Assigning additional assets to your product

Assigning additional assets to your product in Checkfront ensures all necessary resources are tied to bookings, helping you manage capacity accurately and deliver seamless experiences.

With this article, you can learn how to:

• Add assets from the same asset category
• Create new assets to add from the same category
• Add assets from another category 

You can also learn about the relationship between multiple assets and multiple asset categories.
 

Learn more with related articles Be sure to read the previous article in this series for an introduction to assigning assets. Learn more about the Inventory tab here: Establishing inventory on products. New to the Product Builder? Read the first article in this series for an introduction to the Product feature.

Accessing the features mentioned in this article

Where can I find this feature using the top menu?

• Inventory > Products > Products > Add Product/Add New Product/Edit Product > Inventory

What more do I need to use this feature?

• Admin permissions to manage inventory or restricted permissions to View products and assets and Manage products and assets. 

Which Checkfront version supports this feature - classic items, classic products, or both?

• Your account must have access to classic products (Inventory > Products), a key feature of our classic products version of Checkfront. This feature is not available for use with classic items (Inventory > Items) in our classic items version. → Learn more about products. 

Would you like to add additional assets from the same asset category to your product? For example, you have two types of kayaks (fishing kayaks and pedal kayaks) from which you pull your inventory.

You can follow these steps to add one.

1. Click the +Add {asset name} button to open the list of assets within the same category (kayaks).  
   •  If you don't see the +Add button, you can create new assets (e.g., sea kayaks) within that same category. You can learn more below under the section Creating new assets to add to the same category.

2. Select one or more assets from the drop-down menu to add your product. 

For example, you can offer pedal kayaks alongside fishing kayaks. The Guest can then be assigned a fishing kayak OR pedal kayak after booking from the Daily Manifest.

Learn more about assigning assets from the daily manifest Learn more about assigning assets with the following article: Assigning assets from the Daily Manifest

Creating new assets to add from the same category

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You can also create new assets within the same asset category if you don't already see them listed when you go to add an asset.

For example, do you need to add sea kayaks, but you don't see the asset listed in the drop-down menu? 

You can follow these steps.
 

1. Navigate to the Inventory tab of the Product Builder (Inventory > Products > Inventory).
2. Scroll down to the Assets section of the page.
3. Find the category of assets you want to add new assets to.
4. Open the select asset(s) menu.
5. Select the Create {asset category name} asset checkbox. Selecting that option opens the Create Assets modal.
6. From the Create Assets modal, you can define your asset.

Value	Description
Name	Specify the Name of your asset pool, such as Mountain Bikes, Single Kayaks, Kayak Paddles (200cm), or Small Life Jackets. This name applies to all assets in the pool but can be changed once saved.
Asset Category	Select the Asset category for the asset pool.  Asset categories (e.g., Bikes, Buses, Kayaks, Kayak Paddles, Life Jackets) allow you to generally classify your asset pools (e.g., Mountain Bikes, Shuttle Buses, Single Kayaks, Kayak Paddles - 200cm, or Life Jackets - Small), which helps to organize your assets and minimize the complexity of applying assets to products.
Quatity: Total assets	Specify the number of assets included in this asset pool, for example, 10 Mountain Bikes, 5 Single Kayaks, 4 Shuttle Buses, 25 Kayak Paddles - 200cm, or 25 Life Jackets - Small. You can configure products based on the quantity of assets available so that they are priced per asset and private to each booking.  For example, a Guest can book a single kayak for private use.
Capacity: Total seats	You can specify an asset's capacity in the asset pool. Asset capacity represents the total capacity of the assets, considering the number of seats or spaces that the asset can support. Assets with a capacity of greater than one can support more than one Guest booking, for example, Shuttle Buses (10), as opposed to single-rider Mountain Bikes (1). You can configure products based on the capacity of each asset, allowing the system to price them per seat and allocate the assets across bookings. For example, a shuttle bus has a total capacity of 15 people. Fifteen people can each book a seat on the bus for a wine tour. Learn more here: Assigning assets to your products by quantity vs capacity
Maintenance Time	Allow time at the beginning and end of each booking for asset maintenance, such as inflating bike tires, washing kayaks, servicing buses, or sanitizing life jackets. Learn more here: Assigning assets to your products by quantity vs capacity

7. Once you save your new asset, the system automatically lists it under the product you are building.
    

Your product might depend on multiple asset categories for the experience, such as kayaks and kayak equipment.
 

To add additional assets to your product from a separate category, follow these steps.

1. Navigate to the Inventory tab of the Product Builder (Inventory > Products > Inventory).
2. Scroll down to the Assets section of the page.
3. Click the + Add assets button at the bottom-left of the table to add additional asset categories, which can, in turn, have one or more asset pools linked.
4. Click the Select an Asset Category field to select an existing asset category (e.g., kayaks) from the list.
5. Select the asset(s) you want to associate with your product, e.g., Fishing Kayak.

When you add multiple assets to your product within the same category, you are giving the option for the product booking (kayak rental) to consume one of the assets, for example, either a fishing kayak OR a pedal kayak, not both. The OR label next to subsequent assets in the table illustrates this relationship.

When you add multiple assets from different categories, you give the product booking (kayak rental) the option to consume assets from both categories, for example, a fishing kayak AND a life jacket. The AND label between the product's asset categories illustrates this relationship.
 

Use case example: Kayak rental with life jacket and paddle For example, the product booking includes the kayak (fishing OR pedal), kayak paddles, AND life jacket. A Guest who has booked a kayak rental could then be assigned a fishing kayak with a paddle a life jacket during check-in.

Flexibility with configuring asset combinations

The system gives you flexibility in configuring your assets based on your business needs. We also have guardrails in place to prevent you from allocating assets more than once. For example, you can add the same asset category twice (if you require more than one asset from the same category), but you can't associate the same assets with the product more than once!
 

Frequently asked questions

How can I edit the name, category, quantity, or maintenance time for an asset?

• Click on the pencil icon next to the asset in the Assets list. Note: You cannot change the capacity of an existing asset pool.
   
   

Next Steps

In the next article in this series, we'll examine the assignment of assets to products based on quantity versus capacity.

< Selecting an existing asset category and asset for your product |  Assigning assets to your products by quantity vs capacity >