# Lend and borrow copies

Sooner or later a copy leaves your hands. A friend borrows it, a gallery exhibits it, or you borrow something yourself. A loan record tracks that movement of custody, so you always know where a copy is, who has it, and what condition it was in when it left.

The key idea: lending moves **custody**, not **ownership**. A copy you lend out is still yours, still part of your collection, and still counted among the things you hold. The loan record is what explains why it is not on your shelf.

## Record a loan

Priya lends her 1968 Omega Speedmaster to a local horology exhibition for three months. Here is how she records it.

::::steps
:::step title="Open the copy's history"
Open the item, go to its **History** tab, select the copy, and open the **Loans** section.

::screenshot{label="History tab with the Loans section open"}
:::

:::step title="Choose the direction"
Pick **Lent out** if the copy is leaving you, or **Borrowed in** if someone else's copy is arriving in your care.
:::

:::step title="Record who, why, and when"
Fill in the **party** (the person or institution), the **purpose** ("Horology exhibition at the city museum"), the **loan date**, and the **due date** if one is agreed.
:::

:::step title="Capture the condition it left in"
Set the **condition out**, the [condition](https://getkollek.com/en/docs/core-concepts/conditions) of the copy at the moment it leaves. This is your baseline for spotting damage later. Optionally record a **deposit** amount if one was taken, and choose whether the loan should be **included in the provenance** narrative. Save the loan.
:::
::::

While an outgoing loan is active, the copy reads as **loaned out** wherever it appears. It is still held, because custody moved rather than ownership.

## Loan statuses

A loan is always in one of six statuses:

- **Planned**. Agreed but the copy has not left yet.
- **Active**. The copy is currently out (or in, for a borrow).
- **Overdue**. The due date has passed without a return.
- **Returned**. Back home, with the return recorded.
- **Cancelled**. Called off before it happened.
- **Lost**. The copy did not come back.

:::note
KolleK flags overdue loans for you. A daily background task moves any active loan past its due date to Overdue, so an unreturned copy surfaces on its own instead of relying on your memory.
:::

## Return a loan

Returning is a separate step, and it is where the loan record earns its keep.

::::steps
:::step title="Open the loan"
From the copy's **Loans** section, open the active loan.
:::

:::step title="Record the return"
Choose to return it, and set the **return date**.
:::

:::step title="Capture the condition it came back in"
Set the **condition in**. If it differs from the condition out, you have documented transit or handling damage with dates and a counterparty attached. The condition you record here becomes the copy's current condition.
:::
::::

When the Speedmaster comes back from the exhibition, Priya records the return date and confirms it is still in the same condition it left in. If the exhibition had scratched the case, the before and after conditions on the loan would say exactly when it happened and while in whose care.

:::warning
Record the condition out honestly before the copy leaves. If you skip it, you lose the baseline, and a later dispute about damage becomes your word against theirs.
:::

## Borrowing in

The **Borrowed in** direction works the same way in reverse: you record whose copy it is, why you have it, and when it is due back. Borrowed copies are tracked so that things in your care but not your ownership do not silently blend into your collection.

## Where to next

- Understand the condition scale used at loan out and return in [Conditions](https://getkollek.com/en/docs/core-concepts/conditions).
- A loan marked as part of provenance appears in the ownership story. See [Trace a copy's provenance](https://getkollek.com/en/docs/copy-history/trace-provenance).
- See loans alongside every other record in [Read the copy timeline](https://getkollek.com/en/docs/copy-history/read-the-copy-timeline).