HireHop Blog

Free Rental Business Software – Top Cloud Based Rental Software for Free

We built HireHop from the ground up for rental businesses like yours, built and designed by people from the rental industry, to give you a feature rich, affordable, modern and powerful software solution.

Our team consists of people with vast experience in the hire and rental industry, and with the additional feedback from our users, people like you, this vast pool of knowlesge and experince has helped us build the most intuitive, powerful, versatile and feature rich cloud based software in the world, taylored for rental businesses like yours.

Free Rental Business SoftwareAs our ethos is to deliver rental business software that helps hire and rental companies, there is now a free version of the HireHop rental equipment software, tailored for small, single user companies. This free version does not have all the features of the full version, but we have made sure that it is powerful enough to give your small rental business the power it needs to help it succeed. We will also give you free support for the first week after signup, as we feel it is all about working and helping each other as a team.

Not only do we offer the free version of HireHop, you can also use HireHop to help drive business your way as it allows you to list your products on our high ranking directory as well as refering you to other users in your area looking for the stock you have available for hire.

HireHop, is trusted by many large and well known companies and institutions, as well as small and medium sized businesses, most of whom abandoned their existing software to migrate to HireHop.

There is no credit card or payment needed, just simply create your account and start using HireHop free Rental Business Software today.

What You Need To Know About GDPR – What Should You Do To Comply

GDPR - General Data Protection RegulationFrom 25th May 2018, the new GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) rules regarding companies holding personal data will come into effect, and these new rules will effect companies of all sizes that hold data of any EU citizen, „personal data“ being data stored on a computer or simply on paper!

So far, according to a survey conducted by the law firm Irwin Mitchell, only 30% of companies have prepared themselves for what is to come, meaning that many firms would probably go out of business if they received the maximum punishment of 4% of their annual turnover, limited to €20 million ($24 million), enforced by the ICO (the Information Commissioner’s Office).

Many companies remain blissfully ignorant and think the regulation doesn’t apply to them, as they don’t store information on a computer, or due to Brexit the rules won’t apply or they feel things are fine as they are.  They are probably wrong, as all companies store personal data, whether it be employee, marketing or customer information, and as these rules come in before the UK leaves the EU, it will be written into UK law as well.

What Is GDPR

  • GDPR are rules companies have to abide to when they hold personal data or information of EU citizens.
  • They give power to the people over their personal data and give them more rights, making companies more accountable.
  • They also simplify the regulatory environment for international business by unifying the regulation within the EU, so even if you are outside the EU, it could still apply to you.
  • The regulation covers how you must securely keep data, how it should be exported and what you must do if you have a data breach.
  • With GDPR, a person must give you consent to hold their data, they have the right to demand changes to it and they have the right to order you to delete or destroy it.

What Can Happen

All companies must keep all personal data of their customers, employees, etc. safe. If any personal data held on an EU citizen is compromised, it must be reported to the ICO within 72 hours of the breach, otherwise the business or organisation will be fined upto €20 million. If they find that security of your data was lax or you held on to data that should have been deleted, you can be also fined, and even sued by the individual whose data you held onto.

What do I need to do?

GDPR - What to do nextAny business that processes or holds any personal data (online or on paper) should review how it handles that data, where it is stored, how safe it is, whether it is shared with third parties and whether it is actually needed.

A good first step is to carry out an impact assessment. This should focus on three main areas: how employees control and process the data; processes (how you obtain the data, where you store and send it); and reducing risk (ensuring you have adequate security and data encryption in place).

Under the GDPR you only have to notify the ICO of a breach where it is likely to result in a risk to the rights and freedoms of individuals. An example being a breach that is likely to have a significant detrimental effect on individuals. A list of first names might not be detrimental, but a list with dates of birth and/or contact details will be. The ICO provides the following guidelines to what might constitute a detrimental effect:

  • result in discrimination,
  • damage to reputation,
  • financial loss,
  • loss of confidentiality
  • or any other significant economic or social disadvantage.

Again, it is vitally important that any breaches that may or do match any of the above points, must be reported to the ICO within 72 hours of the organisation becoming aware of it.

For example, employee data, such as assessments, do you need to keep them after they have left your employment?  If the employee hasn’t asked that you keep them, after a period of time, it would be wise to destroy or delete them. You must also grant the employee or ex-employee access to all data you hold on them so they can ensure that it is accurate and to raise any concerns on its validity or accuracy.

Exceptions

There are some exceptions to GDPR when it come to the right to be forgotten, for example if you decide to keep employee performance records for a period of time following their resignation, in case of a future legal claim against you, or there is an ongoing dispute where it is evidence.  However, you should be clear on what you will hold onto and make sure that it is destroyed when it is no longer needed.

Is My Equipment Rental Software Safe

If you are using software to store data and run your business, you must make sure that they store your data securely and that their login infrastructure is secure. If you do not use cloud software, you must make sure you have regular off-site backups, that the servers are in a locked and secure room (someone stealing a server or a hard drive is a data breach). You also need to perform regular virus checks on the server and all connected computers, make sure your firewall is setup, maintained and active, as well as a host of other requirements.  If you are using cloud software, then most of these requirements are alleviated and all you really need to worry about are login details not being kept secret, which is mitigated with MFA (see below).

What Personal Information is Covered Under GDPR

GDPR covers personal information about an individual being anything that can be used to identify them, such as their name, address, personal email address, identification number (such as passport number), location data (like tracking information from a phone), medical records etc.  What is not governed under GDPR is company information like a registration number, company address, a generic company email address (like accounts@email.com) or anonymous data about a person (this could even be medical data as long as the person it belongs to can’t be identified).

How Long Can I Hold Data According To GDPR

The time data can be held varies depending what the data is used for, and there is no set or specific time period set-out by GDPR.  The rule of thumb is that data should be erased a soon as it is not needed, kept for the shortest time possible, however there are many exceptions.

When it comes to business, you are required and/or allowed to keep the information for Tax, fraud, research, scientific, public interest and possible litigation reasons, etc.  You are also allowed to keep the data for reference reasons for your own internal use (you often need to reference old jobs to see what you supplied for example), however once the information becomes useless, you are required to only delete the information that identifies a person associated with the job. For example, with a hire company, you often have repeat business, sometimes over many years, and it may be necessary to see what you previously supplied them and for what price, so for this reason, you would be allowed to hold onto the data. If the customer vows never to use you again, after you have kept the data long enough to satisfy the tax authorities (sometimes 7 years according to the IRS) and the data is no longer needed for litigation, etc., you should erase their name, contact details and any correspondence from the job that can identify the customer.

What if I Hold Information for Marketing?

Not surprisingly, this is a little bit grey, but this is best we can make of it.  The collected information you hold is used and required by you for as long as you use it for marketing, therefore you are allowed to keep it, however the person has a right to unsubscribe from receiving marketing material from you.  If they have unsubscribed, the information that identifies them (like an email address) is not needed anymore, however some data, like how they responded to campaigns, is needed and you can keep it, as long as that data is anonymous (meaning you can’t identify the person it belongs to).

HireHop is Safe and GDPR Compliant

GDPR Compliant

All data stored within the HireHop cloud software is stored on Amazon Web Services RDS and S3 servers (trusted by NASA, Netflix, UK Ministry of Justice, etc.).  All data stored by HireHop is encrypted behind firewalls, and is backed up on a daily basis, all protected by a multi-billion dollar security infrastructure in worldwide data centres. HireHop also adopts a two step login, and limits login attempt with timeouts to prevent hackers from mounting a brute force attack to assess passwords.  To help you with GDPR compliance, all passwords stored on HireHop are encrypted, HireHop allows the contacts in your address book to unsubscribe from mailing lists simply by clicking an optional unsubscribe link in emails you send them, and you can limit your users to only be able to login at certain locations.

One security weakness in many organisations is that staff tell each other their passwords, and when one staff member leaves, even though you may have disabled their account, they still might know another member of staff’s login details. To combat this HireHop now offer sign-in with Google and Microsoft, and with both of these you can enable MFA (Multi Factor Authentication). The advantage of this is that with MFA, the member of staff not only needs their password to login, but also their mobile phone needs to be at hand.

HireHop has also implemented a personal data erase feature, however as HireHop has only been released for 1½ years up to when this article was written, and all data held must be held for at least 7 years for tax reasons, the feature is currently not enabled so as to save our customers from making foolish mistakes.

 

To find out more, see the ICO’s 12 step guide at https://ico.org.uk/media/1624219/preparing-for-the-gdpr-12-steps.pdf.

Disclaimer: Nothing on this site constitutes legal advice. Specialist legal advice should be taken in relation to specific circumstances. The contents of this site are for general information purposes only.

New Features – A Review of the Latest Updates, November 2017

SuperSearch

Searching in the Picker has become more powerful!

When adding a new listed item within your Supplying list, use the top SuperSearch Bar to intelligently search by Name, Alternative Name and Category.

Customise the Picker

Open the Picker by viewing your Supplying List and choosing New-Add listed items. Now you can simply drag and drop the visible columns into your chosen order. Additionally, choose which columns to show by selecting the Settings cog in the top right hand corner and selecting/deselecting the fields you wish to see.

Note: this is the only customisation that is set per computer rather than per user, to maintain visibility on different screen sizes.

Delete Scans

Scanned the wrong item? Now you can delete a item you’ve checked in or out!

Checking a job out – If you have scanned out the incorrect item or no code checked an item you shouldn’t have, ensuring ‚Hide completed items‘ is deselected in the bottom left hand corner, select the stock item in question and click ‚View Details‘. Then simply select the item you have checked out and ‚Delete‘.

Checking a job in – If you have scanned in the incorrect item or no code checked an item you shouldn’t have, ensuring ‚Hide completed items‘ is deselected in the bottom left hand corner, select the stock item in question and click ‚View Details‘. Then simply select the item you have checked in and ‚Delete‘.

Alternative Name

Perhaps you have a nickname for your Stock, or would like to quote in another language? Choose an Alternative Name for your Stock and display the Name, Alternative Name or both in your Documents.

Alternative Name search has also been enabled in our Picker’s new SuperSearch bar.

How to use: for Documents the print field is ALT_NAME. If there is no alternative name, the NAME field will be used.

Sales Stock Valuation Report

From the Home Page, select the Reports tab and click on ‚Sales stock valuation‘ to quickly reveal an exportable list of your Sales Stock items, Quantities and their total Valuation, as per the example below.

Invoices to be Exported Report

From the Home Page, select the Reports tab and click on ‚Invoices to be exported‘ to quickly reveal an exportable list of all Invoices and credit notes which have not been exported to date, as per the example below. Export invoices to Quickbooks, Xero, CSV, XML or Excel directly from the Report.

Document Print Flag

Further enhance your customised documents!

Set up a default flag for your Hire Stock, e.g. Important or Not Important, and allow your customised documents to identify the default flag and format the document accordingly.

How to use: If you DO NOT set the flag in the Picker pop-up window (“none” selected), the default flag will be imported. Setting the flag for items within the Picker to anything but “none” will override the default flag and set all items to the new flag chosen.

More Fields and New Document Merging Features

View the up-to-date extensive list of HireHop Document fields here – https://s.myhirehop.com/modules/docmaker/fields.php 

Bug Fixes and Enhancements

Minor bug fixes and enhancements.

HireHop is offering a New Service – Document Creation

Make your documents stand out! Commission our specialist developers to create tailored documents just for you.

For enquiries, please call 020 8905 1830 or e-mail info@hirehop.com. POA.

Software for Hire Companies – How it can help your Business

It is fair to say that all businesses are now digital in some form and increasingly rely on IT to drive business, sell or hire products, analyse data and manage hire or rental inventory, along with many other business operations.

Rental Management Software such as HireHop provide an efficient and comprehensive solution to the management of Hire Stock for corporations of all sizes:

Productivity and Efficiency

Still working off Excel spreadsheets? For many people, the familiarity of the current way of doing things and reluctance to change has resulted in a loss of time and profits. Embracing a software solution like HireHop may seem like a big step; however, once implemented will free up your team to get on with their real work, boosting productivity through instant real-time visibility of jobs and stock levels. Efficiently tracking your stock can also save valuable time in the warehouse and money through a reduction in losses.

Collaboration

Using rental management software makes it easy for employees to work together and keep track of each others progress or status on particular tasks. It enables teams to work together on jobs from any location, share information, documents and updates, as well as integrate with your email accounts and calendars – increasing communication and user responsibility.

Easy to use

Importantly, software for hire companies should be easy to use for all employees, from project managers to warehouse staff, allowing the focus to be on the important tasks at hand in an often time-pressured environment.

Benefits of being in the Cloud

“In March 2017 the Cloud Industry Forum (CIF) revealed that the overall cloud adoption rate in the UK now stands at 88%, with 67% of users expecting to increase their adoption of cloud services over the coming year”, UK Cloud Snapshot Survey 2017.

The cloud has become an increasingly important part of business efficiency and extremely important for the operation of rental management companies in the following ways:

  • Flexibility and Scalability – Grows with your Company
  • Cost Savings – Low up-front costs, with no complex installations or maintenance charges associated with traditional software
  • Any Device, Anywhere – Cloud software such as HireHop is accessible on any device such as a PC, Mac, phone, smart TV or tablet, as long as it has a web browser
  • Eliminate Data Loss – Your data is securely stored and sandboxed
  • Live Automatic Updates – Eliminates downtime and reduces IT costs
  • Quick Implementation – Get started in minutes!

Try HireHop for free today!

HireHop Cloud Software for Hire and Rental Companies – How to Guides

Here at HireHop we want our users to make the most of our powerful software, keeping you up-to-date with all the latest features and advances – and leaving you with the tools to ensure your hires and rentals are managed as efficiently as possible.

We will continue to update this page with how to guides and useful information, as well as tips and tricks, so please check back for all the latest!

Rental Equipment Software – Open Ended Hires and Late Returns

Late rental returnEvery hire and rental company suffers from customers returning items late, yet most software handles this in a haphazard way, usually by creating new jobs with the late returns, which can cause calculation errors, as well as a multitude of other problems.  Also some customers rent a bunch of items indefinitely (an open ended hire) and may return different items at different times, imagine how many jobs you would have to create for that scenario.

HireHop have made this process simple and intuitive, the way it should be.

If an item is late, HireHop will tell you how much is due and allow you to add at the press of a button all overdue charges. This enables you to make the informed decision as to whether or not you want to charge the client and by how much. All this is done from within one job without the headache of having to have multiple jobs just to handle one small hire. Charges and payments breakdown

HireHop will tell you how many items on future jobs might be late, enabling you to judge whether or not you can supply that item or will have to substitute it or sub a replacement in to cover your commitment.

For jobs that are open ended (have no determined end date) HireHop, allows you to periodically issue multiple invoices (or one invoice) whenever you choose, as well as allow items to be returned over various dates. HireHop will seamlessly breakdown and tell you what you need to charge for and by how much, all at the press of a button and all within the same job.

At HireHop we want to give you software works around you and makes your life easier, not the other way round.

Rental Equipment Software – Customized for Your Company

Customise hire rental softwareHireHop is complete, feature rich Rental Equipment Software in the cloud, with advanced functionality, intuitive workflow and a plethora of features, some of which are not found in any other rental management software. However sometimes users want specific features tailored to their unique needs.

HireHop is the only cloud software that can cater for these unique needs, giving your company a solution customized for your specific requirements, all being on a future-proof true cloud platform, available on any device, anywhere in the world.

We can implement unique features for you, from renaming words and phrases, to changing forms and pages, as well as adding new bespoke features you may need to run your company the way you want it to be.

We can implement custom features such as additional checks on equipment, or even a workflow tailored to your company’s specific needs. Due to our unique technology, written and developed by HireHop, any part of the HireHop software can be changed to be how you want it to be.

Call us today so that we can give you a free personal demonstration of what HireHop can do for you and your company. We can also quote you for anything you want customised so that can HireHop be tailored to work exactly how you want it to be.

 

Late Returns – Manage late returning hires

HireHop allows you to manage late returning hires with ease, giving you the tools to make informed decisions while maximising ROI on your rental stock.

A hire that hasn’t been marked as returned on your rental management software might not be late at all.  It would be counterproductive for your hire software to tell you that it was unavailable, for instance a hirer could just be running 5 minutes late, or the item could still be waiting to be checked in due to a backlog in the warehouse, etc. HireHop has provided you with the tools to enable you to make informed decisions and avoid turning down profitable hires just because your previous rental software tells you that it is unavailable, when in fact it is.

HireHop tells you if there is a possible late return conflict in your supplying lists, the availability grid and the pick-lists, enabling you to make informed decisions whether or not to hire in a replacement, chase or wait for the late item to return or just turn down the hire.  You can track at a click of the mouse what clients are late, by how long and how many items they haven’t returned on time.

Some companies excuse minor late returns to ensure good customer relations and some don’t. For late returns HireHop calculates how much the customer owes in late fees, enabling you to decide for yourself if you want to charge them or not.

How to Prevent Collateral Damage from Ransomware – Cloud Software is the Cure

This current wave of Ransomware known as WannaCry has maliciously attacked computers in 99 countries so far, rendering users, businesses and hospitals, such as the NHS in the UK, inoperable.

What is Ransomware

Ransomware is a virus that locks and encrypts the files stored on your computer, preventing you from reading or accessing them, basically making your computer inoperable. It then looks for other computers in your network and tries to infect them as well. You have to pay an exorbitant ransom to an unknown criminal, who could be anywhere in the world, who promises to unlock your computer, however most of the time they just take the money and are never heard from again, leaving you in the same situation and with less money in your pocket (never trust a criminal).

What is the Damage

Files, documents, database files, etc. on your computer are made inaccessible to you as they are encrypted. Ransomware also seeks out other computers on your network, even your server, and locks those up. So if you are running software where your data is stored on your computer or the server in your office, you are in serious danger of allowing your business to be crippled.

How To Prevent Being Attacked

Keeping your computer up to date with the latest updates and patches helps protect you, however this is not fool proof as you may be unlucky enough to be one of the first attacked and effected before any fix or patch is released. Most well written viruses infect a computer and sleep there (they stay hidden and inactive), giving them time to infect more machines before you even know about them. This means that no matter how good your security is, you are still vulnerable to new attacks.

The most common way viruses get onto a machine and start spreading is via email phishing scams, such as ones that tell you an invoice or remittance document is attached. These documents are usually „.zip“ files that are named in a way to look like PDF or image files, that when opened contain an executable „.exe“ file. They also use Word or office files with inbuilt malicious macros, and as older versions of Word don’t have protection from these attacks, your computer becomes infected just by opening them. If you don’t know who sent the email and the attachment isn’t a PDF, don’t open it.

How To Prevent Collateral Damage

There is a way to prevent collateral damage on your computer without paying a penny in ransom if your computer does become infected, enabling you to get up and running again in minimal time and with minimal fuss.

Using cloud software such as Google G Suite, Microsoft Office 365 and HireHop, that store all your files in the cloud, as well as being software that is not native (installed) on your computer, means that any damage caused by a virus or ransomware is a minor inconvenience and not a show stopper. Should your computer become infected, all you need to do is re-install Windows and while your computer is re-installing, just use another device like a phone or iPad, or another computer, thus enabling you to carry on running your business and continue working with minimal interruption.

Cloud Software – The Benefits of Working in the Cloud

Cloud servers
Cloud servers

You have heard of the cloud and have been told how great it is, but why is that and what is the cloud?

More and more people today are moving to the cloud, many without even realising it, using the cloud for storage, banking, email and software, like Microsft Office 365. A survey by Right Scale found that 95% of organisations today are using the cloud in some way, many of them not even realising it.

What is the Cloud?

Traditionally we have stored all our files and managed our databases on servers or computers in our office or home.  The cloud is still made up of computers, known as servers, however they are constantly managed, maintained, backed-up and protected in data centers whose sole purpose is to ensure the security and reliable running of the servers.

Unlike many servers in the workplace, cloud servers are strongly protected from being attacked by hackers, using advanced firewalls, encryption as well as other security measures.  A firewall is in essence a „wall of fire“ that stops a hacker getting past it. We all have basic software firewalls on our computers, however these are vulnerable from attack by things such as phishing, spyware and viruses. HireHop only uses the world’s largest cloud platform, Amazon’s AWS, which powers a huge proportion of the internet, from NASA, Netflix and banks such as Capital One, companies who supply important and vital services and who all trust and rely on the cloud.

„What if the Cloud Breaks?“

The only way the entire cloud could break, is if the World Wide Web broke, which would probably cause an „apocalypse“ in people’s lives. To safeguard against any equipment or even power failure, some companies (like HireHop) who provide cloud services use multiple servers located in different parts of the world, meaning if a data center in Europe catches fire, a data center in America, with duplicate data, instantly takes over.

Another question that many people ask is „what if my internet goes down?“.  If your internet supplier has a fault and you can’t access the internet, you always have your phone as a backup, you can even tether your phone to your computer or use a WiFi hotspot.


Advantages of using the Cloud

As mentioned before, most of us use the cloud and don’t even know it, so what advantages are there in using the cloud over managing your own data on your own servers.

Cost Benefits Explained

The cost savings are the most obvious compared to running your own server and infrastructure at your workplace.

To properly maintain your own server you need to regularly do backups, security updates and generally maintain it, all taking time, and of course time costs money.  You also need the equipment and infrastructure (good quality servers and peripherals are not cheap), as well as the electricity and bandwidth.  By using the cloud you can share the running costs with thousands of other people, yet still have your own private and even more secure services only accessible by you. Not only this, you are protected even further with the best servers and other equipment such as advanced firewalls and load balancers (things that all cost a fortune) for a tiny percentage of what they would cost you to buy.

Another cost advantage is a term you may have heard, being SaaS (Software as a Service). This is a subscription model where you don’t have to pay an extortionate upfront cost, instead you pay low affordable recurring monthly payments based on how many users actually need to use the system.  With SaaS like HireHop, you also get support included instead of having to pay an additional recurring support fee to the software company.

Any Device, Anywhere

Cloud software such as HireHop is accessible on any device such as a PC, Mac, phone, smart TV or tablet, as long as it has a web browser, allowing you to use and instantly access it anywhere in the world, enabling you to keep up to date wherever you are.  Gone are the days of telling clients „I will email you a new quote when I get back to the office“, good cloud software like HireHop enables you to email a beautifully formatted quote, overlaid onto your company stationery from anywhere in the world on any device, enabling your client to get your quote instantly and ahead of your competitors.

Automatic and Hassle Free Updates and Bug Fixes

We have all experienced annoying updates and having to wait for them to install.  Old fashioned legacy software requires you to regularly install updates on every machine and server, always resulting in down time, and often having to reinstall when things go wrong.

Imagine if updates were just done without you even knowing or experiencing any interruption. This is another huge advantage of cloud software, updates just happen automatically with no inconvenience.

Occasionally your computer or iPad might break down.  Instead of having to install, setup and re-configure software on a new machine, with cloud software you just need go to a new machine and just log in with a web-browser, carrying on where you left off.

Increased and Efficient Collaboration

Cloud software allows you and your team to work in real-time, anywhere and at any time, allowing you to instantly see what they are doing or any changes they have made.

HireHop also allows you to further collaborate using other SaaS products, such as Google Docs or Microsoft Office 365, by integrating their documents, etc, into a job or project just by dragging and dropping the document’s web address, meaning everything you or your team needs is available on one system.

Security

As your data can be accessed on any machine, is it secure? The answer is yes, as long as you are using good cloud software like HireHop.

Any good cloud software like HireHop (just like your bank) use multiple security measures such as HTTPS and other forms of encryption and security.  When you change sensitive passwords or log in, you do so through a secure HTTPS (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure). This guarantees that your connection is secure and that the communications sent and received using your browser are verified and encrypted.  You access your online banking via the HTTPS using the cloud as well as your personal tax records, and these are secure due to this same level of security.


The cloud market is rapidly expanding, with more and more companies (including your competitors) adopting the cloud due to its numerous advantages. No matter if you are a large or small company, you should be urgently looking at cloud based software solutions.

Call us at HireHop so that our staff, who have extensive experience in the rental industry, can advise you and answer any questions you may have.