How to create bulk quantity of same asset and how to bypass asset tag requirement?

In Incident IQ, an “Asset” is a specific piece of equipment (1 laptop, with a unique serial number/asset tag). We do have some assets that are not asset tagged, but when people put in tickets, they just select that model, not a specific asset. For example, our auditoriums have ~75 lights of 1 model that are not asset tagged, so instead of tagging each one, someone can just put a ticket in for that model. That means you can’t track tickets per asset, but it’s useful for if you don’t have asset tags/serial numbers for each one. 

That is also the reason it’s not optional, as an asset needs to have a unique identifier for it to be considered an “asset” in Incident IQ. This allows tickets to be tracked with the asset, along with asset audits to be performed. Otherwise, as stated above, it is simply that model of furniture. 

One way we are working around this is by having a standard asset scheme for things we don’t necessarily want to put large asset tags on, like wireless microphones. Instead, we just know (and have documented) that at Apple South High School, Handheld mic 1 is ASHS_HH_01. That may work for you instead, but you would still need to have each number on that piece of furniture to be able to track which one is which. (Apple South High School Workstation 15 could be ASHS_WS_15). 

From there, you can create a spreadsheet using the template provided in the Asset Importer, fill out the necessary info, and import those assets. 

Hopefully that long answer helps to answer your question. 

I understand what you are saying, but I don’t love the reason. If I want to make assets without a unique identifier then simply allow me to do so and if I mess up that’s on me. To be in asset within IIQ you might need a unique identifier, but in reality you do not need one for an asset to be considered more than just a model. It’s not a huge deal because we could simply use a meaningless asset tag so there is something for the system. The idea was that these type of items that don’t have an asset tag would be for items like tables, chairs, desk, etc..

I was considering putting these items as parts. Let’s say we just did inventory and have 200 chairs and then add 200 chairs as parts. Then someone puts a ticket in for a broken chair and we can’t repair it so on the ticket click add part - chair. We don’t need to neccessarily know if that chair was replaced with a new one we had to purchase, but rather that a chair that was working has now been removed from the building. 

One thing I really like about using parts for this is going to part explorer - click on the part - history and being able to see everytime a ticket resulted in this chair being tossed out. Perhaps I’m mistaken, but I don’t see a way to do this as quickly if they are assets rather than parts. When there is a ticket I would need to click on the asset from the ticket page, change the status to retired / broken / thrown out, go back to the ticket, put in notes and close it out so we can see what happened later. 

These assets I’m calling parts would never require actual parts to be selected the same way you might do with a laptop. For example I get a ticket for a broken display on Staff Laptop 158. I work the ticket, select part - display and it removes the display from the part inventory because we used it within that ticket. That system is great for parts which might be costly or we don’t carry many of them. These other assets I don’t want tags on however will end up being repaired with some tools and cheap hardware, but they won’t actually use another part within IIQ. 

This is a hard one for us, Currently we do not have our Facilities inventory in the system for the same reasons, during our onboarding we played and imported some items.. but a unique identifier for a table VS say a fire extinguisher ? 

I have been toying with this idea though,

200 tables at “School 1” location of assets “ main storage shed “  Ok so lets make ONE asset with a generic asset tag, “TBL0001” and then on the Notes we have a running Count of how many are in the room, we use one via ticket or one gets trashed, we adjust the note. It’s not the best idea… we also are toying with IIQ’s ability to generate a Barcode for the asset but this is still a work in progress, and wouldn’t really matter in reality as we are not going to barcode every table, chair, desk anytime soon.

Mind you this is NOT in production right now, our district is super small so it’s somewhat easy to toy with ideas like this and not have the system break, I am talking with our Facilities department on how / if they even want to catalog tables and chairs at the sites… vs other much more relevant items.  

I will follow this thread for sure, and will play to see if there is any other ways, there is the option to have the asset tag be required this could be removed or disabled maybe but that would be on IIQ’s end as a requirement. 

Thanks, I really like this idea.