A fixed asset register is essential for effective management and accurate reporting. Find out what these registers are and how to build one that works.
Whether your business has a small but growing number of physical assets in one location or a large number across multiple sites and departments, managing them effectively isn’t possible without a fixed asset register that works. Without a comprehensive, structured record of your assets, your organisation is at risk of financial inaccuracies that could lead to audits, asset loss through theft or misplacement, and compliance issues.
However, with a reliable register, all your business assets and their lifecycles are reflected in a single, organised database. Take a closer look at fixed asset registers, what they should contain, and how to build one that remains useful and accurate and grows with your business.
Fixed Asset Registers Explained
Before explaining the building of one, we need to answer the question of what is a fixed asset register?
Simply put, a fixed asset register is a centralised database of all the various assets a business owns. These include tangible and intangible assets, such as IT equipment, machinery, office furniture, property, software licenses, and vehicles. These registers are vital for effective asset management, accurate financial reporting, and summarising accounting and depreciation expenses.
FMIS’ asset tracking software allows you to create a comprehensive fixed asset register that includes various details about your organisation’s assets. Among these details are:
- What the asset is
- Its current location
- The date it was purchased
- The purchase price
- The asset’s depreciated value after a specific point in time
With an up-to-date register, you can track all your organisation’s fixed assets from acquisition through to disposal
The Core Components of a Fixed Asset Register
An effective fixed asset register has several key components. These include asset identification, financial information, and operational details:
- Asset Identification: The register should include all the information you need to identify individual assets, including a name and/or description, a unique asset code or ID, and serial numbers or a barcode number.
- Financial Information: Include asset acquisition dates and purchase costs, capitalisation dates, the depreciation method and schedule, and the residual or current value.
- Operational Details: Your fixed asset register should also include asset location, the users or departments to which assets have been assigned, and the asset’s status and lifecycle history.
With these key components in place, your register provides a complete picture of each asset. FMIS’ asset tracking software’s register is designed with these components in mind, allowing you to record and track all events over an asset’s lifecycle, including check-in/check-out, maintenance, and user assignments. It also allows you to view any asset’s history, location, and status across multiple sites, companies, and countries.
Fixed Asset Registers, Compliance, and Reporting
Fixed asset registers have an important role to play when it comes to your organisation’s financial governance. For starters, the record of asset value and depreciation in your register enables your finance team to generate accurate financial statements and comply with IFRS, UK GAAP, and other accounting principles or frameworks.
Your fixed asset register also provides a verifiable audit trail, which is invaluable if your organisation is audited or inspected by regulators. Lastly, up-to-date information in the register allows you to make informed decisions regarding budgeting and capital planning.
FMIS’ asset tracking software supports compliance and reporting with real-time automated updates and by allowing you to generate reports for finance, management, or operations users to any level of detail.
How to Build a Fixed Asset Register that Works
Follow these steps to build a fixed asset register that works:
- Step 1: Conduct a full asset audit across all departments and sites to identify all fixed assets.
- Step 2: Standardise asset information by defining the required data fields and implementing consistent asset codes and naming conventions.
- Step 3: Enable fast, accurate physical audits by using barcodes to assign unique identifiers to your fixed assets.
- Step 4: Record financial data for each asset, including purchase information, expected lifespan, and depreciation method.
- Step 5: Define and implement asset addition, maintenance, relocation, and disposal processes.
- Step 6: Schedule regular audits to ensure your fixed asset register stays up to date.
FMIS’ asset tracking software offers user-defined dashboards and enables real-time updates to the register via a handheld scanner you can use to scan asset barcodes for faster audits. Additionally, you can attach invoices, purchase orders, photos, and other files to the register, and you can track asset movements and locations across any number of sites or companies.
Why Spreadsheet-Only Asset Registers Fall Short
Rather than embracing asset tracking software, some organisations in the UK continue to rely on manual spreadsheet-only registers, and they do this to their detriment. Spreadsheets might be sufficient for very small inventories, but they soon create more problems than they solve as organisations grow.
Apart from the huge administrative burden, this approach is prone to human error, data gaps, and outdated information, increasing the risk of financial inaccuracies and audits. It also makes tracking assets across different locations difficult. FMIS’ asset tracking software is the solution for businesses looking for a smarter alternative to spreadsheets.
Choose a Reliable Fixed Asset Register
If your business has fixed assets (which it does), it needs a reliable fixed asset register. Take the burden out of tracking assets and their lifecycles with FMIS to gain full control over asset tracking and reporting.
