Here's a scene that plays out in IT departments every week: a technician hands over a laptop, scribbles something on a paper form, and promises to update TOPdesk later. Later turns into tomorrow, tomorrow turns into next week, and by then the details are fuzzy. Who got which laptop? Was the charger included? Did anyone actually sign for it?
TOPdesk is great at storing asset data. The problem is everything that happens between the work floor and TOPdesk. The walk from the storage room to the desk, the handover conversation, the "I'll log it later" moment. That's where data quality falls apart.
This post covers the practical changes that actually move the needle, based on patterns we see across IT teams using TOPdesk daily.
The hidden cost of "we'll update it later"
Most IT teams don't have a TOPdesk problem. They have a timing problem. When the data entry happens hours or days after the actual event, three things break down:
- Ownership gaps: an asset shows as "in stock" while someone is already using it. A colleague issues the same laptop model to someone else.
- Missing proof: six months later, an employee says they never received that monitor. There's no signed document to point to.
- Audit headaches: the asset register says one thing, reality says another. Someone has to reconcile it all manually before the next audit.
Capture data where the work happens
The single biggest improvement you can make is closing the gap between the physical event and the digital record. If a technician hands over a laptop at someone's desk, the form should be filled in at that desk, not back at the office an hour later.
That means mobile. Not a "mobile-friendly web portal", but an actual app on their phone that's fast enough to use while standing. Scan the barcode, pick the person, add a note, get a signature, done. The whole interaction should take under a minute.
With Better Desk, technicians do exactly this. The app syncs with TOPdesk, so they're searching real asset data and real people. No retyping serial numbers, no looking up employee IDs later.
Automate the paperwork nobody wants to do
Most IT teams have a Word template for handover documents. Someone fills it in, prints it, gets it signed, scans it, and uploads the PDF to TOPdesk. That's five manual steps for something that should be automatic.
The better pattern: one form submission triggers everything. The technician fills in the handover details on their phone. Behind the scenes:
PDF is generated
Your template gets filled with the submission data (names, serial numbers, signatures, photos) and converted to a clean PDF.
Email goes out
The recipient gets a copy for their records. The IT manager gets a copy too, if you want.
PDF lands in TOPdesk
The signed document is attached to the correct asset automatically. No manual upload, no forgetting.
The technician doesn't have to think about any of this. They hit submit and walk away. The document trail builds itself.
Get real signatures, not scanned squiggles
Paper signatures have two problems: they go missing, and they prove very little. A scan of a smudged signature on a crumpled form doesn't hold up well when someone claims they never received a device.
Digital signatures captured on a phone are different. You can record who signed, when they signed, where they were standing (GPS), and what device they used. That's a proper audit trail, not just an image of a pen stroke.
| Paper signature | Digital signature | |
|---|---|---|
| Identity | A name someone wrote | Linked to authenticated user profile |
| Timestamp | Whatever date is on the form | Exact second, automatic |
| Location | Not captured | GPS coordinates |
| Storage | Filing cabinet (maybe) | Attached to the asset in TOPdesk |
| Retrieval | Good luck finding it | Search by asset, person, or date |
The goal isn't just to capture a signature. It's to build a record that answers questions six months from now without requiring anyone to remember anything.
Keep your field mappings in sync
Here's a subtler problem: TOPdesk asset schemas change. Someone adds a custom field, renames a column, or changes a dropdown list. If your external tools don't notice, data starts landing in the wrong places, or not landing at all.
Better Desk monitors your TOPdesk asset schemas automatically. When a field is added, removed, or modified, you get a notification to review the change and update your mappings. No more silent breakage where documents get uploaded with the wrong metadata for weeks before someone spots it.
What this actually looks like day to day
Let's be concrete. Here's what a typical laptop handover looks like before and after:
Before
- Print handover form
- Fill in by hand at the desk
- Get the employee to sign on paper
- Walk back to the office
- Scan the form
- Open TOPdesk, find the asset
- Upload the scanned PDF
- Update the assignment field
- File the paper copy somewhere
~15 minutes per handover
After
- Open the flow on your phone
- Scan barcode or search the asset
- Pick the employee
- Both sign on the phone
- Hit submit
PDF generated, emailed, and attached to TOPdesk automatically.
~1 minute per handover
Multiply that difference across 20 handovers a week, and you're saving your team hours of admin time, and getting better data in return.
Practical tips if you're getting started
Start with one flow, not five
Pick your most common handover (probably laptops) and get that working end to end. Add more device types once the team is comfortable with the process.
Always require two signatures
One from the recipient and one from the technician. It takes 10 extra seconds and eliminates "I never got that" conversations entirely.
Include the serial number and model in the document
The PDF should leave zero ambiguity about which specific device was handed over. Pull these details from the asset data automatically.
Let TOPdesk stay the source of truth
Don't try to replace TOPdesk or duplicate its data. Use it as the single source of assets and persons. The goal is to get data into TOPdesk faster and more reliably, not to build a parallel system.
The short version
TOPdesk is solid for storing and managing asset data. The weak link is usually the process around it: the handovers, the paper forms, the "I'll update it later" moments.
Fix the process, and the data fixes itself. Move data capture to the point of action (a phone on the work floor), automate the document pipeline (generate, email, save), and close the loop with real signatures and audit trails.
That's what Better Desk does. Not replace TOPdesk, but make it work the way it should have from the start.