Converting Assets to Consumables

[Daniel Grande]

We have decided that we are currently tracking items as assets that we want to shift and track as consumables. Is there a simple way to convert the assets to consumables or is there a suggestion on how we would make this transition?

[Mitch McCain]

Daniel, here is my suggestion based on the information you provided. 

If you don't need to consume these against who they are currently assigned to as assets then I'd start new and track as consumables moving forward. You may be able to shortcut it by adding Consumable to the existing model category. My preference would be to recreate them as a consumable model. This can easily be done via transform map using mapping assist, exporting the existing models, then updating the class field to Consumable. 

If you need to convert existing consumables then it's essentially the same as above with the added step of a second transform map to convert the in use assets assign to into the consumable records assign to. You can then total the quantities of each model and assign them to their respective consumable model, state, stockrooms etc.

[Ashok Sasidhara]

It is not recommended to convert assets to consumables as consumables are managed in bulk. You would lose individual asset related information like the linked configuration item, other attributes specific to each individual asset, asset lifecycle history etc. if you do this. For each such asset with valid business reason for you to convert, it is better to mark those as retired and then add a comment that you are going to manage it as consumable. After that, you can recreate the required number of consumables.