Implementing Precautions for Fixed/Physical Asset Management

What fixed asset an organization owns and how much it is worth- is mandatory information to fulfill compliance requirements in most parts of the world. It is absolutely necessary to manage fixed assets to make sure they are accurately insured, maintained regularly, their worth is gauged correctly and write-offs are done in the right manner. Any slip-up in these steps can lead to potentially punitive situations for an organization.

There are some common errors that organizations can avoid when dealing with fixed assets. One of the first things that companies need to stop doing is using outdated methods like spreadsheets of managing assets for asset management.

Spreadsheets can give inaccurate or old data that can give a distorted picture of the assets that are deployed and involves meticulous planning for flawless execution. Faulty data can lead to non-compliance or errors in calculating depreciation and insurance costs.

With spreadsheets, one can never know if any unauthorized changes were made to the data resulting in inaccurate and unreliable information leading to potential issues like paying more taxes due to wrong depreciation calculations or budgeting less for maintenance.

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Managing audit trails is another challenge faced by organizations using traditional methods of asset management. For geographically spread organizations keeping track of stolen or missing assets can be a costly issue.

How Asset Tracking Techniques Are Helpful in Physical Asset Tracking?

When you keep track of assets you always get accurate information. For this purpose, asset tracking techniques are used such as Barcode, QR Code (Quick Response code), RFID (Radio-frequency identification), NFC (Near field communication) IoT (Internet of Things) GPS (Global Positioning System), etc.

These asset tracking techniques come in the form of labels and tags which are attached to the asset and each tag contains a unique number through which tracking is done. For physical asset tracking these methods are very useful and effective.

What Are the Benefits of Physical Asset Tracking?

The benefits of physical asset tracking are discussed below:

1. Asset Theft Avoiding

One of the main reasons behind physical asset tracking is saving assets from theft. Asset theft is a big issue in all industries and it can directly impact the bottom line and productivity of the organization.

According to JW Surety Bonds,  “33% of all business bankruptcies in the US are a result of employee theft. This equals $50 billion annually.”

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2. Decreasing Misplacement

In huge warehouses, assets are kept and sometimes they are not found because one employee leaves the asset in a place but some other employee takes it and puts it at some other place.

As a result, employees spend a lot of time finding their equipment.

3. Improving Maintenance

When you do physical asset tracking, it helps in improving maintenance work. As the team can get actual about equipment such as when the asset was last maintained when it will need next maintenance and how the asset is performing.

End Note

But asset tracking management software like Asset Infinity provides easy solutions to these issues by bringing all the fixed assets of an organization online - in one place. The correct value of the fixed assets, maintenance schedules, and write-offs can be managed digitally without the fear of tampering.

The software can integrate into any existing system (mainly ERP's, Service CRM's) and it can easily be made compliant with the taxation laws governing different geographies.

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By eliminating the common mistakes made with respect to physical/fixed asset management, organizations have the opportunity to save millions in profits and avoid any punitive damages that can occur due to human error.