How do Statuses work?

The most important part of managing your IT assets is determining whether it's available for someone to use, assigned to a specific employee, or out of commission due to repairs, archival, etc. BlueTally lets you keep track of all of this with our Status feature!

Only Assets uses Statuses. While other inventory types like Accessories, Consumables, Licenses, and Components follow a similar internal Status logic where they are either Deployed or Ready to Deploy, only Assets can be given more customizable Status options.

While several Statuses are available by default, BlueTally lets you create and use your own customizable Statuses from the Status Page.

The Status page can be found under the More tab in the navigation bar:

From the Status page, you'll see what Statuses you currently have available. You can also find options to add new statuses, edit existing statuses, or delete statuses you are no longer using.

Some Statuses cannot be edited or deleted. Archived and Ready to Deploy cannot be deleted because the system is required to always have at least one Archived and Deployable option. You can edit either of these Statuses to change their name, add notes, or change whether or not the Status appears in the navigation bar dropdown menu if you would like.

The Deployed status can neither be deleted nor edited. This Status will always be used to designate that an Asset is deployed to either an Employee or a Location.

Two other columns on this page worth discussing at this point include "Show in Nav" and "Assets".

When creating a new Status or editing an existing Status, you can enable said Status to appear in the dropdown menu under Assets in the navigation bar. If you enable this for a Status, a check mark will be present for that Status in the Show in Nav column.

When you visit this dropdown menu, you will see that there will always be five default options under Status that cannot be altered: Deployed, Ready to Deploy, Undeployable, Archived, and Non-Archived.

Any other Statuses you manually enable to appear in the navigation bar dropdown menu will appear in a separate section, as shown below:

This column will show you the number of Assets currently using a specific Status. For example, in the screenshot below, we can see that 1 Asset is being repaired, another is lost or stolen, 7 Assets are ready to deploy, and 14 are currently deployed.

If you want to see a list of all the Assets using a specific Status, you can click on the Status's name to be directed to a separate page. For example, we could click the Deployed name, as shown in the screenshot below:

This will navigate us to the Deployed Assets page, where we can see each Asset currently deployed. This functions similarly to any other page with a table of Assets, meaning you can see all relevant Asset data, check any of these devices back in, or click on an Asset ID to pull up their individual Show Asset page for more detailed information.

To create a new Status, click the blue "+ New" button found in the upper right corner of the screen.

This will navigate you to the New Status page, where you will be prompted to enter the Status Name and the Status Type.

When selecting a Status Type, you can refer to the About Status Types section found on the right of the page on desktop or below the status creation section on mobile (similar navigation directions can be found in the "?" tool tip). You can also refer to the Status Types section of this guide for a more in-depth description of how each Status Type works.

Once you've selected a name and type, you can add notes or enable this Status to be shown in the Navigation Bar under Assets. While Status Name and Status Type are required fields, the Notes field and the Navigation Bar toggle are optional.

When you're done with all the fields and toggles, click the blue Save button to officially create your new Status.

You'll then be redirected to the main Statuses page, where a green message box will appear to let you know that the status was created successfully. Your new Status will appear in the table with your existing Statuses.

Additionally, if you enabled the Status to appear in your Navigation Bar, you will see a check mark next to it in the "Show in Nav" column.

If the check mark appears next to your new Status on the Status page, you should also be able to see when you select the "By Status" menu under Assets in the navigation bar, as shown below:

To edit any of your existing Statuses, you can click on the pencil icon found in the Edit column. Since the Deployed status cannot be edited, this icon will be grayed out.

This will redirect you to the Edit Status page, which looks very similar to the New Status page we visited previously. You'll have the options to update the Status' Name, Type, Notes, and whether or not you want it to appear in the Navigation Bar under Assets.

There is also an option to delete this Status, using the gray delete icon found in the upper right corner of your screen.

*Please note: if you want to edit the initial Archived or Ready to Deploy Statuses that come built into your BlueTally account, you will only be able to change the Status Name, Notes, and whether it appears in the Navigation Bar. The Status Type cannot be changed, nor can it be deleted, since it is considered a default status label.

The Status Type field will be slightly grayed out, and a tool tip message will appear above the Delete button if you hover your cursor over it.

Once you've made the changes to your Status, you can click the blue Save button to make them official.

This will redirect you to the main Status page again, where a green message box will confirm that your Status was updated successfully. You'll also be able to see your updated Status in the Status table.

In addition to the method shown above from the Edit Status page, you can delete most of your Statuses right on the main Status page. To delete a Status, select the trash can icon found in the Delete column.

*Please note: The Deployed status, default Archived status, and default Ready to Deploy status cannot be deleted, so each of their trash can icons will be grayed out.

A pop-up window will appear to confirm your decision. Click OK to continue with deleting the Status, or click Cancel if you have changed your mind.

Clicking "OK" will refresh the Status page, and a green message box will appear to confirm that your Status was deleted.

If a Status is being used by any Assets (shown by the number in the Assets column), attempting to delete it will result in a red message box. The message will let you know which Assets are currently using the Status so that you can easily make changes to those Assets, thus freeing up the Status to be deleted.

Each Status in BlueTally falls into one of five Status Types: Deployable, Pending, Undeployable, Archived, and Deployed. Whenever you visit the Edit Status or New Status page, you will see a section on the right side of the page that explains all of these Status Types (also shown below).

Any status appearing in green text is Deployable, similar to how a green traffic light means go. This means that the Asset can be checked out to an Employee or Location. Any time you complete a checkout, the Asset's Status will always change to Deployed and include the name of the Employee or Location to which the Asset has been assigned.

All BlueTally accounts begin with the "Ready to Deploy" status as the default Deployable status, but you can always change the name of this or add more Deployable statuses if you want to create different designations of Deployable, really whatever verbage works best for you, your colleagues, and your organization. The default Deployable status cannot be deleted to ensure that you always have at least one Deployable status option. Any other Deployable statuses you create can be deleted.

All Pending statuses use yellow text, akin to how a yellow traffic light would mean caution or slow down. This is useful for any Assets that cannot be checked out due to temporary circumstances, such as being repaired or being wiped, and will eventually become Deployable again.

All BlueTally accounts come equipped with the aptly named "Pending" status and the "Being Repaired" status as default statuses using the Pending type. However, your account is not required to have any Pending statuses, so you may delete any yellow statuses if it does not serve you or your organization's needs.

Undeployable statuses are distinguished with red text. Just as a red traffic light signals you to stop, these Statuses signify that an Asset cannot be checked out to anyone due to more permanent circumstances, such as the Asset being broken, lost, or stolen.

All BlueTally accounts come with two different Undeployable statuses by default: "Broken" and "Lost or Stolen". You are not required to have any Undeployable statuses, so they can be deleted freely. You are also welcome to edit any Undeployable statuses or add any new ones as you see fit.

Statuses labeled with black text highlighted in gray are Archived Statuses. When you mark an Asset as Archived, it means it cannot be checked out to anyone, and it will not appear in most Asset pages, like All Assets. Generally speaking, Archived Assets can only be viewed by selecting the option from the dropdown menu in the navigation bar from Assets -> By Status -> Archived.

You can also use the Company Details section found in Settings to include Archived Assets on your All Assets page by selecting Yes in the appropriate field, shown below:

All BlueTally accounts have a single Archived status named "Archived" built in when created. To ensure that there is always at least one Archived status available, this one cannot be deleted, but you can edit the name to something that suits your organization's purposes more adequately. Like most other Status Types, additional Archived Statuses can be created, edited, or deleted.

The Deployed status is represented with blue text and is the only one of its type. Whenever you check out a Deployable Asset to an Employee or Location, the Asset's Status will change to Deployed. You will also be able to see the name of the Employee or Location that has been assigned this item.

You cannot create another Deployed Status, nor can this Status be edited or deleted.