IT asset register vs RMM
An RMM tells you whether a machine is working. A register tells you whether you own it. This page covers what an RMM device list holds, where it stops, and how to run both without duplicating the work.
What an RMM is for
An RMM (NinjaOne, Datto, Atera, ConnectWise, N-able, Action1 and the rest) installs an agent on your endpoints and reports on their health: patch level, disk space, antivirus state, alerts, remote access and scripting. For that job it is the right tool, and a register is no substitute. Tagaris does not monitor anything, does not patch anything, and cannot remote into a machine.
The device list an RMM builds is a by-product of that job. It is accurate about the machines it manages, it updates itself, and it is the part that looks like an asset register. The question worth asking is what is not on it.
Where the RMM inventory stops
Six gaps, in roughly the order IT teams run into them.
Anything without an agent
No agent, no record. That leaves out monitors, docks, printers, switches, firewalls, UPSs, desk phones, projectors, tablets that were never enrolled and the box of spare keyboards. For many IT teams that is a large share of what they are accountable for, and it is the share that goes missing.
Anything not issued yet, or already withdrawn
The laptop in the drawer waiting for a new starter is not checking in. Nor is the machine in the cupboard waiting for disposal. Both are still yours, both are still on the books, and both are the ones an auditor asks about.
What it cost
Purchase price, purchase order, vendor, invoice, warranty end date, depreciation, disposal proceeds, which contract covers it. An RMM holds none of this, because it is not an RMM's job. When finance asks for the book value of the IT estate, or an insurer asks what a claim is worth, the RMM cannot answer.
Who signed for it
An RMM knows the last account to log in. That is not a record that a named person was issued a named device on a date and returned it on another. Leavers processes, insurance claims and the occasional dispute need the second one.
What happened to it
An RMM is a live view. Retire a machine and it drops off the list. "What did we do with the forty laptops we replaced last year, and what did we get for them" is not a question a live view can answer.
Who is allowed to look
An RMM can remote-control every endpoint and run scripts on them, so the login is rightly kept to the technical team. Finance, HR, facilities and whoever is doing the stock take still need to see the asset list. In Tagaris view-only logins are free and unlimited on every plan, and a view-only person can look and search and nothing else.
There is a seventh, which only bites later: an RMM contract gets re-tendered every few years, and moving to a different one is normal. Your purchase history, warranty dates and custody records should not leave with it.
What a register adds
A register is a record of what the organisation owns, kept deliberately rather than discovered. It covers the whole estate, including everything that will never run an agent.
- Every item, agent or not: monitors, docks, printers, network kit, stock in the cupboard
- Purchase price, vendor, purchase order and warranty end on each record
- Straight-line depreciation and a book value finance can use
- A dated history on every asset: who had it, when it moved, what changed
- Check-out and check-in against a named person, a location or stock
- Disposal with the method, the proceeds and the book value at the time
- A physical audit workflow, so a stock take is recorded rather than remembered
- Printable QR labels and a phone app that reads them
- Reports and CSV or JSON exports for finance, auditors and insurers
- View-only logins, free and unlimited
This is also the gap that shows up at certification time. Cyber Essentials and ISO 27001 both expect an inventory of the whole estate, including the items no agent reaches, and a device list from an RMM does not cover it. See asset registers for Cyber Essentials and ISO 27001.
Run both
They are not competing for the same slot, so do not make anyone type the same machine into two systems.
For the machines it manages, your RMM or MDM is the better source of truth. Let it be. Feed it into the register, and let the register hold the purchase detail, the custody record and everything without an agent alongside it. Three ways to do that today:
- Microsoft Intune and Jamf sync directly. Enrolled devices arrive in a review queue, matched on serial number, so a device becomes an asset without typing. Free on every plan, and still in testing. See Intune and Jamf.
- Any RMM that exports CSV goes through the importer. Column mapping, a dry-run preview and duplicate serial warnings, so a monthly export keeps the register current.
- The API takes assets programmatically if you would rather script it from the RMM side. It is on every plan.
Direct connectors for other RMMs are planned rather than built. If you would like one for the tool you use, tell us which; it is how the build order gets decided.
Related: all integrations, comparison chart and when a spreadsheet stops being enough.
See what the register holds
The live demo is a full register with a realistic dataset loaded. No sign-up, and it resets nightly.