Hardware Asset

A Hardware Asset is the central entity of au2mator Asset Management. It represents one physical (or logical) item you track — a notebook, a monitor, a server, a phone — together with everything that describes it: who owns it, where it is, what Model it is, and how it is billed.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Overview
• Core Fields
• Dates and Warranty
• Classification
• Assignment and Location
• Vendor and Manufacturer
• Status
• Custom Fields
• Billing Fields
• Configuration Item Link
• Related Articles

Overview

Every Hardware Asset is identified by a technical Id (GUID) and carries a set of descriptive fields, a set of relationships to other master data entities, and an open set of custom fields (Additional Properties) that come from the asset's Category.

Core Fields

• Name – free text name of the asset.
• Description – free text description.
• Unique Name – a unique technical identifier for the asset (e.g. an asset tag); used to look assets up directly and to build the Display Name.
• Display Name – generated automatically as UniqueName-ModelName, you do not set it yourself.
• Notes – free text notes.
• Serial Number – the manufacturer serial number.
• Url – an optional link related to the asset (e.g. vendor portal, invoice).

Display Name is calculated automatically from Unique Name and Model Name. If either is missing, Display Name stays empty.

Dates and Warranty

• Purchase Date
• Warranty Start Date
• Warranty End Date – the API rejects a Warranty End Date that is earlier than the Warranty Start Date, and a Warranty Start Date that is later than an existing Warranty End Date.

Classification

Every Hardware Asset can be linked to a Model. The Model in turn belongs to a Category, which is what drives which Custom Fields are available on the asset.

Assignment and Location

• Assigned To – the User currently using the asset.
• Owned By – the User who owns the asset (can differ from Assigned To).
• Company – the Company the asset belongs to.
• Location and Room – where the asset is physically located, see Location and Room.
• Parent Asset – an optional link to another Hardware Asset this one belongs to (e.g. a docking station belonging to a notebook).

Vendor and Manufacturer

Both Vendor and Manufacturer are references to a Company. A Company can be marked as a manufacturer, a vendor, or both — the same Company record can be used for both roles.

Status

Every Hardware Asset can have a Status (e.g. In Use, On Stock, Retired). Statuses are freely defined master data, not a fixed list in the code.

Custom Fields

The Additional Properties dictionary holds the Custom Fields defined on the asset's Category (via its Configuration Item Column Definitions). This is how au2mator lets every customer add their own fields per asset type without changing the data model.

Billing Fields

• Purchase Price – must not be negative.
• Billing Start Date
• Cost Center
• Exclude From Billing – a switch to exclude this specific asset from Billing Runs.

Configuration Item Link

Every Hardware Asset has exactly one linked Configuration Item.

If you save a Hardware Asset without linking a Configuration Item, au2mator automatically creates one for you and pre-fills it with the Custom Fields defined on the asset's Category.

Related Articles

See also: Configuration Item, Model, Category, Status, Location, Room, Company, User