01
Know where equipment is
Track the current allocation, house or service location and the serialised unit involved.
AssetTrack · Operations & administration guide
Know what it does.
Know who can do it.
AssetTrack is an equipment, rental, demonstration, maintenance and payment-management platform for organisations that need one reliable operational record for people, places and specialist assets.
01 / WHY
Operational questions should not depend on a spreadsheet search.
AssetTrack connects equipment, serial assets, users, houses, rentals, demonstrations, invoices, maintenance and history so authorised staff can act from a single operational record.
02
Know who has it
Associate assets and rentals with customers, staff, demonstrators and delivery locations.
03
Know what needs attention
Use maintenance status, rental end dates and warranty reminders to surface upcoming work.
04
Keep commercial history
Record purchases, VAT, invoices, Stripe references and demonstrator payouts without losing the business context.
05
Separate responsibilities
Role-based access gives each user a workspace aligned to their job rather than exposing the whole administration surface.
06
Retain lifecycle history
Preserve allocation, agreement, maintenance, demonstration and audit context as assets move through the organisation.
02 / HOW
One platform, several connected workflows.
The browser communicates with a FastAPI REST API. FastAPI applies ownership and role checks before reading or changing PostgreSQL data. Caddy is the public edge and terminates HTTPS.
User browser
→
Caddy HTTPS
→
FastAPI
→
PostgreSQL
Equipment & serial assets
Catalogue records describe equipment; serial assets represent individual physical units and their lifecycle state.
Rentals & agreements
Rentals allocate units, hold dates and pricing, and can require explicit agreement acceptance before activation.
Sales & invoices
Orders feed an internal invoice register with net, VAT and gross totals. Stripe Checkout can handle customer payment.
Demonstrations
Approved customers can be made available to demonstrators. Demonstrations can create payout records and Connect transfers.
Maintenance
Maintenance records are tied to serialised units; units undergoing maintenance are removed from available stock.
Search, reports & reminders
Each role sees scoped search/report data. Reports can print or download as PDF; reminder views highlight due and expired items.
03 / ROLES
Each role gets the tools it needs.
Frontend navigation is role-aware, but the backend is authoritative: permissions and ownership checks are enforced by FastAPI rather than relying only on hidden menu items.
| Role | Main purpose | Typical access | Search / reports | Reminders |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Admin | Full platform administration | Users, roles, equipment, serial assets, rentals, purchases, invoices, demonstrations, payouts, maintenance, audit, security and settings. | Broad platform scope | Rental end dates + equipment / serial warranty |
| Manager | Operational management | Most day-to-day operational workflows, equipment, rentals, purchases, maintenance and audit review, without core admin-only account/settings authority. | Operational datasets | Rental end dates + equipment / serial warranty |
| Staff | Service delivery operations | Customer addresses, rentals, purchases, demonstrations, invoices and relevant maintenance/asset information. | Operational datasets | Rental end dates + equipment / serial warranty |
| Finance | Financial processing | Purchases, invoices, payout approval/payment and safe Stripe configuration status. | Financial datasets | No default expiry source |
| Maintenance | Asset servicing | Serial assets and maintenance workflow. | Asset/maintenance datasets | Equipment / serial warranty |
| Demonstrator | Assigned demonstrations | Assigned rentals, approved demonstration customers, own demonstrations, own payout records and Stripe Connect onboarding. | Scoped to assigned/approved records | Assigned rental end dates |
| Customer | Self-service | Own houses, own rentals, own purchases, own invoices, agreements and supported payment flows. | Own records only | Own active rental end dates |
Role descriptions reflect the v2.9.5 application design. Backend RBAC remains the source of truth.
04 / LIFECYCLE
Manage the journey, not only the inventory.
A physical asset can move through availability, allocation, use, return, inspection, maintenance, reassignment and retirement while keeping its history.
01Available
02Allocate / rent
03In use
04Return
05Inspect / maintain
06Reassign or retire
05 / FEATURES
What AssetTrack manages.
Core application areas are connected so that changes in one workflow remain visible where they matter.
Equipment catalogue
SKU, name, type, manufacturer, model, purchase context, supplier, commercial prices and retirement information.
Serial assets
Individual unit serial numbers, lifecycle state, allocation and warranty context.
Customers & houses
Customer accounts, delivery/service addresses and controlled demonstrator visibility.
Rentals
Dates, allocated units, customer, delivery address, staff/demonstrator assignments and agreement state.
Purchases
Orders with net, VAT and gross calculations and payment status.
Invoices
Internal invoice register with PDF generation, printing and optional email re-send through SMTP.
Stripe
Checkout for customer payments and Connect Express for demonstrator onboarding/payouts when configured.
Maintenance
Service records tied to serialised units, with availability adjusted during maintenance.
Reminders
Configurable default and maximum reminder windows for rentals and warranty expiries.
Search
Role-scoped search so users retrieve only records available to their permissions.
Reports
Role-specific report datasets with browser printing and server-generated PDF downloads.
Audit & security
Audit history for important mutations, password controls and TOTP two-factor authentication.
06 / SETTINGS
Operational settings without rebuilding the application.
v2.9.5 adds an administrator-only Settings page. Runtime settings live in the database while secrets remain server-side environment variables.
Reminder controls
Default reminder windowdatabase setting
Maximum reminder windowdatabase setting
VAT / tax
VAT enabledon / off
VAT ratepercentage
Historical invoices keep the VAT snapshot recorded when issued.
Stripe Checkout
Checkout enabledon / off
Currencyadmin setting
Stripe Tax Rate IDoptional
Demonstrator payouts
Payouts enabledon / off
Default demonstration feeadmin setting
Automatic payouton approval
Payout currencyadmin setting
07 / SECURITY
Access control is enforced server-side.
AssetTrack uses JWT authentication and role/ownership checks in FastAPI. The interface may hide unavailable actions, but the API remains responsible for authorisation.
Authentication
Passwords are salted hashes. Access sessions use signed tokens.
Two-factor authentication
TOTP 2FA supports common authenticator apps plus one-time recovery codes. Administrators can reset enrollment without seeing the secret.
Audit trail
Important business and security mutations can retain actor, action, entity, before/after context, IP and time.
Production hardening
Use strong unique secrets, restrict SSH, use HTTPS, configure firewall/WAF controls, patch the host and containers, protect backups, test restores, and add monitoring/rate limiting appropriate to your environment.
08 / BACKUPS
Back up the database, configuration and application release.
A useful backup is one you can restore. Keep at least one copy off the Cloud Provider and perform periodic restore drills.
Daily
Database dump and configuration backup.
Off-site
Copy encrypted backups to separate object storage or another protected system.
Restore drill
Regularly restore into a non-production environment and verify users, equipment, rentals and invoices.
09 / DEPLOY
Complete Docker Compose deployment.
The package contains frontend, backend, database configuration, Caddy reverse proxy and SQL updates needed for the documented release.
Required production environment values
APP_DOMAIN=demo.example.com
FRONTEND_URL=https://demo.example.com
VITE_API_URL=as required
Build and start
10 / OPERATIONS
Small checks solve most deployment problems quickly.
Start, then verify backend health, database connectivity and Caddy/TLS in that order.
TLS note
Caddy automatically manages certificates for APP_DOMAIN.
11 / UPDATES
Upgrade with a backup and an explicit release directory.
Keep releases separate, copy the production environment file deliberately, validate Compose, then rebuild with the same project name.
- Take and verify a Database backup before an upgrade.
- Extract the new package into a versioned directory.
- Copy or recreate the production confirm its ownership and permissions.
- Run checks before stopping the old release.
- Read the release notes and apply any supplied database migration/upgrade SQL when required.
- Build, start and verify, login, role pages and critical workflows.
- Do not remove database volumes unless the upgrade is intentionally a clean installation.