Switching from spreadsheets, Oct 2026
Plenty of good hire firms start with a spreadsheet, a paper diary or a whiteboard in the yard, and it works until the phone rings while you’re out on a delivery. This guide covers what to get in order before you change anything and what RiQ (pronounced “Rick”) does instead. RiQ is fully cloud-based, with nothing to install, and is waitlist-only while it onboards in stages, tool and plant first.
Tier 1 is a hire website with online booking that you run yourself, made for one-man bands. If you would rather not run a booking system at all, Tier 2 has National Tool Hire manage the bookings for you.
Tier 1
For one-man bands
A hire website with online booking that you run yourself. Customers book and pay online; you take it from there.
Tier 2
For firms who just want the site
You get the website; National Tool Hire manages the booking side for you, so enquiries and bookings are handled without you running the system day to day.
Tier 3
For hire businesses running everything in RiQ
The whole RiQ platform, run by your team, with invoicing and WhatsApp as bolt-ons when you need them.
A spreadsheet only knows what someone typed into it. When two people take bookings, or you take one from the van, the same machine can be promised twice. Customers can’t see what’s free, so every enquiry is a phone call or a message, and the online booking is a form that ends in a call back.
Whatever you move to, the job is easier with a tidy list. Write down every item you hire out, how many of each you have, and your rates. Then list every hire that is out now or booked for the future, so nothing is missed on the day you change over. Keep a copy of your spreadsheet for your own records.
RiQ gives you a hire website on your own domain, with your own branding. Customers see live availability and the price, then book and pay with deposits taken at checkout. Bookings land in your RiQ account, so the diary updates itself instead of waiting for you to type it in.
Because RiQ is fully cloud-based, you sign in from a browser at the yard, at home or on your phone, and there are no servers to run. You can see what’s out, what’s due back and what’s ready to go, and extend a hire without rekeying anything. Required items and damage waiver are added at checkout automatically.
If you hire out a handful of items, take every booking yourself and rarely double-book, a spreadsheet may be all you need for now. RiQ is waitlist-only and onboarding tool and plant first, so if you need online booking this week, it may not be ready for you yet. Join the waitlist and we’ll tell you when it is.
Join the waitlist, tell us what you hire out and how customers book today, and ask us which tier fits. Keep your spreadsheet to hand when you do.
Waitlist
Join the RiQ waitlist for early access and a switching review at no cost. It takes about a minute.