The Equipment Book is where you enter what your inventory of the equipment you own. Before you can enter this information, you must first understand how HireTrack sorts and arranges your equipment. Understanding these basic ideas will make the entry of your inventory much easier.
HireTrack sorts your equipment on 4 different levels - from very general to very specific. These levels build on each other, and therefore are best represented by a pyramid.
Master Categories are very broad descriptions and sometimes referred to as departments.
Categories are a bit more narrow and are typically assigned to a master category, in other words categories are a sort of "Sub-Master Category". An example would a category of "Speakers" would be assigned to a Master Category of "Sound", or "Truss" would be assigned to a Master Category of "Lighting".
Equipment Types form the core of HireTrack and typically represent the manufacturer, model number and description. Equipment Types are assigned a daily rental price, a price scheme and most importantly a quantity owned. The quantity owned is what the program will use to calculate availability for a specified period. Equipment Types are assigned to a category, so a "Meyer UPA-1 Speaker" would be assigned to the category of "Speakers", which is in the Master Category of "Sound". You can have up to 20,000 different types of equipment, each with an associated quantity owned.
Items are specific pieces of equipment, which typically have a serial number, but it is not needed. These items will usually have, but not necessarily have a physical barcode attached to them, which must be unique and may not be duplicated. Items are not required, but they will provide you with the ability track which exact piece of equipment is sent out on orders.
It is a good idea to give some thought about how to best arrange your equipment before entering this information. Deciding how to set up equipment is the most important decision you will make when setting up HireTrack - and it is vital that you get this right
