Serialized equipment tracking within inventory

Hi Fatima, happy to help clarify this!

Priya here from the Support team. Daniel covered the landscape well, so let me add a bit about what is officially supported today.

Native serialization: Not currently available. The inventory module tracks quantities only, as you noted.

Official workaround: If you need serialized tracking for compliance audits, we do have a documented pattern using Custom Fields on work orders combined with Checklist Templates. It is not as seamless as true serialization, but it creates the audit trail you need:

1. Create a custom field on work orders called "Installed Equipment Serial Numbers" (multi-line text)
2. Build a required checklist item: "Record serial number of installed unit and photograph equipment label"
3. Enable Photo Required on that checklist item
4. Filter and report on the custom field via Work Order Reports

This gives you technician attestation + photographic evidence + searchable records. For full chain of custody, pair this with the Parts Used tracking in inventory, which logs which technician pulled stock and when.

See this article for full steps: Tracking Parts Used on a Job

For the integration path Daniel mentioned, our API supports creating custom fields programmatically if you want to sync with an external asset system. The relevant endpoint is /work_orders/{id}/custom_fields.

Does this help clarify your options? I am happy to walk through the checklist setup in more detail if useful.

Hi Fatima, happy to help clarify this!

Priya here from the Support team. Daniel covered the landscape well, so let me add a bit about what is officially supported today.

Native serialization: Not currently available. The inventory module tracks quantities only, as you noted.

Official workaround: If you need serialized tracking for compliance audits, we do have a documented pattern using Custom Fields on work orders combined with Checklist Templates. It is not as seamless as true serialization, but it creates the audit trail you need:

1. Create a custom field on work orders called "Installed Equipment Serial Numbers" (multi-line text)
2. Build a required checklist item: "Record serial number of installed unit and photograph equipment label"
3. Enable Photo Required on that checklist item
4. Filter and report on the custom field via Work Order Reports

This gives you technician attestation + photographic evidence + searchable records. For full chain of custody, pair this with the Parts Used tracking in inventory, which logs which technician pulled stock and when.

See this article for full steps: Tracking Parts Used on a Job

For the integration path Daniel mentioned, our API supports creating custom fields programmatically if you want to sync with an external asset system. The relevant endpoint is /work_orders/{id}/custom_fields.

Does this help clarify your options? I am happy to walk through the checklist setup in more detail if useful.

Thank you, Daniel and Priya, for the comprehensive responses.

I have reviewed the documentation and have a follow-up question regarding data integrity. From a governance perspective, the custom field approach introduces potential for manual entry errors—technicians mistyping serial numbers, for example. It is worth noting that our audit requirements specify that equipment records must be "accurate and tamper-evident."

Does the checklist photo requirement provide sufficient evidentiary weight, or is there any validation layer (barcode scanning, mandatory format enforcement) that can be applied to the custom field itself?

Additionally, with respect to the API integration path: is there a webhook event that fires upon work order completion that could trigger the external asset system update automatically? We would prefer to avoid polling patterns.

Thank you again for your assistance.

yeah this one tripped me up too when I first looked at it—hey Fatima, Eli from Engineering here

so on the validation question: there's no native regex or format enforcement on custom fields, which is honestly a gap I've flagged internally. what you *can* do is use a webhook to validate on your end before committing to the asset system

speaking of which, yes—there's a work_order.status_changed event that fires on completion. payload structure is:

{  "event": "work_order.status_changed",  "data": {    "work_order_id": "wo_abc123",    "status": "completed",    "completed_at": "2026-02-09T11:00:00Z",    "custom_fields": {      "installed_equipment_serial_numbers": "SN-2026-0015847"    }  }}

heads up though: the custom_fields object only includes values that have been set, so if your tech forgets to fill it, you'll get an empty object. worth noting that we don't currently validate required custom fields at the API/webhook layer—only in the UI

pro tip from implementations I've seen: some teams use a middleware validation layer that checks the serial number format against their asset DB before accepting the webhook, rejects back to the tech if malformed. bit of a dance but it works

also on barcode scanning—there's Barcode Scanning for Inventory Management which works for *parts*, not custom fields.yeah I know, it's frustrating. the scanner input can technically write to any text field though, so you could have techs scan into the custom field if you're on Android. iOS locks the camera API a bit tighter

anyway, happy to go deeper on the webhook side if your dev team wants to sync up