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2. Equipment return

1. What this process is for

This process gives a borrowed device back to the front desk. Whoever is holding it leaves it on the counter and declares the handover on the tablet, using the same enrollment number they picked it up with.

When it ends, the item leaves the list of the person who took it and enters the front desk checking queue. The device does not go back on the shelf yet: the cycle is closed by the physical check-in, in the admin panel.

2. Before you start

  • The tablet on the counter is on, with the portal open.
  • You have at least one device recorded in your name.
  • The device is physically on the counter, or will be before you confirm. This is the precondition the whole process exists to guarantee — see the rule below.
  • The enrollment number is registered. The record may be active or inactive: returning is allowed in both cases.

3. Terms used on this page

Terms that cross several processes live in the general glossary: enrollment number, asset tag, loan, physical check-in, shelf time and inactive record.

These three belong to this page only — they are the parts of the screen that the steps name:

Term What it is
Meus equipamentos (My equipment) The section of the opening screen that lists what is in your name right now, one row per device.
Declaring the return What tapping Confirmar devolução (Confirm return) does: telling the system the device was left on the counter. It is not the check.
Devolver tudo (Return all) The shortcut above the list, which sends every item at once. It only appears from two items upwards.

4. Who does what

Role Does Does not
Student or teacher Leaves the device on the counter and declares the return on the tablet, item by item or all at once. Does not check anything in. Declaring is not the same as the front desk confirming.
Portal (the tablet) Lists the open loans for the enrollment number, records the declaration and stamps the time of it. Does not put the device back in the inventory. The device stays on loan until the physical check.
Front desk Collects what is on the counter and confirms receiving it in the admin panel — that is process 3. Takes no part in the return on the tablet. Does not need to be there for you to declare.

5. BPMN diagram

BPMN diagram of the return: the person types the enrollment number, the portal lists the open loans, they choose one item or the whole list, confirm in the dialog, and the portal marks the loan as awaiting check-in while the device stays on loan and waits for the front desk.

Click the diagram to open it at full size — at the width of this page it fits at a little over a third of its size, and the labels cannot be read.

Notice how the diagram ends: the last event is not "device available", it is "the device stays on loan and waits for the front desk". The arrow leaving it is the message that process 3 consumes.

The diagram labels are in Portuguese, because it is the same file the Portuguese pages use.

The diagram labels, in English
Label on the diagram In English
Estudante e Professor Student and teacher (the lane)
Sistema System (the lane)
Chega na bancada com o equipamento Arrives at the counter with the device
Digita a matrícula no teclado do tablet Types the enrollment number on the tablet keypad
Lista os empréstimos ATIVO da matrícula Lists the ATIVO (active) loans for that enrollment number
Tem equipamento com você? Do you have any device?
Nada a devolver; a tela é só a da retirada Nothing to return; the screen is the pickup one only
Um item ou a lista inteira? One item or the whole list?
Toca em Devolver na linha do item Taps Devolver (Return) on the item's row
Toca em Devolver tudo, que só existe a partir de 2 itens Taps Devolver tudo (Return all), which only exists from 2 items upwards
Confirma no aviso: deixa o equipamento na bancada Confirms in the dialog: leaves the device on the counter
Empréstimo ainda está ATIVO? Is the loan still ATIVO (active)?
Esse item já não consta como emprestado para você That item is no longer recorded as on loan to you
Marca AGUARDANDO_BAIXA e grava a data da declaração Marks it AGUARDANDO_BAIXA (awaiting check-in) and stamps the declaration time
Devolução declarada Return declared
O equipamento segue EMPRESTADO e espera a secretaria The device stays EMPRESTADO (on loan) and waits for the front desk
sim / não yes / no
um item / a lista inteira one item / the whole list

Download the .bpmn file — the source of the diagram, which opens in bpmn.io with nothing to install.

6. Step by step

The screen goes back to the start on its own

After two minutes with no touch, the portal ends the session and returns to the enrollment number screen. If that happens before you confirm, start again from step 1 — nothing was recorded. A return that is already confirmed is not undone by it.

  1. Type your enrollment number on the on-screen keypad.

    Type every digit, leading zeros included: 0012345 and 12345 are different enrollment numbers.

  2. Tap Continuar (Continue).

  3. Look at the Meus equipamentos (My equipment) section, on the left.

    The portal opening screen with the My equipment section on the left, listing two devices with a Return button on each row, and the category grid on the right

    Each row carries the asset tag of the device, the category and how long you have had it. The asset tag is the same one stuck on the device, character by character — that is how you tell one from another.

    Only devices still in your name appear here. Anything you have already returned disappears from the list, even if the front desk has not collected it yet.

  4. Leave the device you came to return on the counter.

    This step comes before the confirmation on purpose, and not as a formality: the system has no way of knowing whether the device is there. What you confirm on the next screen is that this step has already happened.

  5. Are you returning one item or all of them at once?

    • If ONE item → tap Devolver (Return) on the row for that device. Go to step 6.
    • If ALL → tap Devolver tudo (Return all), above the list. The button carries the number of items in parentheses and only exists from two items upwards. Go to step 6.

    A close-up of one My equipment row: the category icon, the NOTE-01 asset tag, the caption with category and time, and the Return button on the right

    A close-up of the Return all shortcut, a wide button above the list, with the number 2 in parentheses

  6. Check the asset tag shown at the top of the dialog against the one on the device you left on the counter.

    The Return equipment dialog, with the NOTE-01 asset tag highlighted, the yellow notice telling you to leave the device on the counter, and the Cancel and Confirm return buttons

    The notice says, in these words:

    Atenção: Deixe o equipamento na bancada. Confirma a devolução?

    (Warning: Leave the device on the counter. Confirm the return?)

    And just below it:

    A secretaria confere e dá baixa depois. Até lá o item continua registrado no seu nome.

    (The front desk checks it and checks it in later. Until then the item stays recorded in your name.)

    In Devolver tudo (Return all) the dialog is called Devolver todos os equipamentos (Return all equipment), lists one asset tag per row and puts both sentences in the plural.

    The Return all equipment dialog, listing NOTE-01 and TAB-01, with the yellow notice in the plural and the Confirm return of 2 items button

    Atenção: Deixe os equipamentos na bancada. Confirma a devolução?

    (Warning: Leave the devices on the counter. Confirm the return?)

    Wrong item? Tap Cancelar (Cancel). While the dialog is open, nothing has been recorded.

  7. Tap Confirmar devolução (Confirm return).

    In a batch the button reads Confirmar devolução de N itens (Confirm return of N items), with the number of devices in the list.

  8. Was the item still recorded as on loan to you?

    • If YES → a green notice confirms it at the top of the screen — "NOTE-01 devolvido. Deixe na bancada." (NOTE-01 returned. Leave it on the counter.) — and the row disappears from the list. The screen after the return: the green notice at the top saying NOTE-01 returned, the list now with a single item, and the category grid with the same counts as before

    • If NO → the dialog closes and the list shows "Esse item já não consta como emprestado para você." (That item is no longer recorded as on loan to you.) This happens when the same device was declared twice. The list is re-read straight away: check what is left.

    The same screen with a red alert where the NOTE-01 row used to be, saying the item is no longer recorded as on loan, and TAB-01 still on the list below

  9. Look at the category grid, on the right.

    It still shows the same counts as before the return. This is not a refresh failure: it is the rule this whole process is built on, and the first question in section 7 explains why.

  10. Tap Sair (Exit), in the top right corner, or let the screen go back to the start on its own.

    Returned everything? The Meus equipamentos (My equipment) section disappears entirely, and the screen becomes the pickup one again.

    The screen after returning both items: the green notice says 2 devices returned, the My equipment section is gone and only the category grid is left

7. Rules that are not obvious

I returned it on the tablet. Why is the device not available?

Because returning on the tablet is a declaration, not a check.

When you confirm, the loan moves to awaiting check-in — the device is physically on the counter, but nobody at the front desk has collected it yet. If it went back to available at that moment, the tablet would offer somebody else a device that is still sitting on the counter, and they would look for it on the shelf and not find it.

That is why the count in the category grid does not change when you return something. It is easy to check on the screenshot in step 8: the green notice says NOTE-01 was returned, and "Notebooks" still reads "4 de 9 disponíveis" (4 of 9 available).

The device is offered again once the front desk confirms receiving it — that is the physical check-in, the next process.

Why does the dialog insist on 'Deixe o equipamento na bancada'?

Because that is the only part of the process the system cannot verify.

The tablet records what you declare. If you confirm and walk away with the device in your bag, the record says it came back and the front desk looks for it on the counter, where it is not. No error appears on screen to warn you — the mismatch only shows up at the physical check, and by then it shows up as a missing device, in your name.

It is the only physical instruction in the whole system, and that is why it gets a box of its own instead of a line of small print.

Which time is recorded: my tap or the check?

Your tap. The declaration and the check are two different stamps, and each one has a single owner.

The distance between them is the shelf time: how long the device sat on the counter, already handed over by you and still invisible to anybody who wants to pick something up. It exists to measure that bottleneck, and that is why the two times cannot be the same field.

For you this has one practical consequence: what counts as the time of your return is the moment you confirmed, not the moment the front desk got to the counter.

My record is inactive. Can I still return things?

Yes. The block on an inactive record works in one direction only: it stops pickups and allows returns.

The opening screen of an inactive record holding two devices: the heading reads Return equipment, the whole list appears with its Return buttons, and where the category grid should be there is a yellow notice explaining the block

The asymmetry is deliberate. People who are deactivated — enrollment suspended, graduated, left the institution — nearly always have a device in their bag. Blocking both directions would turn deactivation into a guarantee that the device never comes back to the cabinet.

On screen, the heading becomes Devolver equipamento (Return equipment), the list stays whole and the category grid gives way to the explanation. To pick equipment up again, ask the front desk.

I took three items at once. Why can I return just one?

Because each device picked up creates a separate record, even though you confirmed only once.

That is what lets you return the laptop on Tuesday and keep the power strip until Friday. If the three were a single record, returning one would force you to return them all, and the front desk would have no way of knowing which device was already back.

Devolver tudo (Return all) is a shortcut on top of that, not an exception: it declares the loans one by one, in the same transaction. Either all of them enter the queue or none does — walking away thinking you handed everything back when half of it was not recorded would be worse than returning nothing.

I tapped Devolver on the wrong item. How do I undo it?

There is no way to undo it from the tablet. Once confirmed, the item leaves your list and enters the front desk queue.

What fixes it is making your declaration true: take the device to the counter. If you still need it, leave it there anyway and pick it up again after the front desk confirms receiving it — only then is it offered on the portal again.

If the device was already on the counter and the problem was returning the wrong item from your list, tell the front desk before the check: they are the ones who can correct the record, from the admin panel.

Where this process ends

Not here. The return you have just declared is waiting for the front desk to check it — and it is the check that puts the device back in the inventory, closes the loan and makes the available count go up.

That is Process 3 — Physical check-in, on the admin panel track.

8. Common errors and what to do

Message on screen Cause What to do
"Digite a sua matrícula para continuar." (Type your enrollment number to continue.) Continuar (Continue) was tapped with the field empty. Type the enrollment number on the on-screen keypad and tap Continuar (Continue) again.
"Matrícula 9999999 não encontrada." (Enrollment number 9999999 not found.) A wrong digit, a missing leading zero, or a record that was never imported. Check the digits and type them again. If they are right, ask the front desk.
"Esse item já não consta como emprestado para você." (That item is no longer recorded as on loan to you.) The same device was declared twice, or the front desk has already checked it in. The list re-reads itself. Check what is left in it: if the item is gone, its return is already recorded.
"Nenhum equipamento seu está pendente de devolução." (None of your equipment is pending return.) Devolver tudo (Return all) was confirmed after the list had already emptied. Check the refreshed list. If it has disappeared from the screen, there is nothing left in your name.
"Não foi possível falar com o sistema agora." (Could not reach the system right now.) The tablet could not reach the front desk computer. Tap Confirmar devolução (Confirm return) again in a few seconds. If it persists, tell the front desk — and leave the device on the counter.