Who can check out assets?
Asset Check-Out is available on every plan, including Nova. Whether you can use it depends on your role, and on normal asset rules — not on your organization's subscription tier.
The roles
| Role | View checkouts | Check out | Check in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Owner | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Admin | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Manager | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Employee | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Viewer | Yes | No | No |
Employees can check items out and in — that is deliberate. The people doing the work are usually the people taking equipment out, and requiring a manager for every tool loan would mean the record stops being kept.
Viewers are read-only. They can see custody records but cannot change them.
Checkout sessions
The same roles that can check out and check in can also create and return checkout sessions.
Permissions are not plan capabilities
Asset check-out is not a plan-gated capability. Access is decided by role permissions and the asset's own checkout rules.
| Question | Decided by | |
|---|---|---|
| Permission | Is this person allowed to? | Their role |
| Business rules | Is this asset eligible? | Asset state, tenant, active checkout, etc. |
A Viewer on Cosmos still cannot check an asset out. An Owner on Nova can.
Who assets can be checked out to
Checkouts are made to People, not to login accounts.
That means you can check an asset out to a contractor who has never signed in — no seat is used. It also means archived people cannot borrow, which is what makes archiving a leaver safe.
Troubleshooting
The Check Out button is missing. You are likely a Viewer, or the asset is not eligible (archived, disposed, or already checked out).
I'm on Nova and expected check-out to be locked. It is not — check-out is available on every plan. Check your role.
The person I want isn't selectable. They are archived, or they do not exist as a Person yet. See How to manage people.
I can see checkouts but the buttons are disabled. That is the Viewer role behaving correctly.
Everything is locked and my subscription lapsed. An expired subscription blocks creating new records — including checkouts — while leaving existing data readable.
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