Loans

Loans are for the things that leave the building: hand tools, meters, calipers, kits, glue guns, tape, and consumable stock a member takes for a project. A loan is a custody record: who has it, since when, until when, and what state it left and came back in. It is separate from a machine session (time on a machine that stays put) and from a reservation (a booking of future time).

Turning it on

Loans is a module: enable it under Settings › Modules. Two permissions in the permissions grid control who does what:

• Borrow tools & items: may be named as a borrower and, on self-serve things, may check out and return alone. On by default for every role that comes with permissions, including the free Member and Student roles. The Guest role comes with none, so a Guest can’t borrow. People invited from People › Visiting Members join as Member unless their CSV row gives another role, so they can borrow.
• Check out & return loans, manage loanable assets: the front desk. Check things out to anyone, take returns, mark a loan lost, and decide what can be lent. On by default for Admin, Area Manager, Coordinator and Staff; off for every other role.

Open the desk from Desk › Loans Desk. It has the tabs Out, History, Loanable assets, Generic items and Settings. Two space-wide defaults live on the Settings tab: Default loan length (days) (7 to start with) and Max active loans per member (3).

What can be lent

There are three kinds of thing on a loan.

• Tagged tools and items: equipment and inventory items that already have a label. Each one has a loan policy (below).
• Generic items: things you lend by the handful and never tag one by one, such as “Phillips screwdriver” or “Duct tape”. They go out by quantity. See Generic items.
• Something not in the catalog: the desk types a name and a quantity for a one-off. Only the desk can lend these. Members can’t.

A checkout can mix all three. The borrower signs once for everything on it.

Loan policy for tagged tools

Every piece of equipment and every inventory item carries a loan policy, edited from the Loanable assets tab of the Loans desk (and shown on the asset’s own page):

• Not loanable: the default. Scanning the tag behaves as it always has.
• Staff checkout: a desk person has to hand it over.
• Self-serve: a member may check it out and return it by scanning the tag in the app themselves.

Alongside the mode you can set Max days out for that asset (blank means the space default), Included parts (“2 batteries”, “charger”, “case”, one per line) that the desk ticks off at checkout and again at return, Notes for the desk, and Credentials needed to borrow (see Credentials needed to borrow). On a piece of equipment, the same settings are in the Loans section of its Edit page.

Equipment goes out one unit at a time. A unit is either available or on loan to someone. Inventory items go out by quantity: the desk lends 2 of the 6 clamp sets, stock on hand is untouched, and the item shows 4 available to lend.

Generic items (untagged things)

A generic item is a kind of thing, not one unit: “Phillips screwdriver”, not “screwdriver #4”. Nobody counts how many the shop owns. Each one shows how many are out right now, and who has them.

To add one:

1. Open Desk › Loans Desk and the Generic items tab.
2. Click Add generic item.
3. Fill in:
   • Name, such as “Hot glue gun”.
   • Picture (optional): shown on the sign-out sheet and in the app’s picker.
   • Who can check it out: Staff checkout (staff add it to a checkout at the desk) or Self-serve (members scan it and sign for it themselves in the app).
   • Max days out: leave blank for the space default.
   • Credentials needed to borrow (see below).
   • Notes for the desk.
4. Click Add.

Each card has Check out, Edit and Archive. Archiving hides it from new checkouts and keeps its history. Show archived lists archived ones, and Restore brings one back.

A generic line counts as one loan toward a member’s active-loan cap, however many are on it.

The sign-out sheet

The sign-out sheet is a printable page of scan-to-borrow codes for a tool wall or a station. Members scan a code with the app. A desk scanner reads them too.

1. On the Loans desk, click Sign-out sheet (at the top of the page, or on the Generic items tab).
2. Under Header, set the Title and an optional Note under the title.
3. Under What goes on it, leave All active generic items on, or turn it off and tick the ones you want. Use Add tagged tools to put tagged tools on the sheet too. Reorder or remove them in the list.
4. Under Layout, choose Grid of cards or List of rows, the number of Columns, and the QR code size (Small, Medium or Large). Larger codes scan from further away. Smaller ones fit more on a page.
5. Turn Show pictures and Show how-to steps on or off.
6. Click Save, or Print or save PDF to save and print.

The preview on the right is the page that prints. Each entry says Self-serve or Ask at the desk. A tagged tool on the sheet uses the same code as its label.

Checking out in the app

In the mobile app, open Loans on Home (or More › Loans desk) and tap Check out. The screen has three steps.

What. Add what is going out:

• Scan the tool’s tag: the QR label the platform prints, a sign-out sheet code, or an NFC tag holding the same code. Then use Add another for the next one.
• Pick from the catalog: choose generic items and how many of each, then tap Add.
• Find it by name: for tools too small for a tag.
• Something not in the catalog: type what is going out and how many.

While you scan, everything you have scanned is listed under the camera, newest first. Each code counts once while the scanner is open. Scanning it again shows that it is already in, so use + on its row for more. A generic item or an inventory item has its quantity on its row. Pressing − at one asks before removing the line. Tap Done to go back to the checkout.

If a tagged tool you scan is still out with someone else, the app asks what to do. It usually came back and nobody checked it in. Choose Check it in, then add, Open that loan, or Cancel.

Who. Tap Scan their badge and ask the member to open My badge in their app and hold up the code. Or tap Find them by name to search by name, email or badge id.

Terms. Set Due back (prefilled from the shortest limit in the checkout), tick the included parts going out, and add a condition note, a photo and notes if you need them. Then tap Check out to and the member’s first name.

The loan is live the moment you confirm. The borrower gets a notification and, in their app, acknowledges the loan with a drawn signature. The signature lands on the record when they tap through, and it never holds up handing the tool over. The desk page flags loans still waiting on an acknowledgement.

Credentials needed to borrow

Anything loanable can require credentials before it goes out. For example, a soldering kit can need “Soldering iron use”. Choose them in Credentials needed to borrow when you set up the tool, item or generic item. The borrower must hold all of them.

This is checked at the desk too. Staff can’t lend it to anyone without the credentials. When the borrower lacks one, the checkout line names it and Check out stays greyed out. Remove that line, or issue the credential first and pick the borrower again.

A piece of equipment’s Required credentials are separate: they gate the machine’s power. A self-serve checkout of equipment also needs those.

A checkout is refused when the member already has an overdue loan, when they are at the active-loan cap, when they lack a credential the thing needs, or when a tagged tool is already out with someone else.

Checking out on the web

On the Loans desk, click Check out. Add what is going out by searching loanable tools and items, picking Generic items from the list, or typing under Something not in the catalog with a quantity and clicking Add. Set the quantity of a generic or counted line with − and +.

A handheld desk scanner works in this window. Scan a label or a sign-out sheet code and it joins the checkout. Scanning a sign-out sheet code again adds one more.

Pick the Borrower by name, email or badge id. Set Due back, the Condition going out, optional Photos and Notes, and click Check out.

Borrowing it yourself (self-serve)

For a self-serve tool or generic item, a member doesn’t need the desk:

1. Open Loans on Home (or More › My loans) and tap Borrow something. Or scan the tool’s tag or the sign-out sheet code from the Scan tab.
2. Add what you are taking. Pick from the catalog lists generic items. Ones that need staff say Ask at the front desk.
3. Sign to acknowledge the loan, and tap Borrow it.

Returning a self-serve tagged tool is scanning its tag again. Credential requirements, the overdue block, and the active-loan cap all still apply.

Checking things back in (app)

On the app’s Loans desk, tap Check in. What happens depends on what you scan first.

Scan a tool’s tag to check that tool in, whoever borrowed it. This is the quick way through a pile left on the desk. Scan each tag in turn. Each one joins the Coming back list, already marked as back. If a generic item is out to several people, the app asks whose came back.

Scan a member’s badge to list everything they have out. Then mark what came back:

• scan each tag, or tap a row (the only way for untagged things),
• or tap All back to mark everything.

If you scan a tool that was out to someone else while a member is loaded, it is added too, and the app says whose it was.

For something out in a quantity, set how many came back with − and + on its row. Fewer than went out checks in that many, and the rest stay out on the same loan with the same due date. Untick any included parts that didn’t come back.

Tap Check in (or Check in and the number when you have marked several). Rows you didn’t mark stay out. To note damage or add a photo for one loan, tap Note damage or add a photo… under its row.

You can also open a single loan in the app and tap Return. Choose How many came back, tick what Came back with it, add a Condition on return note and a photo, and confirm. If something never comes back, use Mark as lost on the loan. The record is kept.

A self-serve loan can also be closed by its borrower.

Checking things back in at the desk (web)

On the Loans desk, click Check in. As in the app, what you scan first decides what happens. A handheld desk scanner works anywhere on the page.

Scan a tool’s tag to check that tool in. With nothing open, scanning a tagged tool that is out opens Check in with it already marked. Scan the rest of the pile in turn. If a generic item is out to several people, the desk asks whose came back.

Scan a member’s badge to list everything they have out. The badge can be the QR on their phone’s My badge screen, or a card whose number your space recorded as their badge id. You can also type their name in the box and pick them. Then mark what came back:

• scan each tag, or click a row (the only way for untagged things),
• or click All back.

For something out in a quantity, set how many came back with − and + on its row. Untick any included parts that didn’t come back. Click Check in (or Check in and the number). Rows you didn’t mark stay out. To note damage or add a photo, use Return on that loan in the list instead.

A badge scanned while Check out is open fills in the Borrower rather than starting a check-in.

Due dates, reminders, and overdue

Due dates are end-of-day in your space’s timezone: “due Friday” means Friday, not midnight going into Friday. The borrower gets a Loan due soon reminder as the loan enters its last day and a Loan overdue reminder once the date passes, through the usual channels (in-app, email, push, per their preferences). The desk can push a due date back, which resets those reminders.

An overdue loan blocks that member from taking anything else out until it is returned. Loans do not affect door access or machine access.

Tags: QR and NFC

The app reads both QR and NFC tags. The labels the platform prints for equipment and items already carry the code the loan flow reads, and so does each code on the sign-out sheet. On a phone with NFC, the scan screen offers Tap NFC tag, and staff can Write NFC tag from an asset’s page to encode a blank tag with the same code. A tag written that way scans identically to the printed label.

My badge

My badge is the rotating personal code in the mobile app (the QR button at the top of the Home screen, or More › Facility access). It’s the same code trainers scan to issue credentials in person. It changes every minute , only identifies you, and grants nothing by itself. At the desk it is how you are named as the borrower, and how the desk lists what you have out at check-in.

Where loans show up

• Loans desk (web and app): everything out, overdue first; history; the loanable-asset list; generic items; space defaults. On the web it’s Desk › Loans Desk.
• My loans (web and app, on the web under My Stuff › My Loans): what you have out and when it is due, plus your history.
• Asset pages: “On loan to X, due Y”, or how many are available to lend.