Inventory systems for resource management should be adaptable and scalable and should account for the potential of double-counting personnel and/or equipment. In particular, resource summaries should clearly reflect any overlap of personnel across different resource pools. Personnel inventories should reflect single resources with multiple skills, taking care not to overstate the total resources.

For example, many firefighters also have credentials as emergency medical technicians (EMTs). A resource summary, then, could count a firefighter as a firefighter or as an EMT, but not as both. The total should reflect the number of available personnel, not simply the sum of the firefighter and EMT counts.

FEMA provides a "no cost" resource inventory tool. The Incident Resource Inventory System (IRIS) features the capability for users to inventory resources and share resource information with other agencies. Furthermore, users are able to define non-typed resources and select specific resources for mutual aid purposes based upon mission requirements, the capability and availability of resources, and desired response times.

Select this link to learn more about the Incident Resource Inventory System.