Printing Asset Labels with AssetSync

AssetSync → Settings → Labels & QR Codes prints labels. The first choice on the page is what you are labeling.

Shelf labels or asset labels

Shelf labels print one label per storage location. Scanning one opens your inventory filtered to that location — everything that belongs in that bay, and what is currently out of it.

Asset labels print one label per item. Scanning one opens that item's record.

Shelf labels are the ones that scale, and they are selected by default. A venue with a few thousand units spread across a dozen bays has a dozen shelf labels to keep current, against a few thousand stickers that go out of date every time something is renamed, re-boxed or retired. Reach for asset labels where the specific unit matters — a projector whose service history you want on your phone, two similar linens that keep getting mixed up.

Shelf labels come from the locations set up under Settings → Storage Locations. If that list is empty there is nothing to print, and the page says so.

Three ways to print

Avery Sheet generates a PDF laid out for a sheet of labels, which you download and print on any laser or inkjet printer. Available templates:

Dymo PDF generates a PDF too, but sized for a DYMO label rather than a sheet — one label per page. Use this when you have a DYMO LabelWriter but would rather print through its normal printer driver than install anything.

Dymo Direct sends labels straight to a DYMO LabelWriter through Dymo Connect, without a PDF in between. It needs Dymo Connect installed and running on the same machine as the browser; the page detects it and tells you which printer it found. If it finds none, use one of the two PDF routes.

Both DYMO options support the DYMO 30252, 30256 and 30332 label sizes.

Starting part way down a sheet

Label sheets are rarely used up in one go. Start at position tells the PDF how many spots on the first sheet to skip, so a sheet with eight labels already peeled off goes back through the printer instead of in the bin. Positions count left to right, top to bottom, so on an Avery 5160 position 4 is the first label of the second row.

This applies to Avery sheets only — a Dymo roll has no positions to skip.

Print order

Asset labels print in the order you would walk the building: by space, then by storage location, then by name. A stack comes off the printer ready to apply without sorting it first.

What is on a label

A shelf label carries:

• A QR code — scanning it lists everything stored in that location
• The location name, set large enough to read across a room
• The venue space, if the location is filed under one
• How many items and units it currently holds

An asset label carries:

• A QR code — scanning it opens the asset in AssetSync
• The asset name, in bold
• The SKU, or a short asset ID if the asset has no SKU
• The category, if set
• The storage location and detail, if set

Choosing a size

The smaller Avery format (5160, thirty to a sheet) fits a name and code comfortably and little else. Avery 5163 gives the location, category and tally room to be readable from a distance — which is usually what you want for a shelf label, since the point of one is to be read while standing back from the bay.

Label stock

For anything living in a dry storage room, standard paper labels are fine. For items that go outside, get wet, or are handled constantly, a polyester or vinyl label survives where paper does not — the QR code stops working the moment the surface scuffs.

Re-printing

Labels can be reprinted at any time for any selection of assets — the QR code for an asset does not change, so a replacement label works exactly like the original.