Loans

Loans are for the things that leave the building: hand tools, meters, calipers, kits, and consumable stock a member takes for a project. A loan is a custody record — who has it, since when, until when, and what state it left and came back in. It is separate from a machine session (time on a machine that stays put) and from a reservation (a booking of future time).

Turning it on

Loans is a module: enable it under Settings → Modules. Two permissions in the permissions grid control who does what:

• Borrow tools & items — may be named as a borrower and, on self-serve assets, may check out and return alone. On by default for every role, including free member, student, and guest accounts.
• Check out & return loans, manage loanable assets — the front desk. Check things out to anyone, take returns, mark a loan lost, and decide which assets are loanable. On by default for staff and manager roles; off for patron roles.

Two space-wide defaults live on the desk’s Settings tab: the default loan length (7 days) and the most things one member may have out at once (3).

What can be lent

Every piece of equipment and every inventory item carries a loan policy, edited from Loans desk → Loanable assets (and shown on the asset’s own page):

• Not loanable — the default. Scanning the tag behaves as it always has.
• Staff checkout — a desk person has to hand it over.
• Self-serve — a member may check it out and return it by scanning the tag in the app themselves. Self-serve checkouts still require any credentials the equipment lists, the same gate a machine unlock uses.

Alongside the mode you can set a maximum loan length for that asset (blank means the space default), an accessories checklist (“2 batteries”, “charger”, “case”) that the desk ticks off at checkout and again at return, and loan notes shown to whoever checks it out.

Equipment goes out one unit at a time — a unit is either available or on loan to someone. Inventory items go out by quantity: the desk lends 2 of the 6 clamp sets, stock on hand is untouched, and the item shows 4 available to lend.

Checking out at the desk

In the mobile app, with the desk permission:

1. Scan the tool’s tag — the QR label the platform already prints, or an NFC tag holding the same code. No tag, or a tool too small for one? Search by name instead.
2. Scan the member’s badge — ask them to open My badge in their app and hold up the code. Or search by name, email, or badge number.
3. Set the due date (prefilled from the asset’s or the space’s default), tick the accessories going out, add a condition note and an optional photo, and confirm.

The loan is live the moment you confirm. The borrower gets a notification and, in their app, acknowledges the loan with a drawn signature — that signature lands on the record when they tap through; it never holds up handing the tool over. The desk page flags loans still waiting on an acknowledgement.

The same flow works in the other order: scan the member’s badge first, then pick or scan what they are taking. The web Loans desk can also check out by name for a desk PC without a camera.

A checkout is refused when the member already has an overdue loan, when they are at the active-loan cap, or when the tool is already out with someone else.

Self-serve checkout

For an asset set to self-serve, a member scans its tag in the app, sees the due date, signs, and walks off with it. Returning is scanning the tag again. Credential requirements, the overdue block, and the active-loan cap all still apply.

Returns

Returns close on desk action: scan the tag (or open the loan from the desk list), tick the accessories that came back, note the condition, add a photo if something is damaged, and confirm. The borrower is told it is back. A self-serve loan can also be closed by its borrower. If something never comes back, the desk marks the loan lost; the record is kept.

Due dates, reminders, and overdue

Due dates are end-of-day in your space’s timezone — “due Friday” means Friday, not midnight going into Friday. The borrower gets a due tomorrow reminder as the loan enters its last day and an overdue reminder once the date passes, through the usual channels (in-app, email, push, per their preferences). The desk can push a due date back, which resets those reminders.

An overdue loan blocks that member from taking anything else out until it is returned. Loans do not affect door access or machine access.

Tags: QR and NFC

QR works on every app build today — the labels the platform prints for equipment and items already carry the code the loan flow reads. NFC read and write ship in the app build that includes the NFC module; on that build the scan screen offers Tap NFC tag, and staff can Write NFC tag from an asset’s page to encode a blank tag with the same code. A tag written that way scans identically to the printed label.

My badge

My badge is the rotating personal code in the mobile app (Home header, or the Facility tab) — the same code trainers scan to issue credentials in person. It changes every minute, only identifies you, and grants nothing by itself. At the desk it is how you are named as the borrower.

Where loans show up

• Loans desk (web and app): everything out, overdue first; history; the loanable-asset list; space defaults.
• My loans (web and app): what you have out and when it is due, plus your history.
• Asset pages: “On loan to X, due Y”, or how many are available to lend.