Labels and asset tags

An asset tag is a short code for one device, such as ACM-26K042. It is much easier to read and say than a 15-character serial number. reCore gives one to every device the first time it checks in, so nobody types it.

• It goes on the label as text and as a barcode. Scanning it finds the device.
• The station shows it on the device card, at the bottom of the screen, and large on the finish screen, where the label goes on.
• The dashboard shows it on the device's page, next to the serial.
• A device keeps its tag. Changing the format only affects devices checked in after the change, so labels already on your shelves stay right.

This tag belongs to your organisation. It is not your client's own asset number.

1. 1Open Settings (in the account menu) and find the Asset Tags card.
2. 2Pick reCore format or Your own format (below).
3. 3Check the line The next devices get. It shows exactly the next three tags, worked out by the server. Problems show in red under it.
4. 4Click Save.

reCore format (the default): a prefix, a dash, the year, the month as a letter, then a counter.

Your own format: type it in the Format box, for example MRD/{YYYY}/{SEQ:5}. Click a token to insert it. Anything that isn't a token prints as written.

• The counter starts again whenever the rest of the tag changes: every month with {YY}{M}, every year with only {YYYY}, every batch with {BATCH}, never without a date. A new prefix starts a new counter too.
• A format needs a counter, or random characters, so every device gets its own tag. Without either it can't be saved.
• Use letters, digits, spaces and - _ / . only. Tags are upper case and at most 40 characters.

• Find a device: on Devices, click in Serial or asset tag and scan the label with a USB barcode scanner (or type the code and press Enter). An exact tag or serial opens the device.
• Correct a tag (admins): on the device's page, click the pencil next to the tag, type the new one and click Save. Do this only to match a sticker already on the machine, then reprint its label. A tag another device already has is refused. The change is kept in the device's history.

Labels has two lists. Built-in labels exist for every organisation and can't be changed; click Duplicate to make your own copy. Your labels are the ones you made.

The quickest way to a label of your own:

1. 1Click New label.
2. 21. Label size: pick the labels on your roll. Common DYMO, Brother and inch-size rolls are listed. For anything else, type the Width and Height in mm.
3. 32. What it shows: tick what you want, such as make and model, serial number, asset tag, specs, grade badge, data wipe result, a QR code to the device page, or a barcode of the serial or tag. The layout adjusts by itself, and the preview shows it with sample values.
4. 43. Name: give it a name and click Create label. Or click Fine-tune in the editor first.

In the editor you can:

• Add fields from the Fields list, your own text, lines and boxes. Codes can be a Barcode (Code 128), a QR code or a Data Matrix.
• Print an element only sometimes: under Print it, choose a condition, for example a large warning only when the wipe failed.
• Check it with real data: type a serial under Preview with device and click Show.

Labels only show what reCore already recorded for the device. A value reCore doesn't have is left blank, never guessed. A label used by a workflow can't be deleted until the workflow stops using it.

On reCore OS, plug the printer into the station with USB. It is set up by itself within about a minute.

On a station running Windows, install the printer with its own driver as usual. The station sends each label at its exact size, without scaling, so set the paper size in the printer's own settings to the label you use.

Once a technician signs in at a bench with a printer plugged in, the printer appears in the dashboard under Labels, Printers.

A USB printer is plugged into one computer, but every bench can print on it. A small shop can run all its benches from a single label printer. To share one:

1. 1On Labels, Printers, turn on Shared for that printer (admins). At the station it is under This bench's printers in Print label.
2. 2Point the other benches at it under Where each bench prints, or at each station under Shared by other benches (prints there). With only one shared printer in your organisation, reCore OS benches without their own label printer use it by themselves.

• The printing bench prints the jobs while someone is signed in there. Until then a job waits; after a day it fails.
• The asking bench's finish screen follows each job until it has printed. The printing bench shows who each label was for.
• With labels for several benches coming out of one printer, match each label to its device by the asset tag and serial. Both are on the label and large on each bench's finish screen.
• Recent print jobs on the Printers tab lists what was sent, where, and whether it printed.

Each bench has two printers: a label printer for labels and a document printer for the A4 device report. Both start on Automatic:

• On reCore OS, Automatic uses the label printer and the office printer the station set up. With no label printer of its own and exactly one printer shared in your organisation, labels go to that shared printer.
• On Windows, Automatic uses the system default printer.

To choose a different printer:

• In the dashboard (admins): Labels, Printers, under Where each bench prints. The bench picks up the choice within a minute.
• At the station: click Print label on the device card, then pick under Label printer and Document printer. The line below each says where it prints now.

When a device is finished. In your workflow's Finish stage, add up to five Labels with a number of copies each. They print in that order on the label printer when the device is finished. Nothing prints until you add one. The same stage has Print the one-page device report, for the document printer. See Workflows.

• The station sends the device's results to the server first, then prints, so the label shows what the dashboard shows.
• When a device's run starts, the station checks that every printer the finish needs is there. If one is missing it says A printer is missing for this device's finish, while there is still time to plug it in.
• On reCore OS, the station watches each job after sending it, and says when the printer holds it: out of labels or paper, jammed, cover open or offline. The job prints once the printer is ready.

By hand. Click Print label on the device card. There you can:

• Pick any of your organisation's labels, set the Number of copies and print it.
• Click Print the workflow's labels or Print device report.

The grading screen also has Print labels now and Auto-print the workflow's labels on submit (see Grading).

1. 1Open the device's page and click Stickers. You see every label filled in for that device.
2. 2Set Copies and click Print on a label. To print several together, tick them and click Print the set. Labels of different sizes print separately.
3. 3Your browser's print dialog opens. Each label is its own page, sized to the label. Pick your label printer there.

If your organisation has a shared bench printer, the same page offers Or send to a bench printer: pick the printer and click Send, Send the set or Send the device report. The device's page also has Device report, one A4 page with everything about the device.

Turn on Scan a label before the unit leaves the bench in the workflow's Finish stage. It needs at least one label in the workflow.

• After the labels print, the finish screen asks: Scan the label on this PC. Scan it with a USB barcode scanner.
• A match is recorded on the device: who scanned it and when. Offline, the station still checks the tag and serial, but records nothing.
• A label of another unit is named (This label is for its tag and serial), so you can swap it before the unit moves on.
• To continue without a scan, click Go on without scanning.