Managing Assets

Assets are the core of AssetBuddy — every piece of equipment, plant, vehicle, or infrastructure that your organisation needs to track and inspect.

Creating an asset

1. Navigate to Assets from the main menu
2. Click Create Asset
3. Fill in the asset details:

Field	Required	Description
Category	Yes	The type of asset — select a parent category (e.g. Lifting Equipment), then a subcategory (e.g. Forklift Truck). The relevant regulation is shown alongside each category.
Site	Yes	Which site the asset is located at
Description	Yes	A short, descriptive name (e.g. "5kg CO2 Fire Extinguisher")
Location	No	A specific location within the site (floor, zone, area)
Make/Model	No	Manufacturer and model information
Serial Number	No	The manufacturer's serial number
Install Date	No	When the asset was installed or put into service
Criticality	No	How critical the asset is: Critical, High, Medium, or Low
Replacement Value	No	The cost to replace the asset
Fuel Type	No	For powered equipment — the fuel type
When a check is missed	No	What happens when one of this asset's checks is missed. Leave it on Use organisation setting, or choose differently for this asset. See What happens after a check is missed
Notes	No	Any additional information

4. Click Save

Asset codes

Each asset is automatically assigned a unique code based on its category prefix. For example:

• A Lifting Equipment asset might get the code LIFT-001
• A Fire Safety asset might get the code FS-001

These codes provide a quick, human-readable identifier for every asset.

You can also type your own code when creating or editing an asset, for example to match a label you've already printed. Each code can only be used once in your organisation, across all of your sites, so an asset keeps a unique number when it moves between sites. Other organisations' codes don't affect yours. When you delete an asset, its code becomes free to use again.

Editing an asset

1. Go to Assets and click on the asset you want to edit
2. Click Edit
3. Update any fields and click Save

Parent and child assets

Assets can have a parent-child relationship. This is useful when a larger asset contains sub-components that need to be tracked independently. For example, a vehicle (parent) might have a winch and a crane (children).

Asset owner

Each asset can have an owner — the user responsible for that asset. The owner receives notifications when checks fail or defects are raised on their assets, and check due reminders when the check isn't assigned to anyone.

Making sure every asset has an owner

The Assets without an owner card on the dashboard shows how many assets nobody is looking after. An asset counts as having no owner if:

• no owner has been set, or
• its owner's account has been deactivated (for example, they have left the company).

Disposed assets are not counted.

Click the card to open the asset list filtered to just those assets, then select them and use the Assign owner bulk action to give them all an owner in one go.

Viewing an asset

The asset detail page shows:

• Asset information and current status
• Check history — all past and upcoming inspections
• Defects — open and closed defects for this asset
• Documents — certificates, warranties, and other attached files
• Activity log — a timeline of changes made to the asset

Sorting and filtering the asset list

The asset list can be sorted by clicking on column headers. Sortable columns include Code, Description, and Next Service date. Click a column header once to sort ascending, and again to sort descending.

You can also filter assets by category, site, status, or search by description, code, serial number, or make/model. Tick-box filters narrow the list further:

• Only assets without a location — assets that haven't been assigned a location.
• In-service assets with no check scheduled — in-service assets that have no check currently scheduled or in progress. This is the filter opened by the No Check Scheduled card on the dashboard, and is a quick way to find assets that have dropped off the check schedule so you can schedule one.
• Only assets without an owner — assets with no owner, or whose owner's account has been deactivated. Disposed assets are not included. This is the filter opened by the Assets without an owner card on the dashboard.

Bulk actions

Select multiple assets using the checkboxes on the asset list, then use the bulk actions bar that appears:

• Assign owner — choose a user to become the owner of every selected asset. This replaces any existing owner, and the change is recorded in each asset's activity log.
• Set Next Service Date — update the next service date for all selected assets at once. Useful when a group of similar assets (e.g. fire extinguishers) are all serviced on the same date.
• Apply standard codes — rename the asset codes of every selected asset in one go using a structure you define on the fly (see below).
• Schedule a check — schedule one check template against every selected asset with a single shared due date (see below).
• Print Labels — open a print-ready page with QR code labels for all selected assets. Each label prints on a separate page.

To select all assets on the current page, use the checkbox in the table header.

Supervisors who are assigned to specific sites can only change assets at those sites. If a selection includes assets from other sites, those assets are left unchanged.

Apply standard codes

This bulk action lets you rename a batch of asset codes to a consistent format, e.g. 01-FE-001 for "Site 01, Fire Extinguishers, asset number 1".

1. Tick the assets you want to rename.
2. Click Apply standard codes.
3. In the modal, build the code structure by ordering elements:
   • Site — uses the code prefix on the asset's site
   • Location — uses the code prefix on the asset's location
   • Asset Type — uses the code prefix on the asset's category
   • Number — a sequential number, always at the end
4. Pick a separator (-, _, or .) and a padding (001, 01, 0001, …) for the number.
5. The preview table on the right shows the proposed new code for every selected asset, with a status:
   • OK — will be renamed.
   • Missing prefix — the linked site / location / category has no code prefix; set one and re-open.
   • Missing data — the asset has no site / location / category for an element you've picked.
   • Collision — the new code matches an existing active asset; this row is skipped.
6. Click Apply when the preview looks right. Only OK rows are written.

Sequencing is per "group of everything except Number". For example, with [Site, Asset Type, Number] selected, ten fire extinguishers in the same site become 01-FE-001 … 01-FE-010.

TIP

Set the Code prefix field on each Site, Location and Category before running this. The preview will tell you which prefixes are missing.

Schedule a check

Use this when you need to schedule the same check against many assets at once — for example, scheduling a Monthly Fire System check against every fire extinguisher.

1. Tick the assets you want to schedule a check against.
2. Click Schedule a check.
3. Pick a check template. The dropdown only shows templates that apply to at least one of the selected assets (universal templates appear first, then category-specific ones).
4. Pick a due date. The same date is used for every check that gets created.
5. The preview table shows what will happen for each asset:
   • OK — a new scheduled check will be created.
   • Not applicable — the template doesn't apply to this asset's category. Skipped.
   • Already scheduled — this asset already has a scheduled or in-progress instance of this template. Skipped to avoid duplicates.
6. Click Schedule to create all OK rows in one go.

Pre-use templates aren't shown — those are triggered when an asset is used, not on a schedule (see Scheduled vs Unscheduled Checks).

Deleting an asset and reusing its code

When you delete an asset, AssetBuddy keeps the historical record (it's soft-deleted, not physically removed) so check history, defects and audit-log entries stay intact. The asset code is freed at the same time, so you can immediately create a new asset with the same code if you want — say, swapping a damaged fire extinguisher for a replacement that takes the same physical label.

The old asset's history stays attached to its own (now-deleted) record; the new asset starts a fresh history under its own ID.

Scanning assets

Scanning an asset's label opens its scan page, where you can start its checks or report a defect. Checks started this way are marked QR Verified.

Scanning in AssetBuddy

1. Tap Scan in the top bar.
2. The first time, your browser asks for permission to use the camera. Choose Allow.
3. Point the camera at the label. The asset opens as soon as the code is read.

The scanner reads:

• AssetBuddy labels printed from the Print Labels bulk action or an asset's label page
• Labels printed on your own label printer (for example a Brady printer), where the QR code or barcode contains just the asset code

Upper and lower case don't matter, so fe-001 finds the asset FE-001.

If the camera isn't available, or you blocked camera access, type the asset code into the box under the camera instead.

Scanning with your phone's camera app

AssetBuddy labels also work with your phone's normal camera app, which opens the asset's page directly. Labels that contain only the asset code (such as Brady labels) need to be scanned from the Scan button in AssetBuddy.

If a scan doesn't work

Message	What it means
No asset found with code …	No asset in your organisation has that code. Check the label matches the asset's code in AssetBuddy.
Asset … is at a site you don't have access to	The asset belongs to one of your organisation's other sites. Operators and Supervisors can only open assets at the sites they're assigned to.
This isn't an asset label	The QR code holds a web link that isn't an AssetBuddy label, such as a manufacturer's code.
Camera access was blocked	Allow camera access for AssetBuddy in your browser's site settings, then reload the page.

Required permissions

Action	Minimum role
View assets	Operator
Create assets	Supervisor
Edit assets	Supervisor
Assign owner (bulk)	Supervisor
Change status	Site Manager or Engineering
Delete assets	Site Manager