Instruments and Books You Track One by One
When you set an item up to be lent and tracked separately, every instrument (or book) gets its own page: its details, photos, loans and repairs. This article covers adding them and looking after their details and photos.
The Tab
Open the item and you see a tab named for what is inside it: Instruments, Titles (for a Book category) or Items. It lists everything you have added, with its serial number, asset tag, condition and status, and who has it and when it is due back.
Use the search box to find one by label, serial number or asset tag, and the filters to narrow by status or condition. Click a row to open its page.
Adding Instruments
Choose Add instrument (or Add title) to add one. Choose Add several to add a batch from a name and a count: "Cello" and 5 creates Cello 01 to Cello 05 in one go. Add serial numbers and other details to each afterwards.
For a single one, fill in:
- Label. How you refer to it, for example "Cello 01" or "Sight reading book 1". Labels must be different from each other.
- Serial number and Asset tag (optional).
- Condition (optional): Excellent, Good, Fair or Poor.
- Status: In use, Lost or Retired. Lost and retired ones leave the usual list but their history stays.
- Includes (optional): things that go with it, such as a bow and case.
- Purchase date and Purchase price (optional). Only people who can edit the item see the price.
- Notes (optional).
An Instrument's Page
Each page has four tabs:
- Overview shows its details, and whether it is available, on loan, overdue or in repair. Choose Edit to change them.
- Photos holds its pictures.
- Loans lists everyone who has had it, with the hire charges.
- Repairs lists repairs, with their photos and costs.
Whether it is available, on loan, overdue or in repair is worked out for you from its loans and repairs. You do not set it by hand.
Photos
A good set of photos is the best record of an instrument's condition.
- Adding. Drag one or several pictures onto the photo area, or choose Choose photos or Take a photo. JPEG, PNG, WebP and HEIC pictures are accepted. Octavia reduces them to a sensible size before they are saved.
- Limit. Up to ten photos for each instrument.
- Please photograph the item, not people.
- Cover and order. The first photo is the cover. Drag a photo onto another to move it, use the arrow buttons, or choose Make cover.
- Captions. Open a photo in the large view to add a caption.
- Downloading. Download one photo, or choose Download all to get them in a single ZIP file.
Photos are private. Only people who can see the instrument can see its photos.
Photos From Loans
The photos taken when an instrument is lent or returned stay with that loan as the record of its condition. You can also choose to use them as the instrument's own photos. When you do, the earlier ones are kept under Earlier photos rather than deleted.
Lost and Retired
Marking an instrument Lost or Retired takes it out of the usual list and means it cannot be lent. Everything about it is kept, and you can show it again by choosing the status filter All.
Next: Lending and returning an instrument · Related: Setting up an item