Reftab Blog

As businesses and schools move their staff to remote work environments, it’s easier than ever to lose track of company equipment. Companies lose thousands or even millions of dollars each year with improper asset tracking. Many companies do not even know where to start or the fixed assets they own, opening them up to losses and liability.

This blog post will explain the types of assets you absolutely should be tracking and hopefully get you thinking about ways to implement a well planned asset tracking system for your company.

Fixed assets have a specific meaning when it comes to accounting. They are physical entities such as buildings, equipment, furniture, and other property. To be considered a fixed asset, the purchased items must be expected to be used for longer than a year. Additionally, the items must be directly involved in the operation of your company.

What Are Examples of Fixed Assets?

Buildings: All of your facilities
Computer Equipment: Your computers, servers, laptops, tablets
IT Software: Any software that you purchase outright, not leased or paid as a service
Furniture: Your tables, chairs, filing cabinets, etc.
Property: The cost to purchase land and any land improvements
Machinery: Machines used for production
Equipment: Can include office equipment or field equipment
Vehicles: Your company cars, trucks, bicycles, and other motor vehicles

Some of these items, like buildings and property, will never move, but it is important to keep track of their purchase costs and depreciation for audit and tax liability purposes.

Other items are distributed to employees and may not be in a fixed location, like laptops and vehicles. When you track these items, it allows you to ensure accountability for the items as well as for purchase and tax purposes.

Start by writing down the assets your company or school has and pull in other department heads to help complete a thorough list.

What Aspects of Fixed Assets Should I be Tracking?

Once you have your list of the types of fixed assets to track. The most important thing to remember is that your data needs to be kept up-to-date on not only where an item is and who has custody over that item, but if / when items need to be maintained via a maintenance schedule.

The world is changing fast, asset tracking has never been more vital.

Here is a good starting point of what to track on each fixed asset:

1. Vendor (This is the company you purchase assets from)
2. Purchase Cost (this is needed if you’re tracking asset depreciation)
3. Serial Number (important for warranty information)
4. Warranty Expiration Date
5. Location of the asset
6. Who has custody over the asset

Asset Maintenance

If your company has equipment that needs maintenance every so often, such as a safety inspection or calibration. You’ll want to document this too. Reftab has a dedicated maintenance module designed specifically for asset maintenance.

Asset Depreciation

If your company needs to track the depreciation of assets for accounting purposes, Reftab has a dedicated depreciation module designed specifically to track asset depreciation.

What Are Not Examples Fixed Assets?

Anything that your company purchases with the intent to sell is not a fixed asset. This includes stock and inventory.

For example, if you’re in the retail clothing business, the clothes that you sell online or in store are not fixed assets. That clothing is your inventory and should be tracked in a designated inventory platform such as QuickBooks.

What are Consumables?

Consumables are a form of assets, however, they are items that are used and not returned into operating stock. The reason to track a consumable is to keep informed of a running total of available quantity.

For example, screws, printer ink, t-shirts that you give to employees, construction vests and so forth. These are items that get used up and once they are used, are either thrown away or not able to be used again. A system that keeps you informed of how many you have at any given time is ideal so you don’t needlessly purchase equipment. Reftab has a dedicated consumable tracking feature.

Conclusion

Asset tracking is something every business needs to do. It’s important to have a reliable way of knowing how much equipment you have, where it is and be able to easily manage maintenance and depreciation.

Your organization should be tracking the assets that help your business operate and grow. Fixed assets are equipment that helps your business make money, they should be well maintained and accounted for.

In short, keeping an up-to-date asset register will save you and your company time and expense. You should be focusing on running your business instead of the hassle of working with broken equipment or needlessly ordering duplicate equipment which wastes money and resources.

Is your company doing asset tracking?
Reftab is free for your first 50 assets. Start tracking assets today!

Asset tracking software can save an immense amount of time and reduce frustration in running a business. If you’re constantly finding yourself or your team wasting time looking for lost items or dealing with broken equipment, you should seriously consider asset tracking and management software.

Decrease the Cost of Maintenance

You can substantially reduce maintenance costs with proactive asset tracking. When you know when your last service on an asset was, you can pre-emptively schedule maintenance before any of your equipment breaks. Getting ahead of asset maintenance is important to improve uptime and reliability.

No More Asset Theft

Without proper asset tracking, it’s never definitely known who has an asset. This is how your company’s assets can walk off. But with asset tracking, you always know who has what assets and can easily identify where assets should be.

Accurate Information About Assets

Knowledge is power! And asset tracking gives you knowledge about all of your company’s assets. With real-time information about the assets your company owns, you can make more informed and better decisions about procurement and usage. Include commonly sought information about your assets like documentation, expiration dates, service dates, ownership and cost all at your fingertips.

Save Money

When you know what items your company has, you can make better purchasing decisions and reduce waste. When you have an accurate maintenance schedule, it reduces overhead and excess expenses, ensuring you use your assets to their fullest extend.

Increase Asset Utilization & Efficiency

Get the most out of your assets with accurate scheduling and reduced wait times. Asset tracking enables you to understand how your company uses assets and which are under utilized. With this information, you can be optimize your scheduling of their usage and improve employee satisfaction by eliminating the need to wait for assets when you don’t have a good scheduling system.

Make Audits Easier

Asset tracking helps you with audits of your company’s assets and assists you in avoiding discrepancies in taxes and maintenance fees. When you’re able to easily audit your assets accurately, you reduce you compliance risk and reduce your tax liability.

Improve Customer Service

When you reduce the downtime of your assets, you can be ready for anything your customers throw at you. Whether you loan your assets directly to your customers or to your employees, asset tracking is essential to providing timely and efficient support.

Save Time

Well done asset tracking limits the amount of time your employees wait for broken or lost equipment and optimizes their time doing the work that matters. With premade reports available in asset tracking tools, asset audits can be done in seconds instead of hours. Pre-emptively scheduling maintenance minimizes your company’s downtime.

Start Tracking Assets today with Reftab. Track up to 50 assets for free.