Asset Check-Out — how temporary custody works
Check-out records that an asset has gone out with someone and is expected back.
Requirements
- Available on: Orbit, Odyssey, Cosmos
- Roles: Owner, Admin, Manager, Employee can check out and check in. Viewers can see checkouts but not create them.
Check-out is not assignment
This is the distinction that matters most, and the one people get wrong.
| Assignment | Check-out | |
|---|---|---|
| Question it answers | Whose is this? | Who has it right now? |
| Duration | Durable | Temporary |
| Expects a return | No | Yes |
| Changes the other | — | Never touches assignment |
An asset assigned to the maintenance workshop and checked out to a technician for the afternoon is still the workshop's asset. Check-in returns custody; the assignment was never involved.
See Assignment, location and check-out.
What a checkout records
- The borrower — a Person, not a login account
- The time out
- An expected return date
- The purpose
- Notes
- Which users performed the check-out and the check-in
Availability is derived, never stored
An asset is available, checked out, or overdue. Overdue means an active checkout past its expected return date.
None of this is a stored flag — it is computed when you look at it. That means it can never go stale, and there is no situation where an asset shows as available because someone forgot to update a field.
One active checkout per asset
An asset can only be checked out to one person at a time. This is enforced so firmly that two simultaneous attempts cannot both succeed.
Checkout sessions
A session groups several items going out to one person for one purpose — a field job, a training course, a site inspection.
The set goes out together and comes back together, while each item remains individually returnable. The session completes when everything is back.
Sessions live at Dashboard → Assets (Individual) → Checkout Sessions.
The checkout cart
You can collect multiple assets from the asset list and check them all out in one action, rather than opening each one.
Alerts
UniAsset alerts on checkouts approaching their return date and again once overdue. Everything due appears at Dashboard → Upcoming.
What cannot be checked out
- Archived assets
- Disposed assets
- Anything already checked out
And archived people cannot borrow, which is what makes archiving a leaver safe.
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