We have a lot of miscellaneous assets and components. Electronic components as well as computer components, etc.
Currently there is no system to track what we have which leads to sometimes repurchasing the same components or assets if we are unaware we already have it. Or we may know that we've got said asset or component but be unaware where it is.

A system to track this information needs to be setup.

I have identified several key features that are required

• It has to support custom data fields
• Things must be able to be tagged or categorized
• Decent search function
• Files must be able to be attached to assets (e.g. manuals, receipts, etc)
• It must have an API so it can be extended easily in the future, e.g. with scripts.

With research I've found the following potential open source software that may fit our needs. They all have pros and cons however and I believe we will need to trial a couple different ones to find what best suits us.

• Scanpet
• ERPnext
• Grocy
• PartKeepr
• Inventario
• SnipeIT

What seems to be the best candidate is SnipeIT. It's suited towards and designed for business environments but appears to be very customizable from my research, supports all requirements and is very actively developed with the support of a company behind it.
However it seems to have bad support for tracking components.

1. Trial SnipeIT
2. If SnipeIT is not suitable, trial the others
3. If SnipeIT is suitable for managing our IT parts but only unsuited to our electronic components then setup PartKeepr to manage the small components
4. Once the technical side of the system is setup, policies on how to use it and how it will be used should be written.
   1. e.g. tools and electronics go into PartKeepr,
   2. laptops, etc go into SnipeIT
   3. and what (custom?) fields should be setup,
   4. how specific should the locations be, should it be room-specific or box/drawer specific? perhaps room-specific with the location of it in the room in the notes of the asset?