Rentman vs Current RMS: how to choose between them
Rentman and Current RMS both run AV, production and event rental companies, and on paper they cover much of the same ground. The way to choose is to run one of your real jobs through each.
Devon Race
3 min read
Rentman and Current RMS are both established cloud platforms for AV, production and event rental companies. Both cover inventory and availability, quotes with online signatures, barcode scanning in the warehouse, crew and resource scheduling, and accounting connections to QuickBooks and Xero. The right choice depends on how your jobs actually run. Rentman presents itself around planning productions and scheduling crew. Current RMS presents itself as all-in-one rental management. Test both with one of your own past jobs before deciding.
I’ve worked hands-on in both, along with Goodshuffle Pro and IntelliEvent. Each can run a rental company well when it’s set up for how that company works, and each frustrates teams when it isn’t. This comparison uses what each company publishes about its product, plus how I’d test them. Features and pricing change, so check both with the vendors.
What both cover
- Inventory with availability across jobs and dates
- Branded quotes and proposals with online signatures
- Barcode or QR scanning for prep, check-out and returns
- Scheduling crew and other resources against jobs
- Connections to QuickBooks and Xero, plus an API for other tools
- Free trials, with pricing on each vendor’s website
Where Rentman puts its focus
Rentman’s own material leads with production planning and crew: requesting crew availability, sending invitations in batches, drag-and-drop schedules, tracking hours worked and sharing job files with the team. It also highlights subrentals, digital packing lists and repair logs. It’s sold as bundles and add-ons, so you choose the parts you need.
Where Current RMS puts its focus
Current RMS describes itself as all-in-one rental management for AV, production, event and party rental businesses. Its material highlights a central calendar for people, vehicles, rooms and locations, customer activity tracking, branded proposals with e-signature and flight case and container support in the warehouse. Its website now says it has rebranded to Klipboard, the new name of its parent company, so you may see both names.
Questions that usually decide it
- Is your work mostly crewed productions with labor and trucking, or mostly dry hire and deliveries?
- Which one handles your multi-day, rehearsal and dark-day pricing with the fewest workarounds?
- How do kits, cases and accessories move through prep, and which system matches that?
- Where do leads live before they’re a job: in the rental software or in a separate CRM?
- What exactly syncs with your accounting: invoices, payments, customers?
- What does it cost at your size, with the modules and users you actually need?
How to test them properly
Ask each vendor for a trial and run the same real job through both: one with overlapping dates, a subrental, labor and trucking. Import a slice of your actual inventory, build the quote with your real rates, send it to yourself as a client would see it, then prep it, return it and invoice it. Have the people who’ll use it every day, your salesperson, warehouse lead and bookkeeper, try their part.
The one that handles that job with fewer workarounds is usually the right one for you. How to choose rental software has the full checklist.
If you already use one
Switching costs a lot of time and attention. Before you move, check whether your current system was simply set up in a hurry. Many companies use a fraction of what their software can do, and fixing templates, rates, kits and integrations often solves the problem that made switching look necessary.
Common questions
- Is Rentman or Current RMS better for a small rental company?
- Either can work. Compare the cost at your size with the modules you need, and test whether a small team can run quotes, prep and invoicing without constant workarounds.
- Do Rentman and Current RMS work with QuickBooks?
- Both list integrations with QuickBooks and Xero. Check exactly what syncs, such as invoices, payments and customer records, before you commit.
- Should I also look at Goodshuffle Pro?
- Goodshuffle Pro is built for event rental companies, so include it if your business is mostly party and event rental orders. Run the same real-job test in each system you consider.
