# Data Overview

BlueTally exposes two core entities through Coupler.io: **Assets** and **Employees**. Together they give you a full picture of your hardware inventory — what you own, its current state, and who it's assigned to.

## Entities

| Entity    | What it contains                                                                            |
| --------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Assets    | Equipment records including type, status, location, assigned employee, and purchase details |
| Employees | People records including name, department, and associated asset assignments                 |

## Assets — available fields

#### Identification & classification

| Field         | Description                                  |
| ------------- | -------------------------------------------- |
| Asset ID      | Unique identifier for each asset             |
| Asset name    | Human-readable name or label                 |
| Asset tag     | Internal tag or barcode number               |
| Category      | Type of asset (e.g., laptop, monitor, phone) |
| Manufacturer  | Brand or maker of the asset                  |
| Model         | Specific model name or number                |
| Serial number | Manufacturer serial number                   |

#### Status & location

| Field           | Description                                                    |
| --------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Status          | Current state of the asset (e.g., active, in storage, retired) |
| Location        | Physical or logical location of the asset                      |
| Assigned to     | Employee the asset is currently assigned to                    |
| Assignment date | When the asset was assigned to the current user                |

#### Purchase & lifecycle

| Field           | Description                                |
| --------------- | ------------------------------------------ |
| Purchase date   | When the asset was acquired                |
| Purchase price  | Cost of the asset                          |
| Warranty expiry | Date the warranty expires                  |
| Notes           | Any additional notes recorded in BlueTally |

## Employees — available fields

#### Identity

| Field       | Description                        |
| ----------- | ---------------------------------- |
| Employee ID | Unique identifier for the employee |
| First name  | Employee's first name              |
| Last name   | Employee's last name               |
| Email       | Work email address                 |

#### Organization

| Field      | Description                                    |
| ---------- | ---------------------------------------------- |
| Department | Department the employee belongs to             |
| Location   | Office or site location                        |
| Status     | Active, offboarded, or other employment status |

## Common field combinations

* **Assets + Employees (Join):** Join on the "Assigned to" / Employee ID fields to create a unified view of who has what equipment
* **Assets by status:** Filter or aggregate the Assets entity by status to get counts of active, retired, or unassigned hardware
* **Assets by department:** Join assets with employees to break down inventory by department — useful for budget reporting
* **Warranty tracking:** Pull purchase date and warranty expiry fields to build a rolling expiry calendar

## Use cases by role

{% tabs %}
{% tab title="IT & Ops" %}

* Track full hardware inventory in a live Google Sheet or BigQuery table
* Monitor warranty expiry dates and flag assets approaching end-of-life
* Reconcile assigned vs. unassigned assets to identify spare capacity
* Use the Append transformation to combine asset data from multiple BlueTally accounts
  {% endtab %}

{% tab title="Finance" %}

* Aggregate asset purchase prices by department or category for budget reporting
* Track depreciation timelines using purchase date data
* Export asset data to Excel for cost center allocation or audit preparation
  {% endtab %}

{% tab title="HR & People Ops" %}

* Cross-reference employee offboarding lists against asset assignments to ensure equipment is returned
* Build onboarding reports showing which assets are ready to assign to new starters
* Connect to AI tools like ChatGPT or Gemini to generate equipment summaries by team
  {% endtab %}
  {% endtabs %}

## Platform-specific notes

* BlueTally data is filtered from a **start date** that you set when configuring the data flow — use the date picker to control how much historical data is included
* The **Assets** and **Employees** entities can be joined in Coupler.io using the assignment relationship — no need to do this manually in a spreadsheet
* If you manage assets across multiple BlueTally accounts, use the **Append** transformation to merge them into a single dataset
* Asset status values and category labels reflect exactly what is configured in your BlueTally account — there is no standardized taxonomy enforced by the API