How consignments work
Assign equipment owners, understand their share of each order, and distinguish settling a consignment from paying the owner.
Anyone with the «Orders» permission in view mode can open and its tabs. Changing who owns a unit needs «Inventory» in edit mode, changing a percentage on one order needs «Orders» in edit mode, and settling and recording invoices needs «Purchases» in edit mode and the Purchases add-on.
Consignments is a paid add-on, billed per user, with a 30-day free trial. Without it, the «Consignments» menu entry shows the add-on badge.
Not all the equipment you rent out has to be yours. A partner company stores its furniture with you, a photographer leaves two lighting kits on deposit, or you buy a tent together with another rental business. You rent that equipment out like your own, and you pay its a percentage of what it earns.
Filmo records who each owner is and what they get, works out their part of every order, and prepares the documents to pay them. It works like a shop that sells on commission: the goods sit on your shelves, you do the business, and the owner gets their cut when you settle up.
Take the Landmark Venues wedding. Of its 120 Chiavari chairs, 40 belong to a local events company, which leaves them with you for 30 % of what they earn. When the wedding rents those 40 chairs, 30 % of their line belongs to the events company and the other 70 %, , stays with you. You never have to work it out by hand, and the amount you owe the owner counts as a cost of the order.
Three ideas to keep in mind
- Ownership lives in the stock. Each unit with a , or each , can have one or more owners, each with an . That's your . What's left up to 100 % is yours.
- An order's is live until it's settled. Until then, each owner's amount follows the order's current prices and discounts.
- Settling isn't paying. A is a in the owner's name; the owner's invoice and the payment come afterwards.
From consigned stock to paying the owner
- Assign owners On the unit or item page, record who owns the equipment and their percentage.
- Rent it out Add the equipment to orders as usual. Filmo recognises the consigned units and rows and calculates each owner's part.
- Adjust, if you need to In the order's «Consignments» card, change an owner's percentage for that order only.
- Settle From the order, «History» or «Owners», create the settlement purchase order: one per owner and order. What you settle is frozen.
- Invoice and pay Record the owner's invoice against the purchase order, validate it and pay it in Treasury.
Consignment statuses: pending, confirmed, invoiced and paid
Each (one owner's part of one order line) has its own status. Filmo calculates it from the documents behind the share; you can't change it by hand.
| Status | When | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| «Pending» | The share has no settlement purchase order. | Its amount follows the order live. You can still change the percentage and settle it. |
| «Confirmed» | It has a settlement purchase order, even a draft, or the owner's invoice is still a draft or was voided. | Percentage, base and amount are frozen. It isn't offered for settling again. |
| «Invoiced» | The owner's invoice for that purchase order is validated. | Whatever the recorded payments don't cover is still owed to the owner. |
| «Paid» | The payments on that invoice cover its total, taxes included. | You're square with the owner for that share. |
A share can also move back: if its invoice goes back to draft or is voided, it returns to «Confirmed». If you remove it from the purchase order, it returns to «Pending».
Where everything is
«Consignments» is in the «Finances» group of the sidebar, after Treasury, with three tabs: «Stock», «History» and «Owners». Consignment information also appears on the item and unit pages, the order, the delivery and return pages, the owner's contact page and Purchases.
| You want to | Where | How |
|---|---|---|
| Record who owns a unit or a batch | Unit or item page → «Consignment» card | Assign owners to consigned equipment |
| Receive a batch of someone else's equipment | Item page → «Add stock» → «Consigned stock» | Add consigned bulk stock |
| See what each owner gets on an order | Order → «Consignments» card → «View all» | How an order's consignment split is calculated |
| Change an owner's percentage on one order | Order → «Consignments» → «View all» | Settle an owner's share from an order |
| Settle an owner's share of one order | Order → «Consignments» → «View all» → «+ PO» | Settle an owner's share from an order |
| Settle many shares at once | «Consignments» → «History» or «Owners» | Settle several consignments at once |
| Record and pay the owner's invoice | «Consignments» → «History» or «Owners», then Purchases and Treasury | Record and pay an owner's invoice |
| See what's consigned, what it earned and what's owed | «Consignments» → «Stock», «History», «Owners»; contact page → «Consignments» | Owner revenue and amounts to settle |
| Fix or undo a settlement | Purchases → the settlement purchase order | Correct or undo a consignment settlement |
Good to know
- Any settlement purchase order is a commitment, even as a draft. To undo it, remove its lines or delete it while it's still a draft.
- You don't have to wait until the client has been invoiced to settle: the purchase order is for the share's full amount.
- Orders in or don't add to what you owe, but you can settle them if you include them on purpose.
- The split doesn't tell rental from sale: if you sell consigned equipment on an order, the sale line is split between its owners and you on its sale price.
- The and your public website show nothing about consignments.
Warning: Deleting an owner's contact also deletes their ownership, without warning: their equipment stops being consigned. Keep the contact while they own equipment.
Up next
Record who owns your consigned equipment: Assign owners to consigned equipment.