Getting An Instant Quote
You can get a quote for production equipment at any time - even when we're not open. Let's look at how to do it.
Ben Bateman
Updated April 29, 2023
8 min read
When you want to book in some production equipment, the first step is to combine all of the gear into a quote. This will tell you the price to hire and whether the gear is currently available for the dates you need it.
At Offshoot Rentals, we've invested in making it fast and easy for you to get a quote for production equipment at any time, day or night.
You can create a quote for yourself or to pass on to a producer, or other colleagues in charge of budget. You can also get a PDF version of the quote, or send the quote by email directly from our site.
You will need an Offshoot account (no cost) to generate a quote, and your account must be approved before you can accept a quote to lock in equipment. If you don't yet have one, you can create a new account here, or you can read more about creating an account first.
Adding Products
There are different ways to add products to a quote, but we will start with the most common method - find the product(s) you need and click the add to quote button. You will see the add to quote button in a few places, but mostly on the details page of a product, and next to each product in a category list.
We have created another help article about finding products quickly if you want to check it out.
Adding a product to a quote from the product details page.
Adding a product to a quote from a product category page.
Showing The Quote Drawer
Products you add to a quote are collected in the quote drawer. This is where you can change quantities or remove products from your quote. You can open the quote drawer in one of three ways:
- Click any in quote badge on a product you have added to a quote. This is often the most convenient.
- Choose show quote from the floating action button menu (visible when you are not at the top of a page).
- Click your avatar in the top right of any page to open the user menu, then click the show quote button.
Three ways to show the quote drawer - clicking any in quote button (left), choosing show quote from the floating action menu (centre) and choosing show quote from the user menu (right).
So, using any of those options opens the quote drawer, which appears on the right side of the window (on smaller devices it is a full screen overlay). It looks like this:
Screenshot showing the quote drawer when it is open. You can adjust quantities of products or remove products from your quote entirely here.
Try It Yourself
Time for some audience participation! We've put a product tile below for the ARRI Skypanel S30-C. Try adding it to your quote, and then click the in quote badge (which is visible only when the product has been added to a quote) to open the quote drawer.
To close the quote drawer, either click the large close button in the upper right corner, click outside the quote drawer (to the left), or press the escape key if you are using a device with a physical keyboard.
Choose Your Rental Period
We have not yet chosen any dates for the hire period, so no price is shown in the quote drawer. Use the choose dates button to open a calendar, and choose the start and end date. If you need gear for just one day, click the same date twice.
Choose the rental period using the calendar. For one day rentals, click the same date twice.
Not sure about pick up and return times? Once you have selected your rental period, the quote is updated to show you when you can collect the equipment, and when it is due back. We cover this below.
Once you have chosen the date(s), we will show a price and other details of the quote at the bottom of the quote drawer. As well as the price, these details include the pick up and return times, our reference for the job, as well as some other information about how many days the gear is out and how many days have been charged, etc.
The quote details look like this:
Details of the quote are shown once you have chosen the rental period. These appear at the bottom of the quote drawer.
Accepting Or Sharing A Quote
At this point in the process, no equipment is being held for you. A quote must be accepted to reserve the quoted gear for the dates quoted.
Accepting the quote will only be possible if all of the equipment in the quote is available for the dates you have entered. If a product in your quote is not available, you have the option of removing it and confirming the gear that is available.
You can grab a PDF copy of the quote and submit it to your producer/team for approval etc, if required. Click the Get PDF button (also shown in the previous screenshot above) to generate the PDF.
You can also share a PDF version of the quote with someone else, using the share options of the device you are using. The share options are entirely dependent on the capabilities of your device, but at the very least you should be able to email it someone.
So, I've decided to accept this quote. I just click the Accept button (also shown in the previous screenshot). This creates what we call a job. The reference of this job is the same as the quote reference we saw earlier in the quote details.
Accepting the quote takes you to the job details screen, shown below:
Accepting a quote creates a job. You are shown the details of the job after accepting the quote.
This screen repeats the details you saw earlier when creating a quote - including the pick up and reutrn times, the products being rented, etc. This is also where you can pay online for the job, cancel the job, and get a PDF version of your tax invoice or quote.
A note on cancelling jobs - you need to cancel two full business days in advance to avoid a cancellation fee (which is 50% of the job cost). For example, if you have gear booked for a Monday, you need to cancel before midnight the previous Wednesday.
At this stage all of the equipment in the quote is reserved for you.
Paying For The Rental
We've made paying for your job simple. Clicking the Pay Now button in the previous screenshot opens the payment dialog. The options are customised for your device and account - you might see a Google Pay button instead of Apple Pay, for example. If you don't yet have any cards stored on account, that section will not be visible.
You don't have to pay online. Some customers prefer to pay on collection of the equipment, and some customers are on payment terms. This feature is for those who prefer to pay this way.
Choose the method that is best for you. Paying with a card on account takes just one click - just choose the card you want to use.
On the payment screen, you can choose to use a stored card, Apple Pay / Google Pay, or to pay with a new card.
Mission Accomplished 🚀
We've completed our goal of getting a quote and locking in some gear by accepting the quote.
Now that you've booked the gear you need, all that is left is to do is collect it. See the pick up time in the details of your job confirmation, and see our contact details for where to go for collection. If you need delivery within metro Melbourne, get in touch and we will sort out the details with you.
See Our Other Help Articles
We've created articles about other features designed to help you work faster through the Offshoot website. Check them out to see what other things you can get done.
