The software isn’t here yet, but your rules can be
You can’t implement software that hasn’t shipped. What you can do is decide how rental should work in your business, so you’re ready when the software is.
On 9 December 2025, Microsoft announced that it is building rental features straight into Dynamics 365, with release planned for the fourth quarter of 2026 (see Transforming how organizations run rental operations with Dynamics 365 ERP). If your company already runs Dynamics 365 and rents out equipment, this leaves you with a real choice. Do you wait for Microsoft, or do you go with what’s on the market today?
Most teams land on “let’s wait and see.” It feels like the safe answer. In practice it often means a year of meetings with nothing to show at the end.
Waiting is a decision too
People usually frame this as native versus add on. In reality you have four options:
- Wait for Microsoft’s native rental and keep your current process running until then.
- Use a rental add on from an ISV, built on Dynamics 365.
- Keep or buy a separate rental system and connect it to Dynamics 365.
- Build custom rental on top of Dynamics 365.
Any of these can be the right call, and each has a price. Where teams get stuck is comparing products before agreeing on their own rules. Without those rules, every demo looks impressive and nobody can pick a winner.
How to choose
| Option | Works best when | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Wait for native | Rental is a smaller part of the business and your current process holds up | Nobody outside Microsoft knows yet how deep the features go, and you don’t control the timeline |
| Rental add on for Dynamics 365 | Rental is core, you need strong rental features now, and you want rental and finance in one system | License costs, keeping up with Microsoft updates, and overlap once native features arrive |
| Separate system with integration | You already run a mature rental system across many branches | Two versions of the truth, integration costs, and constant reconciliation |
| Custom build | Your process is so specific that no product covers it | Cost to build and maintain, knowledge locked in a few people’s heads, and overlap with native features later |
Four questions usually settle it:
- How much of your revenue comes from rental today, and how much will in three years?
- How complicated is your billing? Think hours allowed, overtime, 28 day cycles, rent to own.
- What can wait? If you ran your current process for another twelve months, what would actually break?
- How many systems does rental need to talk to? Telematics, maintenance, transport, a customer portal, finance.
If you’re unsure how your current setup would hold up, an independent assessment can give you a clear picture before you spend anything. That’s the kind of work our [Project Assessments and Audits] team does every week.
What to do while you wait
Whichever option you pick, you’ll need the same answers. Write these seven things down now:
- Your rate structure. Daily, weekly, monthly or a 28 day cycle. Hours allowed per period. How overtime is charged. Minimum charges.
- When billing starts and stops. At dispatch or at delivery. At the call off, at pickup, or when the machine is back in your yard.
- Who confirms a return, and how. Phone, email, driver or portal, and who enters it into the system.
- Your pause rule. What happens on weather days or when a site shuts down, and whether your contracts actually say so.
- Who owns damage. What gets checked at delivery and return, what proof you keep, and who decides who pays.
- Your fleet structure. Rental classes, which items you track individually and which you simply count, and how attachments are handled.
- Your data. Clean serial numbers, manufacturers, meter readings, and a solid link to fixed assets. Poor master data will hurt you no matter which option you choose.
None of this requires new software. All of it makes your next software project faster, cheaper and far less painful.
What you gain by starting now
- A short, written set of rules you can use to test any vendor in a demo
- A faster project when you do start, because the business decisions are already made
- Clean data that can move to any system
- Finance, operations and IT on the same page before any money is spent
Write your rules before you pick your software
Waiting is fine. Waiting with nothing written down is not.
At Reach, we help companies that run Dynamics 365 put these rules on paper and test every option against them, honestly and without a product to push. If you’ve already started with an add on or a custom build and it isn’t going to plan, our ERP Rescue and Recovery team can step in and get it back on track. And once you’re live, our Managed Services team can keep your rental setup current as Microsoft rolls out new features, so you aren’t caught off guard by overlap or updates.
Reach has delivered Dynamics 365 projects across 8 industries, and we’re known for stepping in when others can’t. [Talk to our team →]
This is the final article in our four part series on rental in Dynamics 365. Catch up on the rest: What Microsoft has announced for rental in Dynamics 365, Rental is not an inventory problem, and Where rental revenue leaks.
