Conducting an asset inventory
Inventorying your assets lets you know exactly what you have and where it is, and what is missing. Once you know what you have, you'll also be in a better position to make acquisition decisions.
With in the , you can choose to take stock of your entire collection or inspect one section at a time.
Each site can conduct an inventory of its assets, and generate inventory reports.
In addition, the district assets manager can start a district-wide inventory, monitor its progress, and generate district-wide inventory reports.
With either type of inventory, your goal is to enter the barcode number of each unaccounted-for item.
How do I take inventory of my assets?
How do I account for my items?
How do I generate an inventory report?
How does entering barcodes directly differ from uploading a file of scans?
What exactly does clicking Start New do?
What exactly does clicking Finalize do?
What exactly does clicking Finished do?
Can Inventory tell me if an item is in the wrong place?
I marked all my Unaccounted-for items Lost by mistake. What can I do?
How do I conduct a district-wide inventory?
How do I create a text file of barcodes?
How do I upload a file to Destiny?
How do I take inventory of my assets?
The following list gives an overview of the general procedure for Inventory:
- Set up a schedule before you start. This will help you keep track of what you've done and what you still need to inventory.
- Choose the assets you want to inventory. You can have multiple inventories open at one time and switch between them.
On the Start Inventory page, you can limit each inventory to any combination of the following:
- One or more Home Locations, Custodians, or Departments
- Any of your Asset Types
- Items having a Purchase Price greater than or less than a specified amount
- Items that have not been seen since a certain date.
You can also decide what action you want Destiny to take when the Home Location on record does not match the location in which you scanned it.
- To verify or update the Home Location of the items you account for, select your current scanning location.
- Scan, enter, or upload the barcode numbers for your items.
- Once you are sure you have entered the barcode numbers for all of your items, review the list of unaccounted-for items by clicking % Complete under Inventory on the page, and then See Details next to Unaccounted for:
- If you can locate any of the items on the list, click Found to account for it.
- If you cannot locate an item, click Mark "Lost" on the list to account for it and change its Status to Lost.
- Review the Lost Items list.
To open the list, click % Complete under Inventory on the page, and then See Details next to Accounted for.
If you can locate any of the items that had been Lost, either click Found on the Lost Items list or enter the barcode directly on the page to make it Accounted-for and change its Status to Available.
- Once the Unaccounted-for total is 0 (zero), your inventory is complete and you can finalize it
by clicking
and Yes to the confirmation message.
If your district assets manager started this inventory, click
and Yes to the confirmation message.
To help you keep track of the assets inventoried, click View In-Progress & Completed Inventories for a list, details, and reports of the inventories.
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How do I account for my items?
You can use any combination of the following tools and methods to take inventory:
- Enter them directly on the page.
- Create and upload a file of barcode scans.
You can use Follett (Destiny) Remote on a Follett Falcon or a workstation, or a PHD Dolphin+, to create the file. You can also use just a text editor,
with or without a scanner.
To learn more about the Follett Falcon or PHD Dolphin+, or to download Follett Remote, click Help next to
in the upper right corner. Then search for the information you need.
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How does entering barcodes directly differ from uploading a file of scans?
When entering barcodes directly on the page:
- Destiny does not create an Inventory job summary in .
- If there is a problem with the barcode number or the item, an alert message appears at the top of the page.
- The Status of any Lost item changes to Available.
When uploading a file of scans:
- Destiny creates an Inventory job summary in the .
- If there is a problem with the barcode number or the item, Destiny adds a message to the job summary.
- Lost items remain Lost.
Destiny adds an entry to the job summary indicating that the item is Lost.
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What exactly does clicking Start New do?
Destiny checks the Status of the items meeting your selection criteria and makes them either Accounted-for or Unaccounted-for:
- Items that have a status of Approved for Disposal, Available, Available for parts, Checked Out, In Use, or No Longer in Use become Unaccounted-for. You'll need to enter these into inventory.
- Items that have a Status of In Transit, Lost, Out for Repairs, Retired, Returned to Vendor, or Stolen remain Accounted-for. You already have information regarding the current location of these items.
- Items that have a status of Checked Out become Unaccounted-for unless you cleared the Also include items that have been checked out… check box on the Select Custodians, Select Departments, or Select Home Locations page when starting the inventory.
- Items that have a Status of On Order are excluded from inventory.
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What exactly does clicking Finalize do?
After you've inventoried the items in the selected ranges, you'll click
to close the inventory. If you have any unaccounted-for items, a message appears.
- Select Mark all unaccounted for items "lost" if you are sure that you cannot find the remaining Unaccounted-for items. When you select Mark all… on the message, Destiny changes their Status to Lost and
adds them to the Lost Items list, and they become Accounted-for.
- When you select Ignore them (don't mark them "lost"), Destiny does not change their Status. The Unaccounted-for items remain Unaccounted-for. Their Status remains as it was: Available; In Use; No Longer in Use; Available
for Parts; or Approved for Disposal.
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What exactly does clicking Finished do?
You'll have a
button for an inventory started by your district assets manager. After you've inventoried all your items,
you'll click
, and Yes to the confirmation message, to indicate that you're finished with your part of the inventory.
When all the sites are finished, your district assets manager finalizes the inventory and determines whether the items still unaccounted-for are to be marked Lost.
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Can Inventory tell me if an item is in the wrong place?
For each barcode scan, Destiny can compare the Home Location on record to the location in which you're scanning. If the location is different, Destiny can notify you either on-screen (for direct scans) or in the Job Summary (for file uploads). It can also update the location automatically.
On the Start Inventory page, you'll need to choose the action that you want Destiny to take if the location is different.
Make sure to specify your scanning location next to Current scanning location on the page before accounting for any items.
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I set all my unaccounted-for items to Lost by mistake. What can I do?
If you've finalized an inventory and selected Mark all unaccounted for items "lost" on the confirmation message by mistake, you can reset the item status to Available from the Lost Items list.
To gain access to the Lost Items list, you'll first need to start a new inventory that includes
the Lost items. On the Start Inventory page, you may want to limit the inventory to just the types or location
of the Lost items. To determine the range to include, you can generate a Completed Inventory Report first.
Once you've started an inventory, you can open the Lost Items list and reset them.
Open the Lost Items
list by clicking % Complete under Inventory on the page, and then See Details next to Accounted for.
Then, reset them.
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