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How To Get The Most Out Of Your Asset Register

While most businesses welcome digital advances, some still use outdated methods to manage their assets. And as you’re probably aware, keeping track of what comes in and out of your business can be an impossible task, resulting in inventory write-offs.

Whereas large companies have a lineup of accountants to assist with physical assets, smaller businesses often adopt a makeshift approach revolving around spreadsheets. Unfortunately, this increases the chance of asset and revenue loss.

But here at BlueTally, our free asset register service manages your assets via a highly integrated system of QR codes. So not only does it locate your assets in a few clicks, but it also creates reports and assigns assets to your employees.

Today, we’ll break down what an asset register is and the steps needed to set one up. Let’s get started.

What is an asset register?

For those that don’t know, an asset register is a comprehensive list of every asset and license your company owns. It contains detailed info about your asset’s location, condition, and ownership.

The central function of asset registers is to provide necessary data on each of your assets, including:

  • Date of acquisition
  • Price
  • Insurance coverage
  • Warranty
  • Current market worth

Even though maintaining a complete overview of your day-to-day activity seems daunting, specialized software such as BlueTally’s asset register identifies and tracks your asset’s history, taking the guesswork out of crucial financial information.

Asset Register - BlueTally - Simple and Free Asset Management Software

With an asset register, the data collected is predominantly used for accounting purposes. As your business grows, your audit trail grows with it. Keeping an accurate asset register means you can monitor the value of assets and track asset depreciation over its life cycle.

There are generally two types of assets - current assets and fixed assets. Current assets are short-term and deplete in less than a year, whereas fixed assets are long-term. Examples of fixed assets include property, vehicles, machinery, and land.

The difference between the two is that fixed assets experience depreciation, whereas current assets don't because of their short-term life cycle.

What are the benefits of managing an asset register?

It’s not an understatement to say your business will be badly affected without an asset register. Calculating accurate asset depreciation and tax reports goes a long way in understanding your asset management life cycle.

Asset registers ensure your financial data is transparent and up to date. This transparency guarantees you’re compliant with tax regulations and crystal-clear in your own financial standing.

Asset Register - BlueTally - Simple and Free Asset Management Software

But with 43 percent of small businesses failing to track assets and inventory effectively, nearly half aren’t experiencing the benefits of an asset register, instead favoring out-of-date manual methods. Or, in some cases, not tracking inventory at all.

Let’s take a look at some of the leading benefits a fixed asset register will bring to your business:

Streamline your operations

Software solutions such as BlueTally make it easy to collect all your asset info in one place. So the data you need is at your fingertips without the hassle of searching through physical spreadsheets.

Using asset tracking, you can streamline your maintenance operations as well. If some of your assets require maintenance, an asset register notifies employees and managers to get the ball rolling. Not only will this reduce asset downtime, but it ensures all of your assets are up and running.

You can also see which team member has checked out an asset and who is responsible for it, meaning there’s no need for hours of phone calls and emails tracking this information down.

Compliance

As we already know, asset registers provide accuracy and transparency. If your reports aren’t accurate, you could receive a penalty for rule violations. Imagine you’re using expired software (unbeknownst to you!). If it doesn’t follow current privacy and data protection laws, auditors can fine your company. Asset registers alert you of these expiration dates in advance, helping you to avoid any possible penalties.

BlueTally integrates your audits with asset management software and maintenance logs, so your audit trail upholds compliance. So if you’ve kept your asset data up to date, performing accurate audits becomes as simple as pie.

Depreciation

Depreciation represents how much of your asset’s value has been used over its lifecycle. This technique is used for tax and accounting purposes and allows your business to report actual asset expenses, not just purchase costs.

Without depreciation, you can overstate or understate your total asset expenses, which leads to misleading financial reports. Using the straight-line method, BlueTally calculates the depreciation of your fixed assets. And with our depreciation report, it’s easy to track assets for accounting purposes.

How to use an asset register

Fixed asset registers allow you to quickly recover information on your asset's purchase date, location, accumulated depreciation, and much more. Let’s look at a few best practices to optimize your asset register.

1. Identify your assets

To fully optimize your fixed asset register, it’s necessary that you collect and identify all assets and equipment. An asset register without accurate data won’t run as efficiently as it should, leaving your business open to mistakes down the road.

It’s best to check your business balance sheet to discover all of your assets. Make sure to include fixed assets such as buildings, equipment, and vehicles, plus intangible assets like patents and copyrights.

Additionally, this is an ideal opportunity to keep on top of your software updates.

2. Perform a physical audit

Now you need to account for all of the assets in the balance sheet. Either via a physical audit or a walk-around of your location, making sure to be meticulous in your findings.

You should include both listed and unlisted assets in an asset register. If you come across an asset that isn’t listed, be sure to add this as well. It might be absent due to its value being completely depreciated over time. But it’s still best to check.

3. Use the right tool

While some small businesses will be comfortable using a spreadsheet to record assets, most larger organizations choose to invest in a fixed asset register like BlueTally. Deploying asset management software such as BlueTally ensures you’re never in the dark.

Asset Register - BlueTally - Simple and Free Asset Management Software

From office equipment to company vehicles, BlueTally’s asset register schedules repairs and locates your assets so you always know where they are and if any updates are needed. With its 256-bit SSL encryption to customer permission levels, your business is in safe hands.

BlueTally gives each of your assets a unique QR and ID. Simply print out these codes using BlueTally and tag them on each asset. Now, they’re easy to track and update.

4. Create an account record for each of your assets

Each asset requires its own account consisting of vital information. As previously stated, the codes you have printed and attached to your assets utilize this info and make running your asset register a breeze. Each asset should include the following:

  • An asset ID
  • A description - including its location and information that will help distinguish it from other similar assets
  • Serial number
  • Cost
  • Date of purchase
  • Current user
  • Warranty and insurance information
  • Depreciation information

Once you have recorded this data, scan your asset QR code whenever you need to update its description or make necessary changes. Assigning the above data lays the foundation to manage your assets accurately.

5. Determine a relevant depreciation period

To ensure your fixed asset register is accurate, you must calculate the depreciation period of your asset. The depreciation period is subject to the projected life cycle of the asset. If you’re having trouble providing this information, contact the manufacturer.

BlueTally uses the accepted straight-line method to calculate the depreciation period. In this method, depreciation is calculated by dividing the net price and salvage value, by the number of useful years of life.

For instance, let’s say you purchased an asset for $5250 with a projected lifetime of 4 years and a salvage value of $250.

So calculating with the straight-line model will look like this: (5250-250) / 4 = 1250

That means the straight-line depreciation of your asset is $1250. This will be the expense that a company records yearly, until $250 is recorded as the asset’s value in the books.

6. Administer regular audits

Even though it can seem like a hindrance, running an audit each year will save you time and headaches. Administering regular checks assists you in spotting software updates and any lost/stolen assets you may not yet be aware of.

Wrapping up

If your business is jam-packed with assets, a fixed asset register can help. The ability to track and monitor your assets ensures you boast accurate and up-to-date information, so your financial records are top-notch.

Without asset register software like BlueTally, you’ll have your hands full delegating asset information, with some inevitably slipping through the cracks. If you would like to find out more about BlueTally’s asset register software, check out our live demo.