Locations and loans

Two things the inventory answers day to day: where is it kept and who has it right now. The first is a location; the second is a check-out.

Locations

A Location is a physical place — a room, an office, a storage cabinet. Every asset can have a Default Location, which is where it lives and returns to.

The locations don’t exist until someone makes them, and you can:

1. Open Locations in the left menu and click Create New.
2. Give it a clear name — for example, Lab 215, Ortega Office, or Storage Cabinet A.

Make each place once, then it’s in the dropdown for everyone. On an asset, set the Default Location field (when you create it or later by editing it). To see where things are, the Assets list has a Location column you can sort or filter by.

Agree on location names before you start. Lab 215 and Room 215 and 215 are three different locations to the system. Ask Francisco for the list of rooms and cabinets to use.

Checking things out and back in

When someone borrows an item, check it out to them; when it comes back, check it in. The item’s status moves from Ready to Deploy to Deployed while it’s out.

To check an item out, open the asset and click Check Out:

• Choose User (or a location) and pick the person.
• Optionally set an Expected Checkin date and add a note.
• Click Check Out.

When it returns, open the asset and click Check In. It goes back to Ready to Deploy at its home location.

Seeing who has something

• Open the asset — the top of the page shows Checked out to.
• The Assets list has a Checked Out To column. Filter the status to Deployed to list everything that’s out right now.
• Open a person to see everything they’re currently holding.
• The asset’s History tab keeps the full record of who had it and when — it isn’t deleted when the item comes back.