Number, label and locate your pieces

When you catalog your rentals, every piece gets a permanent number, printed on an intake card that travels with it and on small labels stuck to each unit. Every shelf, floor spot or bin gets a location code, so anyone can find a piece and put it back.

Category codes and the number format

A piece’s number starts with its category’s code: chairs might be CH, so the first chair is CH-0001, and its units are CH-0001-001, CH-0001-002 and so on. Open Rentals, then Catalog intake, and set a one to four letter code for each top-level category under Category codes. Under Piece numbers you can instead choose numbers without a code, or more digits. A number never changes once a piece has it, even if the piece moves category.

Start a batch and print its cards

Catalog intake lists every active piece with what it still needs: a number, measurements, weight, a location, a finish, labels or a photo. Use the filters to find the pieces for your next batch and tick them. Give the batch a name, then choose Print cards. Florio numbers any piece that still needs one, starts the batch, and opens its intake cards as a PDF, two to a letter page, in the order they are listed.

For pieces Florio has never seen, pick their category under No new pieces and say how many. Each gets a blank card with its number already reserved, so the number is on the card before the piece is in Florio.

Each card shows what Florio already knows in green and leaves boxes for the rest, with a QR code for the photographer to shoot first. The Batches panel shows how many cards in each batch are pulled, measured and back on the shelf. Choose Reprint to print a batch again, and Close when the line is done with it.

Follow a batch on its board

On Catalog intake, choose a batch’s name in Batches to open its board. Every card shows whether its piece is pulled, measured, labelled, photographed, has its copy approved, is back on its shelf and is live on the storefront, with a count for each step at the top. Use the filters to see what is still waiting, such as everything not yet photographed. Most steps are done at the Measuring Station, in Shoot Uploads or on the piece’s page; the board itself drafts and approves copy (below).

Plan the shoot with the shot list

Open Rentals, then Catalog intake, and choose Shot List. Pick the first shooting day, how many days, the hours a day at the photo station, and your pilot batch. Florio lays out which pieces to pull each day: the pilot batch first, then pieces already on your storefront, then new pieces. Each day is grouped by set-up (the large set, the medium set, then the tabletop turntable) and then by shelf, so one set-up runs as long as possible.

A piece that has not been measured yet takes the typical size of its category and is marked Measure first. Pieces set aside for repair are listed apart. Choose Print Shot List for one page per day with a box to tick for each piece. The list is drawn fresh each time, so it follows the pieces you number, measure or set aside.

Fill a card in at the Measuring Station

Open Rentals, then Catalog intake, and choose Measuring Station. It is sized for a phone. Scan the card’s QR code or any label on the piece with a handheld scanner, type the piece number, or choose Photo of Code and take a photo of the code. The card opens in the same order as the paper: pull, measure and weigh, then label and return. Tap the choices from your own lists, and type sizes in inches or as feet and inches, like 2’ 8”.

Choose Save to update the piece and tick the card’s steps. A count of units on the shelf stays on the card and never changes how many of an existing piece are available. A new piece needs a Working Name, and when its card is for a category with sub-categories (a blank Furniture card, say), a Type such as Sofas or End Tables; Save stays off until both are filled. Its first save creates it as an unpublished draft with its reserved number, filed under that type. A piece marked Needs repair: set aside keeps its measurements and is left out of the photo shoot until it is repaired. To use the station without full rental editing rights, a person needs the Run the catalog line and its measuring station permission.

Label the units

On a piece’s page, the Catalog card shows its number, finish and home location. Under Code Location, write where the label goes on the piece, the same spot on every unit, for example “Underneath, near the left front leg”. Under Label Stock, pick what the label is printed on, such as white or clear poly, or type your own. Both print in step 4 of the intake card, and the crew can fill them in there by hand. To change the stocks offered, edit the Label Stocks list on Catalog intake, one per line. Under Labels, choose One per unit and Make labels to label every unit, or One per case for small items that go out by the case (say, a case of 24 votives). Then pick the label size and choose Print labels. Labels print one per label on the roll. On a Dymo LabelWriter with 30256 shipping labels (2-5/16 x 4 in), choose 2 x 1 in on a Dymo 30256 label, with trim marks: each code fills a whole shipping label with the 2 x 1 label in the middle and trim marks a quarter inch outside it. Print from Preview with the paper size set to the 30256 label and the scale at 100%. Labelling never changes how many of a piece are available.

Upload a shoot and approve its photos

Open Rentals, then Catalog intake, and choose Shoot Uploads. Give the upload a name, pick its intake batch if it has one, then Choose Folder for the camera card’s folder (or Choose Photos) and Upload. Only the JPEGs go up; RAW files stay on the card. Each photo uploads on its own, and a camera JPEG of up to 60 MB is fine.

Florio then reads every photo, in file-name order (the camera’s own numbering), so a photo you retouched later keeps its place. A photo of an intake card (or of a unit label) starts a new piece, and every photo after it belongs to that piece until the next card. Photos that look blurry or too dark are flagged and left for you; the rest start out kept, with the first as the cover and the angles in shooting order: front, three-quarter, side, back, detail. Photos edited onto a pure white background are fine: a bright photo is never flagged.

On the review, each piece’s photos sit under its card. Keep or Reject each one, change its angle, choose Make Cover, or move a stray photo to another piece with its Piece menu. Photos taken before the first card wait under Before the first card until you move them. When it looks right, choose Approve: the kept photos go onto each piece ahead of its older photos, cover first, and its card is ticked photographed. A flagged photo goes onto its piece only if you choose Keep: until then it shows Undecided with a dashed border, and Approve warns you before leaving any behind. Click any photo to see it full size, step through the piece’s photos with the arrows or the arrow keys, and click the photo to zoom in on that spot; Keep, Reject and Make Cover sit right under it. An upload that is already Done still takes a photo it left out: choose Keep and Approve again, and that photo goes last on its piece (or first, if you make it the cover). A photo you removed from a piece never comes back this way. A new piece that has not been saved at the Measuring Station yet keeps its photos waiting; save it there, then approve again. Rejected photos are deleted after 30 days. To upload and approve without full rental editing rights, a person needs the Upload and approve catalog photo shoots permission.

Approve each piece’s name and description

Once a shoot is approved, Florio drafts a storefront name and description for each piece in the background, one piece at a time, in your catalog’s voice. It reads the piece’s measurements, material, color, style, finish, the card’s What makes it special note and its approved photos, and names the piece the way the rest of its category is named. To draft for every piece in a batch that has photos, choose Draft Copy on the batch’s board.

The board’s Copy approved column shows where each piece stands: Drafting, Draft ready (open it to review), Draft failed (point at it to see why), or Approve Copy when the piece already has a description you are happy with. On the piece’s page the draft waits under its description: Use this applies the name and description and ticks Copy approved, Regenerate writes another, and Dismiss keeps the piece as it is. A draft never goes live by itself. A storefront description you write yourself counts too: with no draft waiting, turning Published on approves it and puts the piece live. If Florio refuses a change on the piece’s page, the reason shows right under that field.

Every piece files under a sub-category: a main category that has sub-categories (Furniture, Chairs) is only a heading, so pick Furniture › Sofas rather than Furniture.

If a piece’s photos clearly show something other than what its details describe, Florio drafts nothing and says what does not match, so a mixed-up photo never turns into a wrong description. A piece on an intake card can’t be put on the storefront until its copy is approved; pieces that never went through intake are not affected.

Put a piece’s photos in order

On a piece’s page, drag photos by their handle into the order you want (or use the arrows). The first photo is the cover. Product photos always come before event photos, and the storefront shows them in exactly this order, on the piece’s page and on every listing card.

Locations

Open Rentals, then Locations, and choose Add location. Fill in only the parts that apply, read from big to small: zone, aisle, bay, level, then bin. A rack shelf might be R-C-04-2, a floor spot F-07. The code builds itself and never changes; retire a location instead of reusing it. Tick locations and choose Print labels for 3 by 1 inch shelf labels. Set a piece’s home under Home location on its Catalog card.