Working with assets

An asset is anything you track: a laptop, a monitor, a switch, a printer. Each asset has a tag, a category, and as much or as little detail as you want to record, with a dated history of everything that happens to it.

Adding and editing

Add assets one at a time from the Assets page, or in bulk with the importer. Set the manufacturer and the serial field knows what to expect for makers such as Dell, Lenovo and Apple, and the asset page links to the maker's warranty lookup for the serial you entered.

If you add the same kind of asset often, open an existing one and choose Save as template. A template pre-fills the form apart from the tag and serial.

Status and lifecycle

Every asset has a status: in use, in storage, repair, retired or disposed. You can define your own status labels in Settings, with a colour and a base behaviour, if the built-in names do not match how your organisation speaks.

Disposal is a workflow rather than a delete. Disposing an asset records the date, method, proceeds and the book value at disposal, and removes it from the default lists, warranty alerts and value reports. It stays reachable through the status filter and can be reinstated if the disposal was a mistake. Hard delete exists for data entry errors only.

Purchase price and date feed straight-line depreciation, set per category, and the value reports.

Assignment and check-out

An asset can be assigned to a person, to a location, to a person at a location, or held in stock. Check-out and check-in record who had what and when, and the full trail stays on the asset's history.

Photos and attachments

Each asset can hold photos and up to ten attachments of up to 10 MB each: receipts, invoices, warranty certificates, manuals. Attachments are covered by backups automatically.

Custom fields

Settings lets an administrator define custom fields per organisation, which then appear on every asset form and page. Use them for anything the built-in fields do not cover, such as cost centres or purchase order references.

Audits and stock-take

The stock-take workflow walks a location and confirms what is actually there; each confirmation is recorded on the asset. Printable QR labels (from the QR labels page) make this quick: stick a label on the room, scan it, and see the expected kit. Marking an asset audited updates its last audited date, which the asset list can filter on.