Understanding the four asset types
Everything you track in UniAsset lives in one of four modules. They share the same infrastructure — history, documents, reports, alerts — but they never share records, and each has its own page in the sidebar.
Choosing correctly at the start saves a migration later.
The four modules
| Module | Tracks | Quantity | Sidebar |
|---|---|---|---|
| Assets | An individually identified item — one laptop, one forklift | No | Assets (Individual) |
| Asset Stock | Quantity-held stock of a capital item — ten spare laptops | Yes, ledger-backed | Asset Stock |
| Consumables | Supply that gets used up — filters, toner, fasteners | Yes | Consumables |
| Documents | A document that is the asset — a licence, permit, certificate | No | Documents |
Assets
One record per physical thing, with its own serial number, service history, documents, custody trail and financial position.
Use it when you care about this one specifically — who has it, what happened to it, what it has cost.
Asset Stock
Capital items you hold in quantity, where the individual unit does not matter until it is issued.
Ten identical spare laptops in the store room are one stock item with a quantity of ten — not ten asset records. When one is issued, the quantity drops to nine and the movement is recorded with who, when, why and the resulting balance.
The quantity is never edited directly. It is the running result of a ledger, so any balance can be explained by reading its history.
Consumables
Supplies that are consumed in the course of work: air filters, printer toner, fasteners, cleaning materials.
Track quantity, a minimum threshold and a unit. Restock when supply arrives, withdraw when it is used, and get an alert when you fall to or below the threshold.
Consumables are deliberately simpler than Asset Stock — they are supply levels, not capital held in quantity, and they do not carry a full audit ledger.
See How to create a consumable
Document Assets
Documents where the document itself is what you are tracking: an operating licence, a vehicle registration, a fire safety certificate, a professional accreditation.
Each carries an identifier, issuer, issue date and expiry date, and is monitored for expiry in its own right.
The distinction people get wrong
Consumables versus Asset Stock. This is the one to get right.
- A consumable is consumed. Fit the air filter and it is gone. It has no remaining value and no continuing existence.
- Asset Stock is capital held in quantity. Issue a spare laptop from the store room and it is still an asset your organization owns — it has just moved from the store room to someone's desk.
Ask yourself: after it is issued, do we still own something of value? If yes, it is stock. If no, it is a consumable.
Document Assets versus attached documents. Also easy to confuse.
- A Document Asset is tracked in its own right. The operating licence is the thing.
- An attached document is a file on another asset. A vehicle's warranty PDF belongs to the vehicle.
A vehicle's registration certificate is a Document Asset if the registration is what you are monitoring for expiry; it is an attachment if the vehicle is the record you care about.
See Document Assets vs attached documents.
Worked examples
| Thing | Module | Why |
|---|---|---|
| The CEO's laptop | Assets | Individually assigned, has a serial, has custody |
| Five spare laptops in IT stores | Asset Stock | Interchangeable, still capital, issued from a balance |
| Printer toner | Consumables | Used up |
| A forklift | Assets | Individually maintained, has a service schedule |
| Hydraulic oil for the forklift | Consumables | Used up |
| The forklift's operator certification | Documents | Expires, is tracked in its own right |
| The forklift's purchase invoice | Attached document | Belongs to the forklift record |
| 200 identical stacking chairs | Asset Stock | Interchangeable capital held in quantity |
Can I move something between modules?
No — the modules do not share records, so there is no conversion action. If you have filed something in the wrong module, create it in the right one and archive the original. Archiving preserves the history rather than destroying it.
Getting this right during setup is much cheaper than fixing it later, which is why it is worth ten minutes now.
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