Assets

RFID, GPS trackers and IT discovery

Connect hardware to your asset register: RFID tags and readers to count a room in seconds and catch items leaving through a door, GPS trackers to see your vehicles and equipment on a map, and a small discovery agent that reports every computer's hardware and installed software.

Contents: Who can use it · Device keys · RFID tags · RFID readers · Counting a room with RFID · Door-gate alerts · GPS trackers · Live map and history · Geofences · Distance and maintenance · IT discovery · Software and licenses · Example · FAQ

Who can use it

RFID: people who see scan audits see readers, reads and gate alerts; people who run scan audits add readers, tag assets and acknowledge alerts.
GPS: people who see meter readings see trackers, the live map and history; people who record meter readings add trackers and geofences and acknowledge alerts.
IT discovery: people who see software licenses see discovered computers and software; people who update licenses link and ignore computers.
Device keys: people who update assets create and revoke device keys.

Available on every plan. Your administrator can change access under roles.

Device keys

Readers, tracker gateways and the discovery agent send their data with a device key instead of a person's sign-in.

Open Assets → Device keys and click New key.
Give it a Name (for example "Head office gate reader") and choose what it is for: RFID readers, GPS trackers or IT discovery agent.
Copy the key at once. It is shown only this one time; 9bx keeps only a fingerprint of it.

A key only works for its purpose and only for your workspace. If a key is lost or a device is stolen, click Revoke; everything using that key stops at once. Make a new key and put it on the devices you still use. The list shows when each key was last used.

RFID tags

An RFID tag carries a code (its EPC) that a reader picks up from a distance, without seeing a label.

One asset: open the asset and click RFID tag, then type or scan the tag code. Spaces and small letters are fine; 9bx stores it in one standard form.
Many assets: Assets → RFID → Tag assets takes a list of asset tags with their RFID codes (for example the file your label printer produced while encoding tags). Each row shows whether it worked.

A tag can be on only one asset. You can also add or change it in the asset form under identifiers (RFID Tag (EPC)).

Once tagged, the RFID code works everywhere a code is accepted: the scan page, scan audits and the phone app.

RFID readers

Add each reader under Assets → RFID → Readers:

Name and Reader ID: the ID the reader (or the software in front of it) sends with each read.
Kind:
- Handheld: carried around. A handheld that types into the screen (keyboard mode) needs nothing more: open a scan audit and pull the trigger. A Bluetooth handheld works through the phone app.
- Fixed (room): mounted in a room or store; reads go into that room's open scan audit.
- Door gate: at an exit; records every tagged item that passes and raises an alert when it should not leave.
Location: the room a fixed reader watches, or the place a door gate guards (required for a gate).
Feed scan audits: on by default for handheld and fixed readers.

Readers that post their reads use a device key for RFID readers. Reads from a reader that is not in the list, or is switched off, are ignored. Last seen shows when the reader last sent something.

Assets → RFID → Reads lists recent reads; tick Unknown tags only to find tags that are on no asset yet (handy before tagging).

Counting a room with RFID

Start a scan audit for the room as usual (Assets → Scan audits → Start audit).
Either walk the room with a handheld reader on the scan page, or let the room's fixed reader do it: its reads go into the open audit automatically.
Watch Found, Missing, Extra and Unknown fill in, then close the audit as usual.

A tag read twice counts once. If a reader sends the same reads again, nothing is counted twice.

Door-gate alerts

When a tagged item passes a Door gate reader, 9bx records the passage (the same item within one minute is one passage) and checks whether it may leave. It may leave when it is:

checked out to someone, or booked for that time,
at a customer, in transit, out for repair, sent back to the vendor, or disposed.

Anything else, for example an item still In stock, raises an alert: people who manage RFID get a notification and an email, and the asset's history shows Passed a door gate.

Open Assets → RFID → Gate alerts. Filter Alerts, Acknowledged or Allowed. Click Acknowledge on an alert and add a note (for example "Taken to the client, paperwork late").

GPS trackers

Add trackers under Assets → GPS → Trackers:

Name and Device ID: the ID the tracker reports with, usually its IMEI or the unique ID set in your tracker gateway.
Asset: the vehicle or equipment it is fitted to (one active tracker per asset).
Feed the km meter: on by default (see Distance and maintenance).
Starting odometer (km): optional, if the tracker does not report its own odometer.

Positions reach 9bx in one of two ways, both with a device key for GPS trackers:

A tracker gateway: most trackers speak their maker's protocol to a gateway server. Point the gateway's position forwarding (JSON) at the address shown under Assets → GPS → Connect, with the device key as a header.
A vendor platform or your own software: post positions in the simple format shown on the same page (device ID, latitude, longitude, time, and optionally speed, heading, odometer, ignition).

Positions from devices that are not in the list are ignored. A position sent twice is stored once.

Live map and history

Assets → GPS → Live map shows every active tracker at its last position, with speed, ignition and when it last reported. A tracker that has not reported for 10 minutes shows as Offline.
Click a tracker and choose History for its track between two times (up to 31 days at a time), with the distance covered.

Geofences

A geofence is an area on the map: a circle (centre and radius) or a polygon you draw.

Assets → GPS → Geofences → New geofence.
Draw the area, name it (for example "Depot").
Choose Alert on: Entering, Leaving or Both.
Optionally limit it to some trackers; by default it watches all of them.

When a tracker crosses the edge, 9bx records it under Assets → GPS → Alerts and notifies the people who manage GPS. Acknowledge alerts with a note. A tracker's first position only tells 9bx which side it is on; alerts start from the next crossing.

Distance and maintenance

When Feed the km meter is on, the tracker's odometer becomes the asset's km meter reading (at most once an hour, after at least 1 km), marked as coming from GPS. Maintenance schedules that run on km (for example "Service every 5,000 km") then open their work orders on their own — see Meter-based maintenance.

If the tracker does not report an odometer, 9bx adds up the distance between positions and skips GPS jumps. A reading is never lower than the last one; if someone recorded a higher reading by hand, GPS readings wait until the odometer passes it.

IT discovery

The discovery agent is a small program for Windows, macOS and Linux computers. It reports:

maker, model and serial number, processor, memory and disks,
network cards (MAC addresses) and the computer's address,
the person logged in,
the installed software.

It reads nothing else: no files, documents or browsing data.

Install it

Make a device key for IT discovery agent (see Device keys).
Download the agent from Assets → IT discovery → Install agent. The instructions at the top of the file show how to run it once and how to schedule it daily on each system. Keep the key in a protected file on the computer, not on the command line.
Run it once on a computer; it appears under Assets → IT discovery within seconds.

Matching to assets. Each computer is matched to an asset by its serial number, then by a MAC address recorded on the asset. Its status is then:

Matched: linked to an asset.
Unknown device: matches nothing — a computer that is not in your register yet. Add it as an asset (with its serial number) and it matches on its next report, or click Link to asset and pick it.
Ignored: click Ignore for computers you do not track (for example a test machine). Restore brings it back.

Wrong match? Click Unlink; that computer will not be matched automatically again until you Restore it. A computer that has not reported for 30 days shows as Stale.

Software and licenses

Assets → IT discovery → Software lists every program found, with how many computers have it.

To check licenses, open a license under Assets → Licenses and fill Software match with part of the program's name (for example "Microsoft Office"). Then:

Each install of that software is licensed when a seat of the license is given to the computer's asset or to the person the computer is assigned to.
Installs without such a seat are unlicensed; see them under IT discovery → Unlicensed.
IT discovery → Overview shows each license with its seats, the installs found and the unlicensed ones, and marks a license Over-deployed when it is installed on more computers than it has seats.

Example scenario

Nadia tags laptop LT-1 with RFID code E2003412 01AA and adds the store's ceiling reader (Fixed, Main store). She starts a scan audit of Main store; LT-1 shows as Found without anyone touching it.
LT-2 is still In stock when it passes the front door gate reader. Nadia gets "Asset LT-2 left through a door gate", finds it was taken to a client, and acknowledges the alert with a note.
Van VAN-1 has tracker 356938035643809 and a km-based service every 5,000 km. As the van drives, its km meter rises from GPS; when it passes the due reading, a work order opens. The van leaves the "Depot" geofence after hours and the manager is notified.
The agent runs on all office computers. PC-7 shows as Unknown device; Nadia adds it as an asset with its serial number and it matches. Office is installed on 12 computers but the license has 10 seats: Over-deployed, and the 2 computers without seats are listed under Unlicensed.

Troubleshooting and FAQ

The reader or tracker sends data but nothing shows. Check that the reader ID or device ID is exactly as the device sends it, that it is switched on in the list, and that the device key is for the right purpose and not revoked.

A key stopped working. It was revoked, or it is being used for another purpose (for example a GPS key on an RFID reader). Make a new key.

The same item raised two gate alerts. Passages more than one minute apart count separately.

A laptop matched the wrong asset. Click Unlink, then Link to asset to pick the right one. Check that the asset's serial number is correct.

Some computers report a serial like "To be filled by O.E.M.". Such placeholder serials are ignored; record a MAC address on the asset so the computer still matches.

How long are reads and positions kept? Raw RFID reads 90 days, GPS positions 180 days. Gate alerts, geofence alerts, meter readings and asset history are kept.

Work orders, scan audits, reports and customer equipment · Licenses, contracts, bookings and kits · Tags, labels and scanning · Assets home

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