Cheqroom

Avantages

The ease of checking in and out equipment with your phone.

Inconvénients

Needing to connect with fellow employees about checking equipment in.

Avantages

We looked around at several inventory management systems but none of them were right. Cheqroom is exactly what we were looking for. An easy to use cloud-based inventory management system that would allow us to keep track of equipment rentals between two different warehouse locations. It is pretty robust but is easy enough for everyone in the office to use it to enter reservations, check out gear, check it back in, etc.

I'd say the best element of Cheqroom is the support. They are always quick to reply when I have a question or need help. More than that, they don't just give a short canned response - They really dig in deep, understand the challenge, test on their end, and provide several suggestions on how to address the issue I am facing. They really want you to succeed with their service and so far it's been a huge life saver for us.

Lastly, they have taken feedback and suggestions that I've provided and actually implemented them extremely quick. These updates, although minor, have helped the service really fit right in and work exactly as we need.

Cheqroom is one of those companies that I actually am happy and enjoy being a client of theirs. I'm proud of it. I hope as they grow, they stay awesome.

Inconvénients

I will not call this a con, rather just a special request...(NOTE: We have already discussed this and it's been added on their development roadmap so this is not only not a con, it's a pro because they are planning on doing something like this at some point!)

Would be great to be able to manage non-inventory items - Small things that we want to keep track of how many we provided in the rental but don't want to track each item individually (e.g. How many charging cables did we give them with their rental).

Avantages

I love the glossy feel. I love knowing where all our expensive gear is at any given moment. I love feeling like I'm in control. I like that I can create kits of gear, and pull items into repairs when needed. I like the calendar view a lot. I like having uniform labels for everything. Customer Service is fast and very helpful. I love that all users have signed a TOA and agree to our legal terms. That helps me as an administrator rest easy.

Inconvénients

I really wish there was a better way to restrict items based on a users skill level. i.e., Someone in a basics class has access to certain camcorders, and other students in an advanced cinematography class have access to our DSLRs. As it is now, we're using locations as a weird work around. I don't like it much at all. it causes as many problems as it solves. If an advanced student wants to reserve lights and a DSLR.. they have to make two reservations, one from the 'advanced' location and the other from our 'basic' location. I really hope they add the feature to restrict gear rentals based on users skill level soon.

Avantages

The ease of use. The use of barcode scanning & the ease of the barcode scanning to automatically thing this and kits.

Inconvénients

The lack of a request & approve feature. Current, users can effectivily book their own equipment. We are an enterprise enviroment, and we need to allocate resources. So, it would be great for users to request items, and then have admins - approve deny books.
Booking method for hourly resources - so we have meeting rooms, and it would be great if they were bookable in cheqroom, so we can have 1 system. These booking wouldnt require 'check out/in'. they would be reservations, for 'timed' slots.
greater interation to slack. so notifications can be sent to individual members

Avantages

This software allowed me to simply my workflow tremendously. We used to use a combination of the library check out system, a google sheet for reservations and a printed sheet for accessories. Now it's all in one place. Cheqroom generates a PDF that is auto-emailed to students. This software has freed me up to take on and do so much other work, I'm not sure how I could go back to a time without Cheqroom!

Inconvénients

Some of the setup can be a little complicated but their support is available to walk through any issues.

Avantages

Easy to customize fields, excellent QR code scanning, and now built-in automatic notifications. I am hopeful we will have mobile push notifications soon so it's not always an inundation of Cheqroom emails. Customer support has been excellent and updates with tangible improvements are regularly being released.

Inconvénients

The mobile app is often difficult for users and many people on our team prefer to always use the web app. The main reason for this is the lack of a calendar view in the mobile app. It is difficult to see if there will be conflicts with a particular reservation/checkout and can sometimes lead to issues with equipment transfer between users.

Avantages

We love the fact that the end-user can see product availability and book their own reservations. We also like that one reservation can include multiple pieces of equipment. The notification options for both end-users and administrators are a handy feature, and the ability to customize these notifications is wonderful! We also love the fact that there is a mobile app...our end-users love this feature!

Inconvénients

Currently, there is no way to add in holidays and closed office days, which is quite problematic for us and requires us to be diligently checking each and every reservation that comes across. Also, there is no way to limit the reservation length currently, and this is also problematic.

Avantages

Very easy to use, good self service facilities, able to book equipment by the hour. Always being updated, and adapted based on feedback. Good customer service. Good mobile app. Students have easy uptake.

Inconvénients

Most of the cons have been dealt with. Main issue is that authorisation email is treated as spam by our servers - but this is true for everything.

Avantages

I like that we finally have our equipment in a digital web based system that can be accessed from anywhere. It looks great and our organization is satisfied with it.

Inconvénients

Most users find that it is not intuitive. Even my staff who have been using it for 9 months now regularly get confused and make mistakes or need to ask for direction for simple tasks.

I would prefer if it functioned more like online shopping where you can browse equipment adding items to your cart before starting a reservation. It is not very efficient to start a reservation and then use a different interface to search for additional items to add to it and no one seems to be able to find the drop down which allows one to select multiple items to build a reservation. This is the most noted user complaint. Often users make several reservations for the same day time, one for each item, and then we have to go back and manually combine them. (which is also not very efficient, if the same user has several reservations it should be simple to tell them to combine into one reservation)

Avantages

I love how you can setup automation from email to reminders and time alarms so I don't have to waist my time going through and finding who's late.

Inconvénients

For my particular use the calendar is worthless, all I see is [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] streaks all across the calendar.

Avantages

I have been looking for different asset management software and have found that Cheqroom is really good at getting up and going quickly. It is great at finding asset pictures online so uploading isn't necessary.

Inconvénients

The mobile software is buggy and doesn't seem to work exactly like the desktop version. Most of the freelancers seem to get confused with the assets and not always being able to find them. I generally have them use the Desktop version even though it is sometimes less convenient.

Avantages

The flexibility that Cheqroom gives us to handle assets to loan is great. It also provides many ways to look at your reservations, loans, and equipment. The feature I use the most as a manager is the Dashboard. I can quickly and easily see what equipment is out, when it is due, who has it, etc. Being web based makes it super easy to be able to quickly click on just about anything to look deeper. The most important feature for us is the ability for Cheqroom to create an electronic form for our customers that includes the terms of the loan and what they are borrowing.

Inconvénients

One feature that is lacking is the ability to email people from the application. Having to pay for third party support is not great. I also am not thrilled about the reports. There is a very limited amount of canned reports and no option to create your own. Having the ability to export a report into Excel or CSV would be helpful as well.

Avantages

CheQRoom works great for us. Stable, functional, has all the features and options we need. When we have questions or problems, customer service is extremely good - fast, very knowledgeable, very friendly.

Inconvénients

The usability of the UI is good, not great. Even some experienced users occasionally make operating errors because the right button or feature is not prominent on certain pages or screens.

Avantages

Import CSV file of equipment.
Easy view calendar.
PDF report generation and comments.
Generally easy to get setup.

Inconvénients

Selecting equipment when doing a reservation is clunky. It could be made a lot better. The whole "load more items" thing is kind of dumb.
It's weird going from reservation to "checking out" to checked out. We don't have external users for this, we just use it to manage the equipment in our office. I should just be able to click a button and say the equipment is checked out.

It would be good to track the amount we charge equipment out at per-day of reservation. We currently charge our equipment out at per day basis. If we could track that in cheqroom it would be very interesting info to have.

Avantages

Cheqroom is a super easy software that we use to check out our gear on a daily basis. We love the simplicity of how it operates, the notifications if something is late, and knowing who has what at all times.

Inconvénients

We have yet to find a single thing that we don't like about Cheqroom. It always functions correctly and the ease of use when you get items QR coded is amazing!

Avantages

This software is easy to use and fairly intuitive. It allows my organization to make checkout and reservation records as well as keep details on all of our loaning gear. I like that it is easy to customize information on your own or with their help. Support is very helpful if needed.

Inconvénients

Nothing at this time. I like the software.

Avantages

The best part about the software is the ease of use. It is easy to add items to the system, easy to create reservations and checkouts and is easy to teach new users.

Inconvénients

Occasionally we will have staff that have issues with the phone app, but most of the time closing the app and reopening resolves any issues.

Avantages

You can do almost anything you want and there are a ton of features I dont even use. It helps us to keep track of everything and by this keep our users accountable for our products.

Inconvénients

It should be able to use Cheqroom in a stupid simple mode for user to only checkout and checkin items for others. We use it to keep track of our cameragear but our infrequent user sometimes get lost in all the options to checkout: item, reservations,calendar, checkout. That's why sometimes our item won't get checked out correctly. A mode in which it is possible to only make a checkout or a check in would be great.

Avantages

Intuitive. Easy to set up and use. Effective inventory tracking. Great reservation making system.

Inconvénients

The pricing scale makes too big of a jump from 50 items to 250 items.

Avantages

That everything is under one app and I can use my phone do all checking and checkout that all

Inconvénients

The new dashboard I don't like it's not giving me info and make thing not easy to see what's going on

Avantages

The phone application and the barcode reader on are simple to use. Our staff can book out items in batches or groups.
Cheqroom is an easy place to store information for quick and easy access

Inconvénients

Items which require frequent calibration need to have a warranty period entered as a work around solution presently.
If Cheqroom was to add a calibration date feature with reminder it would be great

Avantages

Software provides a quick and easy way for our team to track and manage our inventory through an app on their smart phone.

Customer service is quick and development team seems quite flexible in considering feedback from users.

Inconvénients

It can be cumbersome to quickly and easily check the status of checkouts for any users that aren't Self Service. Due to how our department is structured, it doesn't make sense for our users to be Self Service.

Avantages

Checqroom has many advantages over other asset tracking solutions. The Navigation is efficient and provides many avenue to locating items, reservation, checkouts and report. The report and automated communications are very customizable with parameters that can pull information from item or contact details. Importing and Exporting information is well thought out and the SSO integration is a real time saver from a management perspective.

Inconvénients

The only Con for us, is the cost. Comparatively, they are cheaper than the bigger players in the Asset Tracking service. Lesser services exist with much less features and customizability.

Alternatives envisagées 

Pourquoi passer à Cheqroom

Avantages

The QR code scanner is the best part of the app. Recording every action, so you can see who did what is very useful. Being able to add photos is also beneficial.

Inconvénients

I've contacted Cheqroom previously about the problem, that you can not see the SN entry in the app (because the keyboard covers it). I wish the photos and all information I attach to a reservation would carry through to the checkout. I review the checkout and check in the products, but I can't see the photos I took because they are in the reservation. Finally, when adding products, I want to be able to use existing photos already in our database when adding an identical item to our inventory.

Avantages

This software helped us automate all the manual processes we used to run for our demo equipment loans within our sales teams. It now helps us track verything real-time and acquire really useful insights from the reports that the tool provides.

Inconvénients

I would add even more options to customize the permissions for making reservations, improve the reporting tools and notification emails configurations. I also do not see mobile notifications enabled yet.

Avantages

It just works. It's super intuitive. It's quick to use. It's easy. The QR codes are really fast to scan. It has been a game changer for us.

Inconvénients

It's a little pricey. The software doesn't always recognize my label printer. I wish I could pay in some way other than by the item. I wish there was an educational discount.

Avantages

CHEQROOM's scanning software is incredible. When utilizing the scan function for simple check out/check in or equipment it is executed with ease and speed. The log that that then generates on our profile is a great tool for accountability and insight. It's also a great resource for keeping up to date with equipment upkeep, i.e. repairs, replacements, and general cleaning.

Inconvénients

The set-up and functionality is very easy when you're first getting started within CHEQROOM. However, we sometimes have difficulty with the ease of use when manually checking out/reserving items on the desktop. Specifically in compiling the list of items/kits for check out/reservation. The process isn't as intuitive as one would imagine. It appears to be a design issue. With some clarifying of information that is displayed on the screen I imagine this could be remedied fairly easily.

Avantages

It is very intuitive to work with and the customer support as well as tutorials and feedback that they do is incredible. You feel that there are real people behind it and you can always reach them when you really need. They even implemented a few features in their app after I asked them if that is possible!

Inconvénients

Not sure, to be honest. Maybe some small things like duplicating assets or changing the names, but overall use is really good.

Avantages

Ease of use. Easy to track our tool inventory on a daily basis.

Inconvénients

Could be a little easier to extend the length of time a product is out. Also checking out inventory can a little confusing sometimes from the app. Easier to do on the computer as it doenst always show all of the tools listed in inventory

Avantages

Once you get the hang of Cheqroom, it's easy to navigate and see existing reservations and available gear. There is a ton of functionality hidden within. I appreciate the emailed reminders as well.

Inconvénients

There are a few extra steps to take to book gear that slow down the process and leave some members of our team without a fully-checked-out reservation. Some of the UX could be more user-friendly and takes some getting used to.

Avantages

We were able to have every student who needs to reserve video equipment access Cheqroom. It was extremely easy for everyone to use. Students access Cheqroom on their smartphones. We also have set up an iPad reservation station where students can use Cheqroom near where the video equipment lies, for easy check-out and check-in. I especially like that students must use Cheqroom when they return the equipment.

Inconvénients

I've not had any problems with the software. It is extremely easy to use. We have around 70 students using Cheqroom, and -- so far -- no one has had any problems/issues with the program.

Avantages

The features are similar to other products that are 5 times the cost.

Inconvénients

does not have some of the features that more expensive systems have.

Avantages

Obviously, going through and tagging and entering every piece of equipment was going to be a chore. But, using Cheqroom to do so, was simple and easy. We were looking for a simple piece of software that also has enough features to be worth our time and money, and Cheqroom fulfils all our needs.

Inconvénients

There are features that our business could use that are missing from the Cheqroom software such as being able to delete an item and enforcing that users have to scan the barcode in order to check-out an item. However, I understand that there will always be features that would be useful to specific businesses and not all these can be fulfilled. The team at Cheqroom have been very satisfactorily answering any questions or requests I have had regarding the software.

Avantages

What I like most, is the ease of being able to track company assets. The flags, and custody functions are very helpful for our tracking.

Inconvénients

What I like the least, is the reporting functions. I feel that the reports are mostly for checking in and out items and we do not really use those functions.

Avantages

When it came time to renew, we saw over a 240% increase in price (without notification).

Once we decided that we did not want to renew, I was informed that it “is quite a difficult process to obtain our devices/data”.
There is still a likely possibility that they cannot/will not export my data into an excel file meaning I lose everything!
That seems extremely odd and not worth it!

Inconvénients

Unable to obtain data if you decide not to renew.

Avantages

Cheqroom has been great for making sure we aren't double-booking any of our equipment. We are more organized and have a lot fewer issues!

Inconvénients

It took us a little while to figure out how to best use Cheqroom and how to best tag items vs kits.

Avantages

I Like the feature of the QR code scanning. It completely eliminates the need for paperwork. I can always get through cheqroom quickly versus the time I would spend working on a spreadsheet, otherwise. Plus, it keeps up with everything in realtime so you can not beat the accuracy.

Inconvénients

The mobile software does not always work as well as the desktop version works. It tends to be a little buggy and just randomly closes. Also, it tends to get irritating that the time on the due date always has to be reset.

Avantages

Good set of features, which covers everything we need it to do. Nice clean interface; users figured it out with little trouble. The team behind it seems motivated and friendly.

Inconvénients

These are very minor, but two suggestions. 1) Have reservations/checkouts update without having to refresh the page. 2) In the grid view of reservations/checkouts, add a title attribute to the img tags for the thumbnails, so you can hover on them and see the item's name without having to open up the reservation or checkout.

Avantages

Getting my inventory setup was a breeze, and customer support has been super responsive.

Inconvénients

My organization is complex, with different internal locations, mixtures of students, faculty, etc. I would like more granular control over availability, hours and reservations by location.

Avantages

+ I tagged all my equipment with asset tags, and that saves me a lot of time.
When I'm in a hurry, I can easily use the mobile app to check all my equipment in or out.

+ I also keep my invoices safe with the related equipment. That way, I never need to search.

+ Since many people are using our equipment, the flagging feature is crucial in our workflow. We can't afford to have broken equipment on set. This feature prevents us from losing time and motivation.

Inconvénients

- Some things can be fixed with UX/UI. But once you know it it's fine.

Avantages

The ability to schedule reservations is the most useful function. We use this software to keep track of all of our camera gear and we have multiple groups that travel frequently, so the thing we needed the most what the ability to reserve gear without other groups taking it.

Inconvénients

The kits don't function very well. When you select and item that's in a kit, in the reservation it shows the whole kit then you have to hit the drop down button to figure out it's only one item.

Avantages

Easy to use

Inconvénients

Wish I could automatically print out a PDF agreement when I checked out

Avantages

Ease of use. Very intuitive. Was a breeze to get it setup and runnIng right from the first day. Once all our equipment had been entered into the system we were on our way.

Inconvénients

Templates are difficult to create. Like a frustrating version of excel. It's just a little buggy at times. I think what would really help would be more in depth instructions.

Avantages

Software makes tracking equipment very easy and quick. The program is appealing, and user friendly.

Inconvénients

Some minor glitches when searching equipment, locations, etc. Refreshing or logging out and back in corrects the issue.

Avantages

The ability to track the tools and have pictures so it is simple to select the tool for checkout

Inconvénients

It is a little cumbersome for the location where the tool is going. We had to do a workaround and create an "extra info" category to track this which works well. However, adding a new location to this category is not simple.

Avantages

One of the best things about Cheqroom is their user friendly design. My department has over 40 faculty members of various proficiencies with technology. Cheqroom is an easy to use software that ALL faculty members could use. Setting up an account takes less that 2 minutes and using the software is as intuitive as can be. The fact that we can have unlimited users means our ever growing office is always covered.

Inconvénients

I have not encountered any problems with the software as of yet. The only thing I would recommend is including some of the scanning stickers as part of the package so we can test them out without having to invest MORE money.

Avantages

New features and adjustments are implemented regularly, support team is excellent and the includes features I need at a reasonable cost

Inconvénients

You can't allocate equipment to different types of users - for example, we have undergraduate and postgraduate students and at times we need to restrict the use of certain equipment to postgrads only, for example.

Avantages

The app makes it easy to pick up and use. Tracking equipment is highly efficient when implemented. Tracking the whereabouts of inventory is a much easier process.

Inconvénients

More durable stickers. We've had stickers wear off or the QR code fade over a period of use. It would be useful to have a dedicated app that can be downloaded onto a desktop machine.

Avantages

The ability to view all your assets with the touch of a button and pull important info about these items.

Inconvénients

The search function is not great. If I want to search for a Nikon 24mm lens, then I can't simply type in Nikon 24mm. I am forced to type in "Nikon AF-S Nikkor 24 mm" or whatever official name it has.
Most people don't put things like "AF-S" or "Nikkor" in their search. For admin purposes its important for us to name items under their full official name.