Asset tracking is a vital component of any asset management suction. Assets must be managed both financially and physically. To do that requires knowledge of just where your assets are, even the fixed ones. Many companies rely on a conventional spreadsheet approach to try to keep track of all their various assets, but that can prove problematic without the use of fixed asset software applicable and compliant with international regulations.
That’s particularly important with IT asset tracking. IT equipment can often change during its operational lifetime. Components are often switched, replaced or upgraded. Software is always being installed, uninstalled or upgraded. Many of these changes are internal and therefore invisible and cannot be tracked even with the use of an asset tracking system to control bar code-tagged assets. The usefulness and desirability of many IT systems can also contribute to their tendency to “disappear”.
Central to any asset tracking software system should be a powerful, centralised database which provides controlled access for all parties that require it, thus preventing discrepancies that may otherwise arise between departments. This system should also have the capacity to include information about all the invisible software assets sitting on your IT network – how many programs and whether they are licenced or not? A single audit should have the capacity to cover multiple locations and thousands of assets. It should also be fully compatible with inventory management systems, so that hand-held scanning devices typically employed to read barcode label can work with both accounting and tracking modules to provide an accurate, validated, and consistently current database. This will enable users to comply fully and confidently with auditor requirements relating to accurately accounting for and tracking their asset base.
The features of the best fixed asset accounting software should include the use of portable scanners or more durable PDAs to input information and update the status of items on-site and in real time, including data such as make, model or serial number. Assets and inventory items can then be easily flagged as transferred, disposed of or missing.
Once the audit data has been uploaded into the asset or inventory register, users are able to run a report displaying not only the details of, but also the suggested actions (disposable, relocation, upgrade etc) for every asset located in the audit. In doing so, users are alerted to any discrepancies in the asset’s status or location prior to updating them on the fixed asset/inventory register.
If any further analysis is required, the asset tracking software has the ability to produce a range of additional reports to provide a comprehensive account of all the changes that have been made to the registers. Reports can be sorted and sequenced as is appropriate to the individual organisation and can be viewed in a range of different mediums, including spreadsheets and MS Word documents.
