How to ask questions about your assets

The AI Command Bar answers plain-English questions about your organization's own assets — without you having to work out which report to open or which filter to apply.

When to use this

• You have a question but not the patience to build a filter for it
• You want a quick number for a meeting
• You are exploring your data and do not yet know what to look for

Requirements

• Available on: Nova, Orbit, Odyssey, Cosmos
• Roles: Any — answers are scoped to what your role is allowed to see

Steps

1. Open the AI Command Bar from the top bar of the dashboard.
2. Type your question in ordinary language.
3. Read the answer, the records behind it, and the suggested follow-up actions.

Questions that work well

• "Which assets are overdue for maintenance?"
• "What did we spend on the forklifts this year?"
• "Which laptops have warranties expiring in the next 60 days?"
• "How many assets are assigned to the Operations department?"
• "Which assets have no purchase cost recorded?"
• "What is checked out and overdue?"

Ask about things, time windows and amounts. Be specific about the period you mean — "this year" and "last 90 days" both work, but "recently" does not.

How the answer is produced

This matters if you are going to quote the figure to anyone.

1. Your question is turned into a structured, validated query.
2. That query runs against your own data as an ordinary database read, carrying your organization and your role scope.
3. The result is described in prose alongside the actual records and metrics.

Every number on screen came out of the database. The model decides what to ask; it never decides what is true, and it does not invent figures. That is what makes an answer as quotable as a report.

What it will not do

• It will not read another organization's data. Every query is scoped to your organization, server-side.
• It will not show you records your role cannot see.
• It will not predict the future — no failure prediction, no forecast of when an asset will break.
• It will not change anything. It reads; it does not write.

Common mistakes

Asking about something UniAsset does not track. Questions about supplier invoices, purchase orders or ledger entries have no answer because that data is not in the product.

Vague time ranges. "Recently" and "a while ago" are not periods. Say "in the last 30 days".

Treating it as a substitute for reports. For anything you need to export, filter precisely, or hand to an auditor, use Reports. See How to export reports.

Troubleshooting

"I couldn't answer that." The question is outside the range the query planner covers, or it needs data you do not have recorded. Try rephrasing it around assets, costs, dates or maintenance.

The answer looks lower than I expected. Archived and disposed assets are excluded from active views. Also check whether the records simply have blank fields — see Where your records are thin.

A colleague gets a different answer. Answers respect role scope. A Viewer and an Owner can legitimately see different totals.

Related articles

• Dashboard and navigation overview
• How to search and filter assets
• Reports overview and how to export them
• Where your records are thin — asset intelligence