Asset statuses and lifecycle
The seven statuses an asset can have, how it moves between them, and the rules AssetTrove enforces.
Every hardware asset in AssetTrove has a status that shows where it is in its life.
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Ordered | Bought but not yet delivered |
| In stock | Received and available, not assigned to anyone |
| In use | Assigned to a person or location |
| In repair | Away for repair |
| Retired | Taken out of service, waiting to be disposed of |
| Disposed | Sold, recycled, donated, returned or destroyed. This is final |
| Lost | Lost or stolen. Can go back to In stock if it turns up |
How assets move
Ordered ──receive──► In stock ──assign──► In use
▲ ◄──return────────┘ │
│ repair
│ ▼
│ In repair
└──retire──► Retired ◄──┘ (beyond economic repair)
│
dispose
▼
Disposed (final)
Any status except Disposed ──► Lost ──found──► In stock
Rules AssetTrove enforces
These rules are enforced by the database itself, so they can't be bypassed, not even by an import or the API:
- An asset is In use only while it has an accountable (primary) assignment, and In stock, Retired or Lost only without one.
- You can only retire an asset that isn't assigned to anyone.
- You can only dispose of a retired asset, and devices that store data need a wipe or destruction certificate first. See Retiring, disposing and lost devices.
- A disposed asset is frozen. Only its notes and custom fields can still change.
- You can only delete an asset that was entered by mistake: one that is ordered or in stock and has never been assigned. Anything with history must be retired instead, so the history is kept.
Categories
Each asset has a category: Laptop, Desktop, Server, Mobile, Tablet, Monitor, Printer, Network, Storage, Peripheral, Virtual machine or Other. Laptops, desktops, servers, mobiles, tablets and storage are treated as storage-bearing, which matters for disposal.
Still have a question? Email rory@assettrove.eu and we'll get back to you.