Once a group is on a Technology Type, Strategy Overview works out three things for each item: when it needs replacing, what that costs, and how healthy it is today. It saves you doing it device by device, and you can still change any of it by hand.
Both run on Technology Types, set up in The Technology Module, and both need purchase dates. The warranty integration brings in purchase dates for many assets, and you can fill in the rest in your PSA.
Budget classes
A budget class has two numbers: a lifespan in years and a replacement cost. Each type has a default class.
Global classes: apply to every client. Change one and every client follows.
Company overrides: the same class with different numbers for one client, for example a client on a three-year refresh cycle.
Your own classes: add them on the type under Settings > Flexible Items > Technology Types, for every client or for one.
Note: global class values affect every client, so setting them is an admin job.
How the budget is worked out
The replacement year is the purchase date plus the class lifespan, and the cost is the class cost. Age is the only input: operating system, memory and warranty never move a budget.
To track grades without dollars, leave the class cost blank. The item shows on the Budget with no dollar figure, and the lifespan still dates it.
How the End of Life date is worked out
Every item on a Technology Type gets an End of Life date, shown in its own column. It's the earlier of two dates:
Purchase date plus the class lifespan: items on the Custom budget class, or with no class, use the type's default class lifespan.
The operating system's end of support: from a list Strategy Overview keeps up to date for you.
If only one date is available, that one is used. With neither, the item has no End of Life date.
How the grade is worked out
The grade follows the End of Life date.
Danger: End of Life has passed
Warning: End of Life is within the warning period, 12 months unless you change it on the type
Healthy: End of Life is further out
Grade Needed: there's no End of Life date, usually because the purchase date is missing. Fix it in your PSA.
You can rename the four system grades and change their icons, but you can't delete them. Standalone groups are graded by hand.
Note: the budget and the grade can disagree. A new machine on an unsupported operating system grades Danger while its budget stays years out, because the budget follows age alone.
Changing things by hand
The automation is there to save you time. You can still change any of it:
Budget, Month or Year: type over it, and the item moves to the Custom budget class. Pick a class again to go back.
Budget class: put an item on a different class, or change a class's numbers for one client.
End of Life: type your own date, and it wins until you clear it.
Grade: set it yourself, and it's marked as set by hand until you choose Auto.
The whole type: open it under Settings > Flexible Items > Technology Types, then its Auto-grading tab, to change the warning period or turn auto-grading off. Only Admins and Managers can change these.
Moving existing items over
When a group first goes on a type, nothing is recalculated. Its items arrive on the Custom budget class with their figures as they were, and existing grades stay, marked as set by hand.
Pick one client. Select its items, apply a class, and set their grades to Auto. Mass edit does both.
Check that client's Budget and grades.
Repeat for the rest.
Important: items older than their lifespan are budgeted into a past year. Look for those in step 2 and move them to a year you can work with. Items on Grade Needed are usually missing a purchase date.