1. Your rules
2. Your items
One row per kind of item. Rentals per unit per year is how many events each unit goes out to. Handling is the washing, pressing, loading and counting cost for one unit on one rental. Loss and damage is the share of units broken or missing in a year.
| Item | Units owned | Cost per unit ($) | Price per unit per rental ($) | Rentals per unit per year | Handling per rental ($) | Loss and damage (% of units a year) | Storage per unit per year ($) | Useful life (years) |
|---|
Fill in the rows, then click Rank my inventory.
Result
| Rank | Item | Invested | Cash a year | Return | Payback (years) | Break-even rentals per unit | Lowest price for your payback | Profit a year after wear |
|---|
Returns assume extra units rent as often as the ones you own. If you already turn away orders for an item the return on more of it is real; if the stock sits idle on busy weekends it is not.
How it is built
Cash a year for an item is units × rentals × price, minus handling on every rental, card fees on the revenue, the units lost or broken each year at replacement cost, and storage. Payback is what the units cost divided by that cash. Profit after wear also takes off cost ÷ useful life. Break-even rentals is the number of rentals per unit where that profit is zero.
Lowest price: the price at which cash a year equals cost ÷ the payback you want. The test suite checks that renting at exactly that price pays back in exactly that time for hundreds of random items.
Common questions
Which rental item should I buy next?
Rank every item by what a year of rentals returns on the money tied up in it: rentals times price, minus handling, card fees, losses and storage, divided by what the units cost. The item at the top returns the most on each dollar. This assumes the extra units rent as often as the ones you own, so check how often you are already sold out before you add stock.
How do I know if a rental item has paid for itself?
Divide what the units cost by the cash they bring in a year after handling, card fees, breakage and storage. That is the payback in years. Compare it with the useful life: an item that pays back in three years but wears out in three has returned nothing.
What should I charge to rent an item so it pays back in two years?
Work backwards: the yearly share of the purchase cost needed for the payback you want, plus storage and expected losses, spread over the rentals each unit gets, plus the handling cost of each rental, divided by one minus your card fee. The calculator shows that lowest price for every item.
How many times a year does a rental item have to go out to break even?
Add the item's yearly wear (cost divided by useful life), storage and expected losses per unit, then divide by what one rental earns after handling and card fees. Below that number of rentals per unit the item loses money even if it is always in use for a customer.
Is my data uploaded?
No. Everything runs in your browser, there are no accounts, and nothing is sent to a server. Use Save to download a scenario file.
Is this tax, insurance or business advice?
No. It is arithmetic on the numbers you type. Depreciation for tax, sales tax on rentals and insurance depend on where you operate. Check with an accountant or your insurer.