What is the Asset Management add-on?
ServiceM8’s Asset Management add-on provides a way to easily catalogue the details and location of appliances, equipment, installations, devices or machinery, whether it’s a client’s, or your own, then record and track each asset’s service history.
With Asset Management, you can apply a special QR Code label to each individual asset you want to track and manage. This QR Code is then scanned and paired with a new asset item in ServiceM8, along with a photo, various asset details, and its location on site.
View past service history of previous Forms completed against the asset.
The Asset Management add-on can transform the way you catalogue and manage client assets, locate, inspect or service assets on site, track service history and manage inspection or service reporting.
The Service Report is a PDF report of all assets on a specific job which had a Form completed against them. This is good for recording and reporting on which specific assets were inspected or serviced on a particular job, and combining the results of each asset’s inspection or service.
The Service Report can contain multiple Asset Types — for example, a business in the Fire Safety industry would create different Asset Types for smoke alarms, fire extinguishers, hose reels etc. The report template for each Asset Type can be customised to show responses to specific Form questions e.g. a typical Form question might be something like “Does the widget Pass or Fail?”, and you could have a column in the report showing this result for each asset.
The Service Report is automatically generated and saved to the Job Diary when the job’s status is updated to Completed.
The Asset Register is a PDF report of some or all assets listed against a specific client, sorted by their Asset Type. This is good for keeping track of all assets you have installed or service for each of your clients (or your own assets), and providing clients with this register if requested.
Asset Registers can include assets under all Asset Types saved against a particular client, or you can choose to produce a report containing only certain Asset Types.
Asset Registers can be generated when required through the Online Dashboard (go to Settings > Assets > Asset Register). They can be saved to your documents immediately as a PDF, and a copy is automatically saved to the relevant customer’s Client Card (accessible through the Clients tab).
The Asset Management add-on includes a customer portal feature, in which clients can scan the QR Code attached to any of the assets your business has labelled to access a customer portal webpage for that specific asset, where they can request a service or report an issue.
Most modern smartphones cameras can scan QR Codes — all customers need to do is scan the code with their camera, and the customer portal page will appear.
Check to see whether the Asset Management add-on is available to activate in your Add-on Store. If not, you may need to review your plan details.
QR Code labels are purchased through your Online Dashboard in rolls of 500 or 1000. Once you’ve activated the Add-on, go to Settings > Assets > Order Labels for label pricing. Small sample packs of QR Code labels are also available to order if you’d like to test-drive the Asset Management add-on in your business.
The first thing you should do is activate the add-on and order some labels (allow 14 days for delivery). Small sample packs of QR Code labels are also available to order.
Which industries does the Asset Management add-on suit?
If your business installs, inspects or services any kind of appliance, equipment, installation, device or machinery, chances are the Asset Management can transform how you track and manage these assets. It can help whether you only need to track one or two assets against a client, or many.
Asset Management can also be used to manage your own business’s assets, such as vehicles, equipment, devices, plant or machinery. Simply create your own business as a Client in your account, and attach new assets to this client.
What size and material is the asset QR Code label?
The QR Code labels are approximately 25mm x 30mm. The labels are made of durable PET polyester material, with a strong adhesive backing, and printed using UV-resistant ink. They’re designed to be durable and long-lasting, even in challenging conditions.
Can we customize the QR Code labels to include our logo and other business branding?
Asset labels need to be purchased through ServiceM8 so they have the unique QR code specially configured for use with the Asset Management add-on. However, you can arrange custom labels directly with one of ServiceM8’s suppliers (taking special care to ensure that the ServiceM8 QR Codes are used). Contact ServiceM8 Support (support@servicem8.com) for more details.
Can you move assets between clients?
Yes. In ServiceM8, assets are always attached to a client. You can move an asset from one client to another by opening up a job for the new client, scanning the asset label and completing a Form for that asset. Completing a Form for an asset on a new client will change the ownership of the asset. Check out the section on relocating assets toward the bottom of this help article.
What are the system requirements for Asset Management to work?
At a minimum, you’ll need iOS devices capable of running iOS 11 (in order to scan the QR Codes). To also be able to locate assets in Augmented Reality, you’ll need a device capable of running iOS 12 as well as being AR-compatible (i.e. an iPhone 6s or later / iPad 2017 or later).
What happens if an asset loses its barcode? Can you still service the asset?
You can still service an existing asset without scanning its QR Code — simply tap the asset in the asset list (instead of scanning the QR Code) to open the asset’s details and select a Form to complete against it.
Is it possible to import a list or spreadsheet of existing assets into ServiceM8?
No, there isn’t a way to import assets into your account in bulk. It’s recommend that existing assets are added into the system as you go and service them. This means that on the first visit to your customer’s assets you’ll need to manually enter the details about each asset, but from the second visit onward you’ll have a very streamlined process.
In ServiceM8, it’s possible to view the quantity of “tracked items” in a connected accounting package, and the quantity of the item will be updated when the item/s are contained in an invoice approved & synced to your accounting package. However, there isn’t functionality around assigning stock levels to specific vehicles. You can watch a video about Stock Levels here, and check out the relevant help article here.
I notice the Augmented Reality shows locations on an aerial site map, and on a floor.
Will it show assets on different floors such as high rise towers?
Viewing asset locations in Augmented Reality at different heights isn’t supported at this time, sorry. So, going off the top-down Map view would be the best way to locate assets in high-rise scenarios, and perhaps taking floor levels into account in your naming conventions e.g. “Lvl 3 – Widget X”.
Can this be applied to rental properties for cleaning of assets like Carpet & tiles and bond cleans?
I’m sure it can, if so I’m in.
Possibly, if it aligns with the kind of business requirements you have in carrying out this type of work on rental properties for your clients. If you want to save carpeted or tiled areas of a property as separate assets, or a single combined asset, then record your servicing of the asset/s across your repeat visits to the property over time through the completion of Forms against it, then Asset Management could be a good fit.
You’ll be able to see the history of Forms completed against each asset across the months & years, and perhaps track changes over time through these Forms by capturing photos through your Forms and building in your other methods of condition assessment.
One consideration will be where you apply the QR Code labels, as a label will need to be scanned at the time you create each asset.
Are the QR labels tough enough for outside use? We automate gates and do CCTV, lots of stuff external. We’re in the UK so not constant lovely weather like you guys have!
Yes, they’re designed to withstand outdoor applications and harsh environments — even the UK’s less-than-ideal weather sometimes! Also, in the UK, labels are printed & distributed from a UK supplier.
Would this be compatible with hand tools, cordless drills, jack hammers etc?
If I was to attach a label to a tool, is the software able to track the location of the item by GPS?
Could staff members report an issue with each item?
Possibly, yes — depending on what your requirements are in cataloging your various tools and managing these as business assets e.g. you could create your business as a client, create each of these tools as separate assets against your business, record each asset’s details, complete various custom Forms against individual assets, and generate Asset Register reports of all your different asset types.
Regarding the QR Code labels and locations — you will only see the static location of each asset that was manually set when the asset was created, or last manually updated. The QR Code labels do not have live GPS tracking.
Regarding staff members reporting issues with an asset — you could create a Form for an ‘Asset Condition Assessment’ or similar, and set a Form Follow-Up Automation if certain responses are given as part of completion of the Form against an asset e.g. you could have a multiple choice question for ‘Asset Condition’, and if “Asset Condition = Broken”, you could set ServiceM8 to automatically send an email into your ServiceM8 Inbox about it.
More info on completing Forms against assets here, and Form Follow-Up Automations here.
Alternatively, staff members could use the browser-based asset portal (external to ServiceM8) — they could scan the QR Code with their regular iPhone camera and report an issue that way, and it will also arrive as a message in your ServiceM8 Inbox for action.
Perhaps order a sample pack of QR Code labels through your account (activate the Asset Management add-on in Settings > ServiceM8 Add-ons then go to Settings > Assets > Order Labels) and trial the add-on.
Were a dumpster company and subscribed to service m8. The service is working out great but would love to see live gps so when our drivers delivers a dumpster they could scan the QR code and update the location so we could keep track of all of our dumpster locations. I would highly recommend this app.
Great to hear ServiceM8’s working well for you, and thanks for the feedback! While the Asset Management add-on doesn’t support live GPS tracking, you’re still able to scan the QR Code then complete a Form to re-assign an asset to a new client, and/or tap ‘Edit’ just above the ‘Location’ map view to manually update the asset’s location on the map.
More info on relocating assets between clients here.