Creating first item in Trail

Welcome to use Trail asset management system! This guide has been created to help taking Trail into use for the first time, by starting with how to create the first items.

There are two ways on how to create items into Trail

  1. Use Trail Excel import sheet - You can ask for the Excel sheet from: support@trail.fi. The item information is filled in to the Excel. The finished list can be sent to Trail's support, and Trail will import the items into the system.
  2. Creating in Trail - User with Editor rights to Items -module, can create items by themselves.

Creating item in Trail

Creating new item requires that there is a department, category, and location information already found in Trail which are used on item creation phase. The key users who have access and rights to these pages in Admin module, can maintain these.

To create item, please first create an department, category, and location for it.

If the three information can be found already, you can move to next guide where is shown how the item is created: Creating an item

If no, please continue first with this guide

Creating department, and giving rights to it

Department tells which team uses or owns the equipment. With departments, it is possible to restrict the visibility to see items between users. Item can only be linked to one department.

  1. Open Admin - departments
  2. Click "Create a new department"
  3. Fill in at least the title
  4. Click "Create"

NOTE! For user to see and use the new department, please give user access to it.

  1. Open Admin - Users
  2. Search and open user's profile to edit view (remember also yourself)
  3. Section "Departments" select the department for user

  1. Click "Save"
  2. Repeat to other users or user groups.

Creating new category

Category describes the item and groups similar items together. Good examples: 'Microphones', 'Speakers', 'Projectors'

Categories are normally in-one-level, but if needed also a subcategory can be created. For example Main/parent category: Vehicles; Subcategory: Cars, Trucks, Ambulances.

Same model cannot belong to two different categories, so please keep these rather more general.

  1. Open Admin - Model categories
  2. Click "Create new category"
  3. Fill in wanted information
    1. Name - Category's name (mandatory)
    2. Code - If category would have a unique code. Shown in front of category
    3. Parent - Is this a subcategory for a main / parent category? If yes, select the main category.
    4. Departments - For which departments may have or need these type of items. Select those. When creating new item, Trail shows only the categories linked to the department.
    5. Description - Additional information
  4. Click Create

Create location

Location tells where the item can be found. Location is typically a physical location, but sometimes also another item. Here we will now create a physical location where item exists. If needed, location can also have sublocations to help if there are multiple different places. Such as: Main location: Name of the building, Sublocation: Room inside the building.

  1. Open Admin - Locations
  2. Click "New location"
  3. Add name of the location
    1. Parent - If you select location, this new location will be created as sublocation under it.
  4. Click Create

Creating the first items to Trail

When department, category, and location have been added, you can create the first item. Creating item needs Editor rights to Items module.

Click the next link to follow on how to create the item: Creating an item

Other instructions on how to get started with Trail can be found from here: Getting started

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