The system allows the tracking of assets. Assets can be broken down into several categories: Fixed large assets (think HVAC Units and boilers), vehicles like school buses and white fleet service vehicles, and consumable assets purchased by the district warehouse and used by staff members.
Asset Inventory
The system is capable of tracking asset costs, maintenance, and manufacturer recommended routine maintenance on said asset. In the asset inventory page, if you click add new, you can see the various data points the system can track. Once fixed assets are added to the system, work orders can be assigned or associated with these fixed assets to allow the tracking of maintenance costs associated with all the major assets being maintained by the district.
Inventory is broken up into Assets or Consumables. Assets are usually higher-dollar-value pieces of equipment that a District uses and maintains (e.g. HVAC units, vehicles, computers, power washers etc.). Consumable assets are items that are typically expensed or used up (e.g. toilet paper, soap, etc.).
Larger assets such as HVAC units and vehicles (either white fleet service vehicles and yellow fleet school buses) need regular maintenance and inspections. Tracking the inspections, maintenance, and costs associated with each asset is a good business practice for any organization.
Smaller assets such as computers and printers are notoriously difficult to keep track of as teachers and staff move offices and locations. Often there are back rooms at every site that collect older equipment of this sort that gets forgotten. Obviously, a well-run business would never allow itself to “forget about” these outdated assets thereby keeping them in the active inventory after they have outlived their useful life.
Typically, assets can be uploaded into the system using an export from your accounting system. A formatted Excel spreadsheet template is provided for proper formatting. These templates can be found at Manage>Importing, Asset Inventory Template.
Assets can also be created in the system manually by going to Manage>Inventory-Assets>Asset Inventory. Click the Add New and fill out the appropriate data points regarding the asset.
Assets should be placed in appropriate groups such as Generators. Asset groups can be added by going to Manage>Inventory - Assets>Assets Groups and clicking add new group.
Assets also require an appropriate type; in the example of assets in the group Generators, there can be small portable assets as well as large stationary generators intended to power a school or office in case of a power outage. Asset types can be added by going to Manage>Inventory – Assets>Asset types and clicking add new type.
Asset status can be considered the condition of the asset. Typically, these would be Good, Fair, Poor. Poor being the condition that requires substantial maintenance and should be replaced. You can find and set the asset statuses that can be assigned to each asset under Manage>Inventory Assets>Asset Statuses.
An Inventory Scan Dashboard can be found under Manage>Inventory Assets>Inventory/Scan Dashboard. This dashboard allows you to easily Manage your asset locations, inventory, and Scan alerts for assets with Bar Codes associated with them.
Asset scan alerts tell you when multiple assets are associated with a single Bar Code and also when an asset is found in a different location than listed in the system.
Conducting an Inventory Tour
To conduct a physical inventory of all assets at a single room, property, or the entire District go to Manage>Inventory Assets>Assets Conduct Inventory.
To conduct an inventory and inspection of your assets you will need to use the Inspection Results Types to rate the condition of the asset. This is found under the Sub Menu Inspection Results Types.
Districts may use the Good, Fair, Poor standard or a numeric scale that will then correspond to the Good, Fair, Poor asset status which is found in the Asset Detail. The benefit to using a numeric scale; for example, using a 1-10 scale (8-10 being good, 4-7 being fair and 1-3 being poor) can be adjusted in times of tight budgets. In this manner, your inspectors do not have to adjust their process but districts will have the flexibility to adjust their results with a logical, defendable process.
The system is designed to allow wireless scanners to work with Barcodes affixed to each asset. Most assets are given barcodes when received by the district. Assets without an existing bar code can easily be barcoded by affixing bar codes during the scanning/inventory process and entering the pertinent data to the bar code in the system.
Note: a bar code is simply a label the computer recognizes that identifies an existing asset in the system. You can think of it as an alternative to typing in the asset information to bring up the computer record.
Performing the inventory tour:
Select the property and click next or enter the location from the drop-down list.
Scan or type in the location (i.e. the room). Note: to successfully use the barcode scanning method all rooms should be barcoded so the computer will easily recognize the specific room and property. If using the drop-down list of room locations, these can be added from the Inventory Scan Dashboard.
Scan the inventory asset or type in each asset. If this asset is not currently in the system you may enter it and scan the barcode to be associated with this asset. You may also enter the asset without associating a barcode with it by simply hitting enter. This brings up the inspection log which allows you to record any changes of condition and add any pertinent notes. Note: if you scan a barcode for an asset not currently in the system or the bar code has not been associated with an asset in the system you will be taken to an equipment list for that room. If the asset is not currently listed as in that room then you can click “This is New Equipment – add to Database” which will take you to the add Equipment page to add the pertinent information about the asset. From the Inventory Scan Dashboard, you can then pull a report of various assets that have changed in condition or have a specific inventory result.
From this page you can create work orders for specific assets.
Asset Groups
Assets belong to various groups like Generators, HVAC, Vehicles etc. These groupings allow you to sort your assets lists to focus on the specific type of asset you are working with.
Asset Statuses
This captures the asset’s disposition (usefulness to the district) by determining if it’s cost effective to use the asset for its intended purpose (e.g. an HVAC unit), or has its useful life span reached the point where it is more cost effective to surplus the unit, assessing the resale value of its component parts to recover some of the asset’s value and replacing the asset with a new one. Examples of these statuses would be Good, Fair, Poor, Replace or In Use, Reserve, Surplus.
Asset Types
This would be a subsection of the asset group to further refine the searching/reporting for specific types of assets such as vans vs a bus which are both vehicles.
Asset Inventory Dashboard
This page allows you to see the results of conducting an asset inventory.
Note: we can associate your assets with Barcodes.
Manage Asset Inventory
Scan Alerts - Will alert that items were missing from recently conducted inventory.
Assets Conduct Inventory
The actual inventory page to conduct a complete inventory of district assets.