Assets

Assets are the individual things you own and track one at a time: a computer, a car, a camera, a power tool. Each one is its own record with its own history.

Assets vs. Inventory

The difference from Inventory is fungibility.

• Inventory is fungible stock. A bin of 200 screws is just a quantity, and you don't care which screw is which. You track how many you have.
• Assets are unique. Your laptop and your car aren't interchangeable with another one. Each is a specific thing with its own serial number, condition, and history, and you track them one by one, not as a count.

A rule of thumb: if you'd say "I have 200 of these," it's inventory. If you'd say "this one," it's an asset. And if it runs jobs on its own, like a printer or a laser, that's a machine.

Tracking an asset

Each asset carries the fields that matter for it (make, model, serial number, purchase date, condition) and lives in a location. As with other physical things, the quickest way to add one is often scanning.