Setting up asset types, fields, locations and statuses

Types, fields, locations and statuses are the structure of your register. Getting them right early saves reworking every record.

Types, fields, locations and statuses are the structure of your register. Getting them right early saves reworking every record.

Set them up

1. Open the asset management settings in Admin Center.
2. Create your asset types: laptop, phone, monitor, licence.
3. Add fields per type, for what you need to know about it.
4. Define locations: offices, floors, home.
5. Define statuses: in use, in stock, in repair, retired.

Types: few and broad

Three or four types covers most organisations. Splitting laptops into three types by manufacturer gives you three lists to maintain and no answer you could not get from a field.

Fields: what you would look up

Serial number, purchase date, warranty end, assigned user. Those get used. Fields recorded because they were on the spreadsheet do not, and every one is a column somebody has to fill in.

Statuses: match how devices actually move

The status set should describe your real lifecycle. In use, in stock, in repair, retired covers most. If you have a genuine step the others do not, add it. If a status would never be chosen, leave it out.

Locations: as coarse as you can stand

Location goes stale fastest of anything in the register, because things move and nobody updates it. Building level is usually maintainable; desk level almost never is, and a wrong location is worse than none.

See also

• Viewing and managing assets
• Bulk importing asset data