FAQs

Account Cleanup will remove all data, except Printout Templates, Custom Fields, Settings, and Add Ons. This can take 30 minutes to a few hours to complete, depending on how much data you have to clean up.

You can clean up your trial account and start fresh for your subscription from the Cleanup button  ‘🧹’ located on the bottom right of the Settings page. 

Note: Printouts created by any member other than the Account Owner are also deleted. 

Two-step authentication gives an added layer of security to your AssetSonar account and restricts third-party access. This eliminates any risk of unauthorized access from your account and keeps your valuable information secure. 

Here is how you can enable this feature: 

1. Go to Company Company Settings→ Authentication→  Select Email and Password → Choose Two-Step Authentication. 

Click on Update to save the new changes. 

2. Now log in your AssetSonar account again. Once you have entered the correct login credentials, an overlay will appear asking you for a six-digit One-Time Password (OTP) that would have been generated automatically and sent to your registered email address. This OTP will be valid for 3 minutes. 

3. If you are unable to enter the OTP within 1 minute, you can click Resend One-Time Password to generate another OTP on your registered email address. 

4.Enter this OTP to successfully log in your AssetSonar account. 

What if I am unable to access One Time Password?

In case you have lost access to your registered email address or have forgotten your password you can follow these steps:

Ask your administrator to disable the Two-Step Authentication for you using their account.

They can do so by clicking on More→Users→Selecting the User name → More → Click Temporarily Disable Two Factor as shown in the image below: 

Note: Two-Step Authentication can only be enabled for Account Owners and User accounts. 

If your company administrators manage the checkouts, reservations and other actions of our staff users, you can restrict staff users from logging in.

1. Go to the Members module in AssetSonar.
2. Here, head to the respective Member Details page and click on ‘Edit’.
3. Deselect ‘Enable member to login’.

If you’re doing a mass import, create a column with ‘Yes’/‘No’ values and map it to ‘Login Allowed’.

�

Account Owner/Administrators can resend confirmation emails from Members → Send Reset/Confirmation email (against the staff user).

This will let the user reset their password as well.

Administrators can also head to the respective Member Details page and click on ‘Send Password Reset Email’.

Send a password reset email to yourself irrespective of your user level

Confirmation emails for an unconfirmed member’s account can be resent by going to the Login page and following the process for “Forgot your password?”.

Entering a member’s email address will resend a confirmation email to the member’s inbox. If the problem persists, please double-check your spam folder.

Applies To

• Custom applications
• SCIM Provisioning

Steps:

1. Log in to your Okta Org account as the Super Admin.
2. Click the ‘Admin’ button.
3. Go to Applications → Add Application.
4. Select the ‘Create New App’ button. Specify the Platform as Web, choose Secure Web Authentication (SWA) as the Sign-on method, and click ‘Create’.
   Input the values to complete the application setup.
5. Under the General tab, you will see the new Provisioning options. Note: Contact Okta Support if this option does not appear.
6. Select ‘SCIM’ as the Provisioning method and hit ‘Save’ once done.
   
   

Note: If the above options do not appear, contact Okta Support and request to have SCIM Provisioning enabled.

The account owner can view and print invoices from Settings → Billing → Invoices. We also send the invoice in an email to the account owner as they kick in.

You can change the Billing Address on the invoice from Settings → Company Settings → Company Profile → Company Information.

Account owners can delete members by enabling Member Deletion. Do this from Settings → Company Settings → Policy → Member Deletion. We recommend enabling this setting only when you have to delete members. Disable it afterwards to avoid accidentally deleting members.

Next, go to the Member Listings page. Here, select the members you’d like to delete, and click on Actions on Members → Delete. 

Note: You can only delete ‘orphan members’ added to your account. This refers to members that have not been involved in any activity or event.

If you want to remove users who’ve taken part in some activities, ‘Deactivate’ them instead. This enables the software to retain the member’s checkout history. As an example, John Smith may have used a laptop before leaving the company. If his member record was to be deleted, the laptop’s past assignment to him will be lost as well.

Note: Deactivated users will not count towards your subscription package limit.

As an account owner, you can transfer ownership to any (confirmed) administrator from Settings → Company Settings → Company Profile → Change Owner.

You can downgrade, upgrade, or cancel your subscription at any point in time. There are no extra charges. The option is available under Settings → Billing → Close my account.

AssetSonar has three different user levels:

1. Administrators
2. Supervisors
3. Staff Users 

The types of alerts vary at each user level and can be either ‘an email sent for each subscribed event’ or ‘a daily digest that summarizes all the events for the day’.

Staff users receive email alerts for actions they’ve subscribed to only when they’re involved in the action.

Alerts for Account Owner/administrators:

Check-in	Package check-in	Extend checkout	Stock request
Checkout	Package checkout	Request for check-in	Asset(s) Overdue
Request Reservations	Reservations starting today	Reservations alert in advance	Check-in approval by Admin
Email Print Labels	Check-in denied by administrator	Arbitrated request for check-in	Scanning label of an asset
Activation of an asset from retired state	Retiring of an asset	Deletion of an asset	Custom Field Alert
Audit requested	Audit completed	Service ticket created	Service Started on an Asset
Service Extended for an Asset	Service Completed on an Asset	Service Started on a Package	Service Extended for a Package
Service Completion Due on an Asset	Service Completed on a Package	Comments on Services	Sale/Purchase Inventory
Low Stock Threshold Alert	Location Based Threshold Alert	Transfer Stock

The above list keeps updating with additions to our features in AssetSonar.

Alerts for the staff users:

Check-in	Checkout	Extend checkout	Request for check-in
Check-in approval by admin	Check-in denied by admin	Request reservation	Reservation on asset in my custody
Arbitrated request for check-in	Audit requested	Audit completed

Learn more about the types of alerts that Account Owners, Admins and Staff Users receive.

Under the email alerts, a staff user can also customize these alerts based on groups and locations (see image below). You can receive alerts specific to these groups and locations.

Note: Admins and staff users can filter what kind of alerts they want to receive from their accounts. They can also subscribe to our regular newsletters.

Customized Email Alerts: Administrators can also customize the email templates for alert types from More → Alerts → Alert type (e.g. Check-in) → Add New.

You can then customize the template for ‘Check-in’ alerts. Insert placeholders containing dynamic data such as asset name, checked in by, custom attribute values, and more.

 Note: Customization does not apply to mail digests.

You can now customize the Low Stock Alert page as per your requirements. For example, users can track which vendor is responsible for restocking particular items.

To customize the page, access it from the bell icon in the top-right corner and click on ‘Low Stock’.

This takes you to the Low Stock Alert page. Once there, click on the ‘Edit’ icon as shown below to customize the columns displayed on the page.

To add a new column, click on the ‘Add Column’ button. The new column, in this case, is named ‘Column #8’. To name the column, select from the list of options available in the dropdown menu. Don’t forget to hit the ‘Save this view’ button so all your settings are applied successfully.

You can also add filters to narrow your results by choosing from the filters dropdown:

There is an option in AssetSonar which enables businesses to customize some of the action button labels from Settings → Company Settings → Custom label. This enables businesses to rename the action button labels that best describe them for their employees. You can customize labels for Add Stock, Transfer Stock, and Sale buttons that appear on the Asset Stock and Inventory items’ Detail pages. For example, the Remove Stock for Sale button (see image below).

Yes, with AssetSonar’s Custom Reports module, you can create and run Custom Reports to get a quick overview of the security compliance status of your Devices. 

Follow these steps to proceed:

1. On the Create Custom Report page, select Asset as the primary module. From the Hardware section, select Security Software Details and Security Status fields as shown.
   
   
2. Now, select the relevant columns. The columns should display essential security information that you want to be exhibited in your security compliance report i.e. whether the devices are jailbroken, encrypted, or have an antivirus or antimalware software installed on them.
   
   
3. Apply the relevant filters.
   
   
4. Finally, run the report. You can now see which IT devices have a healthy security status.
   

Note: To further flag Devices that are non-compliant, you can apply a filter that highlights IT Assets that do not meet the security criteria as follows.

Once you have a list, you can take corrective actions on these Devices and ensure their compliance. 

Yes, AssetSonar gives you the ability to sync your Devices with and update their associated details by pressing the ‘Sync’ button. 

Go to Items → Assets and open the Details page of the relevant Device. 

Now, select the ‘More’ option and click on ‘Sync Now’ as indicated below.

Note: Admins and Agents can sync all the Devices they can view. However, Staff Users can only sync Devices that are assigned to them.

If Intune has detected a Virtual Machine (VM) running in your organization’s device, it will also be provisioned into AssetSonar. You can use the Intune API integration to provision devices and their associated VMs with the following Operating Systems:

• iPadOS
• iOS
• Android (mobile)
• Windows
• macOS

�

Here’s a list of the file types you can upload in AssetSonar:

Image formats:
JPEG
JPE
JPG
X-PNG
TIFF
GIF
BMP
vnd.adobe.photoshop
vnd.microsoft.icon

Sheet formats:
vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet
vnd.oasis.opendocument.spreadsheet
vnd.ms-excel
Excel

Doc formats:
vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document
vnd.oasis.opendocument.text
MSWord
PDF

Video formats:
QuickTime
MP4
3GPP
AVI

Executable formats:
EXE

The ‘export to CSV’ feature is currently available for the following areas of the system:

1. Assets
2. Asset Stock
3. Inventory
4. Users
5. Locations
6. Groups
7. Vendors
8. Members
9. Reports
10. Documents

Exporting Reports:

Open up a report from the Reports module, like the ‘All Active Assets’. To the right, you’ll see the Export button. From here, select your preferred exporting format.

�

You can also upload them to a Dropbox or Onedrive account.

Exporting Graphs:

Head to a graph report like the Asset Checkout Frequency. Click on the menu button on the right.

Choose between a host of different exporting options. Click ‘Download CSV’ to save the chart/graph or save it to print later. 

�

You can create document linkages for items right as you update or upload them via an Excel sheet. Furthermore, you can attach up to 5 public media file URLs upon item import.

But what are media file URLs? These are the web addresses that direct you to media files uploaded online. You can access these by right-clicking on an image, hitting ‘Inspect’, and viewing the source attribute (more on that below). However, it is important to note that these addresses appear differently depending on the domain. For this reason, you might have to edit your links before you can add them to your Excel file, prior to the import.

Editing Dropbox media file URLs

Dropbox links end in the code “dl=0” or “dl=1”. Update this to “raw=1” before adding them to the Excel sheet.

For example, the link https://www.dropbox.com/s/buz195ijl5ct6nv/1a.PNG?dl=0 needs to be edited to https://www.dropbox.com/s/buz195ijl5ct6nv/1a.PNG?raw=1. Once you’ve edited it, it’s ready to be copied to your Excel.

Editing all other media file URLs

Web addresses for media files generally end in their extension i.e. .jpeg for JPEG image type, .png for PNG image type, .gif for GIF image type, and so on. As an example, here’s what the URL for an image on our faq site looks like https://faq.assetsonar.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/businessman-riding-rocket-launching-from-smart-phones_70921-315.jpg. Notice how the image extension is at the very end of the address. Here’s how to get this address for your image.

1. Navigate to the website where the image exists.
2. Once here, right-click on the media file and hit inspect to see the HTML code for this element.
   
3. The field highlighted in yellow shows the public URL for this image. It appears as the ‘source’ attribute (src in HTML).
4. Alternatively, you can right-click on the image, click on ‘Copy Image Address’, and paste this address to a text-box or text application to see what it looks like.
5. If the media extension (.jpg, .png, etc) is at the very end of the address, it’s ready to be copied to your Excel. This is true for the image shown above where the URL is https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*G2pEuYF0d6lQgKusx0W3qQ.png.
6. If the extension comes somewhere in the middle of the address, like https://example.com/images/television.png/112/dImL/, edit it to https://example.com/images/television.png.

Forming linkages

Once you’ve edited your public media file URLs, you can now copy them to your Excel. Add up to 5 document links – separated by commas – into a column in your excel sheet. Remember to assign them to the “Document attachments” mapping upon import. They should look something like this: https://upload.wikimedia.org/Item46.jpg, http://bizplus.net/TransferDoc.jpg

Associating documents from the Account library

You can also associate documents right from the AssetSonar Document’s Library (Items → Documents) during the import. Just replace one (or more) of the public URLs with the file-name of the document.

e.g. “Flowchart12.jpg, https://upload.wikimedia.org/Item46.jpg“.

Exporting document list

Lastly, you can export a list of all your documents from More → Documents → Export → CSV. The export would include links to the URLs of each document. 

Here are some things you should be aware of before you begin importing data to AssetSonar:

1. The first step is to make sure you’ve finalized the mapping of your excel sheet columns to fields in AssetSonar. Take a look at the predefined fields with Assets, Asset Stock and Inventory. If they are not sufficient, add Custom Fields from More –> Custom Fields. 
2. There should not be any merged cells in your excel sheet. 
3. There should only be one excel sheet in the file you’re uploading. If your items are spread across various sheets within the same file, split these sheets into separate excel files. 
4. All dates should be in the mm/dd/yyyy format. 
5. For yes/no fields e.g. ‘Retire?’, put yes against the Assets that should be in a retired state when imported. 
6. Asset Identification Numbers (if you’re using them) have to be unique. There shouldn’t be any repetition of an Identification Number in your excel sheet. Moreover, they should only contain Alphabets and Numbers (no special characters, spaces, etc.). 
7. All names (except for locations) should at least be 3 characters long. If you have a vendor called HP, call them HP Laptops!  
8. When you’re uploading files, previewing an import, or creating records; do not refresh the page or take any actions there. This will ensure that the process completes smoothly. You can continue working with AssetSonar in a new tab/window. 
9. When importing inventory records, if you give quantity to be added to stock, the Stock Price column must be mapped. 
10. When importing members, if you choose for them to be subscribed to emails, the Email column must be mapped. 
11. Make sure you have only one excel sheet in your document. 
12. Email addresses cannot be added in as hyperlinks. 
13. Ensure that email addresses for existing Users in your AssetSonar account do not start with ‘mailto:’. This is an example of an email address that won’t be imported: mailto:example@donotemail.com.

Sync logs give you information on which users or devices are being synced and transferred through your integrations. You can have direct visibility on whether your integrations are working properly or not.

Sync logs for devices

From the provisioning main page, click on the Logs tab. Every sync that has taken place is shown as an Event.

Click on ‘Assets Updated’ to view the assets that have been transferred during a specific sync session.

Sync logs for members

 

Go to the Members detail page and then click on ‘Sync Logs’.

Every sync log session will be shown as an Event along with the integration and the number of users that have been added or updated in a particular sync session.

Item labels can only be generated if an item exists in our system. If you need the labels printed beforehand, an easy workaround is to create Placeholder Assets.

For QR-Coded labels:

• Add an Asset titled ‘Placeholder’. Then, clone it to make more copies of the placeholder Asset.

Note: You can only make 25 copies in one go.

OR

• Use AssetSonar’s Excel import wizard.

To import as many as 1000 placeholder Assets at a time, use an Excel sheet and fill a column that just says Placeholder. Here is an Excel file that you can use for 100 placeholders. You can drag a row in excel to create more.

Placeholder Assets (Excel sheet).

For Barcoded labels:

Record the BIOS Serial Numbers of IT Assets and Serial Numbers of non-IT Assets beforehand into an Excel sheet. Import the Excel sheet and map values as follows:

1. For IT Assets: Map BIOS Serial Numbers onto the BIOS Serial Number fields.
2. For non-IT Assets: Map serial number onto the AIN fields.
   Placeholder Excel sheet example, using barcodes.

If you want Placeholder Assets to be hidden from your users, you can retire them. When attaching the label to an item in the future, unretire/reactivate the Placeholder Assets by following the pathway: Actions → Activate from the Asset Listings or Asset Details page.

Further information:

See how to export data for commercial printing

How to import items into AssetSonar using Excel?

QR-Code vs. Barcode – Issues, Practices, and Recommendations

Inventory stock can be transferred by going to the Stock Details page and clicking More → Transfer Stock.

An overlay will appear asking you the Total Quantity you want to transfer. Enter the required details and hit ‘Transfer’.

If you want to relocate your asset stock from one location to another, you can do so by using excel import functionality. 

From the Asset Stock main page, click on the ‘Import Asset Stock’ button and a dropdown would appear. Click on ‘Transfer Existing Asset Stock’. 

This will take you to the import page. Once you have uploaded the excel file, click on ‘Upload and Proceed’. 

Another page will open up where you can map the columns as shown below: 

The excel file you upload should have the following columns: 

• AIN 
• Asset Stock #

In Stock From and Stock To columns, you can map either of the following two details: 

• Stock From (Location name) 
• Stock To (Location name) 
• Stock From (Location#) 
• Stock To (Location#) 

You can map two more details from the following options: 

• Quantity 
• Price/unit*
• Total Price* 
• Comments (Optional) 

*Precedence will be given to Price/Unit if both Price/Unit and Total Price are available in the excel sheet. 

After mapping the columns, click on ‘Preview’ and if you are satisfied with the preview, click ‘Transfer’ to complete the process. 

Prerequisites

• If there aren’t enough items present in the ‘Stock From’ location, you wouldn’t be able to transfer Asset Stock from one location to another. You’ll be able to view an error message if the import isn’t successful. 
• Similarly, if you haven’t defined ‘Stock To’ location name or location# in the import file, or if you have enabled ‘if not present, create location’ option, then the transfer would still be unsuccessful for those items. For a successful transfer, name such a location as ‘no-location’ in your import file for successful data import. 

�

Here’s a list of the file types you can upload in AssetSonar:

Image formats:
JPEG
JPE
JPG
X-PNG
TIFF
GIF
BMP
vnd.adobe.photoshop
vnd.microsoft.icon

Sheet formats:
vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet
vnd.oasis.opendocument.spreadsheet
vnd.ms-excel
Excel

Doc formats:
vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document
vnd.oasis.opendocument.text
MSWord
PDF

Video formats:
QuickTime
MP4
3GPP
AVI

Executable formats:
EXE

Inventory stock can be transferred by going to the Stock Details page and clicking More → Transfer Stock.

An overlay will appear asking you the Total Quantity you want to transfer. Enter the required details and hit ‘Transfer’.

You can now customize the Low Stock Alert page as per your requirements. For example, users can track which vendor is responsible for restocking particular items.

To customize the page, access it from the bell icon in the top-right corner and click on ‘Low Stock’.

This takes you to the Low Stock Alert page. Once there, click on the ‘Edit’ icon as shown below to customize the columns displayed on the page.

To add a new column, click on the ‘Add Column’ button. The new column, in this case, is named ‘Column #8’. To name the column, select from the list of options available in the dropdown menu. Don’t forget to hit the ‘Save this view’ button so all your settings are applied successfully.

You can also add filters to narrow your results by choosing from the filters dropdown:

Item labels can only be generated if an item exists in our system. If you need the labels printed beforehand, an easy workaround is to create Placeholder Assets.

For QR-Coded labels:

• Add an Asset titled ‘Placeholder’. Then, clone it to make more copies of the placeholder Asset.

Note: You can only make 25 copies in one go.

OR

• Use AssetSonar’s Excel import wizard.

To import as many as 1000 placeholder Assets at a time, use an Excel sheet and fill a column that just says Placeholder. Here is an Excel file that you can use for 100 placeholders. You can drag a row in excel to create more.

Placeholder Assets (Excel sheet).

For Barcoded labels:

Record the BIOS Serial Numbers of IT Assets and Serial Numbers of non-IT Assets beforehand into an Excel sheet. Import the Excel sheet and map values as follows:

1. For IT Assets: Map BIOS Serial Numbers onto the BIOS Serial Number fields.
2. For non-IT Assets: Map serial number onto the AIN fields.
   Placeholder Excel sheet example, using barcodes.

If you want Placeholder Assets to be hidden from your users, you can retire them. When attaching the label to an item in the future, unretire/reactivate the Placeholder Assets by following the pathway: Actions → Activate from the Asset Listings or Asset Details page.

Further information:

See how to export data for commercial printing

How to import items into AssetSonar using Excel?

QR-Code vs. Barcode – Issues, Practices, and Recommendations

You can apply filters to get the desired results for items. 

To do this, go to the Navigation menu  → Items  → Asset/Asset stock/Inventory → Apply Filter → Search. 

Now let’s suppose that you want to search for Available Assets. You can choose this filter, apply it and all the Available Assets will appear on the page. 

You can also choose multiple filters at a time to search for relevant Assets. For instance, below we have filtered the Assets by ‘Available Laptops’.

Yes, AssetSonar gives you the ability to map contact and address attributes from your Identity Provider (IdP).

The process for Okta is explained below. You can follow similar steps for other IdPs.

Open your identity provider to navigate to the attributes section.

After logging in to your Okta account, open the Directory menu and select ‘People’.

When you open a user’s profile, you can scroll down to their attributes. The attribute used for Street Address is highlighted in the screenshot below. To map this attribute, simply copy the text indicating the attribute (highlighted) from your IdP.

Now, log back into your AssetSonar account and go to  Add Ons. In the ‘LDAP Server integration’ section, you’ll find similar address attributes under LDAP Attributes. Paste the copied text into the relevant field i.e. Address Line 1 in this case, and sync.

Once you update the settings, sync your members by going to the members tab. 

When you press the sync button, the attributes will be successfully mapped.

In a similar manner, all the other values of the address attributes can be mapped from your IdP into AssetSonar via LDAP.

By theory, you can print labels for your items once they have been added to the AssetSonar account.

However, in many cases, organizations may need to tag and track IT Assets before the ITAM Agent is deployed on them and they’re formally added to the system.

AssetSonar offers a three-step workflow for this use case:

1. Create Placeholder Assets, each with a unique Asset# within AssetSonar. Then, print QR Code labels for each of the Placeholder Assets. Select multiple Placeholder Assets and click on Actions → Print Label.

Read more about Placeholder Assets here. 

2. As soon as you receive IT Assets, attach the printed QR Code labels to them. Then, manually record the BIOS Serial Number of tagged IT Assets against their respective Asset# in an Excel sheet.
You can refer to this Excel sheet as an example and prepare a similar one for yourself. Now, mass update your Placeholder Assets for the BIOS Serial Number field using our Excel import wizard.

The Placeholder Assets will have two populated fields i.e. Asset# and BIOS Serial Number.

3. Next, mass deploy the ITAM Agent on each of your IT Assets and sync them to AssetSonar by clicking on the ‘Sync Now’ button on the Asset Listings page as shown.

Once the sync is complete, AssetSonar will merge the detected devices with BIOS Serial Numbers identical to those of the Placeholder Assets you created in Steps 1 and 2. The merged devices are then tagged as ‘IT Assets’ by AssetSonar. 

Note: The Asset# of merged IT Assets is the same as the one mentioned in the URL of QR Code labels you printed earlier.

Pro tip!

You can carry out steps 2 and 3 for individual Placeholders and IT Assets too based on the timing and nature of your procurement workflow.

AssetSonar allows you to print professional item labels in-house using the Avery Label Designer.

However, if you follow a practice of commercial printing and prefer handing over the Print Label data to a third-party printing vendor, you can enable label data export from Settings → Company Settings → Commercial Printing Label → Enabled.

Clicking on the option highlighted above will pop open a dialog box where you can select the items whose print labels you want to export. Once relevant items have been selected, hit ‘Email data’.

The system will notify you via email once the print labels have been exported as a CSV. You can then share this CSV file with your third-party printing vendors.

You can use QR Code scanning hardware with AssetSonar in your PC/Mac browser.

1. To configure AssetSonar

1. From Settings → Company Settings → Public QR Code Scanning → Enabled → Update.
   
   
2. Additionally, on the Add Ons page, enable ‘Barcode Reader Integration’.
3. Check the option for ‘Enable lookup based on the time delay of input, useful for quick scans’.
4. Save the settings.

2. To configure your QR Code scanner

1. Ensure your scanner is a Human Interface Device (HID) and can interact directly with your PC/Mac as an input. The scanner connection with your computer can be via a USB or Bluetooth.
2. Open notepad and scan an AssetSonar generated QR Code. A link should appear on the notepad. The format is: https://demo7.assetsonar.com/assets/1/asset_mobile_view?code=c10f
3. Ensure there is no line break with the input. This means that if you scan the same QR Code twice, it should enter in the same line. If the second scan appears on the next line, it means that the scanner is putting Enter/Return after the sequence it’s scanning. Use the user manual of the scanner to see how to get rid of this suffix. There should be a QR Code/Barcode in the configuration options, with a name similar to ‘Suffix Off’. Scanning it should remove the Enter/Return issue. Do the scanning test with a notepad again to see that there is indeed no suffix or prefix with the QR Code being scanned.

3. Using the scanner

1. To list items by scanning, go to the Carts module.
   
   
2. Click the ‘Add Items’ field and start scanning.
   
   
3. Give a small second-long pause to ensure that the QR Code has been read.
4. Scan as many items as you want. You’ll see them being populated in the ‘Add Item’ field as you scan.
5. Once you’ve scanned the required items, hit the ‘Add’ button.
6. You can then take actions on these scanned items.

If you’d like to learn more about best practices and recommendations for using QR Codes, please click here.

AssetSonar enables mass label scanning to help you process IT Assets quickly. In this post, we’ll take you through setting up a Barcode scanner on your AssetSonar mobile app. To learn how to use AssetSonar to set up a Barcode scanner on your PC or Mac, click here.

AssetSonar mobile app comes with Barcode scanning baked right in, using your phone or tablet’s camera to scan items quickly. However, if you have devices that are hooked up to terminals for self-service, or you’d rather use an external Barcode scanner for some other reason, we’ve got you covered.

Contents

1. Configuring AssetSonar
2. Configuring the Scanner
3. Using the Scanner
4. Tackling the keyboard input issue

1. Configuring AssetSonar

1) Go to Settings → Add Ons → Handheld Scanner Integration → Barcode Reader, and enable this option.

2) Additionally, check the option to ‘Enable lookup based on time delay of input, useful for quick scans’.

3) Save your settings.

2. Configuring the Scanner

1) Make sure that the scanner is HID-compliant and can interact directly with your device as an input. The scanner connection with your phone or tablet may be based on Bluetooth.

2) Open a notepad or a document and scan an AssetSonar-generated Barcode. It should appear on the notepad.

3) Make sure that there is no line break with the input. This means that if you scan the same Barcode twice, it should appear in the same line twice. Say your Barcode is ABC123.

Scanning it twice should print:

ABC123ABC123

However, your Barcode ABC123 might be scanned as:

ABC123

ABC123

If this is the case, the scanner is putting an Enter/Return value after the sequence it is scanning. Use your scanner’s manual to see how to remove this suffix. There should be a Barcode label in the manual’s configuration options with a name similar to ‘Suffix Off’. Scanning it should remove the Enter/Return input. Do the scanning test with a notepad or a document again to see that there are indeed no suffixes or prefixes with the Barcode being scanned.

3. Using the Scanner

1) Open the AssetSonar mobile app. Go to the Items tab, click on the ‘+’ icon, and select the Barcode Scanner option.

2) Tap this option to go to the scanning page

3) Scan as many items as you want. You’ll see them being listed on the page.

4) Take a second between each scan to ensure that the Barcode has been read.

5) Hit the ‘Completed’ button at the end of the page when done.

6) Take actions on the scanned list, and you’re done!

4. Tackling the keyboard input issue

Once the scanner is connected to your iPad/iPhone/Android Device, it’s treated as keyboard input. This means that the device confuses the scanner with the keyboard. Therefore, you won’t be able to use the keyboard alongside a connected scanner. 

Here are three quick solutions to this problem:

4.1. Keep the device’s Keyboard On/Off Barcode label handy

Look for this barcode in the scanner’s configuration guide:

Scan this Barcode once you’re done scanning an IT Asset. This will enable your device’s keyboard. Scan it again when you’re about to scan labels, and the control will be shifted from the keyboard to the Bluetooth-connected scanner.

4.2. Set a time-out when the scanner is idle 

If your scanner doesn’t have a Keyboard On/Off option, you can edit the sleep settings to a reasonably low time (such as 30 seconds). This will disconnect the scanner automatically if it’s idle for 30 seconds. 

The scanner will be connected back as soon as you press the scan button. This means you can scan Barcodes, hit ‘Completed’, choose an action, and just pause a little to ensure that 30 seconds have elapsed since your last scan. You’ll then be able to use the device’s keyboard. 

When you need to use the scanner again, press the scan button and it will be reconnected. Typically there are beeps and a colored LED indication to show whether or not the scanner is connected.

4.3. Switching the scanner on and off

If the scanner is specifically designed for an iPad or Android Tablet, it should have a button to connect and disconnect the Bluetooth. Alternatively, it may have a gesture (such as long-pressing the main scan button) that does the same. While the scanner is switched on and connected, scan the Barcodes and then simply switch it off. Use the keyboard now to type in the text if required, and you’re done.

And, that’s all about using an external Barcode reader with the AssetSonar mobile app.

Note: The process described below is applicable to Assets, Asset Stock, and Inventory. We will use the example of an Asset to illustrate the process.

To create new Assets via scanning, enable ‘Barcode Reader’ from Settings → Add Ons → Hardware Scanner Integration. Hit ‘Update’ at the top of the page.

Once enabled, here are the steps to add an Asset by scanning via PC/Mac:

Step 1: Go to the Assets page. Click the ‘Add Assets via Scanning’ button on the right.

Step 2: On this page, you can scan as many labels as you want using a Barcode scanner to create Assets. Please note, if you’re scanning multiple Assets’ labels, all of them must be of the same type – e.g. 10 different labels for 10 same laptops, all having the same specs and the name ‘HP Mini 110’. Useful when you’re adding the same Assets in bulk.

To add different types of Assets, you’ll have to scan and create them separately in the system.

• For the scanner to work smoothly, click on the field to start scanning.
• Use your barcode scanner to scan labels of the Assets you want to add on the system.
• Once you’ve scanned all the items, hit ‘Continue’.
  

 

Step 3: On the next page, enter the details of the scanned items. Again, if multiple labels are scanned, only similar types of Assets can be created at a time.

Hit ‘Create Assets’, and you now have new Assets added to the system via scanning.

Users can also create Assets via scanning by using our mobile app.

You are likely to get this error when you try to import Groups along with users from Azure AD into AssetSonar using the SCIM protocol. Please note that AssetSonar does not import Groups via SCIM protocol, but only the users. Since this error applies to Groups only, users from your Azure AD are provisioned into the AssetSonar account regardless. 

You can avoid this error by disabling the provisioning of Groups within your Azure portal. To do so, select ‘No’ next to Provision Azure Active Directory Groups in the Mappings section when you’re provisioning users.  

Learn more about provisioning users in Azure AD here.

If a custom role imported via SCIM from your Active Directory — Okta, Azure AD, or OneLogin  does not exist in AssetSonar, users belonging to that custom role can be provisioned to a default role in AssetSonar.

You can set the Default Role using the option highlighted below:

Let’s say, you imported users belonging to the custom role Customer Success team from your Active Directory via SCIM and this custom role is not present in AssetSonar, users belonging to this role will be provisioned as Administrators if you select the option ‘Provision to Administrators’.

If you do not wish to provision these users as Administrators, you can also select the option ‘Provision to some role’ and provision these users to a custom role that already exists in AssetSonar.

Note: You can carry out the same action while importing custom roles from LDAP or Google Workspace directory into AssetSonar.

Related articles
[How-to] Implement User Provisioning via SCIM with Azure AD in AssetSonar
[How-to] Implement User Provisioning via SCIM with AssetSonar and Okta
[How-to] Implement User Provisioning via SCIM with OneLogin in AssetSonar

 

Your Active Directory (AD) may fail to create members in AssetSonar if the custom field(s) associated with members are mandatory but not specified in the AD platform. Hence, leading to the error “Failed to create user in {Application Name}”.

There are two ways you can bypass this error and successfully import your members from your AD into AssetSonar:

1. If the mandatory custom fields in your AD have unspecified values, make such fields non-mandatory.
2. Alternatively, if you want to keep your custom fields as mandatory, follow these steps:
   – Provide a default value for the said custom fields e.g. the boolean custom field Insurance Covered (Yes/No) can have the default value “No” or the dropdown custom field Team can have the default value “Unspecified”.
   – Accurately map the mandatory custom fields in AssetSonar settings (Settings → Add Ons → User Provisioning via SCIM → SCIM Attributes).
   – Ensure that mapped custom fields have all their values specified in Azure AD for a successful sync.

If the error persists, contact our Support team at support@assetsonar.com.

Applies To

• Custom applications
• SCIM Provisioning

Steps:

1. Log in to your Okta Org account as the Super Admin.
2. Click the ‘Admin’ button.
3. Go to Applications → Add Application.
4. Select the ‘Create New App’ button. Specify the Platform as Web, choose Secure Web Authentication (SWA) as the Sign-on method, and click ‘Create’.
   Input the values to complete the application setup.
5. Under the General tab, you will see the new Provisioning options. Note: Contact Okta Support if this option does not appear.
6. Select ‘SCIM’ as the Provisioning method and hit ‘Save’ once done.
   
   

Note: If the above options do not appear, contact Okta Support and request to have SCIM Provisioning enabled.

Yes, AssetSonar gives you the ability to map contact and address attributes from your Identity Provider (IdP). 

The process for Okta is explained below. You can follow similar steps for other IdPs.

Open your identity provider to navigate to the attributes section.

After logging in to your Okta account, open the Directory menu and select ‘People’.

When you open a user’s profile, you can scroll down to their attributes. The attribute used for Street Address is highlighted in the screenshot below. To map this attribute, simply copy the text indicating the attribute (highlighted) from your IdP.

Now, log back into your AssetSonar account and go to  Add Ons. In the ‘User Provisioning via SCIM’ section, you’ll find similar address attributes. Paste the copied text into the relevant field i.e. Address Line 1 in this case, and sync.

Once you update the settings, sync your members by going to the members tab. 

When you press the sync button, the attributes will be successfully mapped.

In a similar manner, all the other values of the address attributes can be mapped from your IdP into AssetSonar.

Yes, with AssetSonar’s Custom Reports module, you can create and run Custom Reports to get a quick overview of the security compliance status of your Devices. 

Follow these steps to proceed:

1. On the Create Custom Report page, select Asset as the primary module. From the Hardware section, select Security Software Details and Security Status fields as shown.
   
   
2. Now, select the relevant columns. The columns should display essential security information that you want to be exhibited in your security compliance report i.e. whether the devices are jailbroken, encrypted, or have an antivirus or antimalware software installed on them.
   
   
3. Apply the relevant filters.
   
   
4. Finally, run the report. You can now see which IT devices have a healthy security status.
   

Note: To further flag Devices that are non-compliant, you can apply a filter that highlights IT Assets that do not meet the security criteria as follows.

Once you have a list, you can take corrective actions on these Devices and ensure their compliance.