5 ways to group up your gear for efficient management

Equipment managers spend a crazy amount of time ensuring the right gear goes to the right hands. However, sometimes those efforts are not enough, mainly because they manage thousands of pieces of equipment and multiple projects simultaneously. That's a problem, especially given how expensive some items are.


I’ve worked with dozens of education institutions and hundreds of media and broadcasting organizations to help them manage equipment in Cheqroom. Here, I’ll share some examples of the most used Item groups for Equipment Access.

5 examples of Item Groups

All your inventory has item details such as brand, model, category, and location. But most equipment managers need to consider more details like purchase price, warranty date, and even licenses. The more information attached to your items, the more advantage you can take from equipment software such as Cheqroom.

Education institutions

1. Item group based on year.

It’s quite evident that a first-year student usually doesn’t know how to use the most advanced equipment. I’ve noticed that many universities organize their equipment by ‘student year.’ Students in year 1 have a small pool of equipment from which they can choose. The situation varies for year 4 students who have access to (almost) the entire inventory. If you have classified your gear by student year, you can use that filter option to create item groups for each student year. That way, you ensure students from the first or second year can NOT book equipment they don’t know and don’t have permission to use.

2. Item groups based on class.

Universities don’t always classify equipment by student year but rather by class. There are classes for photography, video production, sound, and lighting, to mention some.

You can filter by category and create an item group only for students enrolled in a specific class, for example, lighting. But we don’t stop there; if you want to increase the control over your equipment, you can add extra filters like year, or purchase price, to ensure students can only get their hands on the less expensive gear.

Business organizations

3. Item group based on license required.

Do you have drones in your inventory? This example is for you. Some drones require pilots to have licenses or certifications. If you have included licenses in your item information, you can now permit to book the drones to those users with the license to fly particular drones.


To do so, you can filter a category to only select drones. Select if they need to have one or more licenses. And if you want to restrict your most expensive drones, filter on the purchase price.

4. Item group based on the purchase price.

In my previous examples, I have used the purchase price many times. The main reason is that it is the easiest way to protect your most expensive gear. You can also ensure only a few people you trust can book and check-out those expensive pieces of gear that are key for your project to create really great content.

5. Item group based on shelf number.

Whether you work with freelancers or not, if your gear cage and inventory are organized by shelve number - the same format as in libraries - you can also replicate the format in Cheqroom. You can create Item Groups based on shelf number and select the ones people can access, the ones they can’t access, and even extend the filters to restrict by hourly rate or other filters you have.

As you can see, the possibilities can be endless with this powerful filter option. It’s up to you how to categorize your inventory. You can create as many Item Groups as you need and assign them to the different roles you have in your organization. Look for ways to organize your inventory and to protect the most delicate and expensive equipment.


Building an effective equipment management process requires organization and continuous optimization, but having the right equipment software can help streamline processes and save time by focusing on what matters most to you.

👉 Equipment Access is now available for Plus, Premium, and Academic Premium plans.