The Technology module shows each client's devices from your integrations, grouped by Technology Type, such as Workstations and Servers. For every device you see its age, End of Life date and grade, plus a replacement budget with a month and year.
Your admin sets up the Technology Types, the global budget classes and the End of Life rules once for every client, in Set Up Hardware Lifecycle Budgets. You work with each client's devices: which class a device is on, your own budget or date where the class doesn't fit, and classes for a client who replaces on a different cycle.
Working with a device
In the Technology module, or the Technology Part of a client's Report:
Class: pick the device's class. Its lifespan and replacement cost set the device's Budget, Month and Year. The Technology module offers your global classes. A client's own classes are picked in that client's Report.
Budget: type your own amount, and the device switches to Custom, so it no longer follows a class. Values that don't come from a class show in amber.
Month or Year: type your own to move the replacement date. The device keeps its class, but that date is no longer set automatically. Clearing the field puts the class's date back.
A device with no purchase date only gets a budget, with no month or year, until a purchase date comes in.
Classes for one client
When a client replaces on a different cycle, give them their own class instead of changing every device by hand. Administrators, Managers, Builders and Editors can add one:
On a Technology Type's list, click Budget Classes.
Under Company Classes, click Add.
Pick Override A Global Class to keep the same class with different numbers for that client, such as a three-year refresh, or Create A New Class for a class only that client uses.
How device budgets reach the Budget
Each device's budget lands in the client's Budget and Roadmap Parts in its month and year. Which sources the Budget shows is set in the Part's Part Settings on an Open Report, by an Administrator, Manager or Builder, and saved on the Part in the Report template. Each source's tab has an eye icon that shows or hides it.
Forecast first, then specifics
Auto-budgeting gives every client a replacement forecast without any typing. When a replacement becomes real, with a date and a quote, turn it into an Initiative:
On the device, open Initiative and click New initiative, or link it to one you've already made.
Fill in the Initiative's Related Items, Labor and Parts costs, which add up to its Budget, and its Month and Year.
While a device is linked to an Initiative, only the Initiative counts in the Budget and Roadmap, and the device shows under it, so the replacement isn't counted twice. Link several devices to one Initiative to plan a whole refresh as a single project.
Good to know
A device past its End of Life date grades as Danger, and one inside the warning period as Warning. Your admin sets the warning period.
Standalone groups, such as domains or SSL certificates, don't have classes. You budget and grade them by hand.
A grade you pick by hand is marked as set by hand and stays until you choose Auto (from end of life) in the grade list.
To change many devices at once, select them in the Technology module or the Technology Part, then set the Class or the grade for all of them together.
When a device group is first put on a Technology Type, existing devices aren't recalculated. They start on Custom with the budgets they already had, and grades set by hand stay. Select them and pick a class and Auto (from end of life) to bring them in line. Devices that were on Grade Needed switch to auto-grading on their own.