A production worker hands in their notice. The supervisor asks the storekeeper what they need to return. The storekeeper digs through a binder for a sheet from three years ago and finds a spreadsheet row that says "Makita drill — Tom?". Two cordless drivers and a laser meter never come back, because nobody can show they were issued to that person.
This post will help you decide where to keep the record of workwear, personal protective equipment (PPE) and tools issued to staff: in Excel with paper signatures, in an off-the-shelf app, or in a tool of your own. The choice comes down to three numbers: how many items are in circulation, what the missing ones cost, and how many people hand things out.
What Polish law says and why the signature matters
The Polish Labour Code requires the employer to provide PPE free of charge (art. 237⁶) and work clothing and footwear where the job requires it (art. 237⁷). You set the types of clothing and PPE per job in agreement with an employee representative, and the issued items remain company property (art. 237⁸). Polish companies usually write the expected usage periods into their work regulations. You may not let an employee work without the required PPE (art. 237⁹). Source (Polish): Labour Code, section X, chapter IX, full text in ISAP, the official Polish legal database.
Two practical consequences follow. First, you need to know when each person's boots or jacket are due for replacement, otherwise replacement happens "when someone complains". Second, tools, PPE and clothing entrusted with an obligation to return them fall under the employee's full liability (art. 124 § 1, source, Polish). To rely on that, you have to show what you issued, when and to whom. "Tom?" will not show that.
The mistake we see most often: one signed card when someone is hired, and nothing after that. Later issues happen on a verbal basis and returns are not recorded anywhere.
Three ways and who each one fits
1. Excel plus a paper signature. One sheet: employee, item, inventory number, issue date, planned replacement date, return date. Add a printed card the employee signs at every issue, and a binder. Conditional formatting highlights items past their replacement date. You can set this up yourself in 1–2 days. It is enough for a dozen or so people and a few dozen tools, as long as one person does the issuing.
2. An off-the-shelf tool or safety-equipment app. There are SaaS apps with QR codes, signing on a phone and replacement reminders. They are usually priced per user or per number of items. Rollout takes 1–3 weeks, most of it spent labelling tools and entering the starting stock. Work out the subscription over 3 years and compare it with option 3.
3. Your own tool. A simple web app on a tablet at the issue counter: scan a QR code, sign on screen, replacement dates from your own table of norms, and a "to be returned" report when someone leaves. It makes sense when the record has to talk to something you already have: the employee list in enova365 or Comarch Optima (two common Polish HR/ERP systems), the fixed-asset register, or production orders. Typically PLN 20–45k (about EUR 4.5–10.5k) and 3–7 weeks (we usually build in .NET). Add maintenance: budget 10–15% of the build cost per year.
Before you pick option 2 or 3, check whether your HR system or ERP already has an employee equipment register. Some do, though usually without a signature at issue and without barcode scanning.
Two examples: one that worked, one that was abandoned
At one of our clients, a 42-person steel structure manufacturer, around 180 power tools and meters were in circulation, plus clothing and PPE for 30 people on the shop floor. The record was a notebook in the tool store and a spreadsheet the storekeeper updated on Fridays. The owner estimated that equipment worth PLN 15–20k (about EUR 3.5–4.5k) went missing every year, and the storekeeper spent about 3 hours a week finding out who had which tool.
We built a tablet web app: QR stickers on the tools, on-screen signatures at issue and return, clothing replacement dates from the table of norms, and a nightly import of the employee list from enova365. The project took 5 weeks and cost PLN 32k (about EUR 7.5k). In the first year losses fell to around PLN 4k (about EUR 900), and the list of items to return when someone leaves is generated in a minute. What we would do differently: labelling and counting 180 tools took the storekeeper a full week nobody had planned. Do that count before the project starts.
In another case, a 22-person installation company (ventilation and air conditioning) bought an off-the-shelf tool tracking app for about PLN 4.5k (about EUR 1k) a year. Four months later nobody used it. The reason was not technical: the fitters did not take tools from the store but from the vans, and equipment moved between crews during the day. Nobody scanned a code on a building site. The fix was simpler: tools were assigned to the van, not the person, the driver is responsible for the set, and once a quarter someone counts the van contents into a spreadsheet. Lesson: before you buy anything, check where the handover physically happens and who has free hands at that moment.
When an app does not make sense
An app, bought or built, will not fix a process that does not exist. Do not invest if:
- fewer than 15 people get equipment and you have a few dozen tools. Excel with a signature card will last for years.
- there is no single person who issues and takes back items. If everyone helps themselves from the shelf, no app will record it. Lock the tool store or name the person who issues first.
- tools are shared by a shift or a workstation. Then record them per workstation or per team lead, not per employee, or you will log a dozen issues a day for no benefit.
- less goes missing than the subscription costs. If you lose PLN 2k (about EUR 450) of equipment a year, an app at PLN 5k (about EUR 1.2k) a year will not pay back.
To be fair, each option has a cost beyond money. With an app, someone has to maintain the labels, because QR codes wear off and new tools need labelling as they arrive. With Excel, the risk is a single file held by a single person: when they leave, the record dies with them. We write more about when a spreadsheet stops being enough in when Excel becomes the system. It is also worth adding the equipment return to the same list you use for employee offboarding from IT systems, so that a departure is one procedure, not two.
What to do this week
- Count how many tools and clothing items are currently issued to employees. If you cannot do that in an hour, that is your first finding.
- Ask accounting or the store how much equipment was bought in the last 12 months to replace lost or "not returned" items. That is your budget for a solution.
- Take three people who left this year and check whether you can show a signed list of what they had and what they returned.
- Write down the norms in one table: which clothing and which PPE for which job, and for how long. Without it, no tool will remind you about replacements.
- Decide who is the only person who issues and takes back equipment, and where that physically happens: in the tool store, in the van or on the shop floor.
Three numbers decide how you track issued equipment: how many items are in circulation, what the missing ones cost, and how many people hand things out. An app makes sense only when losses exceed its cost and the handover happens in one place.