webBooks-Asset Management

All organizations have assets that are part of the company such as electronics, vehicles, and tools. These are not to be confused with inventory that the company resales (which would involve the 'Inventory' module) to customers. The 'Asset' module helps to track and maintain all the equipment and other possessions of the business.

Tabs

Each module will contain several tabs that help group the various types of associated information. Below we will cover the details of each one currently available in the latest release of the module.

?

This tab is found in each module as the way to access helpful documentation and, when clicked, will load this wiki page for the module. Of course you can always go directly to our wiki and read through the entire software documentation.

#

Not quite as prevalent as the '?' and 'General' tab, this one presents the user with a list of all the assets currently cataloged for the company. The page is setup to have a table layout that can be filtered using the textboxes and listboxes towards the top of the page. The more of those filter objects are used, the more specific the results are in the table. To load any of the assets that are shown in the table (regardless if the filters are used or not), simply click on the serial number of the item.

General

Also found in most of the available extensions, this tab provides the general information associated with the module. Below you will find the details of each field available on the form.

• Serial number As the name suggests, this is the serial number of the item.

• Short description

• Tag

• ID Code

• Vendor

• Current location

• Account

• Phone & Fax

• Website

• Address

• Location details

• Asset owner

• Contacts

• Associated Info

Notes

Also found in many of the modules for webBooks, this tab allows co-workers to add notes to your account. Most likely the ones adding information here will be managers, but for flexibility anyone can add notes (access should be defined by company policy). There are only three fields on this page with the 'Creator' and 'Note' values being self explainatory. The first field, however, may need more details. This listbox is used to define who has access to the note being entered and contains two fixed values along with any number of dynamic values. The two fixed are '_EVERYONE_' and '_MANAGERS_', meaning that either everyone can see the note being entered, or only employees who have the 'Manager' flag set for their account. Any other value in the list will be a dynamic value that corresponds to each department you have entered on the 'Business Configuration' module. This in turn will restrict access to the note being entered to all employees that work in the selected department.

Specs

Sometimes a user will need to check certain information on a product. This tab will help with that problem and has three columns that deal with three different types of specs. Working from left to right, the first column presents a standard set of specifications that deal with the asset, the next column deals with specs that were set by the vendor, and the final column defines any further details about the item that are of interest to your organization. With this many fields to store part information, you should be able to store all the information you will need at any point in time.

Data

Another tab found in many of the modules in webBooks, this page allows you to upload various data that you feel are important (or necessary) to keep on file for a particular record. You will see several default items that you can use, but you also have the ability to dynamically add any number of additional fields by clicking the 'Add new Entry' button. This gives you a way to name and select each added entry.

There is two different ways that you can upload your files. The first way is by simply clicking on the upload box itself. Please note that if you are using this way, you can click the checkbox in the lower right-hand corner to select multiple files at once. Contrarily you can also use a file manager to drag-n-drop file(s) onto the upload box. Either way will create an icon (with progress meter) for every file you are currently uploading. After you have uploaded at least one file, you will be able to select the file from any of the listbox entries. And after performing those steps, click the associated 'Update' button.

You may notice two addtional buttons next to the 'Update' buttons. These remove the entry and encrypt the file respectively. Currently the encryption button is disabled as this feature will come online in a future version.

History

You may also notice this tab as the final tab on many modules in webBooks, and it keeps track of all the history details that deal with a loaded asset. In order to add a line to the history, you will need to specify a date when the action occurred, the action that occurred, associated tag information (this will dynamically change depending on the action selected), and a note that corresponds to the selected action. After filling all of that out, simply click the '+' button towards the top of the form and the line item will be added to the details list at the bottom.

The list allows a company to define various bits of information on the asset so that its history can be reviewed at any time. For example, the following can be a common starting list of details (by action) for each asset:

Purchased: when the item was purchased along with the invoice number that corresponds to the purchase of the item from the vendor.

Shipping (sent): an optional detail that only deals with vendors that have shipped the product as opposed to an employee picking the item up. The additional tag information for this action specifies the tracking number assigned by the freight company. This will allow tracking the shipment until it is delivered.

Shipping (recieved): another optional detail that outlines when the package was received by your company. The associated tag information here is also the assigned tracking number from the freight company.

Stocked: this detail has uses outside of just being part of the history list, and allows the user to define the shipping and product costs associated with the asset. Other modules use this specific history detail for various reasons. For example, if the asset gets converted into an inventory item (via the 'Associated info' listbox on the 'General' tab) at some point, that module will use this history detail to determine a product cost (included assigned shipping costs) when the product gets sold.

Installed: the action that will usually wrap up most asset history details, the associated tag information will specify the invoice or work order number that offers more details on the installation of this particular asset.

From this point, the history per asset will become unique. For example, you may turn the asset into an inventory item which will add the appropriate information to indicate this. Or perhaps the product may stop working at some point which would prompt the use of any of the 'Surplus' actions being added to the list. There are several many actions that can be used to track all sorts of information per asset and it is up to the business to inform the employees on which ones are applicable to use.

Buttons

The buttons located in the header of each form will be covered below (see the respective sections above for inline buttons).

Copy (General)

Since this module deals with individual items, users will find out that at some point you will most likely end up creating a record for similar items. For example, if the business has ten employees that all use the same make and model of a computer, then those ten devices will carry the same information with the only exception being a different serial number. In that scenario, this button will help save time by simply loading the asset you would like to copy and then clicking this button. The user will then be prompted for the new serial number followed by another prompt asking if you would like to also copy the information found on the 'History' tab. This second prompt was added just in case the history information is the same between the two assets. Going back to the example we referenced above, if all ten computers were purchased at the same time, then they will at least share a portion of the history details (e.g. shipping, stocking, etc). However, if some of the computers were purchased at different times, you can choose not to copy the history details, and instead, enter the history that is specifically for the asset (e.g. different purchased dates, different shipping info, different stocking values, etc).

NOTE: when copying assets, the 'Notes' tab information is excluded during the copy no matter what.

Clear (General)

While the form loads your employee account upon opening the module, sometimes a supervisor or manager may want to load the account of another employee to review information or make changes to information. Clicking this button will clear the form so that you can load an alternate employee account. After the form has been cleared, type in the (portion of the) name to load into the 'Employee name' textbox box and press <ENTER>. This will present you with a list of matching results or a message informing you that no matches were found. If you received the former, clicking on the appropriate result will load that account.

Save (General)

One of two buttons available in the header of the 'General' tab, click this button once you have filled out all available fields to save or update a new or existing employee. It is important to note that this ONLY saves information listed on this tab - no others!

Save (Notes)

The 'Save' button on this page will add the note to the list.

Save (Specs)

Just like the other 'Save' buttons, this ones saves all the information with in the tab.