Systems and Devices on a Project
What a system is, adding one, its devices and batteries, and the one history per system.
Systems and Devices on a Project
A system is a piece of life-safety or building equipment you look after at a client's site — a fire alarm, the emergency lighting, an intruder alarm, a distribution board. It lives on the project, carries its devices, batteries, certificates and logbook, and is what the routine test programme and the service schedule hang off.
Open a project and choose Systems under the Site group in the page's sidebar. The Logbook is under Records. Systems & Devices is listed under Company Settings → Features and is on by default; it needs Projects on as well.
Adding a System
Click Add (or the + in the systems list) and fill in the Add System form:
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| System Name, System Type | Required. The type brings its compliance standard and its routine test rules |
| Compliance Standard | Filled from the type when left blank — BS 5839-1 for a fire alarm, BS 5266-1 for emergency lights, BS 7671 for electrical installations |
| Location, User Code, Engineer Code, Key Location | Where it is and how to get into it. Both codes are stored encrypted, and they are the only place a panel's user and engineer codes are kept — no system type asks for them a second time |
| Contract Type | Maintenance Contract, Monitoring Only, Maintenance & Monitoring, or Ad-hoc / Call Out — decides whether service jobs are generated automatically |
| Installation Date, Service Interval (months), Last Service Date, Next Service Date | The service schedule. Missed tests are never counted from before the installation date |
| Has battery backup, Has disk backup / storage | Switch on the Battery Backup and Storage cards |
System Type offers only the types that have a template: Fire Alarm, Intruder Alarm, CCTV, Access Control, Emergency Lights, Intercom, Electrical Installation and Networking. The template is what gives a system its configuration fields and its list of device types; a type without one would give a system whose fields are never filled.
Distribution Board, Automation Panel, Nurse Call, Warden Call and any type added under Projects → Settings → System Types have no template yet, so they are not offered for a new system. A system that already has one of those types keeps it when you edit it.
The System Page
With a system selected, the middle column shows its cards:
- Devices — call points, sounders, detectors, luminaires, cameras… Every device, whatever the system, has the same Core fields: Device Name, Device Type, Manufacturer, Serial Number, Model, Location, Status (Active, Inactive, Faulty, Replaced, Removed), Installed Date, Warranty Expires and Notes, plus its own last tested date. A fire alarm device also has Zone and Loop/Address, which the fire alarm certificate's device schedule reads, and a CCTV device has an IP Address. Everything else comes from the device type and appears as soon as the type is picked, before the first save: a switch's IP, VLAN and uplink, a sounder's dB rating, an intruder detector's zone number and name. The icon comes from the type too. Device Type is a list of the device types of the system's template, for example Router, Switch, Access Point, NVR… Supervisor PC, PC / Workstation, Printer on a Networking system. It is required. A PC / Workstation (a reception or surgery PC) has its own fields: the primary user's sign-in email, the Windows PIN (encrypted, shown behind dots), the remote-access name and the other accounts on it; the plant-room machine stays a Supervisor PC, which is the only type that gets a Plant Room Agent token. A device saved earlier with a type that is not on the list keeps it. History opens one timeline for the whole system: log entries, jobs, batteries and battery checks, certificates and activity, newest first
- Tests — the routine test programme for this system; see Routine Test Schedules
- Battery Backup — see below
- Storage, System Configuration, Certificates
The right column holds System Info and the Panel details.
System Configuration
The System Configuration card holds the details an engineer needs to get into the equipment — the panel login, its activation code, the recovery email, the network settings — and asks for whatever that type of system needs, so it looks different on a CCTV system than on a fire alarm. See System Configuration.
Batteries
Switch Battery Backup on and record each battery with its Voltage (V), Amps (Ah) and Date Installed. A battery is expected to last four years from installation unless a different expiry is recorded; it shows Expiring for the last 60 days and Expired after that. Replace marks the old one as replaced (it moves into Battery History) and records a new one from today.
Engineers check batteries on a job — Pass, Fail or N/A, with the measured voltage — and can replace one from there; the old battery is marked replaced against that job. A failed battery joins the job's failed items, ready for a remedial job. Batteries past or near their replacement date appear on your dashboard's action queue as Schedule replacement.
Deleting
Delete on a system removes it with all its devices and certificates. Prefer marking a system inactive (untick System is active) if the equipment was decommissioned but the history matters.