Assets
Last updated
Last updated
An asset is a physical thing that you offer to your customers. Assets may be located at locations. Some organizations use other words to describe an asset, such as:
Hardware
Device
Machine
Equipment
Other organizations may use more industry-specific terminology, such as endpoint, node, robot, printer, sensor, or other terms.
An asset must be located at a location, unless it is in transit. (An asset cannot have more than one location at once.)
An asset must also have an owner, which is either your organization (for assets that have been leased or rented) or a customer (for assets that have been sold).
To see a list of all assets, navigate to the assets page. Here you will see a table with each asset's serial number, operational status, product type, associated project, location, owner, and recent activity.
Use the search or filter options to refine the asset list.
To view the full details of an asset, click on an asset serial number in the asset list.
The asset details page will appear showing the asset details.
This page includes all the core details of the asset at the top of the page, including serial, description, status, owner, current location, and current project:
Asset details also include full timelines for project assignment (commercial activity) and asset movement (logistics history):
Details also include sections for activity history, asset metadata, attachments, and accounting details:
Asset details also include a full audit log of the changes made to the asset over time.
To create an individual asset, click the "Add asset" button and a window will appear. Choose the appropriate product for the asset, enter the asset's serial. select the correct location, and choose the right for the asset, then click "Add."
All four fields are required to create a new asset.
To import assets in bulk, configure an integration with a CRM or ERP, upload a CSV or XLSX file, or to set up API access, please contact support.
To edit details for an asset, hover over the detail you want to edit and click the pencil icon ✏️. For example, hover over the asset serial and you will see a small pencil:
Click the pencil to open the edit interface:
Editing some details, such as status and ownership may require different information. For example, to change asset status:
For example, to change asset ownership:
You can change an asset's current project by assigning or unassigning the asset. This allows you to enter the full history of how your assets are related to your commercial activity.
Assigning the asset to the project requires choosing the "Assign" button, selecting the project, and specifying the effective date of the assignment:
Assets may be assigned to a project however makes sense for your business, based on your downstream reporting needs. Some common patterns that Hardfin customers use:
Logistics-based assignments. In many cases, teams will assign asset to a project when the asset ships out to the customer.
This means that the asset and its costs are allocated to the project as soon as the asset leaves your warehouse.
Reservation-based assignments. In other cases, organizations will assign assets to a project as soon as the affiliation is known. That is, as soon as an asset has been designated to a customer, the assignment is made to the project.
This means that the asset and its costs are allocated to the project as soon as the asset is effectively "reserved" for the customer.
Value-based assignments. Less commonly, organizations will assign assets to a project after the asset is delivered or starts doing work. That is, the assignment is not made to the project until after the asset is on site and deployed.
This means that the asset and its costs are not allocated to the project until the asset is producing value for the customer, and costs outside of that range are allocated to overhead.
Commercial-based assignments. Least commonly, organizations will assign assets to a project when the project begins. That is, the assignment starts when the project starts.
This means that the asset and its costs coincide with the project dates exactly, even if the asset is delivered early or late. This approach is not recommended because it does not take advantage of Hardfin's native ability to track asset and commercial activity independently.
You can remove an asset from its current project by unassigning the asset. This allows you to confirm the end date of that asset's affiliation with this commercial activity.
Unassigning the asset from the project requires choosing the "Unassign" button and and specifying the effective date of the unassignment:
Assignment date ranges are exclusive and an asset cannot be assigned to two projects at once, so the dates cannot overlap. An asset must be unassigned from one project in order to be assigned to another.
Changing an asset's location requires moving the asset. Asset moves are entered with an origin location and ship date (the date the asset left the origin) and a destination location and arrival date (the date the asset arrived at the destination):
You can enter new asset moves in any order, and Hardfin will automatically recalculate the asset's entire location history and determine the asset's current location. For example, you may enter the most recent asset move first, .
To begin recording a move, you must provide both an origin or destination location, as well as either an ship date or a delivery date. Dates may be either expected or actual.
For completeness, it's always best to enter as much information as you have. Hardfin's advanced algorithms will always automatically recalculate the asset's movement history based on partial information, in order to intelligently determine the asset's current location at any point in time.
To complete a move, you should provide both a ship and a delivery date.
You can always edit a move that has already been entered, whether partial or complete. Just click on the move and it will open the window to update the move record or enter additional details.
You can plan moves by entering expected move dates when you expect to ship or deliver assets. These dates are used for reporting in inventory calculations and demand planning. They are also used to trigger relevant notifications when assets have passed their expected ship or delivery dates, but an actual date has not yet been recorded.
You can record ship tracking information (carrier name and tracking number) for over 60 common carriers. If your carrier is not available, you can specify "Other" and enter the carrier name manually. This is most common when shipping freight and looking to track a PRO or bill of lading (BOL) number.
Asset activity shows the full history of the assets movements and actions.
All movements appear in the history view automatically. Additional actions can be added to the history by choosing the "Action" button and selecting the appropriate event and date that correspond to this asset.
The default events in Hardfin include Deploy, Activate, and Install. If you would like to customize the events available in your organization, please contact support.
Files can be attached to asset records by uploading on the "Attachment" tab of the asset details screen. This functionality is primarily used for records related to the asset, such as procurement history, bill of materials breakdown, or sales records.
New files can be uploaded by clicking the "Upload file" button. Hardfin accepts all file formats. Once uploaded, files can be viewed, downloaded, or deleted by choosing the corresponding action in the file list. Read more about attachments in Hardfin.
You can provide asset accounting details on the "Accounting" tab of the asset details screen. These details are useful in order to report on the fleet costs, manage depreciation, and calculate gains on sale and disposal. The core details are visible on the "Accounting" tab and include cost basis, salvage value, useful life, and the asset in-service date:
All of these values are included in your asset export for easy analysis when you export asset information.
Asset metadata define details for each asset based on the fields that are defined for that product. This metadata is set for the specific asset, so that each asset of this product type can have different metadata. Learn more about managing asset metadata.
Assets are scrapped at the end of their life, most often when an asset has been disposed, dismantled, destroyed, or lost. Scrapped assets are not expected to return to service, although they may be dismantled and have their parts repurposed as part of other finished goods. Learn more about scrapping assets.
The Active Projects Report allows you to easily view the history of your active projects over time. This report provides a detailed overview of your project history, showing you the number of assets planned for each project over time. To access this report, navigate to the Reports section, and select Active Projects Report from the dropdown menu.
