Assets help you keep information about equipment and other items issued to Employees all in one place – from laptops and phones to keys, access cards, company cars, and software licences. 📦

In this article, we'll guide you through the entire process: we'll show you how to create an asset type, add a specific asset to the Inventory, assign it to an Employee, register its return, and check what happened to it in the past.

This way, you can check at any time not only what you currently have in stock, but also who is currently using a particular asset and what its history is.

Assets are all items, equipment, and access rights that belong to the company and can be assigned to Employees – e.g. laptops, phones, company cars, keys, access cards, or licences. 📦

In HRnest, you can keep them all in one place and easily check what is currently in stock, who a particular asset has been assigned to, and what happened to it in the past.

To make things easier to organise, assets are grouped by asset type. For example, you can create a Computers asset type and then add specific assets to it, such as a Dell Latitude Laptop or MacBook Air.

Each asset has its own "life cycle" in the system – you can add it to the Inventory, make it available for assignment, assign it to an Employee, register its return, change its status (e.g. to Damaged or In Service), and, if needed, review its previous event history.

Starting from scratch? Follow the entire process: Create an asset type → Add an asset → Set its status → Assign it (and optionally Return it later).

Already completed part of the setup? You don't need to go through all five steps. You only need to create asset types when necessary, and each specific asset only needs to be added to the Inventory once. Once everything is set up, your day-to-day work will mainly involve assigning assets to Employees, registering their returns, and changing their status in the event of damage or servicing.

Before you start adding assets, create asset types that will help you organise and categorise them.

From the side menu, select Assets, then go to the Types tab and click Add asset type in the upper-right corner:

Enter a name for the asset type. You can also add a description, but this is optional. Click Add.

The asset type has now been added and is visible on the list. You can now add specific assets to it.

Once your asset types are ready, you can add specific assets to the Inventory so that you can later assign them to selected Employees.

From Assets, go to the Inventory tab and click Add asset in the upper-right corner.

Enter the asset name and assign it to a specific asset type. You can also decide whether the asset is unique. If it is, you will also need to give it a dedicated identifier.

For assets that are not unique, providing an identifier is optional.

You can also add an attachment and a description to the asset.

Once you've entered all the necessary information, click Add to add the asset or Add and repeat if you want to add more assets right away.

Before assigning an asset to an Employee, choose the appropriate status for it – for example, whether it is available for assignment, being serviced, or damaged.

In the Inventory tab, you can view all added assets, as well as edit them and change their asset type.

There are several statuses you can set for an asset:

You can change the status of an individual asset or change the status of multiple assets at once using bulk actions.

To change the status of an individual asset, click the three-dot actions menu and select Change status.

Here, you can select the appropriate status for the asset and specify the date from which it should apply.

If you want to assign the asset to an Employee, set its status to Available and save the changes.

To change the status of multiple assets at once, select the assets whose status you want to change, and then specify the date from which the new status should apply.

Assign an asset to an Employee to specify who is currently using it and until when.

From Assets, go to the Assigned tab and click Assign asset in the upper-right corner.

Complete the form. Select the asset and the Employee you want to assign it to. Enter the dates indicating how long the asset should remain in the Employee's possession. You can also choose to assign the asset indefinitely – in this case, you won't be able to specify an end date.

You can also add a comment and an attachment, and decide whether the Employee needs to confirm receipt of the asset. If confirmation is required, the Employee will receive a system notification that they will need to confirm.

Finally, click Add to save the changes.

The asset will be assigned immediately and will appear on the list. Repeat these steps for any other assets you want to assign to Employees.

Register an asset return when an Employee stops using it so that it becomes available in the Inventory again.

From Assets, go to the Assigned tab. Find the asset you want to return, then click the three-dot actions menu. The option to return the asset will be available there.

Enter the return date. If the equipment is not in working order, you can also mark the asset as damaged – this will prevent it from being assigned to another Employee. You can also add a comment and an attachment if needed.

Once you've entered all the required information, click Return.

Every important action performed on an asset is saved in HRnest as an event. This may include assigning an asset to an Employee, returning it, changing its status to Damaged or In service, or adding a note.

This allows you to later review what happened to your assets in the past.

To review operations related to assets, go to Assets → Events.

Each event is displayed as a separate entry. On the list, you can check, among other things, which asset it relates to, what happened, who was involved, and when the operation was recorded.

From the same place, you can also review events related to one specific asset. To do this, use the available filters. You can also export the filtered list to Excel.

Having trouble assigning an asset or not sure which option to choose? Here you'll find answers to the most frequently asked questions about assigning assets to Employees.