Equipment Archiving and Deactivation

What is this?

When equipment is sold, scrapped, or retired, you do not delete it. You archive it. Archived assets keep their full history (work orders, inspections, costs, meter readings) but no longer appear in active views. The data is preserved for audits, cost analysis, and regulatory compliance.

How it works

Soft delete

Archiving is a soft delete. The asset record stays in the database with all its history. It just gets a DELETED or DEACTIVATED status that removes it from active lists, reports, and dashboards.

Automatic deactivation from Vista

When Vista marks an asset, employee, or part as inactive, Clue can automatically archive the corresponding record. This is controlled by the deactivate_assets_when_not_exist_in_vista parameter. No manual cleanup needed.

Active-only queries

All standard views (asset directory, work orders, reports) filter to active records by default. Archived assets do not slow down your daily operations or clutter your search results. Even as the archive grows over years, performance stays the same.

The full details

• History preserved. Work orders, inspections, fault codes, meter readings, costs. Everything stays.
• Searchable when needed. Toggle the "Show Archived" filter to find retired assets and their history.
• Vista sync: Auto-deactivation when Vista marks the asset inactive (configurable per org)
• Applies to: Equipment, employees, and parts. All follow the same archive pattern.
• Reversible. If an asset was archived by mistake, an admin can reactivate it.

Tips

• Archive, never delete. Even if you think you will never need the data, keep it. Auditors and insurance companies ask for equipment history years later.
• Enable auto-deactivation from Vista if Vista is your source of truth for asset status. This keeps both systems in sync without manual work.
• Review archived assets quarterly. Sometimes equipment gets archived accidentally (e.g., Vista data hiccup). A quick review catches these.