Dive shop rental software ?????

[owlbill]

Not sure if this is the right place to ask this but what (if any) software are you dive shop owners using to track and reserve your rental gear? We are still using a very old DOS based software and are ready to update. Any ideas would be great.

Thanks,
Bill

 

[Burnsie]

wrong thing

 

[owlbill]

Bump....??

 

[The Kraken]

A basic database would work.
Microsoft Access is a pretty strong application program.

the K

 

[owlbill]

We have tried that too. Thanks though.

We may have to go back to it, we are just a bit too busy to really get the DB set up the way we want. I like the EVE from PADI, and Scubaware but we only need the rental portion and of course they only sell the full package.

 

[SeaLevelScuba]

When we first opened we were using Scubaware, since then I've written a standalone app for doing just rentals that fit our workflow.

We had three distinct problems with Scubaware's rental module, the biggest pain was that in order to rent anything you first had to set up a reservation, the reservation system is nice when a customer is doing just that, however for the walk-in customer it was just too cumbersome to have to get the customer info into the system, then do a rental reservation, then actually do the rental transaction. Another issue we had was if something was being put into rental right away to accomodate a need, such as another tank or anything, you then needed to set it up in the rental system (which is probably ideal) before you could rent it. This problem would pose itself during peak times, ie mini season or the like. And the final straw was that for certain rental items we needed to be able to have different rental agreements and waivers, ie nitrox tank rental versus air tank rental, student versus diver, deposit versus no deposit.

In fairness, Scubaware does offer some good functionality in what they offer in the realm of managing the usage and maintenence of rental equipment, its just the workflow of actually renting the equipment in a busy shop is a bit to be desired.

Ideally we needed a system we could do a quick rental of anything, have the flexibilty for adding items on the fly and using a more item specific rental agreement. Our system isnt perfect, and at times we just go to the paper to accomodate the fast pace certain times of the year poses to us.

You would be well served to objectively define what exactly you want your rental software to do, then seek a solution, otherwise you may find out you in no better position than your in now.

Schott

 

[owlbill]

Point taken, thanks.

Bill

 

[SeaLevelScuba]

Bill if this is something that doesnt have to be done right away, I may be able to help you once we get over the busiest time of the year for us in Florida. The biggest attribute you should be certain is in your final solution is the flexibility of the software to work with your workflow, which may be similiar on the face of the scuba business, but once you get into your store may have its specifics that someone else doesnt understand unless they are standing in your store renting stuff.

Anyway, start defining your requirements, go from there, if you want to chat about any of it, chime me up. Who knows maybe I'll get some ideas to make my stuff even better

Schott

 

[owlbill]

Bill if this is something that doesnt have to be done right away, I may be able to help you once we get over the busiest time of the year for us in Florida. The biggest attribute you should be certain is in your final solution is the flexibility of the software to work with your workflow, which may be similiar on the face of the scuba business, but once you get into your store may have its specifics that someone else doesnt understand unless they are standing in your store renting stuff.

Anyway, start defining your requirements, go from there, if you want to chat about any of it, chime me up. Who knows maybe I'll get some ideas to make my stuff even better

Schott

Thanks. I might just take you up on that.

Bill

 

[ajames54]

We have tried that too. Thanks though.

We may have to go back to it, we are just a bit too busy to really get the DB set up the way we want. I like the EVE from PADI, and Scubaware but we only need the rental portion and of course they only sell the full package.

Go back to it.. find a kid that is taking classes.. a first year college kid could probably set you up..

hell make my wife an offer she does custom access development..

It is well within the realm of what it can do .. hell I run a bond trading platform on Access.. (not kidding)