What Doesn’t Work When it Comes to Fixed Asset Solutions

Tracking fixed assets is considered to be a tedious and time-consuming job. One error or overlooked letter or number and you can completely throw an entire database off track. There are many options available when it comes to fixed asset solutions and ways to track, but how do you know what really works and what doesn’t?

Understanding what fixed assets are

First, let’s take a quick lesson on what exactly a “fixed asset” is. A fixed asset is defined as “a long-term tangible piece of property that a firm owns or uses in the production of its income and is not expected to be consumed or converted into cash sooner that at least one year’s time.”

That definition can cover a lot of territories. Fixed assets include, but are not limited to:

• Buildings
• Computer equipment
• Computer software
• Furniture and fixtures
• Land
• Machinery
• Vehicles

And just to clarify, a fixed asset does not have to be "fixed," in that it cannot be moved out of a location. Many fixed assets are shifted within a company's premises, or entirely out of the “home base” to other locations within a facility, in the same city or even across the globe.

Outdated fixed asset solutions

Before the introduction of fully integrated fixed asset tracking and management software platforms, companies relied on handwritten ledgers or shared electronic spreadsheets to track their assets. Besides being incredibly time-consuming for an employee/employees to write or type every bit of data down, there is a huge margin for errors. Sixty-five percent of fixed asset data is incomplete, inaccurate or altogether missing. Those can be door-closing issues for companies that don’t keep up with their assets.

With spreadsheets like Excel, tracking assets also include typos, omissions, missed keystrokes, etc. These spreadsheets are commonly used by multiple employees and many times they are un-knowingly duplicated so no one knows which version is the “master”.

Another issue with these fixed asset solutions is that they are not recorded in real time with the most up-to-date data. There is always someone waiting to enter data when the sheet becomes available and that missing information could be critical to another employee who is trying to make a major financial decision for future spending or even conduct an audit on what a company has.

And for companies that have a high turnover rate, chances are that the continuous accurate entry of data for fixed assets will be one of the first things that fall through the cracks as people rotate in and out the door.

What today’s fixed asset solutions tell you

Two key components that are missing from spreadsheets and ledgers are:

1. accountability
2. accuracy

The success of many companies relies on those two factors in order to succeed. By making your employees more accountable, they become more responsible with assets, how they use them, and ensuring they are well looked after and returned. This accountability translates to cost savings in a reduction of duplicate purchases for items that are thought to be lost.

Having access to that data in real-time can impact daily operations for the better. And employees benefit as well. They always know where assets are and guesswork becomes a thing of the past. No more searching for lost or misplaced assets. They know when an asset will be available so they can schedule his/her next project and workflow is not impeded.

The world of asset tracking has changed for the better. The software is faster, more reliable, flexible, customizable and comes with a myriad of all-inclusive features such as built-in barcode scanners, mobile apps, customized reporting, and the ability to track assets anytime, from anywhere. Regardless of the software program you purchase, your chosen fixed asset solution must be able to tell you

• Where your assets are located
• Who has the selected asset
• Maintenance history
• Check-in/check-out status

Consider the statistic that 30% of all organizations do not know what they own, where their assets are located or who is using them! You do not want to fall into any of those categories, and with all the fixed asset solutions available for you to choose from, that no longer should be the case.

Asset Panda is based on free mobile iOS and Android apps that sync with the cloud, which gives you the assurance that your data is always in real time, accessible 24/7. The app is completely customizable and you determine what data is displayed and how — from the custom dashboard, fields and columns to notifications, alerts, reports and security settings, among other features. In the palm of your hand (using a tablet or smartphone), you’ve got real-time access to the entire lifecycle of each of your fixed assets, including their condition, whereabouts, current value, complete maintenance history, warranty, insurance, and lease/purchase information, check-in/check-out status, even GPS coordinates.

With Asset Panda, users are quickly and easily able to:

• Integrate with legacy systems
• Seamlessly import data from existing spreadsheets
• Create customizable reports for relevant, contextual insights
• Reduce redundancy, loss and theft
• Improve budgeting, planning and financial preparation
• Increase tax and insurance accuracy
• Better determine appreciation/depreciation value
• Enhance disaster recovery
• Track ghost assets

Now is the perfect time to take a look at the fixed asset solutions you currently have in place and see if it’s time to find a new platform. And that platform is Asset Panda. Contact us today for a quote and a free 14-day trial.