Frequently Asked Questions

What is trackingThis Professional?

trackingThis Professional is a fully functional, web based rental and inventory management system. It is designed for small teams (10 people or less) to manage equipment, resources and bookings cost effectively using hardware they are likely to already have.

How do I print labels?

We find it much better to use pre-printed labels. Due to the way our system works, many of the processes are also much faster with pre-printed labels.

We can supply labels with trackingThis IDs quite inexpensively. These can even be produced with your own branding.

If you really want to print your own labels then we can help you to do so but you will need to contact us to add your label's ID range to the system.

What is a trackingThis ID?

A trackingThis ID is a company independent serial number.

trackingThis IDs are pseudorandom, non-sequential alphanumeric codes. They are not case sensitive and exclude ambiguous characters like the letter 'o'. They contain our custom bi-directional check digits to prevent attempts to guess IDs.

How much do the labels cost?

This depends on the type of label and the quantity.

Contact our sales team for more information.

What type of labels do you supply?

We have a wide range of label types and formats, and typically stock labels in 0.5mm anodised aluminium and heavy duty polyester. Both are very durable. Aluminium will take more heat + wear and tear but polyester will fix better on curved surfaces.

We are able to supply custom labels in a wide variety of formats to meet other requirements including high security labels so strong that you would be hard pushed to get them off without damaging the equipment.

Contact our sales team for more information.

I want to label cables, chain, rope, ... the dog etc. Do you have a label for that?

We have many different formats of labels and feel that we can meet almost any kind of labelling need you may have.

Contact our sales team for more information.

We have concerns over the durability of the labels. How durable are they?

All our labels are manufactured with the unique codes in large printing presses using a multi layer manufacturing process and are backed with one of the most advanced permanent adhesives on the market. They are not printed using a user based label printer and as a result are incredibly tough. They do not even compare with the labels you can buy and print yourself.

Can you supply us with custom labels with our logo on?

Yes - but they will all still need to have the trackingThis ID and logo on. We are happy to supply labels with your company name or different contact details.

Contact our sales team for more information.

What can a trackingThis ID be used for?

A trackingThis ID can be used whenever an asset needs a unique reference. They are most suited when an asset has history records in different places because it can tie the records together - acting as a hub joining different companies' systems.

What types of inspections / records does trackingThis support?

trackingThis is designed to manage any kind of inspection, service, maintenance or history record. The primary design was based on complying with PUWER, LOLER, and DROPS.

We have our own type of inspection type that is not listed on your system. Can it support it?

Yes. Additional functionality and rules to support almost any kind of inspection report or record can be very quickly added. We are not yet allowing customers to add their own (we are working to add this soon) so please contact us to discuss your requirements.

Can we attach our own documents or reports to an item?

Yes, please look at the features page for a full list of functionality.

How do I add an item?

To add an item you need to purchase a block of trackingThis IDs. These are normally in the form of uniquely identified labels. Contact our sales department for more information.

We have thousands of items that need adding. Can they be added in bulk?

Yes. We can import items from CSV, Excel, Access or TXT files. We may also be able to import from other formats.

Contact our sales team for more information.

We have thousands of items that need adding but can't spare the staff or the time to implement a new system. How much effort will your system take to implement?

Our system is designed to be very simple and easy to use. However, we understand that businesses can't spare the time to re-label all their equipment or re-engineer their processes to take a new system into account. To solve this problem we have 'Fixers' that will oversee the implementation and do whatever it takes to resolve any problems. This could be simple project management through, training or teams of staff to re-label all your kit for you.

We are a manufacturer and already put labels on our equipment. Can we add the trackingThis part to our own label?

Yes. We welcome manufacturers who want to integrate labels as this forms a very strong anti-counterfeit combination so we issue blocks of non-physical IDs to strategic partners. This also brings the cost per item down.

Contact our sales team for more information.

We already have a system for recording equipment records. Do I have to re-key everything?

No, not at all. Our system is designed so that records can be updated in a variety of different ways from the main site, the mobile site, our Web Service API or through email.

Please pass the details of your processes or systems to our sales team for more information.

How secure is your system?

Our system has many advanced level security features including hardware authentication tokens, row level encryption as well as traditional role based security methods.

When an item is registered, the privacy options can be set by the user. This allows any item to be set from full anonymous access through to owner only access.

The highest security options are not enabled by default as if used incorrectly, a forgotten password or repeated entry of a wrong password could make it impossible to decrypt the equipment records. If this happens, there is no way we can recover the data. If you need these options, please contact our sales team.

We have many users. Does you system allow multiple logins to one account?

Yes and no.

We very much advise that every person using the system has their own login credentials. This gives the security and audit trail something to work with.

Our enterprise accounts have no limit to the number of users. The pro license has no limit but you will be charged by the number portal users you set up in the system.

'Pro' account users can only login to one device at a time. This limitation is not applied to enterprise customers.

We think our staff need training on your system. Can you do this?

All of our systems are designed on the principle that if you need training, they haven't been designed correctly. We can however provide training and assistance with integrating your businesses processes with trackingThis. If you have any questions on how to do something, contact our support team - they will be glad to help.

Please contact our sales team for more information.

Your web page doesn't work on my browser or device!

Whilst we put significant resource to ensure broad compatibility, it is inevitable that problems can occur - especially with new devices or recently updated ones.

As a general rule, we support the latest versions of Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Internet Explorer. We also support Android and Apple devices. Our systems work on Windows Phone and Blackberry but we have very few users on those platforms anymore.

Please contact our support department with as much details as possible and we will try to resolve the problem as soon as we can.

Your mobile version doesn't have all the features of the main site. How can I ... ?

The mobile version of our system is intentionally simple as it has to be useable from devices with limited resources. If there is something specific that you need to do on the mobile version, please let us know and we will see what we can do.

What if my internet connection goes down?

Our system is primarily web based. This makes it dependant on an internet connection.

We have dedicated readers (barcode scanners) that work offline to complete critical process flows such as inspections but even they need an internet connection to upload the results.

Internet connectivity is getting better and better every day so it is now very possible to create a robust connection quite inexpensively.

Typically our clients would have:

• A FTTC (Fibre Broadband), EFM or similar connection as the main line
• An ADSL2 failover circuit
• A 3G modem or mobile phone that can act as a hotspot to gain access in the worst case scenario

If you have concerns over ensuring connectivity, please contact us and we can help you design and build a robust solution.

What is your typical uptime? Do you provide an SLA?

If you exclude midnight to 06:00 (when most internet maintenance takes place) we have 100% uptime over the last two years (at the time of writing).

In the same two year period, our services went down three times around 05:00 GMT. When the service was rechecked five minutes later, service had been restored.

Our SLA depends on your account type. It is typically 99.5% guaranteed uptime. After this time, we start to refund your monthly service fee.