Scout SuiteHow-to guide
Tracking equipment
Tag a tent or a stove once. After that, a scan is how you look it up, send it out on camp, bring it home, or find out what's actually missing from the store.
Watch this on its own pageAdd the kit
On Equipment, start with a Category if you want things grouped, then Item, a name and condition is enough to get an item on the inventory. A Quartermaster can do this without needing access to members, finance or communications.
Give a shelf its own place in the store
A rack, shelf or crate is just equipment too, tick This stores other items when you add it, and give it a short position code like "1.1" for Shelf 1 on Rack 1. Everything else can then be placed inside it: the storage-location picker on any other item offers it under Containers, alongside your rooms.
Replace a shelf that's broken the same way as anything else: Replace this item on it retires the old one and moves everything that was on it onto the new one automatically, keeping the same position code by default.
Get tags onto things
Two ways to get a number onto an item. Prefer the packs we design against: Print-72 serialised QR labels on Amazon (ask for a batch prefix like R-001 when ordering) and ZipNFC NFC tags: Midas Tiny for small kit (SKU 5060326410469), anti-metal 19mm for metal surfaces (SKU 5060326411121), and the green ABS cable-tie for containers (SKU 5060326412258). Stick the QR over the NFC sticker when you want both. Or use Print labels to create a run yourself onto ordinary label sheets. If a second pack reuses numbers like 001, register it first under Tag batches with a prefix so the two packs don't clash.
On Print labels, choose your label sheet. Download PDF gives you a PDF laid out to that sheet's exact size: print it at actual size (100%), not "fit to page", and the labels line up. Print uses your browser's print dialog instead, where you'll need to set the margins to none.
The QR on the label is just the serial, not a web link, scanning it with the phone's Camera app won't open Scout Suite. Use Scan inside the app (or type the number).
Bind each tag to an item
Open the item, Bind a tag, and type the serial on the sticker. If that serial is already on something else, you'll be offered Move tag to this item instead. You can also scan an unbound tag in Lookup and pick the item there. Unbind frees the tag to use again; archive retires a damaged or lost sticker for good.
Scan to check out, check in, or move: into a room or a container
Scan has a mode for each job. Lookup shows where it is and whether it's out. Check out and Check in fill a basket as you scan, then you commit once, checkout can be group use or a loan to someone. Move changes location in a batch: pick a room, or scan the shelf's own tag to file everything straight into that container. Camera works on any phone; tap an NFC tag is Android Chrome only, on iPhone use the QR or type the serial. Scout Suite reads the tag's factory serial and never writes to it.
PAT testing has its own scan mode and its own guide, see PAT testing.
LookupCheck outCheck inMoveStocktake against what's actually on the shelf
Start a stocktake for a store or the whole inventory, that snapshots what should be there. Scan everything you find (on the stocktake or in Scan → Stocktake). The Report then shows what's accounted for, missing, in the wrong place, or unexpected (an item on a shelf inside a room still counts as being in that room, so nesting things in containers doesn't change what a stocktake expects). Move a wrong-location item if you want, then Complete stocktake to lock it.
Kit that's gone for good is recorded on the item's maintenance log: Sold, Donated, Scrapped, Returned to supplier, or Lost or Stolen when nobody decided to part with it. Those, and anything missing at a completed stocktake, appear under Assets lost or written off in the trustee report.
Safety & HQ
More in this topic
Risk, incidents, GDPR, the building, and the kit in it.