Adding a new Asset

When to add an Asset

Add a new Asset whenever a piece of equipment comes into your business — whether you've bought it, hired it, taken it back from a finished job, or found a tool in the back of the van that nobody had logged.

Common moments to reach for Create Asset:

• A delivery of new tools arrives from your supplier
• A hire company drops off plant for an upcoming job
• You're cataloguing the contents of a yard or stores for the first time
• A site manager finds an unlogged piece of kit and wants it on the register

The faster you get kit into Assets, the easier it is to keep track of where it goes next.

Opening the form

1. 1

   Open the Assets list from the main sidebar (or from inside a project if you want to allocate it there straight away).

2. 2

   Click Create Asset in the top-right corner.

3. 3

   The form opens in a dialog over the list. The Asset Tag field comes pre-filled with the next available number, so for most kit you can leave it alone.

Filling in the basics

The three things you must enter are:

• Name — what the Asset is, in plain language. "Hilti TE 7-A22 Drill", "Genie Z45 Cherry Picker", "Stihl MS 500i Chainsaw" — whatever your team would naturally call it
• Parent Category — the broad group this kit belongs to, like Power Tools or Vehicles
• Status — where it is right now, like "In Stock" or "On Site"

Everything else is optional, but most teams will want to add at least a few of the extras below to make the record useful.

The optional fields

• Subcategory — a more specific group under the parent (for example "Drills" under "Power Tools"). Pick this when your category tree has it
• Asset Tag — a unique identifier. The next available number is suggested for you. Override it only if you have a special tagging scheme
• Serial Number — the manufacturer's serial off the kit itself
• Description — free-text notes ("ex-hire from Speedy, refurbed Jan 2026", "comes with two batteries")
• Purchase Date and Purchase Cost — when you bought it and what you paid
• Receipt — upload the receipt or invoice as a PDF or image, so it's there if you ever need to claim warranty

The auto-suggested Asset Tag

When you open the form, the next available tag is filled in for you. This is the easiest way to keep your tag numbers sequential without having to remember the highest one in use.

If you'd rather pick your own, just type over the suggestion. If you type a tag that's already taken, the form will warn you — click the refresh button to grab a new suggestion, or type something else.

Adding a new category on the fly

If the category you need doesn't exist yet, you don't have to back out of the form to create it.

• Click the + button next to Parent Category to add a new top-level group
• After you've picked a parent, click the + next to Subcategory to add a child group under it

The new category is created in the background and the dropdown updates immediately, so you can carry on with the Asset you're creating. This is handy when you're cataloguing a delivery and discover you need a new group halfway through.

Hired kit

If the Asset is hired rather than owned, tick the Is Hired? checkbox. The form expands to show extra fields for the hire details.

• Hire Company — who you're hiring it from
• Hire Contract — upload the hire agreement as a PDF or image
• Hire Start Date and Hire End Date — when the hire begins and ends
• Hire Rate — what the hire costs per period
• Rate Period — Daily, Weekly, or Monthly

These details get pinned to the Asset so you can chase off-hire dates later. See Hired Assets for the full hire workflow.

Photos

You can attach photos directly on the create form. This is a good moment to capture the condition of the kit when it arrives — drag any pictures into the photo area and they'll be saved against the new Asset.

You can also mark up photos with arrows, circles, or notes before saving them, which is especially useful for hired kit so existing scratches and dents are recorded straight away. See Attachments and annotation.

Saving

When you're happy, click Create. The Asset is added to the register, you'll see a confirmation, and you'll usually be taken straight to the new Asset's detail page so you can carry on (printing a label, allocating it, or checking it out).

Real-world examples

• A pallet of new harnesses arrives — open Create Asset, set the parent category to PPE, add a new subcategory for "Harnesses", and run through the form once for each harness with auto-suggested tags
• Plant hire delivers a 5-tonne digger — tick Is Hired, fill in the hire company, dates, and rate, then upload a few photos of the bucket and tracks so the off-hire team can prove condition later
• Cataloguing a yard for the first time — work category by category, using the inline category quick-add to spin up new subcategories as you spot kit you don't have a group for yet

Next steps

• Categories — to set up your category tree before a big import.
• Statuses — to make sure you've got the right status labels.
• Hired Assets — for the full hire workflow.
• QR codes and labels — to print a sticker for the new kit.