About Assets

An asset describes such objects as meters, poles, pipes, transformers, components, or any other material item owned or managed by an organization. Stock items that are "Tracked" can be linked to the Asset record when the tracked stock item defined on the Specification record is associated with the Asset record. A tracked stock item defined as hazardous material will also display within the Maintenance tab on the asset record.

Key aspects of an asset are as follows:

  • Have monetary or functional value
  • Able to be inspected
  • Able to be serviced and maintained
  • Includes a disposition history
  • Could include one or more components
  • Includes a unique asset identifier

Both the Asset Number and Badge Number identified for a particular asset must be unique within the system. These numbers can be entered into the system manually or an administrator can configure individual asset types to automatically generate the asset number and/or badge number for an asset created from that asset type. Please refer to Understanding Asset Types for information on how to configure the system for automatic generation of asset and badge numbers.

Assets are always associated with a location. Refer to About Asset Locations for more information.

Assets typically exist within a structured hierarchy based on the relationship between the asset and its locations and organizations.

Linear Assets

Setting up your assets so that they are recognized as a “system” can help you to manage maintenance. If your organization uses GIS, this functionality can also help to position your assets on the mapping system that you have in use. Please consider the following when configuring linear assets:

  • The Asset Location Type and Asset Location determine where the linear asset is connected.

  • Linear assets include a “Connected to” field which allows you to define the connections between assets

    For example, a pipe system would consist of a pipe, connected to a manhole, connected to the next pipe, and so on.