Device managementMarch 2025 · 5 min read
Reconciling Intune with your asset register
Intune knows your managed devices. Your register knows what you bought. Here's how to make them agree and why serial number is the key.
By AssetPilot Team
Most IT teams end up with two sources of truth for hardware: Intune, which knows every managed device that's checked in recently and an asset register, often a spreadsheet, that records what was purchased and who it was issued to. The two drift apart the moment a device is reassigned, re-imaged or retired.
Why does serial number matter for reconciliation?
The reliable join between them is the serial number. Unlike asset tags or hostnames, a device's serial is stamped by the manufacturer and follows it for life. AssetPilot reconciles by matching Intune's serial number against the serial recorded on each asset.
What problems does the match surface?
- Intune devices with no matching asset, hardware that's being managed but was never registered, so it's invisible to finance and procurement.
- Register entries with no matching Intune device, assets that may have fallen out of management, been lost, or never enrolled.
- Mismatched assignments: Intune lists a primary user but AssetPilot shows the asset available or checked out to someone else, often a device that changed hands without a proper check-in.
The payoff is a register you can trust for audits and refresh planning, kept honest automatically instead of through a monthly CSV export-and-compare ritual.