Lend now or book for later
There is one form for both. What changes is the start date:- Lend now: leave the start as Now. The loan starts immediately and the asset’s loan field (usually Custodian) is set to the borrower.
- Book for later: pick a future start. The loan is scheduled and the asset stays with whoever has it today. When the day comes, someone presses Hand over and the loan starts.
What can be lent
An asset can be lent when its category has a loan field: a person field flagged as the one a loan drives, such as Custodian or Currently borrowed by. The default category tree already flags these. If a category has no loan field, the form says so and points you to Categories and fields to add one.Three ways in
The same Lend or book form opens from three places:- The dashboard. A row of action tiles sits above the metrics: Lend or book, Return, Do maintenance and Add an asset. Use this when you logged in to lend something and do not yet know which asset.
- The asset page. The header gains a Lend button (or Return and Extend while the asset is out). The asset is filled in and locked. Use this when you are already looking at the thing.
- The Loans page. A new entry in the sidebar, after Assets. Its header has Lend or book, and clicking an empty stretch of the schedule opens the form with the asset and dates filled in.
Filling in the form
The form asks three things, all visible at once:- Who: defaults to you. People with the manage loans permission can pick anyone.
- When: Now, or From a date, with an optional Until.
- What: a search over assets that are free for that window. Each row says free, or why it is not (in maintenance 4 to 6 Sep, on loan until 8 Sep). Busy assets are dimmed. You can also Scan a tag.
When the asset is not free
A loan can never overlap another loan or an open maintenance window on the same asset. If you try, the form refuses and shows what is in the way and up to five free alternatives from the same category. Click one to swap it in. The same rule applies when you extend a loan: an extension that would run into the next booking is refused.The Loans page
The Loans page has two views and one filter bar. It is the register’s own filter bar, so it asks the same questions here: search, category, lifecycle stage, location, owner, manufacturer, model, and any custom field your categories define. The gear on the right adds and removes filters, and the Loans page remembers its own set separately from the register’s. On Schedule the filters narrow the assets that appear as rows. On List they narrow the loans, by the asset each one is about, so “overdue laptops in London” is a single question. The search box is the one difference between the two: on Schedule it searches assets, and on List it also matches the borrower and the purpose. Schedule shows assets as rows and time across, like a scheduling assistant. Loans and maintenance windows are blocks on each row. Scheduled loans are outlined; active loans are solid with a dashed line to their due date. Pan and zoom the way you do on an asset’s timeline. Click a block and that loan opens in a panel over the schedule, so you keep the week, the filters and the scroll position you were reading. Click an empty stretch to book that asset for those dates. List has tabs for Active, Scheduled, Overdue and History, with the actions inline: Hand over, Return, Extend, Cancel and Book again. Details opens the same panel as the schedule does.Your work
The dashboard’s Your work card lists what needs you: maintenance assigned to you, loans due back from you in the next week, and handovers due today. People who manage loans see the whole organisation’s overdue and uncollected loans there instead. Each row has its action next to it.Hand over, return, extend, cancel
A loan moves through a short ladder: Scheduled, then Active, then Returned. It can be Cancelled from either open state.- Hand over: starts a scheduled loan. The asset’s loan field is set to the borrower, and the change appears on the asset’s history like any other edit. Nothing starts by itself; equipment changes hands when a person says so.
- Return: closes an active loan. It asks you to confirm, and takes an optional note, for example the condition the asset came back in. The loan field goes back to whoever had the asset before, unless someone changed it by hand during the loan, in which case that edit stands. Return all in the Return sheet closes every loan in a batch.
- Extend: sets a later due date. Refused if it would collide with the next booking.
- Cancel: closes a scheduled loan. Cancelling a loan that has already started also restores the loan field, and needs the manage loans permission. Add a reason if you like.
- Book again: opens the form pre-filled from an old loan.
Overdue and uncollected
Neither is a status you set. Both come from the dates:- Overdue: an active loan whose due date has passed.
- Uncollected: a scheduled loan whose whole window passed without a handover. It no longer blocks the asset, and it cannot be handed over any more. Book again instead.
Nothing chases you
Loans send no reminders: no email, no notification, at any point. A late loan is simply shown as late, everywhere it appears: red on the schedule, the dashboard calendar and the asset timeline. To find what needs chasing, use the Loans list: it has Overdue and Uncollected tabs alongside Active and Scheduled. The schedule’s Only busy toggle narrows the grid to assets that are actually out.Permissions
Four permissions control loans. They stack: manage includes self, which includes claim.
Without View loans you only ever see your own loans. The built-in
roles come set up as follows; adjust them under
Roles and permissions.
Where loans show up
- Asset timeline: a Loans lane, with a filter chip, next to the maintenance lane. See Asset details.
- Asset overview: a Custody card showing who has it, since when, due when, and the next booking, plus a 30-day availability strip.
- Dashboard calendar: Hand over to Alice on the start date and Due back from Alice on the due date, with a Loans filter. Chips are clickable and open the loan.
- Reports and policies: loans are a relation on the asset, so a report can list assets on loan or overdue loans by borrower, and a policy can say no asset may be on loan past its warranty end, using the same builder as every other field. Reports can also be built directly on loans, with Report on: loans.
- The AI assistant: ask which laptops are free next week?, lend this projector to Sam until Friday, or what is overdue?. See AI assistant.