Loan groups
Admin, Loan groups (/admin/loan-groups), reachable from Admin, Features,
Loans. Needs the module.loans module and the loan.manage permission.
A loan group is a pool of spare devices with its own numbering and its own rules. Loan Laptops, Loan iPads, Staff Loaners.
What a group defines
Section titled “What a group defines”Name. What technicians see when they issue. Use the words your desk already says.
Device kind. Laptop, iPad, desktop or other. This pre-fills when a technician registers a new device into the group and drives which parts list a repair on it picks from.
User groups it serves. Which loan user groups this pool is for, such as Students or Staff. This pre-fills sensible defaults when registering, and it is how the automatic assignment on a repair picks the right pool.
Sort order. The order groups appear in.
Numbering
Section titled “Numbering”Each group numbers its devices independently, so Loan Laptop 14 and Loan iPad 14 can both exist. Numbers are assigned automatically when a device is registered.
The number is what everybody actually uses. It goes on a sticker, it is what a student is told at the counter, it appears on their tracking page and in the parent portal. Serials are for the system; numbers are for people.
Pulling a pool from your MDM
Section titled “Pulling a pool from your MDM”A group can be auto-populated from a named smart or static group in your MDM. Every device in the Jamf smart group is pulled in as an available loan, and the pool stays in sync without anyone maintaining it.
This is worth setting up. Maintained by hand, a pool is wrong by the end of first term. Devices get retired, replaced and reassigned, and the spreadsheet is the last thing anyone updates.
Requires an MDM connector implementing device.listGroup. Today that is Jamf
Pro. Other MDMs can still autocomplete serials as you
type, using device.searchSerial.
How groups connect to repairs
Section titled “How groups connect to repairs”When somebody lodges a repair and asks for a loaner, Plugboard can assign an available device from the right group automatically, based on the person’s user group and the kind of device involved. They are told their loan number immediately, at the kiosk or by the technician.
The loan and the repair are linked, so when the repair closes you know which loaner to collect back.
Suggested groups
Section titled “Suggested groups”Most schools end up with three or four:
| Group | Kind | Serves |
|---|---|---|
| Loan Laptops | Laptop | Students |
| Loan iPads | iPad | Students |
| Staff Loaners | Laptop | Staff |
| Exam Devices | Laptop | Students |
The last one exists more often than you would expect. A pool held back for exam conditions, not available for ordinary loans, is a real requirement and a separate group is the way to express it.
Retiring a group
Section titled “Retiring a group”Devices in a group cannot be orphaned. Move them to another group or mark them unavailable first. The screen will tell you what is in the way.
Day-to-day use
Section titled “Day-to-day use”Issuing, returning, registering and bulk actions all happen on the loans page, not here. This screen is for the structure; that one is for the work.