Lost Items

What to do when equipment doesn't come back: the Lost flag closes the rental obligation, charges the customer for the lost asset via a one-off Sales Line, marks the Rental Item as Lost, and (if the item is FA-linked) posts a Fixed Asset scrap journal entry.

How it fits in

Equipment goes missing. The customer reports it lost, damaged beyond repair, stolen, or simply never returned. The rental can't close via a normal Return because there's no physical item coming back. The Lost flag handles this end-to-end in one action: it closes the rental obligation, generates a charge to the customer for the lost asset, takes the Rental Item out of the available fleet, and records the financial impact against the linked Fixed Asset.

The Lost handling sits between Setup (which configures the G/L account and behaviour), the Rental Order or Return Order (where the Lost flag is ticked), and the Rental Item record (whose status moves to Lost).

Only Rental Item lines can be marked as Lost. The Lost flag errors out if you try to set it on a line of any other Type (Item, Rental Item Type, Kit, Resource, Comment). This is intentional: Lost handling is about a specific tracked fleet asset that has been lost; non-Rental-Item lines either don't represent trackable assets or are typed and tracked at the Rental Item level after allocation.

Setup prerequisites

Before using the Lost flag, configure two fields on the Rental Setup Lost Lines sub-section:

Setup fields used by Lost handling

Lost Sales G/L Accountrequired

The G/L Account that the auto-generated Sales Line for the lost equipment posts to. Must be set; the Lost flow errors out (TestField) if it's blank when you try to mark a line as Lost.

Lost Lines Generate Sales Lines

A Boolean on Setup intended to control whether marking a line as Lost auto-generates the Sales Line. In the current implementation, the Lost flow always generates the Sales Line; the flag is present in Setup but not consulted by the live code. Treat as a placeholder for future configuration. Verify with your implementer if you need certainty about its current effect.

Where the Lost flag lives

The Lost flag appears in two places that both feed the same lifecycle handler:

On a Rental Order line (Lines subpage of the Rental Order): tick to mark the line as Lost directly while the order is open.

On a Return Order line: tick when preparing a Return for an item that you know isn't coming back. Posting the Return then closes the obligation as Lost rather than as a normal receipt.

In both cases, the same back-end handler runs and produces the same lifecycle changes (described below). Pick whichever path matches the operational moment when the loss is recognised.

What happens when a line is marked as Lost

Ticking Lost on a Rental Item line triggers four immediate changes in sequence:

A Sales Line for the lost asset is appended to the document

A new line is added to the same Rental Order with Type = G/L Account, No. = the Lost Sales G/L Account from Setup, Bill Once = true, Quantity = the lost quantity, Description = "[Lost Sale] " + the original line's Description. This is the line that bills the customer for the asset they've lost. It appears on the next invoice generated against the order, on the One-time Invoice Lines subpage.

The Rental Item's status moves to Lost

The Rental Item record's Status field is set to Lost. From this point the item won't be allocated to new rental orders (the available pool excludes Lost items) and the status flag remains as a permanent record on the master.

If FA-linked, a Fixed Asset scrap journal entry is created

For Rental Items linked to a Fixed Asset (Fixed Asset Integration ticked + Linked to Fixed Asset set), the system inserts a journal entry in the Disposals FA/GL Journal Batch that scraps the Fixed Asset. The entry is created not posted; review and post it from the FA G/L Journal as part of your normal posting workflow.

A Scrap entry is posted to the Rental Ledger

A new Rental Ledger Entry of Entry Type = Scrap is posted against the Rental Item, with a negative quantity for the lost units. The ledger now shows the loss as part of the item's lifetime activity, alongside Rent / Shipment / Return entries.

Walkthrough: marking a Rental Item Type line as Lost from a Return Order

A common case: the customer rings to say a piece of equipment is lost while a Return Order is being prepared.

Open or create the Return Order

Create a Rental Return Order via any of the three creation paths described on the Rental Return doc. Make sure the line for the lost item is on the Return.

Tick Lost on the line

On the Return Order Lines subpage, tick the Lost column for the relevant line. Quantity to Return represents the lost quantity. The four-step lifecycle described above runs immediately.

Post the Return

Use Post Return as you would for a normal return. The Return Order posts; no physical stock comes back (the item's Status is now Lost rather than Available); the Sales Line on the parent Rental Order is queued for the next invoice run.

Review and post the Fixed Asset scrap journal (if applicable)

If the item was linked to a Fixed Asset, open the Disposals FA/GL Journal Batch (configured on Rental Setup), review the auto-generated scrap entry, and post it as part of your normal FA posting workflow.

Invoice the customer

Run Create Invoice on the Rental Order at the next billing run. The Lost Sales G/L Account line appears on the invoice with the lost-asset charge. The customer sees a clear billable line for the equipment they've lost, separate from the rental period charges.

After: the Lost Rental Item

Once an item has been marked Lost, several things change about the master record:

Status = Lost: visible on the Rental Item card. The item won't appear as Available in allocation logic; it's effectively retired from the active fleet.

Rental Ledger shows a Scrap entry: open Rental Ledger Entries from the item card to see the loss alongside the historical Rent / Shipment / Return entries.

Linked Fixed Asset is scrapped (after the FA G/L Journal is posted): the Fixed Asset record's lifecycle reflects the disposal.

The Rental Item record itself is not deleted: it stays on the master so the historical references (rental ledger, past rental orders, FA link) remain valid. To return a Lost item to active service if it turns up later, manually flip Status back to Available (and reverse the scrap entries via standard Business Central corrective actions).

Rental Setup: where Lost Sales G/L Account and the FA Journal Template / Disposals batch are configured.
Rental Return: the most common entry point for marking an item as Lost during the return-handling flow.
Rental Order: the alternative entry point when the loss is recognised before a Return Order is even created.
Rental Items: where the Status field shows the post-loss state and where Rental Ledger Entries are accessed.
Rental Invoice: where the Lost Sales G/L Account line is invoiced to the customer.