# Equipment Register Basics

Build one tree of groups and items per project and keep every submittal in step with it.

The same flow transmitter shows up in five spreadsheets and gets corrected in four of them. The Equipment Register ends that: each project keeps exactly one list, every submittal reads from it, and a part corrected once is corrected everywhere it appears.

## How the tree works

The register is a tree. **Groups** are containers, a lift station, a control panel, a process area. **Items** are the parts inside them, each pointing at one part in your shared [Parts Library](/help/part-library). Because items point at library parts rather than carrying copies, fixing a catalog number on the part fixes it in every project and package that uses it.

![The Equipment Register tree with groups and items](https://submittalkit.com/static/images/help/equipment-register-basics-register.webp)

## Adding equipment

Open your project's Equipment tab and use the **Add** menu:

1. **Group** creates a container. Give it a name, an optional equipment tag, and a location in the tree.
2. **Item** searches the Parts Library. Picked parts queue below the search box; set the tag and quantity, then add each one.
3. **Import BOM** reads a whole spreadsheet in one pass. See [Import a BOM](/help/import-a-bom).
4. **New Part** creates a part that isn't in your library yet, then adds it here in the same step.

## Entry details

Open any entry to edit its name, equipment tag, quantity, configuration, description, and need-by date. On a group, **Apply to subtree** sets one need-by date on the group and everything inside it, replacing whatever each entry had. The **Location** select moves an entry to another parent; moving keeps its identity and history. Items can also be relinked to a different library part without losing anything else.

## Bulk changes

Check any row and a bar appears with **Select all**, **Move to** (an existing group or a new one you name on the spot), and **Delete**. Delete always shows a preview first: how many entries go, which uploaded documents they carry (check any to keep), which submittals the equipment feeds, and which entries will be skipped because punch items are anchored to them.

When a submittal is archived, its equipment leaves the active register and sits under **Equipment of archived submittals** at the bottom of the tab. Restoring the submittal from its detail page brings the entries back.

## Finding an entry

The register's search box matches names, equipment tags, catalog numbers, manufacturers, configurations, and descriptions, so typing a tag like LIT-101 lands on the entry that carries it. Cmd+K works too, from anywhere in the app. See [Search everything](/help/find-anything).

> Quantity covers identical units that share one tag treatment and configuration. Units that need different treatment belong as separate items.

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Submittal Kit · Equipment Register · Updated 2026-08-15
Canonical: https://submittalkit.com/help/equipment-register-basics