Booking Charging
Formbird FLEET can calculate hire charges for pool vehicle bookings, allowing your organisation to recover the cost of asset use. This article covers how to set hire rates on assets and how the charge calculation works.
Charging only applies to bookings made through the Asset Booking page. For information about charging for asset allocations, see Allocations. To enquire about exporting charge data out of Formbird FLEET, contact Formbird Support.
Setting Hire Rates on an Asset
Hire rates are set on individual assets. An asset must have at least one hire rate set before any charge can be calculated for its bookings.
- Navigate to the asset and open the Booking / Hire panel.
- Enter the relevant values in Hourly Hire Rate and/or Daily Hire Rate.
- Set the Default Booking Hire Rate to Hourly or Daily.
- Save the changes.
Which rates you enter and which default you select determines the charging method used. See Charge Calculation Methods below.
Key Terms
Charge Day
A Charge Day is the 24-hour period used to calculate daily and combined charges. The start of a Charge Day is set by the Charging Start Time on the Booking Configuration page. If no Charging Start Time is set, the Charge Day starts at the beginning of the booking.
Note: Bookings that span a weekend are not charged for Saturday or Sunday — it is assumed the asset is not in use over that period. If a weekend charge is needed, either create a Plant Hours record or manually edit the booking's Hire Cost field.
Hire Duration
The Hire Duration is calculated from the Requested Hire Start to whichever is later — the Requested Hire Completion or the actual Closed time.
- If an asset is returned early, the charge still runs until the originally booked completion time.
- If an asset is returned late, the charge extends to when it was actually closed.
This approach ensures charges reflect the time the asset was unavailable to other users and encourages users to book only for as long as they need.
Hire Duration is expressed in hours or days depending on the Default Booking Hire Rate set on the asset.
Charge Calculation Methods
The charging method is determined by which hire rates are set on the asset and what the Default Booking Hire Rate is set to. Each asset can use a different method, giving flexibility across your fleet.
Hourly Only
Set a Hourly Hire Rate on the asset, leave Daily Hire Rate blank, and set Default Booking Hire Rate to Hourly.
Hourly Hire Rate × Hire Duration (hours) = Hire Cost
Daily Only
Set a Daily Hire Rate on the asset, leave Hourly Hire Rate blank, and set Default Booking Hire Rate to Daily.
Daily Hire Rate × Hire Duration (days) = Hire Cost
Combined
The combined method sets a daily cap on the hourly rate — useful for multi-day bookings where charging full hourly rates would be unreasonably high.
Set both a Hourly Hire Rate and a Daily Hire Rate on the asset, and set Default Booking Hire Rate to Hourly. The Charging Start Time in Booking Configuration is also important as it defines when each Charge Day begins.
The calculation works as follows: the Hire Duration is split into Charge Day chunks. For each Charge Day, the hourly rate is calculated for that period. If the hourly total for a Charge Day exceeds the Daily Hire Rate, the Daily Hire Rate is used instead.
Examples — asset with a Hourly Hire Rate of $10 and a Daily Hire Rate of $80, Charge Day starting at 6am.
Example 1 — same-day booking: 10am to 4pm
| Charge Day | Duration | Hourly total | Capped at daily? | Charge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | 6 hours | $60 | No ($60 < $80) | $60 |
Total: $60
Example 2 — overnight booking: 6am 1 Jan to 10am 2 Jan
| Charge Day | Duration | Hourly total | Capped at daily? | Charge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | 24 hours (6am–6am) | $240 | Yes ($240 > $80) | $80 |
| Day 2 | 4 hours (6am–10am) | $40 | No ($40 < $80) | $40 |
Total: $120
Example 3 — booking spanning a Charge Day boundary: 4am to 10am
| Charge Day | Duration | Hourly total | Capped at daily? | Charge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | 2 hours (4am–6am) | $20 | No ($20 < $80) | $20 |
| Day 2 | 4 hours (6am–10am) | $40 | No ($40 < $80) | $40 |
Total: $60
Example 4 — weekend booking: 5pm Friday 1 Jan to 7am Monday 4 Jan
Saturday and Sunday are not charged.
| Charge Day | Duration | Notes | Hourly total | Capped at daily? | Charge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | 7 hours | Friday 5pm–Saturday 6am (Saturday not charged) | $70 | No ($70 < $80) | $70 |
| Day 2 | 0 hours | Saturday 6am–Sunday 6am (not charged) | — | — | $0 |
| Day 3 | 0 hours | Sunday 6am–Monday 6am (not charged) | — | — | $0 |
| Day 4 | 1 hour | Monday 6am–7am | $10 | No ($10 < $80) | $10 |
Total: $80
Editing Booking Documents
Booking documents can be edited to adjust charges or to create booking records manually. These features are not available to Driver or Operator account types.
Changing the Hire Cost
To override the calculated charge on a booking, open the booking document and enter a new value in the Hire Cost field. Once a value has been entered manually, the system will not recalculate the charge automatically.
Creating a Booking Document Manually
To create a booking record without going through the booking calendar:
- Navigate to the asset.
- From the Create Requests, Daily Drivers and Work Orders panel, select New Internal Asset Hire Request [VERIFY: confirm the exact label shown in the dropdown for your asset type].
- Enter the required booking details and save.
The Hire Cost is calculated after the document is saved for the first time. Changing the hire duration will trigger a recalculation on the next save. As with edited bookings, once a value is entered manually into the Hire Cost field, automatic recalculation stops.
Published: April 2026 · Formbird FLEET 4.2.8