Setting up Asset Categories

Why categories matter

Categories are how you group your kit. A good category tree makes everything else easier — searching, filtering, reporting, and especially auditing. A messy or non-existent tree makes the register hard to use after a year or two.

It's worth spending half an hour at the start setting categories up properly. The asset manager doing the setup will save themselves and everyone else hours later.

When to set up categories

Set up your categories:

• Before you start cataloguing kit for the first time
• When a new type of equipment turns up that doesn't fit anywhere existing
• When the existing tree feels too vague to filter usefully (for example, "Tools" splitting into "Power Tools" and "Hand Tools")

How the tree works

Categories are organised in a simple two-level tree:

• Parent categories sit at the top (Power Tools, Vehicles, Welfare, PPE, Survey Equipment, Plant)
• Subcategories sit underneath a parent (Drills, Saws, Grinders, Sanders all underneath Power Tools)

When you create an Asset, you pick the most specific category that fits — usually a subcategory. If a parent has no subcategories at all, picking the parent itself is fine.

A typical tree might look like this:

Power Tools (parent)

• Drills
• Saws
• Grinders
• Sanders

Vehicles (parent)

• Vans
• Cars
• Plant

PPE (parent)

• Harnesses
• Hard Hats
• Boots

Where to manage categories

Open Settings > Asset Categories from the main settings menu. The page shows every category in a table with its name and whether it's active or archived. A Show Archived toggle lets you bring archived categories back into view if you need to.

Adding a new category

1. 1

   Click + Asset Category in the top-right.

2. 2

   Enter a Name for the category.

3. 3

   To create a top-level group, leave Parent Category blank. To create a subcategory, pick the parent it should sit under.

4. 4

   Optionally set the default audit interval and reminder window (see below).

5. 5

   Click Create to save.

You can also create categories on the fly while adding an Asset — see Creating Assets for the inline category quick-add.

Default audit intervals

The most useful thing you can set on a category is its default audit schedule. Two fields control it:

• Default Audit Interval Days — how often kit in this category should be audited (for example 90 for quarterly, 30 for monthly, 365 for annual)
• Default Audit Reminder Days Before — how many days before the next audit should the kit start showing on the Pending Audits banner (for example 14 to get a fortnight's warning)

Once these are set, every Asset in the category inherits them automatically. So you can set "Harnesses get audited every 30 days with a 7-day warning" once at the category level, and every harness from then on will follow that schedule without you having to touch each one individually.

If a particular Asset needs a different schedule from its category, you can override it on the Asset itself. See Audits for how the override works.

Archiving a category you no longer use

You can't delete a category that has Assets in it (that would leave kit with nowhere to belong), but you can archive it.

Archiving a category:

• Takes it out of the dropdown when you're creating new Assets
• Hides it from the default Categories list (toggle Show Archived to bring it back)
• Leaves existing Assets in the category alone — they keep their classification

To archive several categories at once, tick the checkboxes next to them in the table and use the bulk archive option. Archiving is reversible — open the archived view and bring a category back if you need it again.

Picking parent vs subcategory on an Asset

When the parent has subcategories, pick the most specific subcategory for the Asset. This gives you better filtering, more accurate reports, and lets the Asset inherit audit defaults from the right level.

If the parent has no subcategories at all, picking the parent itself is the right choice.

Real-world examples

• First-time setup — a new asset manager spends an hour mapping out their categories before importing kit, basing the tree on how the yard is physically laid out
• PPE inspection schedule — set the Harnesses subcategory to a 30-day interval with a 7-day warning, and every harness from then on auto-schedules inspections
• Cleaning up after a yard reorganisation — archive the old "Misc Tools" parent and replace it with cleaner subcategories under Power Tools and Hand Tools

Next steps

• Statuses — to set up the labels that go alongside categories.
• Audits — for how default audit intervals propagate from category to Asset.
• Creating Assets — to start adding kit to your new categories.