A cordless combi drill bought in March is on a van by April, in a site box by June, lent to the second crew by August, and in nobody’s memory by October. Power tools are bought to move between jobs, which is exactly why they are so hard to keep hold of: every handover is a chance for the trail to go cold, and at a few hundred pounds a tool, the cold trails add up to a real line in the accounts. This guide covers a tracking system built for that life - durable labels, a register worth trusting, and check-outs that survive the chaos of a live site.
What you will learn
- Where power tools actually go
- Label the fleet first
- What to record for every tool
- Check-outs: people, vans and job sites
- Batteries, chargers and kits
- Software that makes this easier
- FAQ
Where power tools actually go
Theft from vans is real and every trade knows it, but most “missing” power tools were never stolen:
- They settle on the wrong van. A tool borrowed between crews for one job stays on the borrowing van indefinitely, because returning it requires remembering it.
- They get left at demob. A site wraps, the boxes get loaded in a hurry, and the grinder in the welfare unit becomes the next contractor’s grinder.
- They hide in plain sight. The store has the tool, but the register says someone has it - or says nothing - so a new one gets bought anyway.
- They die quietly. A burnt-out saw goes in a corner “for repair” and is never seen again, while still showing as a working asset.
The common thread is handovers without records. Fix the handover and most of the shrinkage fixes itself.
Label the fleet first
Start with labels, because every other habit depends on a tool being identifiable in two seconds by someone wearing gloves:
- Polyester or laminated QR labels, not paper. Dust, hydraulic oil and holster-rub destroy paper in weeks.
- Pick the flattest, least-handled surface. The motor housing or the side of the body, away from grips, vents and battery rails. On grinders and breakers, the options are limited - choose the spot that survives, and accept the label will need occasional reprinting.
- Print the asset ID under the code. Scanning opens the record; the human-readable ID is for shouting across a site.
- Label the case as well as the tool. Cases and tools separate constantly, and an unlabelled case is how kits dissolve.
Tip: record the serial number at the same moment you stick the label on. Serial numbers are what police reports and insurance claims run on, and reading one off a dusty tool in a site box is nobody’s idea of an afternoon.
What to record for every tool
| Field | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Asset ID | The number on the label - what everyone quotes and scans |
| Make, model + battery platform | Tells you which batteries fit and which kits can share chargers |
| Serial number | The proof for theft reports, warranty claims and insurance |
| Purchase date + price | Drives replacement planning and claim values |
| Current holder, van or site | The single most-asked question on any job |
| Status | In use, in storage, in repair, retired - so dead tools stop counting |
| Condition notes + photos | The state it left in versus the state it came back in |
| Kit contents | Case, batteries, charger, accessories - what “complete” means at return |
If the register also covers the small stuff - screwdrivers, levels, hole saws - see hand tool tracking for how to handle tools too cheap to serialise one by one.
Check-outs: people, vans and job sites
The rule that makes the register live: a power tool is in the store, or it is checked out to exactly one name - a person, a van or a site. The check-in / check-out model in practice:
- Issue: the tool is scanned and checked out at handover, with a due date if it is a loan between crews. Whole kits go out as one checkout.
- Transfer: when a tool moves from one crew or site to another, that is a recorded transfer, not a mental note. This is the step that keeps multi-site fleets honest.
- Return: the tool is scanned back in and its condition noted. Damage found at return, with a name attached, gets repaired; damage found six months later gets absorbed.
- Demob: when a job closes, everything still checked out to that site is the demob list. Nothing leaves the list without coming home or being transferred forward.
The overdue and still-out views are where the money is: a tool three weeks past its due date is a phone call, not a loss.
Batteries, chargers and kits
Batteries are the fleet’s silent budget drain - small, expensive, identical to each other, and the first thing to go missing. Tracking each pack individually is more admin than most teams will sustain, so set the level deliberately: kits checked out as one asset with their contents listed, contents counted at return, and individual records reserved for the high-capacity packs that cost as much as a small tool. Chargers follow the same logic - label them so they come home, but track them as kit contents rather than standalone assets. The broader version of this trade-off is covered in how to keep track of company tools.
Software that makes this easier
A spreadsheet tool register fails in a specific, predictable way: it is updated in the office, but tools change hands in the yard at half past six in the morning. The sheet ends up describing last month’s fleet, and once a few rows are known to be wrong, nobody trusts or updates any of it.
An asset management tool like AMPthilly moves the record to where the handover happens: each tool has a profile with serial, purchase details, photos and documents; printable QR labels open that profile in any phone browser - no app to install, which matters for gloved hands and subcontractors; check-outs to people, vans or sites are logged events with a full history; and bulk checkout sends a whole kit out in one go. The free plan covers 3 users and 25 assets - enough to label the most-stolen shelf of the store and prove the system before paying anything.
FAQ
What is the best way to keep track of power tools? Label every tool with a unique asset ID, record serials and purchase details in one register, and check tools out to a named person, van or site at every handover.
How do you track tools across multiple job sites? Treat sites and vans as checkout targets and record transfers between them. The list of what is still checked out to a closing site is the demob checklist.
Do QR labels stay on power tools? On flat housing away from grips, vents and battery rails, yes - use polyester or laminated stock and reprint labels that come back worn.
Should batteries and chargers be tracked individually? Track them as kit contents counted at return, and reserve individual records for expensive high-capacity packs.
Does tool tracking stop theft? It deters casual walk-off, surfaces losses in days instead of months, and produces the serials and receipts that police and insurers ask for.
The takeaway
Power tools are lost at handovers, so put the system at the handover: label every tool and case in durable stock, record serials before deployment, and make scan-and-check-out the reflex for every person, van and site. The register stops being a guess, demob stops being an amnesty, and the October question - “where did that drill from March end up?” - has an answer with a name on it.