Watch this video or read through the article. Your Choice!

Hey there! In this guide, we’re walking you through a handy process: Loaning a Product — and how to manage it from start to return. You might want to offer this to your loyal clientele to get them by while they wait for their order to come in! Let’s jump in!

First things first — we need to make sure the loan model is set up in your Inventory. Head over to the Inventory page.

Now, use the Condition filter and select Loaner.

This will show you all models currently set as available to loan.

Don’t see the Loaner condition? No worries. Let’s fix that. Go to Settings,

Then open the Product Catalog.

Inside that, click on the Conditions section,

and hit + Add New Condition.

A little pop-up will appear — just give your condition a Name like “Loaner” and a short Description. Hit Save, and you’re good to go!

Now that the Loaner condition is available, let’s assign it to a product. Head back to the Inventory page.

Find the item you want to update, and click the eye icon in the “Available” row.

Next, hit the pencil icon next to the model’s condition.

In the popup, select Loaner,

Then click Save.

You’ll see a success notification confirming the change.

To double-check, just use the Search Model Number bar at the top, type in the model number,

and voilà! — there’s your item, now listed under the Loaner condition!

Alright — now that your inventory is ready, let’s create a loan order. Start by creating a Quote.

Click on + Line Item,

and type in the Model Number of your loaner item.

If you’ve already set up a Loaner condition in Inventory, you’ll see it pop up automatically

No need to tweak the Condition or Price.

But if you haven’t set that yet, you can manually select the item,

And then change the Condition and Price right here in the quote.

Don’t forget to add the Fulfillment Type.

After that, you’re ready to move into Payment.

If your loaner item already has a Serial Number, you’re in luck — it’s automatically assigned.

You can check this by clicking Check Stock,

And see that the item is already assigned, meaning it's ready to be delivered.

If it doesn’t have a Serial Number, no problem. Click View Items in Stock,

Then hit Reserve

Now it’s assigned and ready to be shipped out!

Fast forward a bit — the customer’s ready to return the item. Here’s what to do.

Head back to their Order Page, click Select Action,

Then hit Start Return.

You’ll want to review everything: Model, Quantity, Price, and Fulfillment Type.

You can choose to either charge or waive the restocking fee for your customer.

Add the Reason for Return — just a short note will do.

Now here’s the important part: Change the Payment Method to Customer Credit.

Why? Because once the returned unit is inspected, you can either apply that credit to their next order or revoke it if the unit is damaged.

To wrap it up, hit Refund Payment.

And that’s it — the item’s now officially returned. It’ll show up on your Returned Inventory page, where you can adjust it and add it back to Available Stock.

And there you have it! That’s how you loan out a product, track it, and take it back — all within Appliance.io. Thanks for reading, and we’ll see you in the next one!