Guide
When to Charge Rental Fees
Record a rental fee at return for refuelling, damage, lateness, or a lost item — Kasura applies it against the deposit, but never calculates the amount.
Why rental fees exist
A return can surface more than one kind of extra cost — fuel to top up, damage to repair, a late return, a missing item — and lumping them into one generic charge would hide which of these actually happened. Naming each fee by category keeps the return record specific enough to explain later, whether to the customer or in a dispute.
Typical fee situations
Vehicle returns record fees in four named categories: refuelling, damage, late return, and a lost item such as a helmet. Each is entered as an amount by the staff member handling the return, based on what they observe or what the business has agreed with the customer — there is no fixed price list built into the process. Accommodation check-out uses a different mechanic: instead of fixed categories, staff enter one or more deductions, each with its own reason and amount.
Deposit interaction
Fees are set against the deposit automatically once entered: Kasura applies as much of the deposit as covers the total fees and returns whatever is left over. If the fees exceed the deposit, the difference becomes an outstanding amount the business collects separately — Kasura records this figure, it does not collect the payment itself. None of this changes how a fee amount is decided; the arithmetic only determines how a deposit is split once the amounts are entered.
Operational consequences
Recording fees at return, rather than after the fact, keeps the return record and the financial outcome in the same step — the deposit resolution staff choose (full return, partial deduction, or full retention) reflects the fees entered moments earlier. Keeping the entire deposit always requires a written reason, which becomes the record a business points to if a customer questions the charge later.
Common mistakes
A common mistake is entering a damage or lateness fee as a lump sum without checking which category it actually belongs to, which makes later reporting less useful — knowing that late fees happen often is only possible if they are recorded as late fees. Another is assuming Kasura calculates a late fee from the price per day, or a refuelling fee from a fuel gauge reading; neither happens automatically, and an unentered fee is simply zero. A third is keeping a deposit without recording why, which leaves no defensible reason if the customer disputes it afterward.
What this guide does not mean
- Kasura does not decide fee amounts automatically. Every fee — refuelling, damage, late return, lost item, or an accommodation deduction — is a number staff enter.
- This is not an accounting feature. Kasura records fees on the booking; it keeps no general ledger, chart of accounts, or bookkeeping records for the business.
- This is not a tax calculation feature. Kasura does not compute VAT, sales tax, or any other tax on a fee.
- This is not legal advice. Whether a fee is enforceable, and how large it may be, is a decision for the business and its own rental agreement, not something Kasura determines.