Assets Not in Inventory Report

The Assets Not in Inventory report lists inventory devices that have been removed from inventory, but are still being managed as assets. Because the underlying inventory device has been retired or disposed of, the assets listed in this report are therefore likely candidates for retirement or disposal. Operators with a focus on hardware asset management may wish to generate this report periodically (most likely monthly, quarterly or yearly depending on the asset refresh cycle of their company) as part of a review process to ensure the correct assets are being retired and disposed. This report allows these operators to view a list these assets and then update the asset status accordingly.

Generating the Report

To generate the report, perform the following steps.

To generate an Assets Not in Inventory report:

1. Go to the Assets not in Inventory report (Reporting > Hardware Asset Reports > Assets not in Inventory).
2. Click Run report to display the results for all assets which have been removed from inventory.

Limiting the Report Results

Located from left to right below the report title are the following filters and search fields:

Using the standard search field, enter the name of an asset to limit results to this asset only.
Click Add filter and set one or more filters as follows:

Search / Filter

Description

Select Hardware asset - Asset type 

Select one or more asset types from the drop-down list, and then click the orange check icon.

Select Hardware asset - Status 

Select one or more asset statuses from the drop-down list, and then click the orange check icon.

Select Inventory device - Inventory device type 

Select one or more inventory device types from the drop- down list, and then click the orange check icon.

Select Inventory device - Inventory source type 

Select one or more inventory device sources from the drop- down list, and then click the orange check icon.

Select Inventory device - Status 

Select one or more inventory device statuses from the drop-down list, and then click the orange check icon.

Reading the Report

The following columns (listed alphabetically) are available in this list. By default, some are available through the column chooser.

Hardware Asset Properties

The following hardware asset properties are displayed.

Assets Not in Inventory Report - Hardware Asset Properties

Property

Description

Asset tag

The company-specific identification code assigned to this asset.

Editable in the General tab of the asset properties.

Serial no.

The unique identifier for the inventory device linked to this asset record. The manufacturer's serial number (where it exists) of the linked inventory device is automatically copied here whenever the linked inventory device is updated.

Editable in the Serial number field in the General tab of the asset properties.

Short description

The name given to identify this asset.

Editable in the Name field in the General tab of the asset properties.

Status

Where this asset is within the asset life-cycle. The following options are provided by default (however additional options may be imported using a business adapter):

Disposed—The asset is no longer held by the enterprise, as it has been sold, given away, thrown out, or destroyed.
In storage—The asset has been delivered but has not been installed.
Installed—The asset is in active use (standard operating condition).
Other—Any other status used by your organization to classify an asset. This value does not affect any automated processing.
Purchased—The asset has been purchased but not delivered.
Retired—The asset has been retired from use, but remains within the enterprise.

Editable in the General tab of the asset properties.

User

Depending on corporate policy, may be the owner of the asset; or may reflect an end-user name assigned to the physical inventory device that is linked to the asset record.

Editable in the Assigned field in the Ownership tab of the asset properties.

Inventory Device Properties

The following inventory device properties are displayed

Assets Not in Inventory Report - Inventory Device Properties

Property

Description

Last inventory date

The date when the last inventory information was collected by the Last inventory source for this inventory device.

The inventory process generates the value of this field.

Status

Indicates the current state of a device. It can have any of the following values:

Active—A device for which the inventory information is received from an inventory source.
Archived—This device is in transition pending deletion, but is currently held because of its historical impacts on IBM PVU sub-capacity retrospective calculations.
Awaiting Inventory—This device is a place-holder that has not yet appeared in imported inventory from any source.
Ignored—The device that is not managed. An ignored device is not considered in license consumption calculations.

Tip:If an inventory device is linked to an asset record, and that asset is given a status of either Retired or Disposed, this Ignored value is automatically set for the linked inventory device.

Provided that the inventory device has not [yet] been linked to an asset record, this value is editable in the General tab of the inventory device properties (although Awaiting Inventory is no longer available once inventory has been collected for the device, and Archived can never be set manually).