The hardest part of tagging an existing inventory isn’t the technology — it’s the order in which you have to do things. If every label has to be created from a finished asset record, then labelling a workshop full of tools means logging every single one first, before you can even start sticking labels on. Faced with that, most people never begin. The slow, screen-bound job of data entry becomes a gate in front of the quick, satisfying job of physically tagging things.
Pre-printing codes in bulk flips that order around. You generate a batch of blank, unassigned QR stickers, print them, and go round applying them to your kit straight away — no data entry required up front. Each sticker is linked to its asset later, simply by scanning it. The physical work and the desk work are decoupled, so neither holds the other up.
Label first, log later
This “label now, assign later” approach is the fastest way to tag a large existing fleet:
- Generate a batch of unassigned QR codes in one action.
- Print them — ideally through the print queue, onto full label sheets — and apply them across your equipment.
- Whenever you next handle a tool, scan its sticker and link it to a new or existing asset on the spot.
Because the assigning happens through a quick scan, it can be spread across days and even across several people, slotting into the gaps in a working day rather than demanding a dedicated session.
Why it removes the barrier to getting started
The genuine advantage here is psychological as much as practical. Applying stickers is fast and visible — you can see progress as the kit gets tagged — whereas data entry is slow and invisible. By letting the quick part run ahead of the slow part, you build momentum, and the inventory fills in naturally as tools get used and scanned.
Unassigned codes sit in a clearly listed pool until they’re linked, so you can always see how many blanks are out in the wild waiting to be assigned, and you can choose to send a batch straight to the print queue when you create it.
Best Practice: Print a generous batch and tag everything in one walk-round, then assign opportunistically. It’s far quicker than perfectly logging each item before labelling it, and it gets your whole fleet visibly tagged in a single afternoon.
For more, see What are ‘Unassigned QR Codes’? and How to Bulk Generate QR Codes.