Instructions for Equipment Inventory Module 

Equipment Inventory

The equipment inventory is a required component of FEMA Public Assistance grants; however the equipment inventory module of www.erassist.com can be used for much more than creating the required FEMA Equipment Sheets.  

The equipment module can be used for:

• Real Time Cost Tracking 

• Mutual Aid Availability

• Administrative Renewal/Maintenance Functions

Equipment module may be used as a stand alone tool, or more likely as a required component of other features. 

The equipment module feeds information into:

•  Planning modules such as the Debris Plan module

• Time and Equipment Tracking (usage is covered in Time Module How To)

• Site/Project/Grant Costs (covered in other how tos)

• Audit tools

Adding Equipment to Inventory 

1. On the left side of the screen, select Equipment (if you are a consultant that has been given access to multiple governmental agencies’ erassist.com accounts, select the entity name and then select equipment).

If you do not see Equipment as one of your software module choices, contact your software admin or contact support@erassist.com and request that Equipment be enabled.  

2. In the equipment module there are two options to enter equipment:

   • Enter each piece of equipment separately (if you are using this method, continue below), or 

   • Enter multiple pieces of equipment all at once  -- by “importing” a spreadsheet of information (If you are using this method, jump ahead to Import) 

Instructions  for equipment individual entry 

Click View List of Equipment

 If you are unaware of the equipment cost code You should use the following link: FEMA Schedule of Equipment Rates government website where you can find the cost code for your piece of equipment based on equipment description, specifications, size, HP, notes, unit and 2015 rates. 

After clicking View List of Equipment, Click +Add New 

This will open up a data entry form for equipment.  

Fill any and all fields for which you have the information. The only required field is the “Name” (indicated by the *).

Once you have entered all pertinent data select one of the Save options in the bottom right of the form, SAVE and CLOSE (takes you all the way back to Equipment List), SAVE and ADD ANOTHER (Saves and loads a fresh entry form), or if you know additional information  please select SAVE and CONTINUE EDITING (takes you to an equipment form where you can add more information about your piece of equipment. Equipment fields described below).
 

Save and Continue Editing

Using this option allows the user to enter additional information about a particular piece

of equipment.  This information will be necessary and should be completed, if possible upon initial entry, however this form can be updated at a later date if necessary.

The Chart below details the individual fields found on this form.

*Note: Open Text Fields should be kept uniform between each piece of equipment.  When abbreviating be sure to consistently use the same abbreviations.

Equipment “Fields” 

Once you have entered all pertinent data Save (saves data and keeps you on the current page), SAVE and CLOSE (takes you all the way back to Equipment List) or SAVE and ADD ANOTHER (Saves and loads a fresh equipment entry form).

Clicking save and close at any point will take you back to the equipment list. Clicking on your piece of equipment will take you to the equipment info form. 

Equipment Info Form 

The equipment info form gives you an overview of the information you have provided for your piece of equipment. The form also allows you to attach photos and files about the equipment. 

Equipment Photos and Files (Documents)

 On right side of the page, click or drop files to the  “+ Drop Files or Click Here” box to add photos of the equipment, registration forms, titles, maintenance records, or other documents.   Individual “proof of insurance” documents belong here as well; however full insurance policies should likely be uploaded to the insurance module.  

Primary Photo

 A primary image is the image that will appear on the equipment main page “grid” as a thumbnail and on pdf “look book” exports as the main photo.  The primary image will default to the newest image uploaded. If you would like to select a different primary image Click the “Select Primary Photo” button in the top right corner.

You will see all of the photos associated to this piece of equipment.   Choose the image you want as the default/primary photo by clicking the photo  once.  Selecting an image will take you back to the individual equipment information area/forms.   If you do not want to select an image, click cancel.  

Once the piece of equipment is saved, the newly entered piece of equipment should now appear on the Equipment Grid (to get back to the Equipment Grid from the equipment form, click  Equipment on the left, or click on “Equipment” in the top bread crumbs).  To view or edit the newly created entry, just click anywhere on the new equipment entry’s  grid/line entry (except the photo thumbnail)  to open the entry screen for that piece of equipment. Clicking on the photo thumbnail will open an additional web page with the image only.

 IMPORT

If you have numerous pieces of equipment to input into the module, you have the option of importing them all at once.  Click on “Import Equipment” on the Equipment Home page.

Click on “Download Template” to download an Excel template

Fill out the fields in the template.  Instructions for the template are located within the template.      

Fill out the template and save the filled out template as a file to your computer.  Select File  which you just filled out, and then click on “Import”

File Format can be .xls. 

You should receive a message that the import was successful.  The equipment  will now be populated both in the general “all” equipment grid as well as in each equipment’s data sheet.  Check the success message, it will tell you how many pieces of equipment were imported.  There will also be a message detailing any errors that occurred with the import.

Making Equipment “Inactive” in Inventory 

When a piece of equipment is sold, donated or scrapped, you’ll want to annotate the inventory. 

Under the Notes/Misc section is an “Is Active” check box.

The Box is checked “Is active” by default.  To make a piece of equipment “Inactive”  click on the box to uncheck the “is active” box.  

Marking a piece of equipment  as “Inactive” keeps all of the historical information and usage tied to this piece of equipment, but makes it no longer selectable by a user for time tracking.  

Click Save, Save and Close or Save and Add another. 

DELETING a piece of Equipment  (Don’t do it) 

If at any point there is a reason to remove a piece of equipment from the Equipment Inventory (it is no longer in service, was sold, etc.) mark the piece of equipment as “Inactive”.  

There is not a “delete” button, as deleting the piece of equipment would delete historical information, including past time entries/billings/grant entries, etc.  

If you truly  need a piece of equipment deleted, submit a support ticket detailing the need, and a help desk person may be able to help you.  

REUSING A LINE ITEM in EQUIPMENT TRACKER (Don’t do it) 

For the same reason that deleting a piece of equipment could have disastrous effects on past time tracking, mutual aid invoicing, or grant request for reimbursement submissions, it is imperative that you do not “reuse” an equipment entry instead of just making it inactive.  Each entry is given a system equipment entry ID.  Think of it as a Social Security Number for equipment.  That ID ties the equipment to all other modules in the system, including time tracking, billing, and invoicing.   For example, say you added a Chainsaw to inventory, and it was given an ER Assist Equipment ID of 12345. While the system allows you to update or edit the entry, you should not change or overwrite the entry to a Truck or BullDozer, because it would also change the Chainsaw into a Truck or BullDozer in every time entry and project it is associated.  The system may give you a warning depending on what fields you change, however you should be very careful to understand that an ER Assist Equipment Entry should not be reused or recycled by overwriting.  

REPORTS / EXPORTING  EQUIPMENT INFO

Select Fields to Export

On the equipment grid page, you can select which fields you want displayed by clicking the wheel/sprocket on the top right of the page. Only fields that are displayed in the grid will be included in the export.

Select Entries to Export

On the equipment grid page, you can filter which entries you want included by using the column header (aka header row) as filters.  Click into the header to filter. After typing your filter, click into another header.  

Filters will show up as grey circles. To remove filter click on the blue X in the info filter circle or click into column header and delete verbiage. After deleting, click into another header to ensure filter has been removed.

Grid Filters

The header filters allow text, and the operators  >,<,=,! (not) text, Blank, !Blank, Empty, and !Empty.

For yes/no fields, you can additionally use Y, N, Yes, No, T, F, True, False, On, and Off.

Symbol Key:

Download to Spreadsheet

You can download a spreadsheet of all equipment data by clicking on Download Grid Data.  You can select which fields you want displayed in your download by clicking the wheel/sprocket and selecting the fields as described in the step above.  Spreadsheet exports in the order listed on the screen (filter on screen to determine the order of the export).  

Download to a PDF Info Report aka “Look Book”

You can also download equipment info to PDF, called Info Reports, which is a printable “look-book” format that prints each piece of equipment and all of its related information on its own page. The lookbook is good for binders, info QA/QC and submission to grants or insurance.  

Page Order of Look Book -Look Book exports the entries as they are displayed on the grid.

Download Equipment to FEMA Equipment Inventory Form Format (.pdf or .csv) 

You can export equipment into a FEMA style equipment sheet pdf or excel. 

Download Current Cost Code Report 

The FEMA style export shows  current equipment cost codes.   

Download Previous Year (“Old Disaster”) Disaster Equipment Report 

Need Help?  

If you have any question, issues, or requests click on the green support button on right side of each ER Assist page.  A message box will appear, describe your request, select the “include a screenshot” button and click send.  An ER Assist team member will receive the message and will reply quickly.