In order to prevent users from reserving items or returning items outside of your business hours, you can now configure settings to limit loan times. This may help to ensure that users don’t reserve an item for say, 1:00am – 3:00am, even accidentally.
Furthermore, in order to set a limit on how long a user can borrow equipment, we now have a feature to set maximum loan hours per category and role. This will ensure that users are limited from borrowing equipment for too long a period.
To Configure Business Hours:
Log into your Reftab account and click ‘settings’. Then, click the option for ‘date and time’. Then, click ‘configure business hours’.
You will then be able to set hours that you will allow users to reserve items and set return dates on check outs. Anytime someone tries to set a reservation, (or a return date) outside of your business hours, an error will appear on the screen and the action will be prevented.
Business hours will display as a gray area on the reservation calendars. Users will not be able to drag their mouse on these times.
For example, if you set business hours from 9:00AM – 5:00PM Monday through Friday, a user can only drag their mouse on the calendar between the hours of 9AM and 5PM. If they reserve the item overnight, users can drag their mouse across business hours as long as the return time is between 9AM – 5PM next day.
To Configure Maximum Loan Times:
Log into your Reftab account and click ‘settings’. Then, click the option for ‘loan options’. Then, click ‘configure maximum loan times’. For each category and role, provide a value in hours to set limits.
For example, if you have a maximum limit of 24 hours set on your category of “cameras”, anytime a user tries to select longer than 24 hours on the calendar, the system will throw an error saying that the item can only be reserved for a max of 24 hours.
UPDATE: Reftab has a “loan override” option available. To give a user the rights to override set business hours or max loan time, edit their access role and find the option for “allow loan override” and set to ‘yes’.
As of mid 2019, Reftab supports integrating your Reftab assets with your Jira account. This is the first iteration of the plugin.
Current features include:
Linking Reftab assets to Jira service desk issues
Viewing asset details on linked Jira service desk issues
Within Reftab, viewing linked Jira Issues when viewing assets
Reftab will be enhancing this plugin to add more features.
Steps to configure the plugin:
You will need a Business subscription plan to integrate Reftab into your Jira instance. If you do not have one, you can sign up for a free Reftab account and start a two-week trial of the Business plan by clicking the, “Click Here To Start Free Trial – Business” link. Then, log out of your Reftab account. (we will be logging back in shortly).
2. Once your Reftab account is set and you are logged out, log into Jira, click “Apps” > “Explore More Apps”
3. Click, “Find new apps” and search for “Reftab”.
Search for Reftab
4. Install the plugin by clicking “Get app”.
Click “Get App”
5. You’ll see a box appear on the right hand side, indicating the app is “adding” to your Jira instance. Once the plugin installs, click “Get Started” in this same box:
6. Next, you’ll see instructions on screen. Go to the Reftab login page and click “Remember Me” and login with your Reftab account:
Check box for, “Remember Me”
7. Then, reload the Jira page. You will then see a new screen that will allow you to ‘set an account’. Please select which account Reftab should use to search for issues. This account must have correct access rights to view issues.
Wait until you see “synchronizing” .
Plugin will start to sync with your Jira account
8. When it’s complete, it will say 100% Synchronized. Next, you will need to configure the custom asset field and place the field on screens. This allows assets to show up on Jira issue and, on the ‘create issue’ screens for end users.
9. Back in Jira, click the Jira Icon
Click Jira icon
10. Click “Gear Icon” > “Issues“
11. Next, on the right side, under “Fields” scroll down and click “Custom Fields”
12. Next, at the right hand side of the page, click “Create Custom Field”
13. Next, select “All” on the left side and search “Assets” and click “Legacy Assets” and click “Next”
14. Name the field Assets. Give it a description and click “Create”. It is important to specifically enter “Assets” into the name field (sans quotes).
Name the field “Assets”, provide a description & click “Create”
15. Next, select the appropriate screens you want the assets drop-down list to appear on, and click the “Update” button at bottom.
Select screens for field to appear on and click “update”
16. Next, we’ll edit our project so that the assets field is available on the ‘help-center’ of the customer / end-user facing service desk screens. (This is the page that end users who submit help tickets will use – they will be able to select their assets they currently have assigned to them in Reftab).
17. In Jira, go to your Service Desk Project and on the left hand side click “Project Settings”
Click “Project Settings”
18. Next, Click “Request Types”
19. You will see a list of your custom requests. You can click any of them where you would like the assets field to appear. In this walkthrough, we’ll click “Desktop / Laptop Support”.
20. Next, from the right side, click and drag “Assets” to the middle screen:
21. Click “Save Changes” at the bottom
22. Now the fields are configured.
23. To test this, click the “Preview” button
You should see “Assets”. Click and the select list will appear with a list of your assets from Reftab.
24. Or, Click on your Service Desk Project
25. Next, click on any existing issue:
Select an issue
26. On the issue Locate the “Assets” field and click “Link Asset“
27. You will now be able to link assets to issues. When you select an asset, you will be able to view asset details in the issues screen
Asset details will display
(If you click “View In Reftab” a new browser tab will open to that asset in Reftab)
28. When you are in Reftab, if an asset is linked to a Jira issue, you can click the “Jira Issues” button and it will display all the Jira issues and the status of the ticket:
Viewing an issue attached to an asset in Reftab
Next, we can see what end-users see when they submit issues from the Help Center
Users will log into the help center and click on your service desk. They can click on the item for Computers help.
When they click on “Desktop / Laptop support”
They will see the Assets drop-down field where they can link their asset to the issue they are submitting.
NOTE: when a user selects the Assets dropdown, it will show items in a list. The first items in the list are ones that the user currently has assigned to them. The next items in the list are any unassigned items in Reftab. For example if a user finds a broken printer, they can still select the printer when creating an issue even though it is not assigned to them in Reftab.
Additional Information: Jira will pull in assets as they are created in Reftab.
The Reftab Jira plugin is complete. For any questions please reach out to info@reftab.com.
We’ve been adding some new features to the platform such as a bulk asset loan import tool.
This feature allows you to import a list of assets and loanees to create an indefinite loan for each. This allows you to avoid manually creating a loan for each user in your system one-by-one.
We’ve made a few updates to the Reftab iOS and Android mobile apps.
Scan accessories and check accessories in and out, in bulk.
Scan kits and check kits in and out.
If an asset tag is scanned, and it does not exist in your Reftab account it will ask if you want to create a new asset using the scanned barcode.
These settings have been requested frequently so we’re happy to be able to release them this past week.
Regarding the mobile apps, we are working on an entirely new build. This build will be more native and access more features of the hardware of tablets and phones.
For example, we’ve had some interest in using the front facing camera to check out assets as a ‘kiosk’ / self check out mode. The apps will also feel more solid to work with and provide a smoother UX.
Thanks for reading. We hope to have these new builds out soon!
Wow!! We have been growing like mad as of late, it’s been very exciting. We’re happy to be able to bring a product like this that works great for our customers and we’re continuing to build new features and improve upon what we’ve got. Here’s a list of what we’ve released lately:
Kits – bulk accessories and assets together into one loanable item. Kits can be checked out to users and reserved both in the user portal and as an admin.
Bulk Check Out Accessories – Instead of checking items out one-by-one use the counter to set an amount, and in one click, items are assigned.
Active Directory – LDAP Sync – Sync with an active directory so that users are created automatically as loanees instead of having to create a loanee each time a user arrives at your organization. (this is done automatically as a scheduled job)
More User Settings – You can now set how you would like your calendar to appear, you can set your date time to 24 or 12 hour time and a few other options have been added such as pre-defined loan hour periods.
We also have been doing some backend updates to improve our code base in order to keep things lean and reliable. This will help us with future additions to our product.
We’re working to basically make all actions available to be done in bulk. We recognize that having to manage a lot of equipment means that you want to perform actions in Reftab quickly. We want to lessen the frustration of having to click too many times on multiple items to perform the same actions.
Lastly, we’ve got a lot to do in our pipeline. We’re going to pretty much give our mobile app an entire refresh and allow it to work with kits and accessory items. We’re also going to be adding more field types.
Thank you to all of our new customers! Again, we’re so happy to be able to provide software like this to help you in your day-to-day. Please reach out to info@reftab.com if you have any questions for us.
Reftab can log changes made to assets so that you can view past history of how assets move between locations, status changes and even created / deleted information.
If the setting, “Record asset change-log” is on, every time an asset is created, deleted, or gets updated (including changes location), the old value, new value, date and time and the user who made the changes is logged. This setting is available to Pro and Business subscriptions only and not available for Standard or Free accounts.
Then, find “Record Asset Change-log” and turn it “On” and click “Save System Wide Settings”
When assets are updated, you’ll be able to see the changes in the tab “Changelog History”
You can view change-log history for each user on the “Loanees” page. This will show you changes made by the individual user as opposed to on a singular asset.
Reftab has just released one of the biggest feature updates to the platform: The User Request Portal. This allows you to set up a custom branded portal for your end users to login and submit requests for available assets, accessory items and software.
Once an item is requested, an email, (which can be customized) gets sent to the user as well as any other email address you would like CC’d or BCC’d. Next, the reservation will be visible under the “Reservations” section of the site. The dates in which the item is reserved are blocked off so that no one else can reserve the item on those same dates. There is a calendar view in the portal that will display the currently reserved dates on each individual item. Once the date of the reservation is met, you can check out, (assign) the item to the user.
Furthermore, the way you allow your end users to access the portal is by adding users to a RBAC group that has portal access. You may have an unlimited amount of these groups. This means that you can display specific assets, inventory items, software and locations to individual groups.
For example, if you have users in a location on the east coast, you can create a group that when logged into the portal, only see items available to that east coast location.
This is the first iteration of the User Portal. We will be focusing on adding more features to this as we move forward. This feature was highly requested and we are very pleased to now offer it to our users.
For any questions, please feel free to email info@reftab.com and we’ll be happy to help.
As of late, the Reftab team has been busy behind the scenes. We recently updated our platform to allow asset id’s to include letters and numbers. We’ve put out app updates for both iOS and Android’s to be able to scan QR-Codes and Barcode asset tags with letters and number as well. Please remember to update your app!
Additionally, we have made some other updates:
Asset, Accessories and Licenses will now log who checked out the item. This is automatically included in reports as well.
There is a new Avery sheet label size: NoPeel L6145 (45.7 x 25.4 mm) for our customers across the globe using mm sizes.
We’ve also included some updates to include better alerting on accessory minimum quantities and expired licenses.
Next, we will be issuing an update to be able to define an asset ID pattern setting. This will help with each asset being created to include default affixes.
Thank you! Reach out to info@reftab.com for any questions.
This past week, we rolled out the following updates:
Updated the bulk edit function. You can now supply a list of asset numbers into a text field manually, instead of checking off each individual asset. This will help make bulk editing much quicker and easier.
We’ve added Two-Factor Authentication. If you choose to enable it, this is an added security measure to authenticate user logins. We use an authentication app, which, instead of using SMS text messages, you use an app such as Google Authenticator or Authy which generates a access code.
We’ve added the ability to change the due date of asset loans. Once an asset has been checked out, you can change the return date.
Most of the features we build are a direct result of customer requirements. We love hearing from our users and giving them the features they need. Please feel free to reach out to info@reftab.com. Let us know how we can help.
We’ve built out a feature to reserve assets, accessories and licenses. This is a new feature that was released recently and available on all paid plans. If you’re reading this and would like a free trial, reach out to info@reftab.com and we’ll set you up.
This feature is very simple to use. However, it’s built with a lot of sophistication.
Firstly, you reserve an item by setting a start date, a return date and a user (loanee).
Assets, Accessories and Licenses can be reserved.
The item will be unavailable during the requested dates. This means the item can’t be checked out during a time it’s been reserved. You must check out the item from the reservations page to fulfill the reservation.
However, you can still check out the item as long as you select a return date that comes before the set reservation date.
Items of which you have 0 quantity in stock, can still be reserved if you select a reservation start date after any item is due for return.
You cannot reserve an item during a date range that the item is currently checked out for.
You cannot reserve an item during a date range in which the only available item is currently reserved for.
Reservations can be cancelled, which will free up the reserved dates.
The Locations page will display a count of reservations due for the day.
The above may sound a bit complicated. The point however, is that these checks are so that you don’t have to worry about when items are due, or what you have in stock vs what’s returning to stock at a future point. The dates are all computed for you within our platform. This avoids overlap and the possibility of reserving an item that you may not have. The last thing you’d want is someone arriving to pick up a reserved item which is not available.
Since this feature is new, we’ll be adding in more settings for the user to tweak as they see fit. Feel free to send an email to info@reftab.com if you have any questions and we’ll be happy to help.
For a live demo of this feature, visit us on YouTube
