How Fixed Asset Acquisition Impacts Your Small Business

As a small business, every time you acquire a fixed asset, you’ve just made an important investment in your company’s future. Your cash flow might not be as secure or regular as many large businesses, which makes fixed assets one of the most vital parts of your business to keep up-to-date.

Fixed assets are things that will help you over a long period of time. They generally include things that are hard to liquidate, like property, equipment, and facilities. Items that help you produce goods and conduct your business are usually considered fixed assets.

What Happens When You Acquire a Fixed Asset?

Acquiring fixed assets can be a long process. First, you’ll have to go through all of the efforts of finding what your company needs. Maybe you already know what will be most helpful, or maybe you need to shop around. Sometimes research is necessary before you can make a purchasing decision.

But after your purchase, what then? Will you find a way to track everything that happens to your new acquisition, or will you simply hope for the best? Tracking inventory is a clear need, but many businesses don’t track what happens to their long-term holdings, like facilities and vehicles.

Because these are some of the biggest purchases you’ll make as a business, not tracking them can lead to a serious loss of profit.

When Will You Acquire Fixed Assets?

Does your company have a plan for when you’ll acquire fixed assets? Or do you simply plan to make the purchase when your old ones break?

When you leave purchases to the last minute, you often end up spending more money than necessary because you need the asset immediately. This leads to bad purchasing decisions with no guarantee that what you’ve bought is the best solution for your needs.

Having an asset acquisition plan in place helps you avoid buying in a crisis and making poor purchasing decisions. You’ll know exactly when to plan on phasing out old assets and will have plenty of time to prepare for the large expenditure as well.

What Is the Best Way to Track Your Fixed Assets?

While there are some similarities, tracking long-term assets doesn’t work in quite the same way as managing inventory or short-term assets. For one thing, you expect them to last longer than fluid assets. Longer lasting items call for different maintenance protocols.

Since you don’t typically check on fixed assets as often as company product, tracking tasks can often be forgotten. However, this is exactly what leads to needing emergency replacement or repairs. Find an asset tracking solution that has room for all your assets. The right tool will send you reminders for maintenance requirements and replacement dates. That way you can prepare before the day arrives.

Asset Panda has implemented several features with fixed asset tracking in mind. You shouldn’t have to track your different asset types in separate software programs. Providing asset photos with your records creates an easy way for you to spot wear and tear over time. Tracking repairs and maintenance schedules will help you stay on top of long-term asset care and prevent a premature need for replacement. And should you need to implement new technology, you can bulk reallocate your assets so your time isn’t spent on data transfers.

As a small business, time is money. Whatever amount of time you can save on your asset tracking situation is time you can spend bringing in new clients and boosting the success of your company.