Checking out an Asset

When to check out an Asset

Check out an Asset whenever a piece of kit physically leaves your stores or yard — going to a site, going to an operative, or going to a project. The checkout creates a record of who took it, when, and what condition it was in.

Common moments:

• An operative turns up at the stores in the morning to grab tools for the day
• A site manager comes to collect a delivery of harnesses for a new job
• A piece of plant is handed off to a project for a specific date range
• A laptop is given to a new starter on their first day

The aim is simple: never lose track of who has your kit.

Opening the form

You can open the checkout form in two ways:

• From the Assets list — find the Asset and click Check Out on the row, or use the actions dropdown
• From the Asset detail page — click the Check Out button in the header

Either way, the Checkout Asset form opens in a dialog.

Picking who it's going to

The first thing to choose is who's taking the kit. The form gives you two options:

• Employee — for handing the kit to a named person
• Project — for allocating the kit to a project rather than a specific individual

The fields below the toggle update depending on what you pick. For an Employee handover you'll see an Employee picker; for a Project allocation you'll see a Project picker.

The split matters: kit checked out to a project shows up on the project's Assets list (so the whole site team can see it's there), while kit checked out to a person sits with that individual until they bring it back.

Filling in the form

1. 1

   Pick Employee or Project from the toggle at the top.

2. 2

   Choose the employee or the project from the dropdown.

3. 3

   Optionally set an Expected Checkin Date — when you want the kit back. This is what populates the "Expected Checkin" reminder on the Asset.

4. 4

   Pick the Checkout Condition — Excellent, Good, Fair, or Poor — to capture what the kit looks like as it leaves.

5. 5

   Add Checkout Notes if there's anything worth recording (for example "going to the Bristol fit-out for the week").

6. 6

   Drag in any Condition Photos that show how the kit looked at the point of handover.

7. 7

   Click Check Out to save.

Why the condition photos matter

The photos at checkout are the single best protection against arguments later. They show exactly what state the kit was in when it left, so when it comes back you can compare and tell the difference between fair wear and tear and damage.

You can mark up the photos before you save them — circle existing scratches, dents, or chips — so the next person to handle the kit can see them straight away. See Attachments and annotation for the markup tools.

What happens after you save

When you click Check Out, the Asset's status moves from one of your Available labels to one of your Out labels. On the list, the Check Out button is replaced by Check In, and the current assignment shows in the sidebar of the detail page.

You'll see a confirmation, including how many photos were uploaded.

What checkout doesn't do

A couple of things to be aware of:

• It doesn't move the Asset between projects automatically — that's a separate flow handled by Work Package allocations. Checkout is the simpler "this kit is now physically with X" record
• It doesn't notify the person it's been checked out to — if you want them to know, drop them a message
• It doesn't reserve the Asset for a future date — checkout happens now. To plan future use, allocate it to a Work Package with a future start date

Real-world examples

• Morning tool collection — an operative turns up at 7am, the storeman opens the Assets list, runs through Check Out for each tool to that operative, and the operative leaves knowing exactly what's in their van
• Hire kit going to site — the plant manager checks a digger out to the project for the duration of the dig, with photos of the tracks and the bucket
• New starter laptop — the IT lead checks the laptop out to the new employee on day one with a photo of the screen and the keyboard

Next steps

• Check-in — for the return flow.
• Work Package assignments — for project-level allocation, separate from checkout.
• Attachments and annotation — for marking up condition photos.