diff --git a/app/Actions/Assets/StoreAssetAction.php b/app/Actions/Assets/StoreAssetAction.php
index b1dcb573d3..fa1b56eabd 100644
--- a/app/Actions/Assets/StoreAssetAction.php
+++ b/app/Actions/Assets/StoreAssetAction.php
@@ -176,7 +176,7 @@ class StoreAssetAction
             }
             return $asset;
         } else {
-            return $asset->getErrors();
+            dd($asset->getErrors()); //need to figure out how to return errors from watson validating...
         }
     }
 }
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/app/Actions/Assets/UpdateAssetAction.php b/app/Actions/Assets/UpdateAssetAction.php
index a6651ba856..117c8f0ae6 100644
--- a/app/Actions/Assets/UpdateAssetAction.php
+++ b/app/Actions/Assets/UpdateAssetAction.php
@@ -8,5 +8,4 @@ class UpdateAssetAction
     {
         //    stuff
     }
-
 }
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/app/Http/Controllers/Assets/AssetsController.php b/app/Http/Controllers/Assets/AssetsController.php
index 1dc5034e9b..c650d9f699 100755
--- a/app/Http/Controllers/Assets/AssetsController.php
+++ b/app/Http/Controllers/Assets/AssetsController.php
@@ -117,7 +117,7 @@ class AssetsController extends Controller
                     model_id: $request->validated('model_id'),
                     status_id: $request->validated('status_id'),
                     name: $request->validated('name'),
-                    serial: $serials[$key],
+                    serial: $request->has('serials') ? $serials[$key] : null,
                     company_id: $request->validated('company_id'),
                     asset_tag: $asset_tag,
                     order_number: $request->validated('order_number'),
@@ -138,7 +138,7 @@ class AssetsController extends Controller
                     assigned_asset: $request->validated('assigned_asset'),
                     assigned_location: $request->validated('assigned_location'),
                     custom_fields: $custom_fields,
-                    request: $request, //this is just for the handleImages method...
+                    request: $request, //this is just for the handleImages method... would love to figure out a different way of doing this
                     last_audit_date: $request->validated('last_audit_date'),
                 );
             }
@@ -149,7 +149,9 @@ class AssetsController extends Controller
         } catch (CheckoutNotAllowed $e) {
             return redirect()->route('hardware.index')->with('error', trans('admin/hardware/message.create.error'));
         } catch (\Exception $e) {
-            return redirect()->back()->with('error', trans('admin/hardware/message.create.error'));
+            report($e);
+            dd($e);
+            return redirect()->back()->with('error', 'something bad');
         }
     }
 
diff --git a/app/Http/Requests/Assets/StoreAssetRequest.php b/app/Http/Requests/Assets/StoreAssetRequest.php
index 574216afdf..c3db8108a5 100644
--- a/app/Http/Requests/Assets/StoreAssetRequest.php
+++ b/app/Http/Requests/Assets/StoreAssetRequest.php
@@ -37,8 +37,10 @@ class StoreAssetRequest extends ImageUploadRequest
 
         $this->parseLastAuditDate();
 
+        $asset_tag = $this->parseAssetTag();
+
         $this->merge([
-            'asset_tag' => $this->asset_tag ?? Asset::autoincrement_asset(),
+            'asset_tag' => $asset_tag,
             'company_id' => $idForCurrentUser,
             'assigned_to' => $assigned_to ?? null,
         ]);
@@ -61,7 +63,6 @@ class StoreAssetRequest extends ImageUploadRequest
             // converted to a float via setPurchaseCostAttribute).
             $modelRules = $this->removeNumericRulesFromPurchaseCost($modelRules);
         }
-
         return array_merge(
             $modelRules,
             ['status_id' => [new AssetCannotBeCheckedOutToNondeployableStatus()]],
@@ -101,4 +102,14 @@ class StoreAssetRequest extends ImageUploadRequest
 
         return $rules;
     }
+
+    private function parseAssetTag(): mixed
+    {
+        // this is for a gui request to make the request pass validation
+        // this just checks the first asset tag from the gui, watson should pick up if any of the rest of them fail
+        if ($this->has('asset_tags') && !$this->expectsJson()) {
+            return $this->input('asset_tags')[1];
+        }
+        return $this->asset_tag ?? Asset::autoincrement_asset();
+    }
 }