Using Home Assets on a Computer
Important: This is an early-release feature and is subject to change. You are free to use it now and provide your feedback to Home Watch IT, but there may still be small hidden bugs in the product. Once it is considered stable and “General Release,” this message will be removed.
See Introduction to Home Assets first if you haven’t already — it covers what Home Assets is and the one setting (Advanced Scheduling) it requires.
Finding Home Assets
Section titled “Finding Home Assets”There are two ways in, and they show the same Assets:
- Home Assets, in the main menu — a company-wide list of every Asset across every property, with search and filters. Use this when you’re not sure which property an item belongs to, or you want to see everything at once.
- A property’s Assets section — open the customer/property, then go to Assets. This shows only that property’s items, and is the natural place to work when you’re focused on one home.
Adding an Asset
Section titled “Adding an Asset”- From either entry point above, press + Add Asset.
- If you started from the company-wide Home Assets page, pick the Property first.
- Type an Asset Name — this is the only thing required.
- Optionally add a Category, Location, and a photo right away.
- Press Create Asset.
You’ll land on the Asset’s own page, where everything else below can be filled in — there’s no requirement to complete it all at once.
The Asset page
Section titled “The Asset page”Each Asset has three tabs: Overview, Maintenance, and History.
Overview
Section titled “Overview”This is where you edit the Asset and is also the main reference view. It’s organized into compact sections rather than one long form:
- Asset Details — name, description, category, location, manufacturer, model, serial number, and status. Simple edits save automatically as you move to the next field.
- Purchase & Warranty — purchase date, install date, purchase price, replacement cost, warranty start/end, and warranty notes.
- Photos — a primary photo plus additional ones. Press + Add Photos to upload, Make Primary to change the main photo, and click a photo to view it larger.
- Preferred Vendor — link the vendor who normally services this item, pulled from your existing Vendor list.
- Notes — one open text field for anything that doesn’t fit elsewhere.
- Documents — attach manuals, receipts, warranty PDFs, or any other file, the same way you would anywhere else in Home Watch IT.
- Asset Identification — shows the Asset’s unique HWIT QR code and any other identifiers (manufacturer barcodes, etc.) you’ve added. Press Print Label to print the HWIT QR for this Asset — see Printing QR labels below.
- Customer Visibility — an on/off switch controlling whether this Asset is included if you later turn on customer-facing visibility. It’s on by default and safe to leave alone for now.
Maintenance
Section titled “Maintenance”A place to describe recurring work an Asset needs — for example, “Replace HVAC filter” every 3 months.
- Press + Add Maintenance.
- Give it a name, a frequency, whether it should produce a Task or a Report, and (for a Report) which template.
- Optionally set a Preferred Vendor and add instructions/notes.
- Save. You’ll be offered Create Schedule — press it if you want this to become a real, recurring schedule right away, or Not Now if you just want the definition on file for later.
Adding a Maintenance item never creates work by itself — nothing is scheduled until you press Create Schedule. Once a schedule exists, editing the Maintenance details afterward won’t silently change it; you’ll see Edit Schedule if you need to adjust the actual schedule.
History
Section titled “History”One combined, newest-first timeline of everything recorded against the Asset: manually entered service/repair history, and any linked Reports, Tasks, and Issues. Filter by type using the tabs at the top.
Each entry opens the real underlying record — a linked Report opens like any other report, a linked Issue opens the normal Issue screen. Nothing is duplicated here; the timeline just points to where the full detail already lives.
Press + Add Service/Repair to log work that doesn’t already have a Report or Task on file — for example, a repair a technician performed off the books, or history you want on record from before you started using Home Watch IT.
Printing QR labels
Section titled “Printing QR labels”Every Asset has its own unique QR code (an “HWIT QR”), separate from any barcode the manufacturer put on it. Scanning it in CI25 Mobile opens that exact Asset instantly.
- Print one Asset’s label from its own page (Print Label, under Asset Identification).
- Print labels for several Assets at once, or for every Asset at a property, from the Home Assets or property Assets list — select what you want and press Print Labels.
Labels print from your browser (no special label-printer software required) and include the QR code, the Asset name, and basic property/location info.
If a label is lost or damaged, just reprint the same one — there’s no need to generate a new code unless the Asset’s identity itself needs to change (see Regenerating a QR code below).
Setting up Categories and Locations
Section titled “Setting up Categories and Locations”Categories and Locations are simple, company-wide lists — flat, no folders or hierarchy. Manage them from Settings → Manage Lists → Home Assets, where you can add, rename, and archive entries for both.
You don’t have to set these up in advance — as noted above, you can add a new Category or Location directly while editing an Asset.
Archiving, restoring, and moving an Asset
Section titled “Archiving, restoring, and moving an Asset”Archiving an Asset (from its overflow menu) hides it from the normal list but keeps its full history — nothing is deleted, and any Reports, Tasks, or Issues linked to it stay exactly as they are. Include archived Assets in a list by turning on the Show Archived filter, and restore one from there if needed.
Moving an Asset to a different property is a deliberate, separate action (also on the overflow menu) — an Asset’s property is not something you casually change by editing a field. Existing history keeps its original property association even after a move; only the Asset itself moves forward.
Frequently asked questions
Section titled “Frequently asked questions”How do I add an Asset to a property?
Section titled “How do I add an Asset to a property?”Open the property, go to Assets, press + Add Asset, and type a name. See Adding an Asset above.
How do I set up Asset Categories and Locations?
Section titled “How do I set up Asset Categories and Locations?”Settings → Manage Lists → Home Assets, or add one on the fly while typing into the Category/Location field on any Asset.
How do I print a QR label for an Asset?
Section titled “How do I print a QR label for an Asset?”Open the Asset, go to Asset Identification on the Overview tab, and press Print Label. See Printing QR labels above for printing several at once.
How do I set up Maintenance for an Asset?
Section titled “How do I set up Maintenance for an Asset?”Open the Asset, go to the Maintenance tab, and press + Add Maintenance. It won’t create an actual schedule until you separately press Create Schedule.
How do I see an Asset’s history?
Section titled “How do I see an Asset’s history?”Open the Asset and go to the History tab. It combines manual entries with linked Reports, Tasks, and Issues in one timeline.
How do I archive or restore an Asset?
Section titled “How do I archive or restore an Asset?”Archive from the Asset’s overflow menu. To restore one, turn on Show Archived in a list’s filters and restore it from there.
How do I move an Asset to a different property?
Section titled “How do I move an Asset to a different property?”From the Asset’s overflow menu, choose Move to Another Property. This is deliberately separate from ordinary editing.
Can I regenerate an Asset’s QR code?
Section titled “Can I regenerate an Asset’s QR code?”Yes, from the Asset Identification section — but only do this if the physical label is truly compromised and needs to be replaced, not just lost. Regenerating makes the old printed label stop working, so any copies of it out there will no longer scan to this Asset.
Who can manage Categories, Locations, and Maintenance definitions?
Section titled “Who can manage Categories, Locations, and Maintenance definitions?”Renaming or archiving a Category or Location, and setting up Maintenance definitions, is Admin and Full Access only, on the desktop app. Adding a new Category or Location, though, is available to your technicians in the field too — see Using Home Assets on Mobile for how that works day-to-day.
