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An audit reconciles a database against ground truth using physical scanning hardware such as a barcode scanner or a phone. You define a plan for what an audit run should expect to find, start a run to scan items, and every item is compared against the plan. You can see what’s found, missing, or unexpected, and take action accordingly. Audits work on any database, and match a scan on any of the item’s unique fields, like serial number or asset tag.
  • Plan: An audit plan defines which items a run expects to find, and actions to take given a particular outcome. Plans are reusable.
  • Run: A single execution of a plan. A plan can have one run open at a time
A scan matches the value you scan against the type’s unique fields, such as serial number and asset tag. If a value matches more than one item, you manually select the correct one. You physically scan items one after another. Two options are available for the scanning device:
  • Barcode scanner: works like a keyboard, physically typing in the scanned code to the run. If the scanner loses focus, scanning pauses until you manually select it again.
  • Phone camera: Pair a smart phone using a QR code, and scans items using the phone’s camera.

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Access and manage your audits

From a database’s type page, open the Audits control (the clipboard icon) in the header.
If you’re on a Hardware Asset database, the control is Scans.
From the list of available audit plans, select any plan to open its page, or select New plan to create one. From any plan’s page, you can start, resume, or finish a run.

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Run outcomes

As a run proceeds, each item is logged as one of four outcome types:
  • Found: the item was scanned, and matches what the plan expected.
  • Missing: the plan expected to find the item, but the item wasn’t scanned.
  • Unexpected: the item was scanned, but outside the plan’s scope.
  • No match: the scanned code didn’t match any record of the type.

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Take action based on outcome

A plan can attach an action to each outcome: set a field, or execute a workflow. Each action runs once, when results are available. Actions attached to Found, Unexpected, and No match execute as you scan. Actions attached to Missing items execute at the end of a run, since they weren’t scanned. Run a workflow: triggers a predefined Serval workflow, and is available for each outcome type. Set a field: write a value on the outcome’s item. Available for Found, Missing, and Unexpected since each has a record to write to. Unavailable for No match, since the scan doesn’t match a record.

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Results

A run shows results live, including reconciliation counts and items grouped by outcome type. A final result is kept once the run closes. A Runs history is available on every plan page, with the option to export as CSV.