Guides · Templates
Tool checkout: who has which tool, and when it comes back
· Invenva
A printable tool sign out sheet with signature columns, and how to run tool checkout on a phone: who has what, what is overdue, and what someone still holds on their last day.
Most missing tools were never stolen. They went out with someone in a hurry, nobody wrote down who, and six weeks later the question has no answer. Here is a sign out sheet you can print for the crib window or the truck, what each line should hold, and how to keep the same record on a phone.
What a tool sign out record needs
A record earns its keep when it settles an argument six weeks later. “Drill, Mike” does not. “One 18V hammer drill, the one marked #3, to Mike Torres on March 3, case cracked, due back Friday, signed” does, and it takes about twenty seconds to write.
Ask only for what someone will really fill in at the window with three people waiting behind them. The signature is what turns a note into a handover: it shows the tool went to that person, in that state, on that day. Seven things are enough:
- Date out: the day it left, not the day someone remembered to write it down.
- Person: a full name, and the company too when the borrower works for a subcontractor.
- Item and its number: with five identical drills, the number on the tool is what makes the line useful.
- Quantity: with sets of clamps, straps or bits, the count is what goes missing.
- Condition: a few words going out and coming back, written by whoever runs the crib.
- Return date: when it is due back, if it is due back at all.
- Signatures: the borrower signs when it leaves, and whoever takes it back signs when it returns.
The printable tool sign out sheet
The file at the top of this page is an Excel sheet with one line per handover and fourteen columns: No., Date out, Person, Item, Code, Qty, Condition out, Return by, Date back, Qty back, Condition back, Signature out, Signature back and Notes. The first columns are filled in when a tool leaves, the return columns when it comes back, and each of those two moments gets its own signature. The No. column numbers each line by itself once it has a date, a name or an item, on the first 500 lines, and a link to invenva.com follows the column names.
A blank copy prints as one landscape Letter page with twenty ruled lines; the title and the column names repeat on every page, and each page shows its number and invenva.com at the bottom. Print a stack and keep it where tools really leave: the crib window, the gang box, the truck. A line with no Date back is a tool that is still out, and one past its Return by date is overdue, so reading down those two columns every Friday gives you an overdue list on paper.
Paper has two weak spots. Nobody reads forty lines to find what one person holds, and a sheet can only be in one place. When you move to the app, enter only what is out today and keep the old sheets as your history.
When someone leaves: what do they still have?
The last week on a job is when tools disappear for good. Someone else cleans out the truck, the borrowed laser level ends up in a garage, and three months later nobody can say whether it ever came back. What works is a list of everything on that person's name, made before the last day, walked through together and signed.
On paper, that means reading every sheet for one name and checking each line with an empty Date back. In Invenva, open the person under Customers and suppliers: their page lists what they still have on loan, and their Activity shows every loan and return. In the web app you can also see the On loan list by person.
- A week before the last day, pull up everything still on their name.
- Go through it together and mark returned whatever comes back, with the count.
- A tool that comes back broken beyond repair is marked returned, then booked out as a Write-off with the reason Damaged.
- Whatever does not come back goes on paper with both signatures. In the app, close the loan with Mark returned and book a Write-off with the reason Lost, so the stock count stays true.
How it works in Invenva, step by step
In Invenva, a loan is a Stock Out to a named person, with the tool expected back. The borrower needs no account and no app, and a loan never counts as a sale in your reports.
Each person on your team can be allowed to lend (Stock Out) and to take returns (Stock In) separately. On a phone, all of it works with no signal and syncs when the signal comes back; only adding a photo needs a connection.
- Add each tool once, with a photo and, on a paid plan, a barcode or QR label printed from the app. Identical tools can share one item with a quantity; a tool you need to tell apart gets an item of its own.
- When a tool goes out, open it by searching its name or scanning its label, enter how many go out, tap Lend and type the person's name. To hand over several tools at once, select them in the stock list and lend them together.
- Set Return by if there is a date, and add a note when it matters, such as the site or “case cracked”.
- Save. The loan shows up under On loan, the tool's page says how many are out, and Activity keeps who handed it over and when.
- When it comes back, tap the loan in On loan and choose Mark returned. If only part of it is back, enter how many; the rest stays on the list.
- Overdue loans sit at the top of On loan with their date in red, and the stock screen shows Overdue with the person and the tool.
Questions, answered
Does the borrower need an account or the app?
No. A loan is made out to a name you type. Only the people who hand tools out and take them back need to be on your team.
How do I see which tools are overdue?
Overdue loans move to the top of On loan in red, and the stock screen shows them with the person and the tool, so everyone on the team who can lend tools sees them as soon as they open the app.
Can it track serial numbers?
Put the serial number in a custom text field on the item, or make each numbered tool its own item, so the On loan list shows exactly which one is out.
Does it work without a signal?
On a phone, yes: loans and returns save on the device and sync when the signal comes back. In a browser, a tab that is already open keeps working. Adding a photo needs a connection.
See it in the sample shop
The sample shop opens straight on its On loan screen, with no account: two desk lamps lent to Harbor Studio and already overdue, a webcam Oak & Pine is due to bring back in four days, and three laptop stands that have come back. It is an office supply shop rather than a tool crib, so you will see lamps instead of drills, but it is the same screen your crew would use. Switch between Items and Customers at the top, and tap a row to try Mark returned.
Loans and returns work on every plan, and the paid plans bring the whole team, with one price for everyone and no fee per person: Pro covers up to 5 people, Business up to 25. Yearly plans start with 7 free days.