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Organizing Your Inventory: Statuses, Locations, and Departments
Having 500 assets in a system is only useful if you can find the right one in 10 seconds and understand what state it's in. That's what statuses, locations, and departments are for. Here's how to use them without over-engineering it.
Statuses: The Lifecycle of an Asset
Every asset in AssetCompass has a status that reflects where it is in its life. There are 15 built-in statuses, organized into a rough lifecycle. You don't have to use all of them — but knowing what they mean helps you pick the right one.
| Status | When to use it |
|---|---|
| Ordered | PO placed, device hasn't arrived yet. |
| Received | Device is in hand but hasn't been set up. |
| Being Provisioned | IT is imaging it, installing software, configuring accounts. |
| Ready to Deploy | Configured and sitting on the shelf, waiting for a person. |
| Active | In use by someone. This is your default for most assets. |
| BYOD – Pending Setup | Employee's personal device that needs to be enrolled. |
| Return to IT | Asset is being collected — offboarding, repair, refresh. |
| Under Repair | Out for service. Combine with a "Repair" note for context. |
| Buyback | Employee is purchasing the device from the company. |
| Given to Employee | Asset has been permanently transferred to the employee. |
| Pending Disposal | End of life, waiting to be wiped and disposed. |
| Donated | Sent to a charity, school, or nonprofit. |
| Destroyed | Physically decommissioned. Requires confirmation — this can't be undone. |
| Lost / Stolen | Self-explanatory. Hopefully infrequent. |
The Add Asset wizard only shows the most common statuses (Ordered through Active). The full list is available when you edit an existing asset.
Condition: A Different Thing Than Status
Condition is not the same as status. Status is about where an asset is in its lifecycle. Condition is about its physical state. An asset can be Active (deployed to someone) and in Poor condition (cracked screen, missing keys) at the same time.
There are four condition values: New, Good, Fair, and Poor. Use condition to track physical state at check-in/check-out, or to flag assets that need attention before redeployment.
Locations: Keep It Flat (at First)
Locations in AssetCompass are a flat list — there's no nested hierarchy of building → floor → room. That's intentional. For most teams, "Main Office," "Chicago Remote," and "Storage" is enough to be useful without becoming a filing system you have to maintain.
Add your locations from the Locations page in the sidebar. Each location shows you a count of assets assigned to it and a breakdown by status.
- Name locations by how you'd say them out loud: "Austin Office" not "US-TX-AUS-HQ-L2"
- If you have a storage room or IT closet where undeployed assets live, add it as a location
- Remote employees can each have their own location (e.g., "Remote – Jane Smith") or share a generic one ("Remote – US East"). Either works.
Departments: For Reporting, Not Filing
Departments are how you slice asset data in reports. They're not a permission boundary — a Finance team member can still see Engineering assets — they're just a grouping for "how many assets does each team have?"
Departments are created automatically when you type a new name in the department field on any asset. There's no setup screen required. Keep names consistent — "Engineering," "Eng," and "engineering" will create three separate departments.