Quick answers
- What is Jira asset management?
- Tracking hardware, software, services and people as objects in Assets and linking them to work in Jira.
- Is Assets a CMDB?
- It can be. An inventory lists what you own; a CMDB also records how things relate to each other and to services. That depends on what you model and who keeps it current.
- Do I need Jira Service Management?
- Not for the core: Atlassian lists schemas, references and linking objects to work items for Jira too. Jira Service Management adds the service-management layer and CMDB tools (comparison).
What Assets is today
Atlassian lists Assets for paid Jira, paid Jira Service Management and Teamwork Collection (Assets in Jira vs Assets in Jira Service Management). On Jira and Teamwork Collection it reaches single-site Standard and Premium organisations first, multi-site organisations next calendar year.
“The main difference is the service-management layer”: connecting objects to requests, incidents, problems and changes. Data Manager, Assets Discovery and Assets Dashboards are listed only for Jira Service Management (or Service Collection).
Atlassian has published that extra usage billing starts on 3 December 2026 for monthly plans and for customers new to Assets after 1 September 2026. Our Atlassian licensing page covers plan choice.
How many Assets objects each plan includes
Objects synced by discovery tools or integrations count; “Objects in Data Manager don’t count as they are not in a schema.” Allowances pool across an organisation.
| Plan | Objects included |
|---|---|
| Paid Jira plans | 1,000 |
| Teamwork Collection | 5,000 |
| Jira Service Management Standard | 5,000 |
| Jira Service Management Premium | 50,000 |
| Jira Service Management Enterprise | 500,000 |
Native Assets or a Marketplace asset-management app?
| Your situation | Starting point |
|---|---|
| Assets need to appear on requests, incidents, problems and changes | Evaluate native Assets in Jira Service Management |
| You need a simple inventory now, or Assets hasn’t reached your plan | Evaluate Marketplace apps; check whether you’d move to Assets later |
| You already run a mature asset management or discovery platform | Consider integrating it before duplicating the dataset |
| You need to reconcile several sources into one record | Evaluate Data Manager, in Service Collection Premium and Enterprise |
Decide what the CMDB is for before you model it
Model only what your service team’s questions need.
- Start from three to five questionsThe ones your desk can’t answer quickly, such as “Which laptop does this person have?”
- Trim templatesStart a schema from a template or blank, and treat a template as something to trim.
- A source of truth per attributeSerial number from Intune, owner from identity, cost centre from finance, agreed before the first import.
- Identifiers before the first loadIf a CSV import “can’t match records by the identifier, it recreates objects rather than updating them”.
- An owner per object typeSomeone answers for its accuracy, or the schema drifts and agents stop trusting it.
Getting data into Assets
- File and API imports: CSV, JSON, Assets Discovery and Atlassian’s REST API framework.
- Microsoft Entra ID: Atlassian’s integration app maps directory data, ideally into an empty schema.
- Data Manager: data sources for Intune, Entra ID, Defender, Active Directory and many third-party tools.
- Marketplace apps: several sync Intune or Entra ID; check what each creates and updates.
Intune into Assets
Atlassian’s Intune data source retrieves device name, serial number, compliance state, operating system, email address and user principal name. The default mapping brings in the email address but not the user principal name, so add it if you’ll match on it.
A second import then connects to a Data Manager saved search and brings those records into an Assets schema.
Check the primary key before the first production sync. The default is DeviceName, and device names can change or be reused when a laptop is rebuilt or reissued. Atlassian’s own example picks a serial number: choose your most stable identifier.
Jira Assets lookup by requester email: a lesson from our delivery work
In 2026 we completed a discovery for an Australian public-sector team whose service desk supports many separate customer organisations. Our proposed design, not a deployed system, made Assets the master record for organisations, contacts and services.
The question that shaped it: which organisation is a requester raising this for? We demonstrated an email-to-contact lookup in a Senzo test site, but an email identifies the person, not the organisation. People move, and contractors sign in with their own company’s address.
So the match is a gate, not a guess: the organisation link lives on the contact record, no link means no organisation is assumed, and anything copied from Assets is left empty and flagged for an agent when the source is blank. A lookup is only as reliable as its identifier, and “no match” is an outcome you design for.
Keeping Assets accurate
Treat schema changes like configuration changes: proposed, approved and recorded. Check each object type monthly for objects no longer updated, objects with no owner and references that point nowhere.
Automation consumes allowance too: “Every trigger, condition, action, branch, and loop that runs in a flow” is a step, with extra usage billed from 3 December 2026. Estimate trigger volume first.
Moving a CMDB from ServiceNow? See our ServiceNow to Jira Service Management migration page. For AI on Assets data, see our Rovo and Atlassian AI page.
Frequently asked questions
Which identifier should a requester lookup match on?
One that’s unique, stable and present on both sides, often an email address or user principal name confirmed for your tenant.
Why does Lookup objects return nothing?
Check that the smart value isn’t empty, the attribute name and format match, the import populated that attribute, and the rule’s actor can read the schema.
Can Assets sync with Microsoft Intune?
Yes, through Data Manager on Service Collection Premium and Enterprise, or an app or the REST API elsewhere.
Sources and currency (3), last checked 19 October 2026
- Assets in Jira vs Assets in Jira Service Management
- Other Atlassian pages read on 18 and 19 October 2026, by title: Assets licensing; What is Assets?; Update objects with a CSV import; InTune data source; Primary key; Automation actions; User smart values; How is your automation usage calculated
- Assets packaging is changing; where this guide and Atlassian differ, Atlassian is correct
Where to start with Jira asset management
Start small: one object type agents already see, a reliable source and an owner. Our JSM consulting page explains more.