How to manage your school’s equipment room
It’s time to get digital.
How schools and universities should manage their gear for fewer losses
Colleges have an abundance of video gear for film students to unleash their creativity. But with so many eager hands on the equipment, it's crucial to maintain a tight grip on gear management and ensure the right people take responsibility. Thankfully, with Cheqroom, you can!
Down below, you can discover how Cheqroom makes equipment management easy-breezy. 😮💨 See how our equipment management software helps students reserve gear and do check-outs and check-ins without a hassle. Scan asset labels, flag equipment when it is broken, and ask for electronic signatures to make students more accountable.
Or, if you’re on a tight schedule, simply watch this short 1.46-minute video. 😌👇🏽
Better collaboration through user roles
Students often have to team up for projects. That’s why we wanted you to be able to invite as many students to your account as needed at no extra cost. We can connect to your school’s LDAP, but you can also invite each user separately if you want.
When you grant workspace access to team members or colleagues, you can control who sees what by assigning them a user role. For example:
Before contacting the equipment room, will they use the tool to see available equipment? Make them an Equipment Viewer. Do you want them to book their own gear? Give them a self-service role. A student worker or staff member will then convert the booking into a checkout during pickup. And so on.
Either way, you decide the level of access every student gets by setting up permission levels in your account.
Roles and permissions in Cheqroom are entirely up to you. Your rules, your roles.
Besides that, our location feature helps you keep a full inventory overview and assign equipment to specific locations should you work with several equipment rooms or departments. There, you can also decide which students or staff get to see which inventory.
Gain back control over your gear with Equipment Access
Sometimes, users need proper training, experience, and even certifications to use equipment and avoid misuse or damage. I’m sure some nasty memory immediately popped up. Sorry not sorry. 😬
It’s time to gain back control. With Equipment Access, you can decide which users can access which items. It doesn't matter if it's a last-year student, junior, or freshman. With Equipment Access, we're giving admins extra control over their equipment and eliminating the need to manually check if students can book what they need.
With Equipment Access, we want to add an extra layer of customization options for Admins to categorize the gear users have or have no access to.
Know where your gear is at all times with Reservations & Custody
It’s time for you to claim back your time with Cheqroom’s effortless reservation flow.
From smooth reservations to flawless check-ins, we make it easy to prepare gear for check-out, reliable self-service bookings, increase student accountability, and ensure you get your equipment back in time.
Are you dealing with a lot of IT equipment? Our ‘Custody’ feature might be something for you then. In that case, you’re letting your students use certain items for a longer period of time without necessarily an end date. Think of laptops, iPads, headphones, etc., that can be used during the entire school year. By assigning custody, you can easily track the borrower and the duration of the loaned equipment. Read our blog ‘How to manage IT assets’ for more info.
Want to see what Custody looks like? Take a look at the app!
Asset labeling is the process of giving a unique digital identity to each piece of your equipment.
Centralize your important data with our import feature
We understand that time is money. And thus limited. 🥲 When you have 500 items, the last thing you want to do is add each item manually into your equipment management software. That’s why we made importing your inventory simple & easy with Cheqroom. ✨ Just a few clicks and all your important data is in one place!
Add all the fields you like. Purchase information, models, categories, warranty dates, tech specs, user manuals, maintenance reports, and any custom field you like!
Once you've uploaded your equipment inventory, Cheqroom automatically generates a picture of the item and generates a QR code. Use our mobile app to scan it! Asset labeling is the process of giving a unique digital identity to each piece of your equipment.
These QR codes can end up on a whole range of key tags and laminated labels. Check our asset label store for labels in varying shapes and sizes, all customizable with your school's logo.
Want more info on asset tagging? We’ve created a comprehensive guide to asset labeling; read it here!
Access your gear room whenever, wherever with our mobile app
When we’re not holding a camera in our hands, we’re holding a mobile phone. Ok, perhaps it could also be a fork, a steering wheel, or the TV’s remote. But you get my point.
Now, imagine a student sitting at home in the evening and suddenly realizing they forgot to book a camera for the next day’s shoot. Of course, the equipment manager has a life and is not at school anymore. That’s why we wanted users to be able to unlock the gear room whenever, wherever. How? With our mobile app.
Book equipment, run inventory checks, sign contracts, flag items, and much more from your comfortable sofa at home. Students can make reservations on the go, making the rollout much easier, and check equipment availability whenever they want.
But the app is also a nifty tool for staff or student workers. They can use the mobile app to scan assets being checked out or returned (checked in), generate PDFs or checkout agreements for every booking, and even ask for an electronic signature on the spot to increase accountability.
As an admin, you will always stay on top of things during shoots, inspections, and events and get real-time equipment information with Cheqroom’s mobile app.
If you’re into customizing, rest assured: you can play around with templates and add your school’s logo or specific terms and conditions. Add important rules if necessary, such as fees for late returns, or remind students of the opening hours of the equipment room.
Frequent breakers of the rules can be blocked at any time if necessary. Rules are rules...
For more info on the mobile app’s functionalities, check out this page!
Save time with automated notifications
No more excuses for late returns! Automate your communications and reminders with email, push, or SMS notifications. We offer customizable templates for you to choose from, so you can scratch "send reminders" from your to-do list.
But as an equipment manager, you can also turn on receiving automated messages whenever a reservation comes in, edit the booking if needed, and leave a comment for the student or staff member. This comment can then be automatically sent to them with all the necessary information.
Bottom line for you and your school? A lot of saved time!
Flag items that require repair, maintenance, or cleaning
Most organizations like their equipment to live long, healthy lives. So, let our flagging functionality be of service. ✨ It’s giving green flag energy. ✨
Create your own relevant and colorful flags that can be used for marking equipment with a low battery that needs repair, maintenance, or cleaning.
But also here, not everyone should have the same rights. You choose who can flag items and whether this flag makes the item unavailable for upcoming bookings.
When setting a flag, students or staff members must leave a message and take a picture to ensure maintenance can be planned correctly.
Meanwhile, automated email notifications will let whoever's in charge of maintenance know when an item gets flagged. 💌
Make informed decisions with Reports
Finally, our reporting tool shows you exciting facts about the state and history of your equipment room. Discover what the busiest times in the equipment room are, and perhaps get a student worker on board. But our reports can also give you insights into your equipment usage, such as most popular vs. least used gear, which could help you decide what gear to buy next or what to rent out.
With our contact reports, you can also easily stay on top of your students' and staff's activities. You can see who is checking out the most equipment and who is entitled to the Most Punctual Student award. 🏆
For more info on equipment management for colleges, check out this blog right here!
Want to give Cheqroom a try? Start a free 7-day trial today or book a demo!
Elke Swinnen is Cheqroom’s video reporter and event queen. Most of the time, you’ll find her out in the world visiting Cheqroom customers and shows like NAB and IBC. She is passionate about sharing the latest gear updates, film industry insights, and top gear management tips and tricks. Her favorite pieces of gear are the ARRI ALEXA 35 and Aputure MC Pro. She’s also a Content and Social Media Marketer at Cheqroom.
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