Active vs. inactive assets – Scaler

Purpose of this article

This article clarifies the distinction between active and inactive assets in Scaler, including how each status affects analytics, calculations, reporting outputs, and billing. It also explains how to update asset status and how reporting inclusion is controlled separately.

Overview

Assets in Scaler can be marked as either active or inactive, depending on whether they should be included in:

Analytics and metrics

Platform calculations (e.g. coverage, intensities)

Reporting outputs

Monthly active asset billing

This setting allows you to control which assets are operationally in scope at any given time.

What does “active” mean?

An asset marked Active in analytics as True is enabled for data processing and analysis in Scaler.

This does not necessarily mean that live data is being collected. It does mean Scaler will:

Include the asset in the Analytics Portal

Process the asset for metrics such as coverage and intensities

Count the asset toward your monthly active asset total (used for billing)

Make the asset eligible for inclusion in reporting outputs (if separately enabled)

What does “inactive” mean?

An inactive asset is:

Hidden from analytics

Excluded from platform calculations and metrics

Not counted toward monthly active asset billing

Automatically excluded from all generated reports

This status is typically used for assets that are:

No longer in use

Out of scope for reporting

Temporarily held for later activation

Key distinction: “Active in analytics” vs. “Active in reporting outputs”

These two settings are separate and serve different purposes.

Active in analytics controls whether an asset appears in analytics, calculations, and billing.

Active in reporting outputs controls whether an asset is included in a specific report generation.

Only assets marked active in analytics can be included in reports.

However, not all active assets must be included in every report.

For example, you may have 10 active assets but include only 7 of them in a GRESB submission, depending on reporting boundaries or framework-specific rules.

Important: The “active in reporting outputs” toggle must be reviewed and updated each time you generate a report.

Historical reporting note

If an asset needs to be included in a past reporting year (for example, like-for-like reporting from 2023–2024), it must still be marked as active, even if it was sold or decommissioned in a later year.

Only active assets can be exported and included in reports.

How to update active / inactive status

You can update an asset’s status in two ways.

1. In the Scaler platform

Navigation path:

Data Collection Portal → Portfolio → Asset List → Asset Characteristics → Asset Details

Select the relevant asset

Locate Active in analytics

Set the value to Yes / No (true / false)

2. In the Scaler spreadsheet

Navigation path:

Data Collection Portal → Portfolio → Asset List → download Scaler Spreadsheet

Select the assets you want to edit

Click on Download in the floating action bar

Choose Custom Selection and click the Select fields button

Search for Active in Analytics

Select the field and download

Open the Asset Details sheet

Locate the Active in analytics column

Set the value to TRUE or FALSE as appropriate

This is useful when updating multiple assets in bulk.