Assets overview
Assets are the core of Tether. An asset is any physical device or piece of equipment you want to track — laptops, monitors, phones, servers, network gear, or anything else.
Assets are checked out to people (employees in Tether's terminology). People are separate records — see the Employees section within each client portal.
Asset fields
| Field | Required | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Asset tag | Yes | String, unique per tenant | The primary identifier. Used in QR codes. Must be unique within the tenant but can duplicate across tenants. Example: IT-0042 |
| Name | Yes | String | Human-readable description — e.g. MacBook Pro 16 (Sarah's laptop) |
| Status | Yes | Enum | One of: available, deployed, maintenance, retired |
| Manufacturer | No | String | e.g. Apple, Dell, Lenovo, Cisco |
| Model | No | String | e.g. M3 Max, Latitude 7440, Catalyst 9300 |
| Serial number | No | String | The manufacturer serial — helpful for warranty claims |
| Category | No | Foreign key | Must be a category that exists in this tenant. Auto-created on CSV import. |
| Location | No | Foreign key | Must be a location that exists in this tenant. Auto-created on CSV import. |
| Assigned to | No | Foreign key | Person (employee) the asset is currently checked out to. Set automatically by check-out. |
| Purchase date | No | Date | YYYY-MM-DD format |
| Purchase cost | No | Decimal | Numeric value in the tenant's currency |
| Warranty expiry | No | Date | YYYY-MM-DD format. Assets expiring within 30 days are surfaced on the dashboard. |
| Notes | No | Text | Free-form notes visible to anyone with assets.view |
Status lifecycle
Assets move through statuses as they are used. The transitions:
textavailable ─── Check Out ──▶ deployed deployed ─── Check In ──▶ available any status ─── Edit form ──▶ maintenance any status ─── Edit form ──▶ retired
- available → deployed: only via Check Out — requires selecting a person
- deployed → available: only via Check In
- maintenance and retired: set manually via the edit form. No checkout/checkin possible while in these states.
If you try to check out an asset that is in maintenance or retired status, the action will fail. Change the status to available first.
Creating an asset
- Log in to the client portal (or navigate to the client subdomain as MSP staff)
- Go to Assets → New Asset
- Fill in the required fields (asset tag, name, status)
- Add any optional fields you want to track
- Click Create Asset
In SaaS mode, if you have reached your plan's asset limit, the Create Asset button will return a 402 Payment Required error. You must upgrade your plan before adding more assets.
Editing an asset
Click any asset in the list to open its detail page, then click Edit. All fields can be edited. The asset tag itself cannot be changed after creation — if you need to change a tag, delete the asset and create a new one.
The asset tag is the primary key used in QR codes, checkout history, and API references. If you change it, existing QR code labels will no longer match the correct record. Delete and recreate the asset instead, noting that this also deletes checkout history.
Searching and filtering
The asset list supports real-time search and multiple filters:
- Search box — searches across asset tag, name, serial number, model, and manufacturer simultaneously
- Status filter — show only assets with a specific status
- Category filter — show assets in a specific category
- Location filter — show assets at a specific location
- Column sorting — click any column header to sort ascending; click again to sort descending
Deleting an asset
Open the asset detail page and click the red trash icon. Confirm the deletion.
Deletion is permanent and removes all checkout history for that asset. There is no way to recover a deleted asset or its history. If the asset is retired or damaged rather than truly gone, consider changing the status to retired instead.
Asset limits in SaaS mode
If you are on a SaaS plan (i.e. DEPLOYMENT_MODE=saas), asset creation is limited by your plan tier. The limits apply to the total number of assets across all tenants combined:
| Warning level | Trigger | What you see |
|---|---|---|
| Normal | Under 80% of limit | Usage bar in MSP sidebar (no warning) |
| Warning | 80% or more of limit | Orange banner on MSP dashboard; amber usage bar |
| Exceeded | 100% of limit | Red banner; 402 Payment Required on any create or import attempt |
Self-hosted installs (DEPLOYMENT_MODE=selfhosted) have no limits and show none of these indicators.