That workflow unfortunately won’t work in Airtable, at least not to my knowledge. All scanning must be done within a specific field, because that field is where the scanned value will be stored. There isn’t an option to scan a code independently and then have some other logic determine where that code will be stored.
The way I would be inclined to set this up would involve two tables, which I’ll call [Inventory] and [Activity]. [Inventory] should be pretty easy to figure out, as that’s where all of your rentable items will live. [Activity] would contain records noting when items are checked in or out, with relevant links to the [Inventory] items. A combination of check-ins and check-outs would end up determining when items are available to rent. The problem lies in connecting these checkin/checkout records with the inventory. Simply scanning a code won’t make a link. Some other tools would need to be used to finish the job, and I don’t have experience with this type of setup to offer specific suggestions on how to pull it off.
