Member blog article from Real Asset Management.
Now sees the time of year where businesses within the commercial sector have completed their January year-end and have had annual visit from the auditors. It is in reviewing that auditor’s report, some businesses will identify criticisms or recommendations of processes that need to be reviewed.
With these recommendations front of mind at the moment, the time to act on them is now, as they can too soon fade into the background and fall down the ‘to-do’ list as the months pass.
So, spring is here…or at least around the corner, so what better time to spring clean and get systems and process in place for a clean bill of health in time for next year’s audit.
But if you’ve got the auditor’s report in hand and are asking yourself “now what?”, read on…
In the commercial sector, being able to account for assets, knowing what you have, where it is and, also, if it is being correctly maintained is often one of the sticking points flagged from an audit. The term ‘robust systems’ is often used by auditors to determine if the numbers are tamper-proof, if there is an audit trail of everything that’s happened in an asset’s life and the current state of assets within the company. Many companies just simply do not have the systems or procedures in place to be able to show this.
Furthermore, Sarbanes-Oxly is a consideration in the passage of data between systems and the security around that process. Being able to restrict access based on permission-levels, integrate data between finance systems in a tamper-proof manner, extract the required data from an audited accounting product so it can be extracted into the accounting system is key to proving systems and procedures are robust.
In using RAM’s Asset4000, commercial companies can move from just doing the basics to get through an audit, to present a true and accurate reflection of the company’s assets next time the auditors come to visit.
It might well be the thorn in your side and ‘getting through’ it may have been enough this year, however, by acting now and implementing an asset management solution you can ensure that when the auditors come knocking next year, your systems mean you pass with flying colours!
