Ending a contract
Every rental ends, and the end flow decides money: the return date settles what the renter owed, the closing odometer drives any excess-kilometre charge, and the bond is refunded, deducted from or held. It also records how the car came back - the readings and photos a later damage claim rests on.
End a rental
- Open the contract and click End contract.
- Say when the vehicle came back. It opens on today - change it if the car has been back for days. What the date does to the money is spelled out before you commit it.
- Work through the return checklist - keys and remotes, cleaning, personal items, tolls and fines. What you tick is stored on the contract.
- Enter the final odometer, and the fuel level if you read it. The handover reading is shown for comparison.
- Take the return photos - front, rear, both sides, interior and the odometer. On the damage diagram the handover marks show as faint ghosts, so you only mark what is new.
- Pick the reason for ending, settle the bond, and finish. The vehicle goes back to Available.
The reason is what the record keeps: Completed as planned closes the contract as completed, while an accident or an early return records it as terminated early.
Tip: A failed return photo does not stop you finishing, but retry it on its red tile while the car is still in front of you - once the contract is ended there is no way back to the car.
The return date decides the money
Rent is charged at the start of each period, so the return date decides what was really owed. The renter is charged up to, but not including, the day the car came back. Every unpaid period is re-settled against that date: a period that had not started is written off, one straddling it is cut to the days the renter actually had, and the rest stays owed. Money already paid is never refunded automatically.
Backdating is the normal case, not a trick. A car returned on Friday and closed off on Sunday should be ended on the Friday - left on today, the renter is charged for two days they did not have the car.
The closing odometer
The wizard refuses a reading below the handover one - a car cannot come back with fewer kilometres than it left with - and shows the handover reading beside the box so a transposed digit stands out. On a contract with a kilometre allowance and an excess rate, the closing reading is what the excess-kilometre charge is worked out from.
The bond
Where a bond was taken, the last step asks what happens to it: Refund in full, Deduct & refund rest - enter the amount and note why - or Hold for now, which keeps the bond on file while you decide. The deduction and the refund show afterwards in the Bonds view of Payments and on the contract's Activity. A bond charged to a card settles back to the card - see Bonds on the card rails. A contract that never held a bond is not asked.
Deleting an ended contract
Delete at the bottom of an ended contract asks for a second click, then removes it permanently. An open contract is refused - end it first.
Related guides
- Send a contract for signing - Write an agreement and have the renter sign it on their phone.
- Charges and add-ons - Name a charge once in Settings, then price it on each contract.
- Your rental terms - Paste your terms once, and choose whether the agreement links to them or prints them.
- Pick-up and return locations - Set up the depots renters collect from and bring the car back to.