From scattered records to a more connected rental business.
A growing vehicle rental business needs more than a website. It needs clear information, connected records and practical tools that make everyday operations easier to manage.
We created GoMate's marketing concept and website, reviewed how the business was being managed, and designed and built the system that now runs it.
LiveGold Coast, QueenslandMarketing, website + management system
GoMate Rentals website
The challenge
A rental business is much more than booking cars.
GoMate offers affordable, flexible rentals to backpackers, students, workers and people new to Australia. Behind every rental sits a lot of information that needs to stay connected.
Every car has a history
Registration, insurance, services, repairs, and every person who has driven it.
Every customer has requirements
A licence to check, documents to keep, an agreement, a bond and weekly payments.
Fines arrive weeks later
Someone has to work out who had the car that day, and act before the deadline.
The business started with general-purpose tools, where customer and rental details lived together in the same records. The same person was typed in again with every new rental, and answers depended on knowing where to look.
Our role · 1
Marketing concept
Who GoMate is for, how it should sound and look, and what customers need to know before they rent.
Our role · 2
Management analysis
A close look at how the operation really ran: vehicles, customers, money, fines and tolls.
Our role · 3
The whole project
The database, the management portal and the public website, designed and built as one system.
One connected operation
A customer exists once. A car exists once. The rental connects them.
Every dollar, service, fine and toll links back to the right car, the right customer and the right agreement. Information is entered once and stays consistent everywhere it appears.
Rental agreement connects one customer and one vehicle: dates, bond and weekly rate.
Customer recorded once, with documents, often starting from an online application reviewed by a person.
Vehicle recorded once, with its maintenance, documents and history.
Money ledger holds payments, bonds and costs, and feeds GST and BAS reports.
Fines and tolls are matched to whoever had the car that day.
A simplified view of the main records. The real system also keeps the chart of accounts, value lists and company settings.
The customer experience
Simple for the people renting a car.
Starting from the marketing concept, we designed and built a website specific to GoMate's customers, rather than a generic template, so it reads clearly on a phone and answers the questions people actually ask.
Cars that are really available
The website reads the fleet straight from GoMate's records. Only cars the team marks for publishing appear, with their weekly rate.
Apply in about five minutes
A six-step online application, with licence and address documents uploaded to private storage. It asks only for what the rental needs.
A person reviews every application
Nothing is booked or approved automatically. The GoMate team reviews each application in the portal before a customer record is created.
Behind the scenes
One secure portal for the whole operation.
Real screens from GoMate's management portal. Personal details, registrations and identifiers are blurred.
Each car is the centre of its own history
Overview, technical details, maintenance, rentals, profitability, and notes and files, all in one record. Registration and insurance dates sit right where the team needs them.
Rentals that connect the customer, the car and the money
Each agreement shows its status, weekly rate, bond, what has been invoiced and the balance. The database won't allow one car to be on two overlapping rentals.
Fines, from notice to transfer
The system works out who had the car on the day, flags any uncertainty for a person to decide, and prepares the official declaration ready for signing. Each step only moves forward when the right document is attached.
Notice received
Details captured
Driver identified
Declaration signed
Sent to the authority
Transfer confirmed
The rental journey
What runs today, and what comes next.
The project has grown in stages. We're clear about which parts are live and which are still being built.
EnquiryLive
Customers browse the cars actually available.
ApplicationLive
Online form with documents in private storage.
ReviewLive
A person approves; the customer record is created then.
AgreementLive
Dates, bond and rate recorded. Signed copies stored: in development.
