Family 05 — Rental

Know which machines
are earning. Fix the ones that aren't.

Rental connects your agreements, your assets, and your actual operating costs so you know which machines are generating returns and which are sitting on your lot eating overhead. Stop managing rental out of a spreadsheet and a file folder.

The problem

Your rental fleet looks profitable until you count what it actually costs you.

Rental revenue is easy to see. Operating cost per machine, per agreement, per day out — that takes a system. Without one, you're guessing at margin on every rental.

"We have 8 machines available for rent and I can't tell you which ones actually make us money."

Rental revenue minus a daily rate isn't profit — it's a guess. Until you subtract fuel, maintenance, transport, insurance, and depreciation per machine per rental, you don't know if you're making money or subsidizing your customers.

"We track rental agreements in a shared Google Sheet. The last three had errors — rates, dates, equipment serial numbers."

Spreadsheet-based rental tracking is error-prone from day one. Wrong serial numbers mean you can't track the right machine. Wrong dates mean billing disputes. Wrong rates mean you're leaving money on the table or overcharging.

"A customer kept our mini-excavator 3 weeks past the rental end date. We found out when we needed the machine."

Without automated return alerts and agreement tracking, late returns happen silently. By the time you notice, you've either lost a job that needed that machine or given away weeks of free rental time.

"We don't know our rental utilization rate. We don't even have a way to calculate it."

If you own 10 machines available for rent and they're collectively out 40% of the time, you're carrying 60% of your rental fleet in pure overhead. But you can't fix what you can't see.

"A machine came back damaged and we had no documentation of its condition at checkout. We paid for the repair ourselves."

Without checkout condition documentation and a signed record, damage disputes default to the operator's word. Without evidence, you absorb the cost — every time.

"We know rental rates by feel, not by what the machine actually costs us per day."

Rental rates set by intuition and competitive comparison can look right and still be wrong. If your machine costs $240/day to own and you're renting it for $275, your margin disappears with one maintenance event per rental cycle.

A rental fleet is only an asset if you know what each machine actually costs you to put out the door.

The machines are yours. The agreements are yours. The maintenance costs are yours. But without a system that connects all three, you're running a rental business on estimates and hoping the margins work out. Torgix shows you the actual numbers — per machine, per agreement, per day.

How it works

From agreement to return — every rental tracked and every cost captured.

Four steps from agreement creation to machine return, with full cost and utilization data all the way through.

STEP 01

Create the rental agreement

Build the agreement in Torgix — machine, customer, dates, rate, and terms. Document checkout condition with photos and a signed record. Everything is timestamped and attached to the asset.

STEP 02

Track the machine while it's out

Torgix knows where the machine is, how many hours it has accrued, and when the agreement ends. Return alerts fire automatically before the due date — so you know before the customer does.

STEP 03

Record return condition and costs

At return, document condition. Any damage is compared to checkout documentation. Post-rental maintenance is logged against the agreement. Every cost associated with this rental cycle is captured.

STEP 04

See the real margin per rental

When the agreement closes, Torgix shows you what the rental actually earned — revenue minus operating cost for that cycle. Track utilization over time and optimize rates based on true cost data.

What you get

Rental management that shows you what's actually working.

From agreement creation to utilization reports, every tool in Rental is built to give you real visibility into the machines that generate revenue and the ones that don't.

Rental agreement management

Create, track, and close rental agreements in Torgix. Machine, customer, dates, rate, and condition documentation — all attached to the asset record. No more agreements scattered across email and spreadsheets.

Return tracking & alerts

Torgix fires return alerts before agreement end dates. Late returns are flagged immediately. You know when a machine is overdue — before you need it for the next job.

Utilization rate tracking

See utilization rate per machine — days out vs. days available — across any time period. Know which machines are earning their keep and which are sitting on the lot more than they're generating revenue.

True cost-per-rental calculation

Every rental agreement closes with a real margin: rental revenue minus operating costs (fuel, maintenance, transport, depreciation) for that cycle. See which agreements are profitable and which ones to reprice.

Checkout & return condition documentation

Document machine condition at checkout — photos, notes, hour meter, signed record. Compare at return. Damage disputes resolve against what's in Torgix, not against whose memory you trust more.

Rate optimization guidance

Torgix AI compares your rental rates against your actual cost per machine per day and your historical utilization. Know when you're underpriced, when you can push rates, and which machines need to work harder to justify owning them.

Ask about your rental fleet the way a sharp operator would.

Torgix AI connects your agreements, your utilization data, and your actual costs — so the answers are real, not estimates.

T
Which machines in my rental fleet have the worst utilization over the last 90 days?
AI
Rental fleet utilization — last 90 days (lowest first):

1. Bobcat T870 Compact Track Loader — 18% (16 days out of 90)
2. Manitowoc 2250 Crane — 24% (22 days out of 90)
3. JLG 1350SJP Boom Lift — 31% (28 days out of 90)

At your current daily ownership cost, the Bobcat T870 is generating a loss on the rental fleet — it would need to be out at least 42 days per quarter to break even at your current rate of $425/day.

Want me to run a rate analysis to see what adjustments would change the economics?
T
Yes. And are there any rentals currently overdue for return?
AI
Rate analysis — Bobcat T870:
Current rate: $425/day  |  Break-even at 18% utilization: $665/day
Comparable market rate (regional): $490–$520/day

Recommendation: Increase rate to $490/day — competitive ceiling — and consider a seasonal promotion to improve utilization in Q3.

Overdue rentals:
• Volvo ECR145 Mini Excavator — Meadowbrook Excavating — due May 3, now 4 days overdue. Agreement: RA-2241. No return call logged.

Want me to draft an overdue return notice for Meadowbrook?

What changes when your rental fleet runs on real data.

The shift from rental management by feel to rental management by numbers — and what it actually looks like in practice.

Without Torgix
  • Rental agreements in spreadsheets with serial number and rate errors
  • Late returns discovered when you need the machine for another job
  • No utilization data — no way to know which machines aren't earning
  • Damage disputes resolved by memory, not documentation
  • Rental rates set by feel, not by actual cost per machine per day
  • No view of which machines are generating margin vs. absorbing overhead
With Torgix
  • Agreements created in Torgix — machine, customer, terms, condition, all attached
  • Return alerts fire before the due date — late returns caught before they cost you
  • Utilization rate per machine over any time period — know what's working
  • Checkout and return condition documented, signed, timestamped
  • Rates informed by actual ownership cost per day, not competitive guessing
  • Real margin per rental agreement — revenue minus operating cost, every cycle

Know which machines make money. Make the rest work harder.

14 days free. No credit card. Full platform access from day one.

No setup fees. Cancel any time.