Last updated onApril 9, 2026

A property is a compound value stored at an asset or in an analysis in a pre-defined format. This format is configured as a “property type” which can be made available to multiple asset types as well as referenced in analyses. Each property type can be linked to a material and a unit of measurement. However, these elements are not required, as certain property types will have neither (e.g. ratio measures such as Sodium Adsorption Ratio).

Add a new property type

Expand the “Configuration” menu on the sidebar navigation.
Expand the “Lists” menu under “Configuration”.
Expand the “Type” menu under “Lists”.
Select the “Property” menu.
Select “Add” to add a property type.
Populate the fields. Data fields with an asterisk (*) are required.
- Name*: Enter the name of the type of property. For emission factors, Assetas recommends the following naming convention: EF <compound> <unit of measure>. For example, EF CH4 kg/mmBtu.
  - The system will not allow property types with duplicate names.
- Data Type*: The type of data that you want to store for this property’s value.
  - The data type selected the majority of the time will be Number.
  - Selecting a Data Type will expand additional fields specific to that Data Type (please see the following Data Type Configuration section).
  - The following Data Types are not available for Property Types:
    - Radio Button – Please use Dropdowns instead.
- Material: The material associated with the property, if applicable.
  - NOTE: If selecting a material, the material type needs to be created prior to the property type.
- Unit of Measure: The unit of measure associated with the property type.
  - For Property Types where the Data Type = Money, set the Units to “$” (or the appropriate currency; connect with Assetas if the desired currency is not available).
- Default: The default data to be used the first time the property is edited. Either enter the direct text to be used or a variable such as {CurrentUser}, {Today}, {Now}.
- Contiguous: If the property is expected to have a contiguous value (no gaps in the dates) for the entire life of the associated asset.
  - If the property type is marked as contiguous, you will be able to add multiple properties of the same type and Assetas will automatically create a contiguous date range for the properties based on the active and inactive date ranges provided.
- Static: If there is only one value for this property where the active date range spans the entire life of the associated asset.
  - Dates are maintained automatically to the asset’s service dates. The user is not able to to edit related dates for static properties.
  - Assets may only have one static property for that type (by definition). So, once a new static property type is added to an asset, that property type will no longer be available in the list of new properties.
- Applicable Asset Types: The list of asset types that may use this property.
- External Identifier: Enter a unique identifier that represents this record in an external system.
- Description: The detailed description of the property type.
Select “Save” upon completion.

NOTE: You can see which property types are actively being used by looking at the In Use column in the Property Type list.

Data Type Configuration:

Depending on the Data Type selected, additional fields will define how the data type is configured.

List: The pre-defined list of values to use. Select the Selection List report that produces the appropriate pre-defined list of values. The data type must be drop-down list or radio buttons.
List Values:
- The pipe-separated list of values to use for the drop-down list or radio button data type.
- NOTE: Ensure this is a string of pipe-delimited values with no hard-coded line breaks.
Size: The number of alphanumeric characters allowed in text or fields.
- NOTE: This must be an integer between 0 and 4000 for text and 0 to 16 for number fields. If Number is selected as the type, the default size is set to 20.
Precision: For numeric fields, this specifies how many digits are allocated to the right of the decimal place.
- NOTE: This must be an integer between 0 and 15. If Number is selected as the type, the default precision is set to 6.
Minimum: The minimum value allowed.
- NOTE: Values must be in the following formats:
  - Date: YYYY-MM-DD
  - Money: Two decimals
  - Month: YYYY-MM-DD
  - Number: Any number
  - Time: HH:MM:SS (24-hour)
  - Week: YYYY-W## (where the # is between 1 and 52)
Maximum: The maximum value allowed.
- The maximum size for text properties is 100.
- NOTE: Values must be in the following formats:
  - Date: YYYY-MM-DD
  - Money: Two decimals
  - Month: YYYY-MM-DD
  - Number: Any number
  - Time: HH:MM:SS (24-hour)
  - Week: YYYY-W## (where the # is between 1 and 52)

Manage property types

Locate the property type record.
To the right of each record, under the Actions menu, you may:
- View / Edit the property type.
  - View the details page to see all related information, including calculations that reference the property type as an input.
- Copy this property type as a new property type.
- Download the property type definition for import into another database.
- Delete the property type. You may delete types only when they are not in use at any record.

Asset Properties vs. Analysis Properties

A property can be used to represent either an asset-level measurement or a measurement within an analysis. The same property types are used in both cases, but each serves separate use cases. This section highlights those use cases and the differences between asset-level and analysis-level properties.

Asset properties

Properties at the asset level can be defined to allow values that change over time, and can also be linked to materials and units of measure. Emission factors are typical asset property types. The property type must be linked to the asset type in order to use properties at the asset level.

Use case for Asset Properties: Tracking a single measurement at successive points in time (e.g. emission levels from an engine).

For more information on how properties are managed at the asset level, please refer to Assets.

Attributes Vs. Properties

Asset-level properties and attributes have similarities, but each has distinct use cases. Attributes should be used when a characteristic of an asset does not change over time, is specific to asset types, or you need the capability to filter by the characteristic. Asset properties are attributes of an asset than can change over time, can be common across different asset types, and are capable of referencing a material (e.g. CO2 or Methane) or unit (e.g. hp or g/L) within Assetas.

Feature	Attributes	Properties
Configuration Location	Defined at each asset type	Defined once, then applied to all applicable asset types
Grouping	Can be grouped into sections	Cannot be grouped by similar properties
Search Filters	Can filter searches for assets by attribute	Properties cannot be used as a search filter
Mutability	Values are expected to be static	Values can be dynamic
Links to other parameters	Attached only to the asset type record	Can be linked to materials and units

Analysis Properties

A set of property measurements taken at a specific point in time can also be grouped into an analysis. Analysis properties capture measured results and descriptive values for an analysis (for example, BSFC, emissions factor values, lab-measured concentrations, etc.).

Property analyses are not directly linked to an asset on the individual level. The analysis as a whole can be linked to asset(s) such as a facility or region, but the property measurements do not appear on the asset record itself. The property type does not have to be linked to the asset type to use properties at the analysis level.

Use case for Analysis Properties: Tracking a set of measurements taken at the same time and intended to be grouped together (e.g. concentrations of lead and copper in a soil analysis for a single soil sample taken at a facility).

For more information on how properties are managed at the analysis level, please refer to Analyses.

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