In this article
The terms overlap, and that is the actual problem
These words are used loosely and the usage varies by country and by shop. Before arguing about definitions, agree what your own team means, because the confusion costs money in exactly one place: whether the cost of outside gear ends up attached to the job it was for.
How the terms are commonly used
The practical distinction is direction and ownership, not vocabulary. Gear you own that goes out on a job is inventory. Gear you rented in to cover a shortage is a cost against that job. Gear you rented out to another company is revenue and an availability hole in your own calendar.
| Term | Common meaning | Direction |
|---|---|---|
| Subrental or sub hire | You rent gear in from another company to fulfil your job. | Gear comes to you, cost goes out. |
| Cross rental | Often the same thing, used more in some markets; sometimes implies a reciprocal trade relationship between shops. | Usually gear in, sometimes both ways. |
| Dry hire | Equipment supplied without crew, whoever is supplying it. | Describes the service, not the direction. |
The cost has to stay attached to the job
This is the whole reason the distinction matters. A subrental that lives in an email thread and a vendor invoice that arrives three weeks later is a job whose real margin nobody knows until someone reconciles it by hand, if they ever do.
When outside gear is recorded against the show that needed it, the job carries its own cost and the margin is visible while it still means something. When it is not, the busiest month of the year is also the month you understand least.
Track the availability hole too
Renting your own gear out to another company is the mirror image and it is easier to get wrong, because nothing physically arrives to remind you. The item is committed and unavailable, and if the system does not know that, you will quote it to a client the same week.
What to capture on every subrental
- Which show or job it belongs to.
- The vendor, and what you agreed to pay.
- The dates it covers, which are often not the same as the show dates.
- Whether it is confirmed or still being chased.
- What it is standing in for, so a substitution is visible on the pull sheet.
- The vendor invoice when it arrives, reconciled against what was agreed.
Decide the margin rule once
Most companies charge subrented gear at cost plus a handling margin, because they are carrying the vendor relationship, the collection, the risk and the paperwork. Some pass it through at cost on relationship jobs and take the margin elsewhere.
Either is defensible. What causes trouble is deciding case by case, because the decision then depends on who built the quote and how busy they were.
Where Flightcase puts it
Subrentals attach to the show that needed them, with vendor, dates, status and cost, and they appear against the job rather than in a separate list. Shortages on a pull sheet show what is short and what is covering it, so the warehouse sees a substitution rather than a mystery.
FAQ
Is cross rental the same as subrental?
Should subrented gear be marked up?
What is the most common subrental mistake?
Does renting my gear out to another company need tracking?
Put this into the system you actually run on
Rates, replacement values, deposits and subrental costs are only useful when they live where the quote is built. Start free, or bring a real job to a walkthrough.