How to manage people
People are the humans your organization deals with — anyone an asset can be assigned to or checked out to, whether or not they can sign in.
When to use this
Create a Person for anyone who needs to hold an asset:
- Employees, whether or not they use UniAsset
- Contractors and temporary staff
- Anyone borrowing equipment
If they also need to sign in, invite them as a user instead — that creates the Person automatically.
Requirements
- Available on: All plans
- Roles: Owner, Admin, Manager
People do not count toward your plan's user limit. Only sign-in accounts do.
Steps
- Go to Dashboard → People.
- Click New Person.
- Fill in:
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Name | Their name |
| Phone | Optional contact number |
| Employee ID | Optional. Unique within your organization when set. |
| Designation | Their job title |
| Department | Which unit they belong to |
- Save.
What happens next
- The person becomes available for asset assignment and check-out.
- Their record accumulates an assignment and custody history — what they hold, what they have held, and what they have done.
Viewing a person's activity
Open a person to see their assignment history and activity. This is the fastest way to answer "what does this person have?" before an exit interview or an audit.
When someone leaves
Archive the person. Do not delete.
Archiving means:
- Their history stays attributable — three years of maintenance records still say who did the work
- They cannot receive new assignments or borrow assets
Before archiving, reassign anything they hold and check in anything outstanding. See Deactivating users if they also had a login.
People and users together
Every user has exactly one Person, created automatically. When you invite someone who already exists as a Person, link the invitation to that Person so they do not become a second record.
Full explanation: People vs users.
Common mistakes
Creating user accounts for people who only need to be assignable. That uses a seat unnecessarily. Create a Person.
Inviting an existing Person without linking. Two records, split history.
Deleting rather than archiving. People archive by design, so history stays attributable.
Leaving departments blank. People belong to a department, and it feeds cost reporting.
Troubleshooting
I can't add a person. It needs Manager or above.
The employee ID is rejected. Employee IDs are unique within an organization. Another person, possibly archived, already has it.
A person isn't in the assignment dropdown. They are archived. Archived people cannot receive assignments.
I archived someone who still holds assets. The assignment stays recorded but they cannot receive new ones. Reassign the assets.
Someone appears twice. They were invited without linking to their existing Person. Archive the duplicate.
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