A major new release for KIT sees huge strides in the versatility of the Audit functionality
The start of 2026 sees a major release for KIT and features a significant update to the Audit functionality. Offering increased flexibility and alternative methods by which you can conduct Audits, and the ability to pause Audits, the new Audit functionality heightens the ability to tailor the solution to your ways of working and work even smarter, rather than harder.
We’re thrilled to introduce these enhancements, which complement rather than replace the existing functionality. They have been designed in collaboration with some of our customers to meet their changing needs as they scale, with clear benefits to the overall workflow and user experience.
Improved Audit Process
We have redesigned the workflow of Audit process, implementing a streamlined, step by step wizard approach. Instead of being asked “Are any spaces at the location empty?” when performing an Audit, we now offer clearer guidance and prompt the User to select all the Items that are missing in the selected Location. Once selected, the wizard restates the Items selected by the User as missing and asks them to confirm to complete the Audit.
Audit By Presence
We have introduced the option for any Audit Policy to be set to either ”audit by presence” or “audit by absence”. The new “audit by presence” capability is a toggle switch that is defined when creating or editing an Audit Policy. The default setting for existing Audit Policies and all new Audit Policies remains “audit by absence”, which is where the user is asked to select all Items that are missing within the Location that is the subject of the Audit.
The “audit by presence” option enables locations to be audited based on what Items are present at the Location rather than what is missing. This is the opposite of the default method but is particularly useful for non-visual locations such as COSHH cupboards or other locations storing various Items such as large power tools, jigs and fixtures. For non-visual Locations, we have also introduced the ability to use cameras or scanners on Item QR or barcode labels to prove their presence. More on that later in these notes.
Audit Pausing
We have created the ability for Audits at a Location to be paused until a defined date in the future, but only by Users with the Pause permission. This feature prevents the Location from being incorrectly included in the Overdue Audit reports whilst the Pause is in place.
Once the Pause has expired, it automatically returns to its normal Audit schedule as determined by the Audit Policy and will be appear in the Overdue Audit report until it is next audited. The concept here is that customers may not want to include some Locations in Audits or reports whilst the Owners of those Locations are on holiday, off sick or seconded elsewhere or if the Location is temporarily out of use.
However, a User with the Pause permission may also manually override the Pause and “Resume Audits” at the Location, so that if they return to work earlier than expected or the Location is reinstated to use earlier, they can ensure the Location audit schedule is restarted.
Permitted Audit Days
Within the definition of an Audit Policy, it is now possible to nominate the days of the week on which Audits would normally occur (“Permitted audit days”) and therefore make it more accurate to determine when Audits become overdue. For example, a location can be marked so that audits only ever become due Monday-Friday. This can help prevent audits becoming overdue when there is no way for the location to be audited on that day.
With this new functionality. the Location will not appear in the Overdue Audits report until the day after which its next Audit falls due. This will make the reporting of Overdue Audits more accurately reflect the normal audit frequency practices of the organisation and eliminate over-counting. It will also reduce the volume of unnecessary notification emails related to Overdue Audits.
Marking Missing Items as Found
Up to now, when an Item is identified and recorded as missing during an Audit and is then subsequently found, the only way to recognise that it is now present at the Location has been to perform a new Audit.
Now, Users can navigate to the Item details and select “Mark as found”. This will record who marked the Item as found with a date/time stamp. This information is available in the Audit History. When an Item is marked as found, the Item is removed from the Missing Items report and will no longer be included in the numbers of Missing Items shown on the Dashboard or included in email notifications.
Expected Missing Items
We have changed the behaviour of KIT regarding Items that are known or expected to be missing. The system will now take into account Loans, Location statuses, and vacant Item pockets in Locations when an audit is performed. Vacant Item pockets no longer need to be selected when reporting missing Items on a visual Location.
If an Item is known to be on an active loan or is known to have a non-default Location status, the system will let the User know that the Item is expected to be missing. These Items will not be shown in the Missing Items report or included in the numbers displayed on the Dashboard. The reason for the absence is maintained in the Audit History.
Audits on Location Groups
Visual audits can now be initiated at Location Group level. This launches a wizard that guides the auditor through all the Audits required for that Location Group in a single session, reducing the number of steps required when compared to the current process of having to perform each Location audit separately. This makes it faster and more efficient to check multiple related locations, such as a cabinet with several drawers.
In this example, if wanting to conduct a complete Audit of a seven-drawer tool cabinet, previously you would have to navigate to each Location individually and then complete the Audit process for each of the seven drawers / Locations. With the new wizard approach, the system does this automatically and prompts you through each Audit. Within the Audit Policy definition, administrators can specify whether it is to be “excluded from group audits”. If this is enabled, any Locations assigned to that policy will be skipped during Location Group Audits.
Reporting of Location Issues
As part of performing a visual Audit, it is now possible to report any issues with the Location itself (e.g. spills/leaks, safety concerns, broken lock, etc). This feature enables the auditor to provide a description of the issues they have seen and attach photos or PDF documents to provide other context as necessary. This new feature is enabled within the Audit Policy definition. Any audits performed on Locations that are subject to an Audit Policy with this enabled is then prompted as part of the Audit wizard to detail any such issues.
In addition, Users who have the new “Audit location issues” email notification enabled within their User record will be sent email notifications whenever a Location issue is recorded. This can be set to notify Users for all Locations or only Locations they own.
Recording remedial actions on Item issues
Now, whenever a User clears an issue on an Item, they are prompted to add notes to detail any remedial action taken to resolve the issue. This gives transparency of any fixes and gives a more complete life history of the Item, such that common issues can be easily spotted over time.
Using cameras & scanners for Audits
When performing an “audit by presence”, a new “Scan items” option is available within the Audit wizard that allows a camera or handheld scanner to be used to scan KIT item tags, QR code labels or barcodes on Items to mark them as present.
The scanner screen provides both visual and audio cues as Items are scanned. This provides a rapid way of verifying the presence of Items in Locations that do not have visual tool control and saves time having to visually search for, find and match each Item to its description in the Item list for that Location.
What’s New
From now on, the first time a user logs in after an update to KIT, they will be greeted by a “What’s New” splash screen that will display the Release Notes for the new release that details the changes to the software that have been implemented since their last login.
This screen will only appear on first login for the user following the update. After that, the Release Notes may still be accessed either on the website or in the new Release Notes archive.
Release Notes archive
We have also implemented an archive of Release Notes that will be available to users via the new Release Notes page. This will contain the Release Notes for up to the 10 most recent releases, so that customers can see a history of when changes were implemented or if they wish to re-read the release notes for the latest release.
Font changes
We have also made subtle tweaks to the default font choices used in the software. We now use “Exo 2” as our font for page, dashboard and report headings and titles, and “Inter” as our default font choice for body content, as featured for data fields and report rows.
Both are free to download Google fonts that render quicker and cleaner, with greater character separation, making them much easier to read on the screen.
We’re always evolving KIT to make managing tools and equipment smarter, simpler, and more insightful.
