Case study · Equipment hire
Know what's out, what's due back and what's billable
Hire companies earn money on equipment that is out and billed, and lose it on equipment that is out and forgotten. This is how we extended Business Central so hire contracts, availability, inspections and invoicing all work from the same fleet record.
Project overview
Business Central extended for hire and rental.
- Industry
- Equipment hire
- Client
- Confidential
- Solution
- Hire management on ERP
- Platform
- Business Central
- Timeline
- 16–24 weeks
- Team
- 5 people
- Billing
- Daily, weekly, monthly rates
- Field
- Driver and inspection app
- Deployment
- Business Central online
Expected business outcomes
What the client set out to achieve
Most of the value comes from billing everything that is on hire and knowing what is available.
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2–5%
More hire revenue billed
Off-hire dates and damage charges are recorded when they happen, so fewer days go unbilled.
Target range; depends on how hire was tracked before
-
10–20%
Better fleet utilisation
Availability across depots lets the team hire out idle equipment instead of cross-hiring.
Target range across multi-depot fleets
-
Same day
Hire invoices after off-hire
Invoices are created from the contract as soon as equipment is returned.
Where off-hire is recorded on the app
Business challenges
How hire businesses ran before
Often a specialist hire tool that doesn't talk to the accounts, or spreadsheets.
Fleet
Asset registers in a spreadsheet, not linked to depots or contracts.
Availability
Staff phone other depots to find equipment.
Logistics
Delivery and collection sheets printed and returned at the end of the day.
Inspections
Safety checks on paper, filed per asset.
Billing
Hire periods and damage charges keyed into the accounts from paperwork, often late.
Proposed solution
What the Business Central build covers
An extension adds hire contracts and fleet management to standard Business Central finance.
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Fleet register
Every asset with its depot, status, inspection due date and hire history.
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Availability
A planning view of what is available, on hire or in service across depots.
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Hire contracts
On-hire and off-hire with rates by day, week or month and minimum charges.
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Delivery and collection
Driver runs with proof of delivery and collection on a mobile app.
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Inspections
Pre-hire and return inspections recorded with photos, and failed assets blocked.
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Hire invoicing
Periodic and off-hire invoices from contracts, including damage and fuel charges.
Project requirements
What the client asked us for
The ask was one system for hire and accounts. The design centres on the asset: its status drives availability, billing and safety checks.
Drivers and depot staff are part of the design, because off-hire dates and inspection results have to be captured where the equipment actually is.
What the project had to deliver
- 01Every asset's status in one place
- 02Availability across all depots
- 03Nothing on hire goes unbilled
- 04Inspections before every hire
Key challenges & considerations
What made it harder, and what we did
-
Assets without unique IDs
What we did
Every asset was given a unique ID and a label before go-live, starting with the most hired equipment.
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Customers who extend hires by phone
What we did
Extensions agreed by phone were entered on the contract straight away, so billing continued without a gap.
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Cross-hired equipment from other companies
What we did
Cross-hired equipment was tracked as its own asset type, with the supplier's cost against each hire.
-
Damage disputes on return
What we did
Condition photos were taken at every hand-over and return and stored against the contract.
What we watched for
- Get asset IDs right before anything else
- Capture off-hire on site, not in the office
- Handle cross-hire explicitly
- Photograph condition at every hand-over
Development process
The asset at the centre
Fleet data comes first, because every other process depends on it.
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Fleet data
Assets registered with IDs, categories, rates and depots, and labelled if needed.
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Hire extension
Contracts, availability and hire billing built and tested on real contract examples.
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Mobile app
Driver and inspection app piloted at one depot.
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Go-live
Open contracts migrated at cut-over, one depot first, then the rest.
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Handover
Training for depots, drivers and finance, and utilisation reports for managers.
Technology stack
Business Central with a hire extension
Finance, purchasing and service stay standard; hire is added as an extension.
ERP
- Business Central
- AL hire extension
- Service management
Field
- Power Apps driver app
- Photo capture
- Signatures
Planning
- Availability planner
- Depot transfers
Reporting
- Utilisation
- Power BI
Quality assurance & deployment
Proved on the client's own data before go-live
An ERP is trusted when the numbers agree. Configuration and extensions were tested in a sandbox on the client's own data, and finance signed off the figures before cut-over.
- Sandbox testing of every process on the client's own data
- User acceptance testing with key users, by scenario
- Migration rehearsals, reconciled to the old system
- Automated tests for extensions, run before each release
- Permission sets checked role by role
Deployment
- 01Go-liveOpen contracts migrated at cut-over, one depot first, then the rest.
- 02HandoverTraining for depots, drivers and finance, and utilisation reports for managers.
- 03Cut-over planA rehearsed cut-over with a checklist, opening balances signed off by finance, and a rollback point.
- 04Hypercare and warrantyConsultants on hand through the first month-end, and six months of free bug fixing.
Final deliverables
A fleet that earns while it's out
Every asset has a status everyone can see, hire contracts bill themselves, and off-hires are recorded at the customer's site, not days later.
Managers see utilisation by depot and category, so buying decisions are based on how equipment is actually used.
- Live availability across depots
- Hire billing from contracts
- Inspections recorded with photos
- Utilisation reporting
Handed over to the client
- 01Configured Business CentralProduction and sandbox environments
- 02ExtensionsSource code and documentation
- 03Migrated dataReconciled and signed off
- 04Key-user trainingWith process guides
- 05Six-month warrantyFree bug fixing after delivery
Success metrics
How success is measured
| Measure | Outcome | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|
| More hire revenue billed | 2–5% | Target range; depends on how hire was tracked before |
| Better fleet utilisation | 10–20% | Target range across multi-depot fleets |
| Hire invoices after off-hire | Same day | Where off-hire is recorded on the app |
Verified reviews
What clients say about our Dynamics work
Verified reviews from our clients on the same kind of work, published on Clutch.
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Custom Software Development
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The work produced by the team was of exceptional quality.
Jon Thies
CTO, Model Rocket Feb 2022 – Mar 2023
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Silver Scintilla was responsive, respectful, and enjoyable to work with, quickly addressing any questions or requests.
DeShawn Brown
CEO & Founder, Lithios Jun 2021 – Nov 2022
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Custom Software Development
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Silver Scintilla provided the best solution with scalable functionality, personalized features, and robust security.
Suheb Khan
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