Set the pilot scope
Use this checklist after you've chosen the jobs a system must support. If you're still building that brief, start with how to choose a tool tracking system. Here, the task is to test the shortlist with real work and keep the result.
Choose one crew and enough tools to cover your normal handovers. Include a shared power tool, an item with accessories, two similar instruments with different serial numbers and gear assigned to a site. Name the pilot owner, the storesperson and the person who will review it. The examples below are a suggested test plan, not performance benchmarks.
Write a pass condition for each required job before the first demo. For example: the next shift can reopen a returned drill's record and see who had it, where it was returned and whether its accessories came back.
Test issue, return and booking
- Issue a tool. Choose the person or location, set a due-back date and reopen the saved assignment.
- Check accessories out and back. Return one with a deliberate safe test exception. Check how the reason and follow-up are recorded.
- Find an overdue item. Use a demonstration record and confirm the storesperson can identify who has it and what to do next.
- Book equipment ahead. In MapTrack, use Requests to reserve an item or a quantity from a category, apply approval if required and fulfil it into a check-out.
- Inspect a due check. Match the certificate to the instrument's serial number. Test the warning for overdue calibration using safe demonstration gear.
- Run a stocktake. Leave a known item unscanned and include an unexpected one. Review both exceptions before treating the count as reconciled.
A warning and a block aren't interchangeable. MapTrack flags overdue test or calibration at check-out and logs a decision to proceed. Damaged and written-off items are blocked. Agree your team's issue policy and test it; a warning doesn't certify that equipment is safe.
See who has each tool and when it is due back
Every sign-out in one list. Four assignments are back and marked Complete; four are still out as Active, each with the person and the due-back date. The plate compactor with James Ward was due back on 23 September, so it is flagged Overdue.
MapTrack app · Demonstration data · Captured
Captured in a demonstration workspace on the All assignments view with the Person, Status and Due Back Date columns. The app shortens long asset and category names.
For the steps behind this example, use the check-out and return guide and asset audit guide. The screenshot is a demonstration workspace, not evidence of your pilot's outcome.
Test labels, location and reception
Scan the labels you intend to use. In MapTrack, use a phone camera for QR codes and a handheld Bluetooth or USB scanner for barcode and Data Matrix labels. Check that similar-looking tools open different records and a replacement label still reaches the intended asset.
Test the location record separately. A QR scan isn't a live tracker. MapTrack shows a GPS position where available, otherwise where the item was last checked out or returned. Check the account's location setting against your site's policy. If the pilot includes Bluetooth tags, test detections through compatible gateways. Ask to see live GPS, geofences and trip history in MapTrack Telematics if those are required.
Load a form or work order before reception drops. Record a form or per-asset result, reconnect and reopen it. MapTrack supports loaded forms, work-order procedures and per-asset results offline. Adding costs and moving a work order to Completed need a connection. Check-outs, returns, audits and Requests also need a connection. Record the device and connection state beside the result.
Record the cost baseline
Before the pilot, note time spent looking for tools, stocktake hours, written-off items and duplicate purchases over a stated period. Keep the same definitions during the test. Record unbilled hire or charge-back gaps separately so they don't disappear inside replacement cost.
The tool loss cost calculator can help organise the first four categories. Its starting assumptions are editable; it doesn't model unbilled hire. Use your own records and don't count a replacement purchase in both loss and duplicate buying. The result is a scenario, not a promised saving or a software quote.
Reconcile imports and exports
Import a small agreed sample. Count it, match serial numbers and check the assigned people and locations. Ask for the specific exports you need and open the files in the receiving system. Verify service history and attachments separately from the asset list.
If an integration is essential, record its fields, direction, update timing and owner. Test a failed or incomplete transfer as well as a successful one. Keep an unproven integration open in the decision log.
Keep a test scorecard
Copy these fields into your existing project sheet. Use one row for each test and keep the saved evidence with it.
- Job and pass condition: what the next person must be able to do or see.
- Test context: asset IDs, tester, device, location and connection state.
- Evidence: the saved record, time and any supporting export or screenshot.
- Result: passed, failed or untested, with the reason.
- Next action: named owner, agreed workaround or retest date.
Don't average a failed must-have into a green overall score. A fast scan doesn't make up for a return that the next shift can't find.
Run the pilot in stages
- Prepare: agree the scope, clean the sample list, label the assets and capture the baseline.
- Demonstrate: run each job with the supplier, including the exceptions.
- Use: let the crew do normal work through a complete issue-and-return cycle.
- Review: reconcile the saved records, cost observations and unresolved tests.
Set dates around your actual work. A quiet week with no returns or due checks won't test those jobs. Keep them open until you've observed them. Use the QR rollout plan to organise the next stage once the pilot passes.
Sign off or repeat the failed job
Review the scorecard with the crew and the person responsible for rollout. Proceed when every must-have has evidence and the remaining limits have an accepted owner or workaround. Repeat a failed test after its fix. Keep untested jobs visible.
Bring this checklist and a sample tool list to a demo. We'll work through the MapTrack jobs you need to prove before you expand.
