Asset Types
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Asset Types


Asset types are designed to be used for very broad categories of assets, e.g. Material, Equipment or Expenses. There is no hard limit to the number of asset types you can create, but keep in mind that each asset type can optionally have a tab on the timesheet, so you generally want to limit the number to less than 10.


Asset types have the following properties:


Property

Description

Name

The asset type name, up to 40 characters. A value is required and must be unique.

Plural Name

The plural name of the asset type, up to 40 characters. A value is required and must be unique.

Description

A description for the asset type, up to 255 characters.

ID

The asset type ID, up to 80 characters. This value is not required, but if a value is entered it must be unique for all asset types. This is commonly used for synchronizing with external systems, such as billing or accounting.

Status

The asset class status, either Active or Inactive. Note that you cannot delete an asset type if there are assets, classes, etc. that use it. In those cases you will instead make the asset type inactive to prevent its further use.


Asset types have the following advanced properties:


Property

Description

Auto-generate Asset Entry ID

If enabled then unique asset entry IDs will be automatically generated whenever an entry is created. By default the ID format will be a sequential number padded out to 10 digits with leading zeros. You can alter the ID format to suit your needs (for example, to more easily integrate with external systems). Example formats are:


{0} -> A sequential number with no leading zeros (meaning the length will increase as the sequential number increases).  For example '1234'.


{00000000} -> A sequential number padded with leading zeros to be a length of 8 digits.  For example '00001234'.


{ABC-0000000} -> A sequential number padded with leading zeros to be 7 digits in length, with the prefix 'ABC-'.  For example 'ABC-0001234'.


Note that you should not make the number of zeros in the format too few or the sequential number will be truncated and you will not have a unique ID (IDs must be unique). You should consider a minimum of at least 7 zeros in the format.

Asset Sheet Enabled

If enabled then asset entries will be collected or grouped into asset sheets (for example, Expense Sheets). When employees want to record asset entries they will need to edit or create an asset sheet first, and asset entries will be added to the asset sheet. This is convenient for grouping related entries into a logical unit, such as expenses incurred on a business trip.

Auto-generate Asset Sheet ID

If enabled then unique asset sheet IDs will be automatically generated whenever an entry sheet is created. The format is the same as described above for auto-generated asset entry IDs.

Multi-Currency Enabled

If enabled then employees can pick the local currency for asset entry amounts. When employees create entries the amount they enter can be in Euros or Canadian Dollars, even when the base currency for the system is US Dollars (the base currency is configured on the System > General page).


The list of currencies an employee is allowed to choose from is configured on the System > General > System Options page.


With multi-currency enabled the entered local amounts will be converted to the base currency internally, and will be available for reporting or export/import. For instance, in addition to the Asset Entry.Amount field you will find additional fields: Asset Entry.Amount-Local (the amount as entered by the employee in the local currency) and Asset Entry.Amount-Currency (the local currency selected by the employee).


Note that conversions between local currency amounts and the base currency for the system are handled automatically using currency exchange rates provided by reputable third party sources based on official central bank data. Currency exchange rates can be optionally overridden at the individual entry level if so desired.


If multi-currency is not enabled then all amounts are considered to be in the base currency.