Normally, when using asset and inventory management software, you enter assets and inventory into the system by either typing them into a web form manually, or batch-importing a list from a file. Many of our customers told us that they would preffer to enter data using a smartphone to scan labels. In some situations new assets simply need to be entered uning a smartphone. For example:
You do not have a list of assets and their locations to import, and need to organize and enter all assets into a system from scratch. If assets are located at customer sites, at the remote job sites, or at any other out-of-the-office locations it is much more convenient to enter them using a smartphone.
You need to catalog and enter new assets at the customer locations on the regular basis. For example, you auction or purchase used assets from companies going out of business
You receive new assets in a warehouse and there is no computer at hand
You receive assets that are not labeled, and want to label them, scan and enter in one swipe to avoid possible errors
Finally, adding new assets with a smartphone may have inherent advantages. Scanning asset label rather then entering it manually prevents misspellings and typing mistakes. If you want to save image(s) along with other information about the assets, it is easy to take a photo (or multiple photos) with a smartphone application and attach it photo(s) to the asset record.
Keeping this situations in mind (and multiple customer requests to add this feature), we now added an option to enter new assets (or inventory) into the system using a smartphone. Here is how the process works:
Select Initial Entry transaction to start the process
If your assets have labels with serial number encoded (either barcodes or QR codes), scan the label. Asset ID (serial number) will be read from a label so that you won't have to enter it manually.
If your assets are not labeled, we recommend to use QR code labels with sequential numbers (you can easily generate, layout and print them using QR Inventory built-in QR code generation tool). Pick any label, stick it to a new asset and scan it. The number on the label will be associated with the asset you are entering.
Start typing asset name, and application autocomplete feature will produce a list of assets you previously entered into the system to select from. If you are tracking assets rather than inventory, you will often have just a few asset types (e.g. video camera, hard drive, iPhone 6), but a lot of individual assets of this type to track. Autocomplete feature not only speeds up and simplifies asset entry, but ensures that there are no misspellings, and assets of the same type are listed under exactly the same name.
The same autocomplete feature is available for asset groups.Enter or select custom fields, if any
If you want an asset to be accompanied by image(s), take photo(s) with a smartphone and attach them to an asset
Select asset's current location and submit to the database
Download a latest version (5.0) of QR Inventory mobile application from Apple App Store or Google Play to take advantage of this new feature.