How to check tools out, and how to run client loans
Audience: both — technicians check tools in and out from the van; admins and account managers issue loans to clients.
Tools are stock items flagged as tools: serialized, individually tracked, and always answerable to "who has this unit right now". Loans are the client-facing sibling: equipment that leaves with a client under an agreement.
Prerequisites
- Tools exist as serialized stock items with This is a tool ticked, and at least one unit is received into a location.
- For loans: the client exists, and the equipment either lives in stock or is an asset in the client's fleet.
1. Check tools out
Open Stock → Tools and press Check out tools. Four facts make a checkout:
- Holder — the person responsible for the units. It defaults to you, which is the common case when a technician loads a van.
- From — the location the unit leaves.
- Due — the date the tools are expected back.
- What — individual tools, or a kit (toolbox) checked out as one transaction.
Picker note: when you add a tool without naming a serial, the server picks the oldest in-stock unit at that location. Name the serial when the exact unit matters.
A kit shows its readiness before you submit: each member item lists required units against available units at the chosen location. A kit that cannot go out says which member is short.
One tool has one holder at a time. If someone else already holds a unit, the checkout is refused and the message names the unit.
2. See who has what
The Who has what table lists every serialized tool and device with its current state: in stock, checked out, on loan, or out. Each row carries the holder, the location or client it sits with, its due date, and an overdue tag once the due date passes. Overdue is derived from the due date at read time, so it cannot go stale.
Use the chips above the table to narrow to overdue units when chasing returns.
3. Check tools back in
Press Check in on a row, or open a checkout and return it in full or in part. Each returned line takes a condition and a note. Conditions are good, fair, or damaged. The destination defaults to the checkout's own location; pick another one when the tools come back somewhere else.
The check-in writes its ledger row, the unit flips back to in stock, and the checkout closes. Parts of a multi-tool checkout can return on different days without closing the whole transaction.
4. Issue a client loan
Open Stock → Loans and press Issue loan. Choose the client, the expected return date, and the items. A stock-sourced item rides the ledger: choose the serial when the item is serialized. When the issued device does not come from stock, the loan line records the device from the client's fleet instead.
Two optional facts sharpen the record:
- Agreement reference — the contract or paperwork number.
- Lease terms — when the loan is a lease, set the cycle, the amount, and the currency. The issued device carries those terms on its lifecycle record, and the return closes the rental window at the actual return date.
Issuing a stock-sourced loan also creates the device in the client's fleet with its serial as an identity key. When a later discovery feed reports the same serial, the record converges onto the same device instead of creating a twin.
5. Return a loan
Press Return on a register row. Each line takes a condition and a note, and any stock-sourced line needs a destination location. The return writes its ledger leg, re-arms the unit to in stock, and closes the rental window for leased devices.
The register filters by client, so the per-client "on loan" view is the client filter plus the open status: everything that client still holds, with expected-return badges and overdue marks.