What statuses are for
A status tells your team where a piece of kit is right now. "In Stock", "On Site", "In Repair", "Awaiting Off-Hire" — every Asset has one status at any given time, and it changes as the kit moves around.
You build your own list of status labels to match the language your team uses. There's no fixed vocabulary — a hire fleet manager and a power tools manager will probably use different labels, and that's fine.
When you'll set this up
You'll typically set up statuses:
- When you first roll out Assets to your business, before adding any kit
- When you bring on a new type of equipment that needs its own label (for example, a "Calibration Due" status when you start tracking survey kit)
- When you change how the team handles maintenance and want a clearer label for it
Once you've set them up, statuses tend to settle down — most teams have between 5 and 15 labels and don't need to add more.
How statuses control what your team can do
Each status label belongs to one of five behaviour groups, and the group is what controls which buttons appear on the Asset.
- Available — the kit is ready to go out. The Check Out action is available
- Out — the kit is currently with someone or on a project. The Check In action is available
- Pending — the kit is waiting on something (intake, return from repair, post-delivery checks). No checkout or check-in
- Out of Service — the kit is broken, in for repair, or otherwise unavailable. A maintenance flag is shown until it's cleared
- Archived — the kit is retired, sold, lost, or no longer in use. Hidden from the default lists
You can have any number of labels mapping to each group. For example, "In Stock" and "In Yard" might both map to Available, while "On Site" and "With Operative" might both map to Out. The label is what your team sees on the Asset; the group is what drives the buttons.
Where to manage statuses
Open Settings > Asset Statuses from the main settings menu. The page shows every status label in a table:
- Name — the label your team sees
- Behaviour — which of the five groups it maps to
- Colour — the colour of the badge on the Asset
A Show Archived toggle lets you bring archived statuses back into view if you need to.
Adding a new status
- 1
Click + Asset Status in the top-right.
- 2
Enter a Name — the label your team will see, like "On Site" or "In Repair".
- 3
Pick the behaviour group it belongs to (Available, Out, Pending, Out of Service, or Archived).
- 4
Pick a colour for the badge — green for available kit, amber for pending, red for out of service, and so on.
- 5
Click Create.
The new label appears on the Create Asset and Edit Asset forms straight away.
How the buttons change with status
What you can do to an Asset on the list and the detail page depends on its current status.
- Available kit — Check Out appears, plus Audit, Edit, and Delete
- Out kit — Check In replaces Check Out, with Audit, Edit, and Delete still available
- Pending kit — only Audit, Edit, and Delete appear (you can't accidentally check it out before the intake is done)
- Out of service kit — Audit is offered with the option to Clear Maintenance Flag when the repair is finished
- Archived kit — view only — no actions
This is what stops mistakes like checking out the same drill twice or sending a broken grinder back to site.
The maintenance flag
When you check a piece of kit in and tick Flag for Maintenance, the Asset gets a maintenance flag and its status moves to whichever Out of Service label you've configured. This is the standard way to take damaged or worn kit out of circulation.
The flag is cleared in two ways:
- By an audit — open the Audit modal, tick the Clear Maintenance Flag option, and save
- By manually changing the status — edit the Asset and pick a label that's not in the Out of Service group
The audit route is the recommended one because it leaves an audit trail confirming the kit was inspected before being put back into service.
See Check-in and Audits for the flag flows.
Archiving a status
If you stop using a status label, archive it instead of deleting it.
- It disappears from the dropdown on the Create and Edit forms
- It's hidden from the default Statuses list (toggle Show Archived to bring it back)
- Existing Assets that are using the label keep it — nothing breaks
Archiving is reversible. Open the archived view and bring a label back if you need it again.
Real-world examples
A hire fleet manager might have these labels:
- In Yard (Available)
- On Hire (Out)
- Awaiting Off-Hire (Pending)
- In Repair (Out of Service)
- Returned to Supplier (Archived)
A power tools manager in a fit-out company might have:
- In Stock (Available)
- With Operative (Out)
- On Site (Out)
- Calibration Due (Pending)
- Broken (Out of Service)
- Disposed (Archived)
There's no right answer — the goal is to match the words your team already uses on the phone and on site.
Next steps
- Categories — for the other configurable list.
- Checkout — for the action available on Available kit.
- Check-in — for the action available on Out kit.
- Audits — for clearing the maintenance flag.