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Methods for Equipment Management
There are two methods of managing drying equipment in Encircle. This has to do with how your team places equipment on the job for your equipment logs and how your units are labeled and/or tracked across claims (if applicable).
You'll see a toggle for these methods under the Equipment tab of your org settings. They are Quick Add and Inventory.
We recommend that you stick to one method to keep things easy for your team. Below, we'll discuss both methods.
Quick Add
Quick Add is the simple, no-frills way of doing equipment in Encircle. Field users simply place generic pieces of equipment on the job without assigning a make, model, or asset number.
These units are one-time-use, meaning that they will not be saved to a permanent inventory or be available to place again on future jobs. You simply place them on the current job in order to meet your equipment recommendations and create an equipment log for that job.
If you don't keep a comprehensive inventory somewhere or if your team feels bogged down by keeping track of models and asset numbers, Quick Add is the way to go.
If you’re onsite with a piece of equipment that’s not yet registered in your organization’s account, you won't have to pause the workflow to figure out how to add it to the system. Simply place some generic units on the job and carry on.
Click through the demo below or watch this how-to video to see Quick Add in action.
Inventory
If you want the ability to assign models and asset ID's, track equipment across claims, and track power consumption of units, then you'll want to use the Inventory method.
Under this method, you will keep an equipment list of the units that belong to your organization. When field technicians are ready to place drying equipment on the job, they will choose from your available inventory. As such, this method does require upkeep of your equipment list; you'll want to be careful that field users are not creating duplicate pieces of equipment.
Each unit is assigned a make, model, and asset ID so that its location can be tracked across claims. Inventory units also have power specs assigned to them so that you can get an idea of your drying equipment's power consumption per claim.
The Inventory method is useful if you're looking to get more data from your equipment management in Encircle, or if you're integrating Encircle with another 3rd party tracking tool like Kahi or Nero.
Check out these other help articles to find out more info about using equipment inventory.
I want to switch to Quick Add!
If you’ve been using Hydro for a while, you’re probably already familiar with the Inventory method of equipment tracking. You can keep this feature enabled in addition to Quick Add if you like, though we recommend choosing just one method of equipment management for your sanity.
To switch to Quick Add, disable your Inventory and enable the Quick Add toggle only.
Going forward, your field staff will not be prompted to select equipment from your inventory list by brand, model, and asset number.
This change will not impact any previous or in-progress jobs. In other words, if you have inventory on jobs already, those units will not be removed from the job or deleted from your inventory when you toggle it off. If you re-enable Inventory at some point down the road, your equipment list will come back just as it was.
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