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Global Asset Types

availability

This feature is only available in the MaintainX web application with an Enterprise plan. To use it, your account must include a Global Organization, and you must have a Global Leader user role. For more information, see About Global Organizations.

Global asset types are customizable labels that you set up in your Global Organization to help you organize and manage asset types consistently across all your sub-organizations. Standardizing asset types gives you cleaner data, more consistent usage, and improved reporting.

Global asset types also help enforce a shared naming convention and eliminate inconsistencies (e.g., “Robotics” vs. “Robot”). Consistent naming enhances operational efficiency by making it easier to find, monitor, and manage asset information.

Requirements​

To use global asset types, you must:

Get Started with Global Asset Types​

The first time you use global asset types, you’ll see a banner that allows you to enable the feature. When you select Get Started, a dialog box opens. Select Get Started again to activate the global asset types.

Naming Asset Types​

An asset type's name must be unique within an organization.

  • A Global Organization can't have two global asset types with the same name.
  • A sub-organization can't have two asset types with the same name.
  • Different sub-organizations can have local asset types with the same name.

If you create a global asset type with the same name as a local asset type in a sub-organization, the system prompts you to merge the local asset type into the global asset type. For details, see Merge Asset Types.

Create a Global Asset Type​

To create a global asset type:

  1. In the global organization, from the sidebar, select Global Settings > Features.
  2. In the Assets section, select Set Preferences.
  3. Select Asset Types.
  4. On the Asset Types page, select + New Asset Type.
  5. Add a name for the new asset type.
  6. Select Create.

Once created, the global asset type is available in all your sub-organizations.

Edit a Global Asset Type​

To edit a global asset type:

  1. In the global organization, from the sidebar, select Global Settings > Features.
  2. In the Assets section, select Set Preferences.
  3. Select Asset Types.
  4. Navigate to the asset type you want to edit.
  5. In the asset type's row, select (edit).
  6. Make the necessary changes to the asset type.
  7. Select Update.

After you update the global asset type, your changes are reflected in all your sub-organizations.

Merge Asset Types​

Merging asset types helps you clean up duplicates across all the sub-organizations in your Global Organization. For example, you might want to merge asset types with similar or closely matching names.

  1. In the global organization, from the sidebar, select Global Settings > Features.
  2. In the Assets section, select Set Preferences.
  3. Select Asset Types.
  4. Hover over an asset type's icon until a checkbox appears, and select it.
  5. Select the checkbox of each additional asset type you want to merge.
  6. Select the (merge) icon.
  7. When prompted, select the asset type that will replace the selected asset types.
  8. Select Merge Asset Types.

All of the selected asset types are merged into one global asset type that's available in all your sub-organizations.

Delete a Global Asset Type​

From your global organization, you can only delete global asset types. To delete a local asset type in a sub-organization, you need to be a member of that sub-organization and have the appropriate permissions.

After you delete a global asset type, it no longer appears in your library or on any of the assets that had the asset type. However, if the asset type is restored, or a new one with the same name is created, it will automatically reappear on the previously tagged assets.

To delete a global asset type:

  1. In the global organization, from the sidebar, select Global Settings > Features.
  2. In the Assets section, select Set Preferences.
  3. Select Asset Types.
  4. Navigate to the asset type you want to delete.
  5. In the asset type's row, select (more options).
  6. Select Delete.
  7. When prompted, select Delete to delete the asset type.

Once deleted, the global asset type is deleted from all your sub-organizations.

Bulk Delete Global Asset Types​

To bulk delete global asset types:

  1. In the global organization, from the sidebar, select Global Settings > Features.
  2. In the Assets section, select Set Preferences
  3. Select Asset Types.
  4. Hover over an asset type's icon until a checkbox appears.
  5. Select the checkbox of each asset type you want to delete.
  6. Select the (trash can) icon to delete the asset type.
  7. When prompted, select Delete to delete the selected asset types.

Restore a Deleted Global Asset Type​

When you delete an asset type, its details page stays open and displays the date and time it was deleted. While the page is open, you can restore the asset type. If you navigate away from the details page, you can no longer restore the asset type, but you can create a new asset type with the same name.

To restore a deleted asset type:

  1. Select the global asset type you want to restore.

    • (Optional) You can select its name to open its details page.

  2. Select the (more options) icon.

  3. Select Restore.

  4. When prompted, select Restore to confirm, and the asset type will be back in the asset type list.

Convert a Global Asset Type to a Local Asset Type​

When you create a global asset type, it's available in all your sub-organizations. You can convert it to a local asset type, and MaintainX will replace it with an individual local asset type in each sub-organization.

After you convert a global asset type, you can edit or delete the local replacements for specific sub-organizations. This is useful for organizations that don’t want all asset types shared across their sub-organizations.

To convert a global asset type to a local asset type:

  1. In the global organization, from the sidebar, select Global Settings > Features.
  2. In the Assets section, select Set Preferences.
  3. Select Asset Types.
  4. Select the asset type you want to convert.
  5. In the asset type's row, select (more options).
  6. Select Convert to local Asset Type.
  7. When prompted, select Convert to local Asset Type to confirm.

The asset type now appears separately for each sub-organization. You can edit or delete the asset type from the global organization.

Reporting Using Global Asset Types​

You can use global asset types to filter assets in reporting dashboards.

By using global asset types, global leaders can filter data for individual sub-organizations and across all sub-organizations without relying on inconsistent local asset type names. This makes it easier to get a clear view, for example, of how many assets across all the sub-organizations are labeled as Critical assets.

From the Reporting module in a Global Organization, you can use the Asset Type filter to differentiate between local and global asset types. The filter displays the asset type name along with the organization it belongs to, which helps you identify whether it's used for a single sub-organization or shared globally.

  • If you filter by a global asset type, the report shows aggregated data across all sub-organizations.
  • If you filter by a local asset type, the report shows data from the specific organization where that asset type is used.

For more information, see Global Reports and Dashboards.