Custody, Transfers & Returns
The Custody page answers one question the asset registry cannot: who has each item, right now, and who is answerable for it. Every period an asset spends in somebody's hands is its own permanent record, so an asset's full history — who had it, from when, under what terms, how it came back — is recoverable years later.
Where it lives
Safekeep → Custody (ams/custody). One page, three tabs, each loaded the
first time you open it and remembered for your next visit:
Who can hold an asset
Not only people. Equipment legitimately sits with a place, a team or an outside party — and each of those needs a named human who is actually answerable for it, because a room cannot sign for a laptop and cannot be chased when it goes missing.
| Recipient | Typical use | Needs a caretaker? |
|---|---|---|
| Employee | A laptop issued to a person. | No — they are the accountable person. |
| Establishment | A projector that belongs to a branch. | Yes |
| Department | Shared team equipment. | Yes |
| Project | Kit issued for the length of a project. | Yes |
| Location | A fixed installation in a room. | Yes |
| Another asset | A component fitted to a parent machine. | No — it inherits the parent's custody. |
| External party | Equipment out with a repair vendor or at a client site. | Yes, plus contact details. |
Everything in that "Yes" column is the subject of its own page — see Caretakers & Establishments for appointing the answerable person, handing the role over, and the per-establishment workspace.
asset_custody_enabled_target_types). A type whose owning module is not installed
is shown greyed out with the reason, rather than silently missing — so you can tell
"we don't use this" from "something is broken".
One holder at a time
An asset can be in exactly one person's custody at any moment. This is enforced by the database itself, not by the interface: two people issuing the same laptop in the same second cannot both succeed. The second one is told the asset is already in someone's custody.
The same rule is why a transfer closes the old custody before opening the new one, and why deleting an asset closes its custody — otherwise the slot would stay occupied and a restored asset would come back already in somebody's hands.
Transferring an asset
From the Active custody tab (or the asset's own Actions menu) choose Transfer. Two modes, and the difference matters to the record:
| Mode | What it means | Use when |
|---|---|---|
| The new holder must confirm | The new custody waits in awaiting acceptance. The asset is not theirs until they say so. | The normal case — you are handing it over and want their confirmation on record. |
| Already handed over | The new custody is active immediately, recorded as accepted on their behalf. | Only when the equipment is physically with the new holder already. |
Either way the chain is unbroken: the new record links back to the one it replaced, so walking an asset's history from today to the day it was bought is a straight line.
Asking for it back
Request return tells the holder the asset is wanted back. It is deliberately open to the holder as well as to staff — the person who has the equipment may always hand it back, and making them ask an administrator to ask them for it is how assets stay out for years.
Requesting a return does not move the asset. It stays in their custody until somebody receives it.
Receiving it back
Receive closes the custody and records the state the asset came back in:
- Condition in — from your condition labels, which carry the decisions that hang off them: may it be re-issued, does it need inspecting, should it be replaced. This is why a dropdown replaced free text.
- Accessories returned — a checklist built from what actually went out with it, so "the charger is missing" is something the record can say rather than something someone remembers.
- New status — leave blank to keep the asset's current status, or send it straight to In repair.
- Something is wrong with it — records a separate discrepancy alongside the return, so the problem is not lost inside a note.
Overdue equipment
An asset past its expected return date is called out in the Due column, in words as well as colour. A nightly reminder chases the holder and whoever is accountable for it — both, because telling only the person who has not returned it is how it stays out for another month.
How long past due counts as overdue is a setting (asset_return_overdue_grace_days,
0 by default). Nobody is chased twice within 24 hours, whatever the schedule does.
An asset's custody history
The asset detail page carries the full list of periods it has been out: who held it, when they accepted, when it closed and why. That is what an auditor asks for, and it survives the asset being deleted — the history is kept even when the record is not.
The documents behind a handover — drafting, approval, release, and how people confirm receipt.
Naming the human answerable for equipment held by a place, a team or an outside party.
The quick one-asset-one-person path, still available from the asset page.
Who can transfer, receive, accept on someone's behalf, and approve paperwork.