What is the best way to reclaim consumables?

[snowenthusiast]

Hi,

I am working on Asset management implementation. I know how to assign/consume consumables (using consume button) but what is the best way to reclaim that consumable if person leaves the organization (or any other applicable) use case?

Thanks in advance.

[robpickering]

Consumables have marginal value.   As such, you don't reclaim them.   They're considered "consumed" (no value) as soon as you deploy them (though you do track inventory so you know when you're running low and can re-order).

If you have "consumables" that you consider valuable, then you should asset tag them and treat them as assets, so you can assign them, and then reclaim them.

That said, if you assigned a User when you consumed it, I suppose you could transfer it back into inventory (as if you had purchased new) if you wanted to "reclaim" it.   Though there isn't that functionality out-of-box.

-Rob

[snowenthusiast]

Hi Rob,

Thanks for your response. I agree with you that consumables are "less worthy" to be tracked as an asset. However, when people leave organization they (consumables) do come back to the inventory, at least the ones which are in working condition. How to handle that as a process and in ServiceNow as well.

Thanks.

[jake_mckenna]

There really isn't a way OOB to do this, but something added if desired like in your case. My normal solution would be to create a UI action on the Consumable table that would allow me to choose a consumable that is in a state of consumed and move it back to in stock and available. Normally by doing this the system will merge the record back into another grouping of consumables that are in stock and in the same stockroom.

Other options to include in the solution would be allowing the user to chose what stockroom to send it back.

[Robert Chrystie]

Hello,

Very similar to Jake's proposed solution.   Here is a UI Action and supporting UI Page that allows asset users to place a consumed asset back in stock.   It was built to allow a scenario where a user may have multiple of a consumable, but only a portion of those assets are being returned.