Your Ultimate Guide to Asset Tracking Barcodes

Asset tracking barcodes help businesses stay organized, reduce losses, and make better decisions about the equipment and tools they rely on every day. In this episode, we break down what asset tracking really means, which businesses benefit most, and how to get started with a barcode system.

Whether you’re managing IT equipment, tools, vehicles, or high-value assets, this walkthrough covers the fundamentals (plus practical considerations on hardware, reporting, and best practices), so you can build an asset-tracking process that actually works!

✅ Try inFlow Stockroom for an easy scan-in and out workflow!
https://www.inflowinventory.com/inflow-stockroom

▶️ Barcode resources:
https://youtu.be/4hs5tq12s7M
https://youtu.be/zSfymC0OPt0
https://youtu.be/XcluJ7s1BHA

Podcast Produced by: inFlow Inventory
Hosted by: Jared Plumb & Melinda Tse

🎙️ Visit our website for show notes:
https://www.secretlifeofinventory.com/

Timestamps:
0:00 - Teaser
00:13 - Intro
2:14 - What counts as a business asset?
5:18 - What is asset tracking?
7:11 - Why should businesses track their assets?
9:20 - What types of businesses benefit from asset tracking?
11:26 - How do you implement asset tracking barcodes?
15:31 - What hardware do you recommend?
17:30 - Why is generating reports important?
21:29 - What are the downsides of asset tracking?
23:59 - What are the best practices for asset tracking?
27:59 - Outro

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#inventory #inventorymanagement #inflow #inflowinventory #assettracking #barcodes

Transcript

0:00

All those technicians are going to be on the road and in various locations. Right. So you want to make sure that you're keeping track of all of those things, how often they're being used, how often they're being serviced. You can't just like go and be like, sorry, I can't give you your shot because I have no syringes, right? So. Hello everybody I'm Jared. Hi, I'm Melinda! And welcome back to The Secret Life of Inventory. This is a show where we dive deep into the unseen world of inventory management, revealing the hidden mysteries that help businesses like yours optimize their workflow and succeed. As you can see, we're in our brand new studio space now. Ta da! Yeah. This has been in the works for the past year, so we're really excited to show you the setup. Yeah. So we really leaned into the whole, uh, secret Life. Of Inventory. Vibe. So we're trying to get like, a whole back room of the warehouse where, you know, you go to kind of gossip. About chit chat. Inventory secrets, reveal the secrets of all the inventory. Related things you're doing. Yeah. For you audio listeners, make sure to check out our YouTube so I can actually see. Do you actually see all the. Goodness of this wonderful studio? But on that note, in today's episode, we're actually going to be talking about asset tracking. So essentially, the way you can think about asset tracking is a way of monitoring all of the things within your business that you need to actually generate revenue. So it doesn't necessarily have to be the products that you sell, but it could be anything from like, you know, staplers, pens, expensive machinery, laptops, even intangible things like, say, your IP or your brand identity, things like that. And not every asset needs intensive tracking, but knowing which ones to prioritize and how to do it can save you a lot of time, reduce errors and improve productivity. So in this episode, we're going to focus on how to manage and track your physical assets by using asset barcodes. Yeah. And if you're actually looking for something that's actually a super simple way of tracking assets, we recently just released a brand new product called Inflow Stockroom. So this is a wonderful solution for teams that are looking for something very, very super simple for their employees to just kind of grab, scan and go. So we'll talk about that a little bit as well. So if asset tracking has ever been a headache for you, then you've come to the right place because we're going to break everything down in today's episode. Okay. So before we dive into asset tracking, let's talk about the fundamentals. So Jared, could you explain what exactly counts as a business asset. Yeah sure. So a business asset is basically anything that you use in your organization that's going to help you generate revenue. Okay. So that can be things like, you know, your inventory that can be you know, your consumables. It can be, you know, laptops, expensive machinery, you know, all of that stuff, um, anything like that. So it can be again, it can be tangible or intangible. So it's basically broken up into two different categories. So tangible, of course, is going to be things, you know, tangible. Items. You know, like your barcode scanners, your laptops, your tools, you know, your things like that, uh, printers, all that stuff that's going to be like your tangible assets. And then there's actually intangible as well. We're not going to be talking a ton about that today because we're going to be talking about tracking assets and intangible. Oh, of course, they're a little exactly right. So intangible, a little harder to track because they're just, you know, they're ideas, things like IP, your brand identity, even your processes, things like that, that those are actually considered assets and business assets because they are helping in your business operation. Right. So we're not going to focus too much on that today. We're going to be focusing just on the physical assets. But yeah, those are the kind of how you split up your different types of business assets, tangible, intangible, and you can actually separate it even further. And the way of doing that would be a current and then fixed assets. So current assets would be defined as basically anything that you would be using in your business within say a year. So, you know, for example, if you're working in an office, things like, you know, your pen and paper and I assume people still use pen and paper. Maybe we'll say ink cartridges. Do people still use printers? I don't know. Or if you're not, well, better example. So you're working in a in a hospital or a clinic or something. Things like PPE, you know, gloves and gauze, things like that. Yeah. Yeah. Mask. All those things are going to be used up within a year using those. Yeah. I hope they're using those. If you're in a hospital. Right. Yeah. Hope so. All right. The hospitals I'm going to. I'm hoping. Right. Yeah. So all that stuff is going to be considered like current assets. Even if you say you've prepaid your insurance or your rent or something for a period of time, that would also be considered a current asset. But fixed assets are a little bit different. These are things that are like you purchased once you know and you use them for years to come. They're very integral to your company. Things like laptops, barcode scanners, um, like expensive tools. If you're working in, you know, reservist service and field services. So like repair service, HVAC, things like that, you're going to have all kinds of really expensive pieces of machinery, even the truck that your service vehicles, even those would be considered business assets as well. That's so interesting because I feel like when people think about assets, the first thing is physical. But like you mentioned, there's intangible, like things that you can't touch and feel. And then there's tangible like, yeah, like the barcode scanners, the trucks and everything. It really covers a lot. Yeah. It's like it's like basically anything, anything that helps you, you know, like, make money. Really? Right. So, like, you don't think of things like IP, but like, you know, like Star Wars and, you know, like Harry Potter and all these, like, ideas, um, these things are actually worth money. Right. So it's important to understand that those are actually they have value. You don't necessarily have to track them like you would. You don't have to slap a barcode in an IP. But yeah, having those things in mind as business assets is really important. So going back to physical assets, how would you describe asset tracking and what's the best way to keep track of everything. Yeah. So I would say the best way to kind of like just in a sentence explain what it is. It's kind of more of like tracking the flow of where things are, you know, and you know, who has them, things like that. So it's just tracking the flow of items as they move through your organization, essentially. Right. So, you know, if it's consumables, it's like how often you're you're consuming them, how often your employees are using those things. And if it's, you know, expensive assets like tools, laptops, things that are used by your employees, you know, like who's using it, where it's located, who last used it when it was last, you know, service, things like that. And the best way to track all of these assets, whether it's consumable or if it's just a very expensive piece of equipment, is using asset barcodes, for sure. So it's not just about tracking the items you own, but it's also managing all the moving parts. Like you said, who's using it and like when? Yeah, exactly. Yeah. It's that's really the important part because that's the information that's really going to help you plan for the future and to get that those insights that are gonna be like, okay, how much of this am I using? Do I need to purchase another one of these. For that visibility? Yeah. Exactly. Right. So, for example, if you're working one of your technicians going back to field services, if one of your technicians is using this really expensive piece of equipment a lot and another employee can't access it and it's impeding his work, you know, okay, maybe I need to buy another one of those. So it's really important to kind of like have an understanding of where things are, how they're flowing, if they're, you know, if they're being able to be used by everyone efficiently, essentially. Right. We recently talked to one of our partners to they own a coffee bean wholesaler. So they are using asset tracking to also track how many raw beans they have, what's currently roasting and also what's ready to ship. So it really gives a good visible timeline of like the whole production. Work for sure. It's not just about your products, it's also about the things that help you create your products. From start to finish. Kind of. Exactly. That. Exactly. Yeah. Can you elaborate more on why businesses should track their assets? Yeah. I think, um, the main thing really comes down to collecting that data that it provides. Right? So when you're actually tracking your assets, you have a better understanding of what I was saying before of like, who's using what when? Um, things that are important because, you know, when you have really expensive machinery, say your manufacturer and you have this one, you know, machine that is integral for your business. Basically, if it goes down, your whole operation will bottleneck. Right. It's really important to track, you know, the status of that if it's functioning, you know, when's the last time it was repaired. Things like that. So you can really have a good understanding of it. Yeah. The condition of it and that's what it boils down to, is you need to know that this thing is going to be operational for this foreseeable future. And if it is going to go down that you're prepared for that, you're ready for it. Same thing with consumables. You know, like you want to make sure I know, like, for example, going back to the hospital, you know, you're not selling syringes or PPE or anything. You don't need those to actually generate revenue. Like as a 1 to 1. But you need those to, to, to provide the service, you know, for, for your patients to come in for you to see those patients, you need that stuff so safe. Exactly. You can't you can't just like go and be like, sorry, I can't give you your shot because I have no syringes. Right. So when you're tracking your assets, and especially if you're using asset barcodes and proper software, you're going to have a really great data collection. And every scan is going to basically give you actionable insights. You know, you're going to be able to look at those reports and say, okay, we've been using this much mass or we've been this certain, um, you know, machine has been down for six months of the year. You know, perhaps we should think about, you know, upgrading or something like that. Right. So the raw data that you get from doing your your asset tracking is really what is going to provide the most value essentially. So it's not just about not losing things or not having things. But then but. Yeah, it's the it's really it's just really like fine tuning your workflow. Right. That's what that's what the real power comes to like. Yes. You'll be able to, you know, have less stock outs and all that stuff, which is great, but and you not have as much theft and all that, but you're going to really be able to dial. Everything for the future. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So far we've only touched on a few examples. But what other types of businesses could benefit from asset tracking? Is it just for big companies or. Yeah, no, I would say like any size company can really can really get some value from it. I mean, there is a caveat to that, of course. Like if, say, if you're just a small startup that you're a software company. In one laptop. Yeah, you have two employees that each have a laptop or just the one laptop. You know, there's not really a whole lot of obviously reason to do that. But there is a chance that, you know, even startups, they hopefully are going to be scaling. And that's the goal, right? So over time they will need asset tracking right. And our company is a perfect example of that. You know we started off very small as a two person co-founding team. Now we've grown you know to like over 60 employees. Of course now we have a ton of internal assets that need to be tracked. And of course we track all of those assets. So I think it's best to kind of think of it as just starting small, and it's never too early to kind of get started. And it'll be really easy when you only have two things to track to, right? So at least like when you're starting small. Develop the workflow early instead of like we have a hundred, then you're like, oh no. Let's do this. Like, exactly. You just prepare yourself for the future, right? But yeah, I think that pretty much any company of any size can really benefit from it. It's not just for the big players, it's for it's for everyone, even even online only retailers. You know, they're going to have like a warehouse that's going to have like forklifts, um, you know, pallet movers, even the warehouse itself, if they own it. All that stuff should be, you know, should be considered as assets and should be. Tracked to much, well, online stores. Yeah. I mean, there there is the there is the exception I suppose, where things there are certain business models that try and avoid physical assets entirely, and that would be like Dropshippers, for example. Like their whole business model is all they really want. Is a is an online store for. A laptop, one laptop. Just a laptop, a Shopify store. And that's it, right? Everyone else handles everything else. And that is kind of the point. They want to keep their margins incredibly low. So in that case, of course you're probably not going to really need a need asset tracking. But for the most part, if you have any sort of physical goods, um, in your company at all, um, whether you're selling them or not, you should definitely can benefit from an asset tracking workflow. Okay, so this all sounds amazing in theory. In theory, right? Yeah, of course. But for those who want to learn how to set up barcode asset tracking, could you walk us through the process? Yeah. So I mean, it's not as daunting as it seems. Uh, essentially an asset barcode is just a barcode. It's all it is. It's just like a barcode that you would see on products, you know? In fact, asset barcodes are probably easier to deal with on, generally speaking, because if you have a barcode on a product, oftentimes you're going to have to have a GS1 registered barcode that there's a cost that comes along with that. Where in asset tracking, essentially it is just internal. So you can just create your own barcodes. There's no problem with that because you don't need outside organizations to recognize those barcodes. Exactly. And who doesn't like free stuff. You know yeah. Free. And it's super easy to set up. We'll kind of get into just the very basics. Uh, in this episode we have another episode. Episode three. Yeah. Where we talk about creating a barcode system from scratch. So check that out. We'll leave the link in the description if you want a kind of a big detailed overtake of what barcodes are, how to how to do the barcode system. We also have episode 13 as well on which barcode scanners to use, which printers, so definitely check that out as well. We have everything covered when it comes to barcodes. And if you're a manufacturer specifically, we have an episode on episode 12 on barcoding, so you can do all. If you ever need to know of any of the barcodes, just check back at her past episodes for sure. But again, we'll get into kind of the just the very basics of it. So essentially all you, all you're going to need is just, you're just going to need your barcodes. And you can create those with either a barcode font. We actually have one of those free to use. We'll leave the link for the in the description for that you can also use online barcode generators. Most of them as far as I know, are very much free. If you have a system already that you're using, say you're using Apple Stockroom or something like that, you can generate barcodes right in the app. So that's great. All of our info products actually have barcode capabilities. We have built in barcoding. So whatever you're using, um, generally you'll probably be a way to create a barcode with any good, I should say with any good software. So I'm putting ours in that category, of course. Yeah. Um, but other than that, of course, once you have your, your actual barcode, you can, you know, the printer, you can actually just use an office printer if you really want. A lot of businesses though, if they're using barcodes in any capacity, we'll generally have a barcode printer already, a barcode scanner already so that, you know, you're already kind of set up to do asset tracking in that sense. But if you don't have those things, you can use an office printer. That's no big deal. You can even use your cell phone for as a scanner to double as a scanner. So the barrier of entry is super low. Super low. Yeah, yeah. Everyone has a cell phone. I think it's like mandatory these days. Pretty much everyone has one attached to their hand anyway. Right. So yeah, that's all you're going to need. Which is it's really again, easy to get. You really don't need any super high tech setup at all. No, no. Yeah. Again cell phone is super easy. Um, like if you're using info stockroom, we have like a label designer built in. So you can kind of create your, your barcodes, uh, put them on the label, design your label in any way, print them out right into the app. Um, yeah. It just makes it really, really easy to kind of. Like, start small and then upgrade as you go to. Yeah, exactly. I mean, I just can't I need to to say something about Excel. So of course. So you can get by without even having barcode software. You can use Excel and have barcodes kind of work. Manually type. It. Yeah. So essentially it works as like a super fast way of like searching products that you have all of your products listed in your spreadsheet. Each one has a barcode attached in the cell. You could just use like control find, scan the barcode. It will it'll basically type that that number in and then it'll find that that specific product. Not the greatest workflow very clunky and whatnot. But yeah, it's even possible to do it without software if you really wanted to track your assets. So you really can't get started for free. Yeah, you can actually get started and do it for free if you, you know, if you have Excel, it's. Not. Headaches. Yeah, most businesses do. But it's not going to be great for like larger businesses. But if again, if you're starting off small or smaller team or whatever, maybe start off with just Excel and then you can kind of upgrade later on to using an inventory software. It's good to know for sure. Yeah. For sure. So you mentioned inflow stock from earlier. It's a really good software to scan in and scan out. But what about hardware. So we actually have a full ecosystem. Barcodes have always been a big part of of our lives. Here at inflow we see the value in them. We've always been trying to get small businesses to realize that they're not just for the big boys. You know the end girls. They are for everybody. Yeah, they are very they're very much for everyone, for all shapes and sizes of businesses. And so that's why we decided that we were going to develop our own hardware. So we have options for Bluetooth scanners. We have wired USB scanners. We have our uh, our kind of our star, our smart scanner. That's kind of a great thing that has info kind of just preloaded right into it built right in. Yeah. Like you said. So I mean, these are really great options that kind of work so well within the inflow ecosystem with, with our software. We just recently released the inflow portable printer. You can see all that stuff just behind you and you can see how small that printer is. It's like it fits in the palm of your hand. It has great print quality. It's really yeah, we we took the time to do the R&D on that and to really make it as useful for our customers as possible. So we really listen to like what they wanted, you know, and we're going to have some accessories coming out for that as well. So like a little Strap. Yeah. And the the smart scanner. We have accessories for that as well. We have a pistol grip. So it it turns it into a more traditional scanning device that people. Understand as well. Charging dock. Yeah. There's even a hand grip. Uh, so there's all kinds of different ways you can kind of, like, get the most out of the hardware that we use. But they all work really, really well, um, with, with inflow. So it's a great way to kind of if you're looking to upgrade this and they're all within a good price point, they're not going to break the bank or anything like that. They are very much affordable, uh, as far as the competition is concerned. So yeah, but. You want to avoid using Excel or getting any inventory headaches. Just just skip it. Just skip it. Just straight to the. Just be you know like it's like the Apple ecosystem but it's the inflow ecosystem. You know, it all works and talks together really well. Don't make life hard. Just keep it simple. Yeah. Simple. Exactly. So going back to inventory software, I know something that differentiates it from doing it manually is that you can generate reports. So can you talk a little bit about why it's important to run reports? Yeah. So I mean just it's just another reason why software is so much better than just having an Excel spreadsheet is having again, it's going back to the data situation, right. So writing reports is going to give you all of that data kind of in an aggregated kind of way. You know, it's going to show it to you in a way that's easy to understand. So you're going to be able to you'll be able to look at kind of trends and things like that to see going back to like consumables, you'll see how fast you're going through certain certain things. It's going to make it easier for you to set reorder points so that you don't run out of those really integral things like, again, PPE things, the important stuff that you absolutely need to. Make sure you can run this operation. Yeah, I think, well, let's take an example. Right. So say you're working at a dentist, you're working at a dentist office, right. And you're working as, you know, the the dental hygienists. Right? I believe that's what they're calling it. How does it rack my brain for a minute? But yeah. So you're working as a dental hygienist and the the dentist is filling a couple cavities and he says, you know, hey, can you go back to the stockroom and grab me? You know, these couple items, you know this. He has a he's a patient is just light up. Their mouth is wide open. They have things in their mouths. Dry. Chapped. They're drooling. You know, they chapped lips. The whole thing. Right. So obviously, time is of the of the essence in a situation like this, right? And if your process is to kind of just go back and, you know, pick something and it's not there, for example, because you're not tracking it properly, you're going to be, you know, very disappointed or the dentist is going to be very disappointed. I'm sure the the patient will be as well. Right. So you're going to prevent things like from the in high stress situations. You're going to prevent things like that from happening. You know, and I mean and even actually going back to the ease of use of, of using software is in a situation like that, if you have a system that is a little more clunky and a little more time consuming, um, you're going to people are going to be less likely to follow that workflow. You know, for example, if that person, that technician had to go open up a laptop in the stockroom and. Pull. Up the log in, pull up the Excel spreadsheet and adjust the, the the inventory level, and then take the thing you know by the all the time. You're like 15 minutes, you're gone. And then, you know. So like again, time isn't the essence in these situations. Your money. Your time is money. Time is that that patience. Who's laid up in that chair? That's their, uh, sanity, essentially. Um, so, yeah, you want to be able to. That person wants to be able to just go into that back stockroom, grab what they need, and go. Um, if you have something like stock room, you would just go in. You just scan your items is how many you're taking. Take it and go. Right. So you're you're adding as little friction as possible. In and out, in and out. In and out. Right. So yeah, with so when you have the software, you're going to make it as frictionless as possible. It's going to be easy to kind of track those things. And you're going to be able to run those reports because every scan basically is going to be creating actionable data for you to use. Right. And then going back to like, you know, expensive assets like machinery and things like that, it's integral to know, again, who has it scanned out when they scanned it out where it's located. If you're if you're doing a mobile job site workflow and say in an instance of like an HVAC company or something, yeah, all those technicians are going to be on the road and in various locations, right? So you want to make sure that you're keeping track of all of those things, how often they're being used, how often they're being serviced, and reports are going to give you the, you know, the data that you need and all that stuff just at your fingertips. Right. So you can make more informed decisions when it comes to purchasing new expensive assets and replenishing consumables. Yeah. Sounds super powerful. Yeah. It's very it's incredibly powerful. Yeah. Reports are, I think, one of the best things about having software in place for sure. Another great thing about running a reports is the accountability that kind of bakes into it. Right. So you're going to be able to see like who actually is scanning things out and who you know, who's using which things. It's going to prevent things like theft. It's going to prevent, you know, a lot of those mix ups of, oh, I didn't take that out or something. Got lost. Yeah. Something got lost. Yeah. Right. Yeah. So it's a lot it's a lot better. Way of less intrusive way of kind of having that accountability just kind of baked into the whole process. Right. How about the downsides for asset tracking. Is there anything to be aware of. Yeah I mean there's always downsides to everything. So of course asset tracking there you know, is just like everything else it has its downsides I'd say the big one, which probably just be like, um. It's another system to maintain. Uh, in today's day and age, there are so many different software solutions that businesses are using, and for good reason. They're all very useful. But the more, uh, the, you know, the more complex your tech stack gets, the more it's hard to kind of like, keep up with everything. Um, I mean, integrations are great for that so that you can, you know, your systems can talk to one another, but not all systems are going to be able to integrate. So you have to kind of keep that in mind. So if you are asset tracking, it's just another thing that you have to maintain and keep up. I would say another big downside of course, would be the initial setup process. Of course there's going to there's going to be some time that you're going to have to invest in setting everything up, you know, from creating those product listings within your your system so you know which assets are what. Filling out all the details of the things that you want to track. Uh, things like that. So I think as far as like, you know, the setup, there is definitely some time investment that goes into it. But, you know, once things are up and running, you're you're good to go. You know, I mean inflow stockroom going back to inflow stockroom, but we tried to make it as frictionless as possible between the setup to also just how it's used. You know, for example, going back to the dentist example. He's still there. They're still waiting. They're still in the chair waiting, you know. So going back. To that example, you know, we even make it even easier for we thought about, you know, if that person was going back to the stockroom and they needed to get those specific things that they needed. Uh, it's probably would take more time if they had to, like, scan every single piece, like every barcode of every single item. So you can just put a barcode on the shelf itself and then scan the shelf and then input how many you're taking off the shelf. So yeah, we tried to make it as frictionless as possible between setup, between usage, just to make it so that again, the less friction, the more likely that your employees are actually going to keep up with this workflow. And we do offer onboarding as well, right? Yeah we have onboarding is is offered. It's very important I think um, to to to just really show you what the software can do. A proper training. Yeah, proper training and knowing what it's capable of, because some people might not realize that they're not getting the most out of the software. And they're paying for it, so they might as. Well. Exactly. If you're paying for it, you may as well maximize. It's the ROI for sure. Yeah. And I think onboarding is the best way for us to to do that, to provide that, to guarantee the value of our, uh, to show our best face, I guess. Right. Yeah. Okay. So let's say once we have everything in place, we have the barcode scanner, the barcodes, the label printer and the software. What are some best practices that businesses should keep in mind to get the most out of their system? Yeah. So I would say that the the big one would be to once you've started, you decided you want to start an asset tracking workflow to kind of start off by categorizing all of your products. So, you know, it's actually a great way to help store them as well. So for example, you might want to put all of your consumable PPE in one category or even all your consumables in general, one category. Um, and this like even where you're storing them, for example, it might make sense to kind of put all of the things in that category consumables altogether in the stockroom. And then categorize all of your really expensive machinery tools, things like that. Maybe they're in the back of the room because you're not going to them as often. You know, they don't need to be as accessible. So it's a good way for not only, um, you know, tracking your assets, but also organizing where they are located within your warehouse, stockroom or whatever to make them, as you know, to optimize essentially the flow, uh, within that room. So group type in group use. Yeah. Type and use is is a big one. Um, yeah. So I think that's kind of a big one. And I would say another thing to keep in mind, the best practice would be to really be mindful of the information that you're storing, uh, for these assets, um, or like, you can store as much or as little information as you want in a lot of these systems. You know, our system included, we have a ton of like, you can make custom fields and stuff. So you can really like, track essentially anything you want, anything you want. But you have to be mindful of like sometimes information overload is a bad thing, right? So if you have like for example, a really expensive asset machine that you need in your business. You want to know, you know, when you buy it, how much you pay for it. That's important, I guess, for like the overall life cycle of it. But you also just want to maybe just when it was service last, who who signed it out last what condition it's in and kind of just leave it there. Right. Because necessary details. Yeah. Like you don't need to to know what color is it. You know, like what are the dimensions of it. Most of the time things like that like, aren't really unless it's incredibly relevant to the usage of it. Like if you have for example, if you have PPE and you have different size gloves, of course you're going to want to track the difference. Yeah, you're going to want to track those different variants. But um. The dimensions of the finger. Like you don't need to like even the color of the color. Does it matter the color? No, probably not if you're just throwing them in the trash after. I'm not sure it's really too important. Right. So but things that are actually relevant to the actual asset itself then. Yeah, track that stuff. But everything else just kind of like boil it down to just the important stuff. Don't give your employees information overload. Too much is sometimes not a good thing. And if you are using asset barcodes and again, that's something that we always recommend. We love barcodes that you really want to think about the placement of the asset barcode. You obviously want to put it on a place that it's easily accessible. So don't be putting it on, you know, a piece of equipment where you have to like disassemble the machine in order to scan the barcode. That's obviously not helpful if it's for consumables. Again, putting it on maybe a side of the box that's like the front or the side or wherever. It's the most visible, the most accessible for whoever's taking that item out. That's really, really important. It's something that a lot of people don't think about, but it's very. Yeah. And then again, in the case if you're using something like inflow stockroom and it gives you the ability to kind of just tag a, um, just a rack rather than each individual, um, unit. I think that is. Convenient right there. Yeah, exactly. You just scan a thing and then punch in how many and you're good to go rather than scanning one after another. Turning on 50 of these, and you're scanning like crazy. So you could just scan the one barcode, punch in How many? Uh, and yeah. So I think those are probably the, the main, the three big, uh, the three big ones as far as best practices. Those are super helpful tips. So just to recap, number one is categorize your assets. So this could be by group type or use number two store relevant information. So just keep it simple less it's better. And then number three place barcodes with accessibility in mind. So make it clean simple and clear. Perfect. You're already ready to set up an asset barcode system. Yeah. And that is a wrap on today's episode on asset tracking. Thank you so much for joining us today. It's been a pleasure walking you through all of the nitty gritty details on how to track your assets. Yeah, we discussed a lot. But to summarize, asset tracking is about maintaining control over your resources. So whether it's your inventory equipment or your warehouses and asset tracking doesn't have to be complicated. All you really need is a barcode scanner, a scanner, label printer and software, which you can get at inflow, or you can get started for free. So don't be intimidated at all. And if you want a super simple software solution to track your assets, I recommend giving Inflow Stockroom a try. We're going to leave a link to the description. In the description for that, you can go and try it for 14 days for free, so you can see if it's going to be right for your business. But it is again, it's a really super streamlined way for you to track your internal assets. Thanks again, everyone for tuning in into this episode, and if you enjoyed this episode, make sure to give us five stars on Spotify and subscribe on YouTube, Apple, or wherever you listen to your podcast for more. And one last thing before you go is we actually also just launched The Secret Life of Inventory Comm website. So if you're ever curious about past episodes, maybe you want to look at the show notes, or you want to learn more about one of our guests that we had on the episode, you can head on over to Secret Life of inventory.com, and you can check everything out there. Thanks again everyone, and we'll see you in the next episode. Thanks so much. Bye everybody.