Returns & Missing Items

Returns & Missing Items

Finalize a gear return, track items that never came back, and bill or recover them

When a project wraps and equipment comes back, you close it out with the Gear Return Checklist. Finalizing that checklist locks in what was returned and starts the missing-item follow-up — an automatic clock on anything still marked missing, so an unreturned item is never quietly forgotten and can be invoiced to the responsible party or written off when it turns up.

Overview

The return follow-up workflow answers one question after every shoot: did everything come back, and if not, what are you going to do about it?

• Finalize a return to mark the checklist complete and start tracking.
• Missing items are counted, badged with how many days they've been gone, and surfaced in a banner on the project.
• After a week, an overdue notification prompts you to act.
• Resolve each missing item by invoicing it (creating a loss record + a billing line) or recovering it when it reappears.

It lives inside a project's workspace on the Rental tab, alongside the rental workflow, the prep checklist and rental-house management.

⚠️ It is not on the Budget tab. This guide said it was until v0.773.29, in three places. A tab labelled Budget does exist — it holds budget tracking and invoice drafts — but the Return Checklist is not on it. The confusion is understandable: the panel's source file lives in a budget/ folder, and it is the Rental tab that renders it.

Finalizing a return

1. Open the project workspace and go to the Rental tab.
2. In the Gear Return Checklist, mark each item's condition as it comes back: OK, Damaged, or Missing. Owned gear and rented gear are listed separately, with rentals grouped by rental house.
3. Click Finalize return.
   • Any rows you didn't review are automatically marked returned OK (you'll be asked to confirm).
   • Finalizing records who closed the return and when — that timestamp is what the missing-item clock counts from.
   • A Return finalized toast appears with an Undo button. Undo reopens the return and un-checks the rows that were auto-marked, so a mis-click costs nothing. Undo is offered here because finalizing is a local flag — it deliberately is not offered on invoicing or voiding, which move money.

Before a return is finalized, missing items are not tracked — there's no banner, no badge, and no notification. The follow-up workflow only begins once you finalize.

You can Reopen a finalized return if you need to keep editing. If any missing items have already been invoiced, you'll get a warning first — reopening leaves those loss records and billing lines in place.

The day counter

Every item still marked Missing on a finalized return shows a badge with how many days it's been gone. Day 1 is the day you finalized the return. The badge changes color as time passes:

The missing-items banner

While a project has one or more missing items, a banner appears at the top of its workspace:

N items missing on this project — review the Return Checklist

Clicking it scrolls to the Return Checklist — but only when the checklist is already on screen, i.e. when you are on the Rental tab. From any other tab the click is a deliberate no-op ("a soft nudge" in the code): it will not switch tabs for you, so open Rental yourself. This guide claimed the banner "links straight to the Return Checklist" until v0.773.29.

You can dismiss the banner for the current session — per project — and it reappears on the next page load until the count reaches zero (every item recovered or invoiced).

Overdue notifications

Once an item has been missing for 7 days, Cine Power Planner raises a notification wherever you are in the app:

{item} has been missing for {n} days — invoice it now

These fire once per item so you're not spammed, and they're checked roughly once a minute — including while you're offline, since the check runs entirely on your device. If you recover an item and it later goes missing again, the notification will fire again on the next 7-day mark.

Resolving a missing item

Each missing row offers two resolutions.

Invoice the missing item

Use this when the item is genuinely lost and the responsible party should pay for it.

1. On the missing row, choose Invoice this item.
2. Enter the replacement cost (if the item is in your Owned Gear, its replacement value is pre-filled; for a rental it starts empty). Add optional notes.
3. The dialog has no quantity field. How many units are missing is taken from the checklist row — set it there, before you open this dialog. The dialog only reports it back to you, as {item} · {n} of {total} missing.
4. When more than one unit is missing, the cost field is labelled Replacement cost per unit and a hint underneath shows the arithmetic: {n} × {unit} = {total}. Type one unit's value, not the whole loss.

If you type a cost and then close the dialog with Escape, the backdrop or Cancel, you are asked before the entry is discarded.

Invoicing does two things at once:

• Creates a Damage Report of type lost, with severity set automatically from the replacement cost (minor → major → total loss).
• Adds a draft billing line to the project's invoice, linked to that damage report.

For an item from your own inventory, the damage report links to that gear item, so its Affected Items table shows the name, serial number and replacement value. For a rental item the report carries no gear link — it isn't your equipment — so the report identifies it by name in the description and the Affected Items table is left out.

Estimated Repair Cost on the report is the whole claim — cost × units — not the per-unit figure you typed. Three missing €500 items produce a €1,500 report and a €1,500 billing line, which is the point: the insurance claim and the customer invoice have to ask for the same number. This guide said "the replacement cost you typed appears under Estimated Repair Cost" until v0.773.29, which was only true for a single unit.

Severity is banded on that same whole-claim total:

So four missing 3,000 lenses is a 12,000 loss and files as a total loss, even though any one of them alone would be major. The figures are read in your selected currency and are not converted.

The day-count badge disappears once an item is invoiced — it's no longer "open." The billing line stays a draft, so you can still edit or remove it before the invoice is finalized.

Recover (void) the item

Use this when a "missing" item turns up after you'd already invoiced it.

When you change an invoiced row's condition away from Missing, you're asked how to handle the existing records:

• Void both — delete the damage report and the billing line. Use this when the item is back and nobody should be charged.
• Keep records — clear the missing-item link on the row but leave the damage report and billing line intact, for your audit trail.

Voiding marks the damage report as voided with the reason missing item recovered. The row returns to normal and, if still applicable, its day badge comes back.

Offline & sync

Like the rest of Cine Power Planner, return follow-up is local-first. You can finalize returns, mark items missing, and invoice or recover them with no connection — the day counter and overdue checks run on your device. Everything syncs to your shared cloud workspace when you reconnect, so a rental manager or producer sees the same missing-item state you do.

Related Documentation

• Projects & Workspace — the workspace and Rental tab where the Return Checklist lives
• Damage Reports — the loss record an invoiced missing item creates
• Sub-Rentals — returning sub-rented gear to its provider
• Invoices — finalizing the billing line a missing item adds
• Checklists — packing and prep checklists

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Last Updated: 2026-09-10 Version: 0.790.2