Creating Assets

An asset is a product which your business has an interest in/relationship with. Whether it’s marketing collateral provided to franchises for point of sale displays, a hire car leased to a client, or machinery you sell that requires regular servicing, asset management in the CRM lets you track your assets to easily stay organised and in control.

To access the CRM’s asset management module, head to the Main Menu -> Operations -> Assets. Note: you can also access a list of assets related directly to a company by navigating to the company record (Main Menu -> Companies -> Select Company) and clicking the Assets tab in the action bar. The below instructions can then be applied directly from the Company Record by clicking Add Asset from the Assets tab in the action bar.

Here you’ll find a list of Assets related to your business. In order to create a new asset, click the New Asset button in the top right.

You’ll notice here that there are a number of different fields on asset creation. What data you choose to populate depends on your business requirements. You may or may not own the product, it may or may not be PPSR registered and it may or may not require servicing and/or follow up.

In this example, let’s use a coffee machine, leased to a customer, as an example. It’s important to note that any Assets you wish to list must be set up first as products you sell.

Start by filling in the basic details, including selecting the underlying product, assigning a display name (which can provide more detail than the product name), recording the serial number (if applicable) and selecting the account (this is the customer who may be in possession of the asset itself/the customer that the asset relates to).

The checkbox ‘Owned By’ defines the ownership status of the underlying asset. If the customer has purchased the underlying product outright and your asset record is being used solely for managing after-sales support (for example, servicing an air conditioner) then you would leave this checkbox unchecked.

If the customer is leasing a product owned by you (e.g. a coffee machine or hire car) and the asset record is being used to track your own property, then you would leave this box checked.

Since we’re leasing the coffee machine in this example, we’ll ensure the box beside ‘Owned By…’ is checked. This will help us track internally which assets are owned by us and which assets are owned by third parties/customers. We’ll also specify the date of install to indicate when the machine was first handed over.

Next you’ll see some ‘PPSR’ related fields. The PPSR is the Australian Government’s Personal Property Securities Register. It’s an optional register allowing businesses to register their security interests, essentially reducing the legal and/or financial risks you may be exposed to during leasing agreements. If your asset is registered on the PPSR, you’re able to enter the appropriate details in the fields outlined below for easy reference against the asset itself. First, you’ll need to check the box beside ‘PPSR Registered’. Then, proceed to populate the Registration Date, Registration Number, Expiry Date and Identifier.

Following the PPSR fields you’ll notice additional service fields. We’ve covered this in more detail in another help file, so click here to view more information. Essentially, you’re able to flag whether the underlying asset has an associated service contract or service schedule (carried out by you). You can select the service type and the due date to keep track of servicing requirements for the asset. Then you’re able to view these requirements in the grid to easily manage and follow up on the service schedule for a particular asset/customer. You can find more information regarding service management here.

Below the service information fields you’ll see location details. Here you can specify the exact location of the asset (for servicing, maintenance or tracking purposes). You’re also able to select a Site Contact, who you would typically liaise with regarding the asset in question (either in person when carrying out a service, or via phone/email).

The final fields on asset creation are able to provide an enhanced level of detail to the asset record. They define:

• The asset status (active, broken or inactive)
• The created and removal dates (if applicable)
• An additional asset location field (for providing enhanced on-site location detail – i.e. you may want to include a room/workshop or factory floor location description).
• The asset Class and Subclass (helpful for grouping and categorising your assets for internal organisation/management – i.e. Machinery, Tools, Marketing Equipment etc.). Please note, the asset class and subclass options can be tailored to suit your requirements by heading to the Main Menu -> Admin -> Settings -> Asset Settings and editing the appropriate lists.

Once you’ve finished populating the desired data, hit Save and Close at the top of the screen.

You’ll now see the asset record, with an overview of information about the asset, as well as a display of any tickets, jobs or services related to that asset.

You’ll also be able to see the asset in the grid view, as well as sort and filter the grid using a huge range of data fields related to the asset.