Equipment Classes
Equipment Classes is a free-form catalog for grouping your machinery, vehicles and other equipment by whatever criteria makes sense for your company: for example "Forklifts", "Delivery Vehicles", "Compressors" or "HVAC Equipment". AdmCloud doesn't ship with a fixed list out of the box, so you decide how many classes to create and what to call them.
What is it and what is it for?
Each record in this catalog is simply a name, optional internal notes and, optionally, a Parts Consumption Account. Once created, you pick the class in the Equipment Class field on the record of an Equipment, an External Equipment or any Fixed Asset flagged as equipment, to place it in the class it belongs to. It isn't required for a piece of equipment to work — it's information that gives structure to your machinery catalog and that maintenance reports, transportation rates and the accounting expense of the parts consumed during maintenance all take advantage of.
It's a simple, standalone catalog — it doesn't depend on any other screen to exist — but it really pays off when used alongside the Equipment and External Equipment records, since it's the field that later lets you filter and group maintenance reports, define transportation rates by equipment type and, optionally, set a default ledger account for the parts consumed by every piece of equipment in that class.
Screens in this area
| Screen | What it does |
|---|---|
| List | All the registered classes, sorted by name. From here you open each one to view or edit it, or create a new one. |
| Create / Edit | A simple form with the class's name, internal notes and, optionally, its parts consumption ledger account. |
| Details | A read-only view of the class's data with shortcuts to edit or delete it if you have the corresponding permission. |
How to create a class step by step
- Open the list and click New. You need the "add" level of the Fixed Assets permission.
- Enter the name. It's the only required field, for example "Forklifts" or "Delivery Vehicles". It must be different from any other class already registered.
- Add notes (optional) if you want to clarify for your team which kind of machinery or vehicle should use this class.
- Pick a Parts Consumption Account (optional). This is the expense ledger account that will be used by default when parts or materials are dispatched from inventory to maintain a piece of equipment in this class, if that specific piece of equipment doesn't have its own account assigned.
- Save. The class is immediately available in the "Equipment Class" field on any Equipment or External Equipment record.
Where it's used
- In the Equipment Class field on each Equipment, External Equipment or Fixed Asset flagged as equipment.
- As a filter and group-by in maintenance reports, such as the Failures by Equipment Class report and the Maintenance Cost by Equipment report.
- As a criterion for setting up transportation Rates (Transportation Management / TMS module), which can be defined by equipment class instead of on each individual piece of equipment.
- As an alternate source for the parts consumption ledger account: if the Equipment itself doesn't have its own account assigned, AdmCloud falls back to its Class's account before falling back to the Subsidiary's or the company's general configuration.
Key fields
| Field | What it's for |
|---|---|
| Name | The class's description (for example, "Forklifts" or "Compressors"). It's the only required field and cannot repeat with another class already registered. |
| Notes | Free text to clarify the internal use of this class, visible only within this screen. |
| Parts Consumption Account | The expense ledger account proposed by default when dispatching parts or materials to maintain equipment in this class, when the equipment doesn't have its own account assigned. |
Validations when saving
- Name is required.
- Name must be unique: it cannot repeat with another class already registered.
- You cannot delete a class if any Fixed Assets (equipment) already have it assigned, or if there are transportation Rates configured for it; the system shows you the list of affected equipment or rates so you know what to reassign first.
Availability, plan and modules
- This screen is only available on the Enterprise plan, and only when your company has at least one of these modules active: Industrial Maintenance, Advanced Manufacturing or Transportation Management (TMS). If none of those modules is active, neither the menu nor the screen will be visible.
- Access is controlled by the "Fixed Assets" permission of your user group (the same permission that governs the rest of the Fixed Assets module), with separate levels to view, add, edit and delete.
Tips and common pitfalls
Set up your catalog before you start adding equipment. Think through the classes that actually differentiate your machinery and vehicles (by type, by line of work or by maintenance process) and create them all at once, so assigning them is fast and consistent across different users.
Use the Parts Consumption Account to save yourself work. If every piece of equipment in a class consumes parts against the same expense account, set it here instead of repeating it on each piece of equipment — you'll only need to define an exception on the one piece of equipment that uses a different account.
Can't delete a class? That's because one or more pieces of equipment or transportation rates already have it assigned. Reassign those records to another class before trying to delete it again.
Don't confuse this with Fixed Asset Classes. Equipment Class is a grouping focused on the machinery/vehicles used for maintenance, transportation and equipment-specific reports; if you need to classify fixed assets in general for depreciation and accounting purposes, use the Fixed Asset Classes catalog instead.