CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

Hi there,

We are considering using CiviCRM for a client. They have a specific use request and I am not sure how best to implement it with CiviCRM. Basically, they rent out equipment to various users (it's free they are a non-profit providing tools for the blind/deaf). They want to be able to track the rental and return of this equipment. PLUS, they want to be able to run reports like "Pull up everyone living in X county who currently has equipment rented" or "Pull up everyone living in X county who rented equipment in the last year".

Anyone have a good idea how to do this in CiviCRM? I was first thinking that we'd have activity types for equipment rental and return, but then I am not sure how to run reports from that data.

The other idea I had was to use tags and tag someone with an equipment ID (or just a tag like "currently renting equipment") when they check something out. Then we can run a report pulling up everyone with those tags. Only problem with this is (I think) is that there is no history of who checked out what equipment when with tags, is that right?

Is the best option a combination of the 2 where we use "activity" for details about what they rented (and when they returned it, like with 2 activity types one for renting and one for returning) IN ADDITION TO a tag like "currently renting equipment" that we apply/unapply as people rent/return equipment? If so how can I run reports off of activity data like pull up people who rented something but haven't returned it yet, etc? Thanks!

    -Drew

Thank you! How do we customize the "status" values for various activity types? (PS I am a savvy developer so if it means going into the database its no worries).