return Date, but they are not rentals, so they have no Billable Duration either.
An order's dates are locked once its invoice is no longer a Draft, or once it has an Extended Rental order.
Flexible Duration
If you don't want the automatically calculated Billable Duration, you can override it by enabling the Flexible? toggle and then adjusting the Billable Duration.
You can manually override the Grace Day by enabling the Flexible? toggle and then increasing the Billable Duration for the extra day.
Customer-facing paperwork shows the duration next to the item count (e.g. "12 items for 2 weeks"), but leaves it out when Flexible? is on.
You can simulate a one day rental by enabling Flexible? and setting a Billable Duration of 0.2 weeks.
1 day / 5 days per week = 0.2 weeks
Similarly, you can simulate a 3 day rental by setting a Billable Duration of 0.6 weeks.
If you want the customer to see they're being billed at a one or three day rate, you can indicate so in the order Memo.
Many prop houses refuse to offer one day rental pricing because all the work is in prepping, receiving, and restocking the items, preparing the paperwork and collecting payment. The opportunity cost of the item(s) being unavailable an extra six days is insignificant. The prop house loses money on one day rental pricing because it doesn't cover the labor cost of processing the order.
Memo
The order Memo appears at the top of all customer-facing paperwork.
Private Notes
Private Notes are only visible to your staff.