How can a robust asset register be effectively created and managed? There are ten good reasons to switch to a specialist asset management system.
1. Corporate governance (sigh!)
Red-tape, red-tape and more red-tape! It’s everywhere these days. With companies of all sizes subject to increased scrutiny by government agencies, regulatory boards and investors, accountability and transparency is key. With Big Brother’s eyes on your organisation, why risk the integrity of your financial data by relying solely on spreadsheets or fixed asset modules of legacy systems?
2. A robust audit trail and overall security
Talking of Big Brother – a specialist fixed asset management system will track and record every detail of every action ever made by any user. Scary stuff for some but a complete triumph when justifying the security and integrity of your business’ data! Add to this, permission-based access and you have a system that ensures confidential information can be viewed only by those that need to see it and safely hidden from those who don’t.
3. Inaccurate depreciation calculations
There really is no accounting for human error or creaking legacy systems. If the data is inputted incorrectly or the system is throwing out less than useful information, calculations will go awry and depreciation values will be way out.
4. The technical stuff!
The ability to link ‘parent/child’ assets (e.g. PC as parent, license and child) is key in order to establish hierarchical relationships and dependencies. Without a specialist fixed asset management system, it is hard to accommodate ‘parent/child’ asset relationships in this way, making it difficult to accurately track and manage these important hierarchical dependencies.
5. It’s a small world after all
For businesses operating across the globe, a specialist system will have multi-book capabilities to allow core asset information to be shared across any number of books with different sets of figures, enabling compliance with both local and group depreciation policies.
6. Reporting for duty
Composing reports and forecasts can be a complicated and daunting process for even the hardiest financial bod, especially without the right tools for the job! A specialist fixed asset management system will incorporate standard and customised reporting and forecasting templates to allow quick access too and extraction of data. Quite the blessing at a busy month end!
7. Lack of confidence in data integrity
How can you be 100% confident in the integrity of your data? A specialist system comes with strict security features in place to address issues of input errors and inaccuracies and automates the entire fixed asset management process. More time saved!
8. Let’s be clear
We’re all hearing that we need to ‘do more with less’, so when it comes to asset management, a central asset register accessible across multiple departments can provide information in a consistent and easy format. Communication and transparency = streamlined business processes.
9. Got it covered…?
We all complain about escalating insurance premiums, however, in reality, the majority of businesses are actually over insured, with less than 40% of assets on the register easily identified during a physical audit and an estimated 20% no longer in existence. Endemic failure to maintain accurate asset registers results in the majority of companies insuring assets they no longer own.
10. Software Licensing
Using a dedicated asset management system can save significant sums through reducing the over-purchase of software licenses and help organisations avoid the legal risks associated with under-purchasing.
Karen Conneely is Group Commercial Manager for Real Asset Management.