Guide

How to Track Equipment Rental Costs in QuickBooks

In QuickBooks, equipment rental costs are tracked as expenses: each rental company is a vendor, each rental invoice is a bill, and the cost posts to a rental expense account and, if you job cost, to a customer or project. That records what you were billed, not what is still on rent or whether the bill is right. Rental Leak handles that side for contractors who rent equipment: it tracks each rental and its billing cycle, checks the vendor invoice, then sends the reviewed invoice to QuickBooks Online as a Bill.

Start your free trial See pricing

30-day free trial • No credit card required • Web, iOS and Android

With Rental Leak

Equipment rental software that works with QuickBooks Online

Rental Leak is equipment rental tracking software for contractors — the company that rents the equipment and pays the invoice. Software for companies that rent equipment out handles reservations, rental contracts and customer invoices; Rental Leak sits on the other side of that invoice. It doesn’t replace QuickBooks. It tracks the rental — the agreement and rate, the daily, weekly, 28-day or monthly billing cycle and the next rollover date, the off-rent request, the return and the invoice check — and on the Contractor and Pro plans it hands the reviewed invoice to QuickBooks Online as a Bill.

Connect once, on the web. The company Owner connects your QuickBooks Online company from Rental Leak.
Choose the rental expense account that rental bills should post to.
Match vendors and projects. Each Rental Leak vendor is matched to the same vendor in QuickBooks, and each project to a QuickBooks customer, job or project. Rental Leak reads those lists from QuickBooks while you match and doesn’t keep a copy; a vendor or customer that is in QuickBooks but not yet in Rental Leak can be added to Rental Leak already matched. If your QuickBooks company doesn’t track expenses by customer, bills are sent without one.
Send a reviewed invoice. Rental Leak creates one bill for the invoice total, dated with the invoice date and numbered with the invoice number, and shows the QuickBooks Bill ID once it is sent.
No second bill. Sending the same invoice again does not create another bill.
Possible duplicates first. Before sending, Rental Leak looks for a bill already in QuickBooks for that vendor with a similar invoice number, or the same amount within a few days, and sends only after you confirm each one.
The invoice goes with it. When the vendor invoice file is stored in Rental Leak, it is attached to the bill.
Check it later. Open Invoices & QuickBooks, or the invoice itself, to see whether its bill has been paid, changed or deleted in QuickBooks. Rental Leak reads only the bills it created, and only when you look — nothing runs in the background.
Nothing else is touched. Rental Leak never creates vendors, customers or accounts in QuickBooks, and never changes, pays or deletes a bill after sending.

Not on QuickBooks Online? On the Contractor and Pro plans, the Accounting & Job Cost file gives your bookkeeper one row per vendor invoice — vendor, job, PO, dates, confirmed rate, invoice number and any discrepancy — as CSV or Excel, and the rental list can be saved as PDF, CSV or Excel. Setup steps are in Help. Rental Leak is not affiliated with or endorsed by Intuit.

The accounting side

Where equipment rental costs go in QuickBooks

A rental expense account

Keep rented equipment and jobsite services in their own expense or job-cost account, so rental spend isn’t mixed in with owned equipment or materials. Where it sits in the chart of accounts is your accountant’s call.

A vendor for each rental company

One vendor record per rental company, spelled one way, so every bill and payment for that company is in one place.

A bill for each rental invoice

Enter each invoice as a bill with the vendor’s invoice number and invoice date, so it can be found, paid and not entered twice.

A customer or project for job costing

If you track costs by job, assign the bill’s expense line to the customer or project. Whether that is available depends on your QuickBooks subscription and settings.

This guide covers the general mechanics. It isn’t accounting advice, and QuickBooks products and plans differ, so follow the setup your accountant recommends.

What accounting can’t see

What QuickBooks doesn’t know about a rental

A bill records what you were charged. By the time it exists, the decisions that set the amount have already been made — or missed.

What is still on rent today. A bill shows up after the vendor invoices, and the equipment has been billing for weeks by then.
When the next billing cycle starts — the date that decides whether you pay for another week or another 28 days.
Whether anyone asked for the pickup, and whether the vendor actually came.
Whether the invoice matches the agreement — the rate, the billing period and the dates billed.
Which rentals on a job are still needed.

QuickBooks handles the accounting. The rental workflow — on rent, kept, called off, returned, invoice checked — happens before and around the accounting entry, and it needs its own record.

Step by step

A rental cost workflow that ends in QuickBooks

Record the rental

Vendor, job, PO, rate, billing period and start date, taken from the rental agreement on day one.

Watch the billing cycle

Know each rental’s next rollover date before it arrives, not after.

Decide and call it off

Keep it on purpose, or request off-rent and contact the rental company.

Confirm the return

Record the day the vendor actually picked it up.

Check the invoice

Compare the rate, the periods billed and the dates with what you recorded.

Enter the bill

Vendor, invoice number, invoice date, rental expense account and the job.

Review job cost

Rental cost by job and by vendor, in your accounting reports and your rental reports.

Keep the paperwork

The agreement and the invoice stay with the rental they belong to.

Each of the first five steps has its own page: rental agreement tracking, rental billing cycle tracking, off-rent and return tracking, and rental invoice reconciliation. For cost by job and vendor before the invoice arrives, see construction rental cost tracking. If step one lives in a spreadsheet today, the free equipment rental tracking spreadsheet template has the columns it needs.

Common questions

Is Rental Leak equipment rental software for QuickBooks?

For contractors who rent equipment, yes. Rental Leak tracks each rental from the agreement to the vendor invoice and, on the Contractor and Pro plans, sends the reviewed invoice to QuickBooks Online as a Bill. It is not software for companies that rent equipment out: it has no reservations, rental contracts or customer invoicing, and it never creates invoices in QuickBooks.

What does Rental Leak read from QuickBooks?

Two things, and only when someone is looking. While you match, it reads your QuickBooks vendors, customers, projects and expense accounts, so you can pick the right one or add a QuickBooks vendor or customer to Rental Leak already matched. When you open your invoices, it reads whether each bill Rental Leak created has been paid, changed or deleted. It is not a sync: nothing runs in the background, it never reads other bills, and it doesn’t keep a copy of your QuickBooks lists.

Does Rental Leak replace QuickBooks?

No. QuickBooks handles the accounting. Rental Leak handles the rental workflow before and around the accounting entry, and on the Contractor and Pro plans sends a reviewed rental invoice to QuickBooks Online as a Bill.

Which plan includes the QuickBooks Online integration?

The Contractor plan, at $99/month for up to 10 users, and the Pro plan, at $149/month for unlimited users. New 30-day trials include Pro features.

What account should equipment rentals go to in QuickBooks?

Most contractors keep rented equipment in its own rental expense or job-cost account, separate from owned equipment and materials. Where it sits in your chart of accounts is a decision for your accountant.

Can QuickBooks show which equipment is still on rent?

Not on its own. QuickBooks records bills and payments. What is on rent, when it bills next and whether it went back have to be tracked before the invoice arrives, in a rental list or in rental tracking software.

Does it work with QuickBooks Desktop?

The integration is with QuickBooks Online. For other accounting systems, the accounting and job-cost file on the Contractor and Pro plans is a CSV or Excel sheet your bookkeeper can work from.

Keep reading

Track the rental before it becomes a bill

30 days free, no credit card required. New trials include Pro features for the full 30 days. Plans start at $59/month after that.

Create account Compare plans