Lost and found settings

This screen sets what kind of thing the lost-and-found desk can file, how long each kind is held before nobody is expected to claim it, and whether handing it back needs a signature. Open it from Administration → Lost and found. The Lost & Found link at the top goes to the register.

If you don’t see this in your navigation, your administrator can switch the module on under Administration → Modules, or it may not be included in your plan.

The stat strip counts categories and shows the longest hold. Who can change this. Add configuration entries and Edit configuration entries.

Categories

Your own list — a phone, a wallet, keys, a laptop, documents. The defaults are Phone or tablet, Wallet or purse, Keys, ID and documents, Laptop or computer, Jewellery, Bag or luggage, Clothing, Glasses, Cash, Tools and Something else. A list imposed on a desk is one the desk works around by filing everything under Other, so shape it to what actually comes in. Drag a row to reorder.

Column	What it shows
Category	The name, with its description underneath
Held for	The retention period, in words and in days — “6 months, 180 days” — and valuable where the category is held as one

A category held for a week or less is flagged while it is in use: short is right for something nobody comes back for, and wrong for anything with a name on it. Add opens the form; click a category to edit it.

Field	What it means	Notes
Name	The category	Required
Part of	The broader kind this is one of — Phone under Electronics	Optional. Leave it empty for a top-level category
Description	What belongs in it	Shown under the name on the list and the desk’s picker
Held as a valuable	Phones, wallets, jewellery, cash and documents	A found item of this kind is booked in as a valuable, its manager is told the moment it arrives, and it is not handed back without a proof of ownership nobody could have guessed — one starred check at handover
Retention (days)	How many days a found item of this kind is held	Fills in a found item’s hold-until date. The desk can change it on the item
Active	Whether it is offered	Retiring a category leaves reports and items already filed under it alone
A handover needs a signature	Whoever takes the item away signs on screen, and the handover is refused until they do	Off by default. Off, the desk can still take a signature — nothing insists on one. Right for a phone or a wallet, not for a coat

Nothing is deleted when a hold runs out. The period only fills in the hold-until date; an item past its hold is one the desk may dispose of. Disposal is never automatic.

Who investigates

A new lost report is given to a team when it is taken — usually Security — and everybody on the team is told until somebody starts the investigation. The team then has until each deadline to start and to reach an outcome; past either, the managers who approve lost reports are told. See lost and found. Each row is one site. Reports at a site without a row of its own go to nobody, so add a row with no site and a team, and every other site is covered — it is listed as Every other site. A row with no team shows nobody.

Field	What it means
Site	The site the row covers. Empty for every other site
Investigating team	The team a new report is assigned to. Everybody in it is told
Start within (minutes)	How long after a report is taken somebody should have started looking into it
Finish within (hours)	How long after a report is taken the investigation should have reached an outcome

Until a row exists, the section says Nothing is routed yet.

Setting up

Configuration

Categories

Who investigates