Progressive Checkout: Hand Out Booking Items as They're Picked Up

What Is Progressive Checkout?

Until now, a reserved booking was checked out all at once: one Check Out action flipped every item to "Checked out" together. That works when the whole kit list leaves at the same moment, but real handoffs are often staggered — a custodian collects half their gear in the morning and the rest after lunch, or items come out of the cage one shelf at a time as they're located.

Progressive checkout is the checkout counterpart to partial check-ins. It lets you check out a booking's assets:

• One at a time, by scanning each item as it's handed over, or
• In bulk, by selecting specific rows and using the Actions menu,

instead of only all at once. The booking becomes active (Ongoing) on the first item you check out, while everything you haven't reached yet stays reserved for the booking and keeps its Available status until it's checked out.

It works like opening a tab: the booking is "open" from the very first item that leaves, and you keep adding to it as more gear is handed over — with a running tally of what's gone out and what's still waiting.

How Progressive Checkout Works

When a booking is Reserved and ready to go, the Check Out button now offers two ways to start:

• Check Out — the traditional all-at-once action that checks out every remaining item together.
• Scan to check out — opens a dedicated scanner so you can check out items individually as they're picked up.

A separate Scan to check out entry button also appears on the booking page. Once every item has been checked out, that entry point disappears — there's nothing left to scan.

The Booking Lifecycle Bar

When a booking has any progressive checkout or check-in activity, the single check-in progress bar is replaced by a segmented lifecycle bar that shows the whole journey at a glance:

• Booked (gray) — reserved items not yet checked out
• Checked out (purple) — items currently in the custodian's hands
• Returned (green) — items already checked back in

The headline above the bar adapts to the phase you're in. While any items are still Booked, it reads "Check-out progress" and counts how many items have left. Once everything has left, it switches to "Check-in progress" and counts how many have come back. A legend underneath shows the exact count in each bucket.

If your workspace counts each kit as a single unit, the lifecycle bar honors that setting too — the tooltip reads "Kits count as one item." Otherwise every asset is counted individually, with the tooltip "All assets inside kits are counted individually."

Checking Out by Scanning

1. From the Check Out dropdown, choose Scan to check out (or click the Scan to check out entry button on the booking).
2. The scanner opens with the booking's details and the lifecycle bar at the top.
3. Scan each asset's QR code or barcode as it's handed over.
4. Shelf validates every scan against the booking — it blocks items that aren't part of the booking, are already checked out, are in custody elsewhere, or break kit rules.
5. The first successful scan moves the booking from Reserved to Ongoing (or Overdue if the end date has already passed), and schedules the check-in reminder.
6. Keep scanning across as many sessions as you need. The lifecycle bar updates after each scan so you always know what's still booked.

If you scan before the booking's scheduled start time, Shelf shows the same early-checkout warning as a normal check-out — you can cancel, adjust the start date to now, or proceed without changing the dates. See Early Check-in and Check-out of Bookings.

Checking Out in Bulk

When scanning isn't practical — damaged labels, or you're working from a pick list — check out specific items from the booking list instead:

1. On the booking detail page, tick the checkboxes next to the assets being handed out.
2. Open the Actions dropdown.
3. Choose Check out selected items.
4. Confirm. The selected assets are checked out, and the booking goes Ongoing if it wasn't already.

Bulk checkout works with both individual assets and complete kits.

Tracking Who Took What, and When

Once items start leaving, the booking's asset list adds "Checked out on" and "Checked out by" columns — mirroring the existing check-in columns — so you can see exactly when each item left and who processed it. (For kits, Shelf shows the kit-level status rather than per-asset dates.)

The Mixed State: Items That Never Left

Progressive checkout introduces a legitimate new situation: an Ongoing booking where some items were never checked out at all — maybe a custodian decided they didn't need a particular lens after all.

Shelf handles this honestly so your records and reports stay accurate:

• Progressive check-in won't let you check in an item that was never checked out — there's nothing to return.
• Quick and full check-in won't log or label never-checked-out items as "returned." They're skipped from the activity log, system notes, and the per-row Returned badge.
• A kit only counts as returned once all of its assets were actually checked out — so a kit that went out incomplete won't be marked fully returned.

Unlike check-in, progressive checkout never auto-completes the booking. Checking out the last item simply finishes the checkout phase; you still check the items back in when they return.

Best Practices

Use Scan to check out when:

• Gear leaves the cage in stages throughout the day
• You want physical verification of each item as it's handed over
• You're working a busy counter and items go out as people arrive

Use Bulk (Actions > Check out selected items) when:

• Labels are damaged or scanning isn't practical
• You're working from a printed pick list
• You want to hand out a specific subset in one click

Use the all-at-once Check Out when:

• The entire booking leaves together
• You've already verified everything is present

Continue Learning

• Partial Check-ins: Efficiently Handle Incomplete Returns — the return counterpart to progressive checkout.
• Introduction to Bookings — how a booking moves through its states.
• Early Check-in and Check-out of Bookings

Need help getting started? Contact the support team or schedule a demo to see progressive checkout in action with your workflow.