The Cure For Zombie Assets

Published on November 1, 2021 • 3 min read

Zombie assets will lumber around your lots and buildings and infect your fixed asset register. These undead assets drain your finances, lose your business money and limit your productivity.

What's the cure? Effective fixed asset management software. With the ability to log, audit, and manage assets onsite and on the fly, you can blast zombie assets with your smartphone.

What Are Zombie Assets?

Similar to ghost assets, zombie assets are gaps in your fixed asset register. So, where ghost assets are assets that are on your asset register but that you don't have access to physically (they may have been decommissioned), zombie assets are the opposite.

Zombie assets, therefore, are assets that your business physically owns and uses but that aren't logged on your fixed asset register. This means that you can pick up and use these assets, but in accounting terms, they don't exist.

Spooky, right? Wait until you see the effects these zombies have.

How Do Zombie Assets Arise?

A short answer is spreadsheets. Spreadsheets aren't built for modern fixed asset tracking capabilities. They're old, archaic tombs that are breeding grounds for undead assets.

To elaborate, the long answer is that old fashioned, archaic and unwieldy processes and operations create zombie assets. For example, every time an asset moves from one location to another, if your fixed asset register is a spreadsheet, the entire spreadsheet is out of date until you change one cell.

Then, you'll know the number of cells that need to be added, removed, and changed and this can't necessarily be done on the fly. Therefore, when an asset is purchased, it's no wonder sometimes it doesn't make it onto a register.

Why Are Zombie Assets Such An Issue?

So, why do these undead assets pose such a threat to your business? There are a few different areas that are infected when your business has zombie assets.

First and foremost, there's the practical issue that your colleagues don't know they can use a tool or equipment. If this tool isn't tracked on a register, there's likely no clear way that it's indicated that the asset is available, which means you're paying for an asset that nobody is using. 

In other words, there's a reason why the asset hasn't made it onto the fixed asset register and this will likely span to other areas and limit visibility and accountability over assets on the whole.

Then, there are more pressing financial risks. If your asset is in use but isn't part of your depreciation calculations, you have no visibility over when you need to decommission this asset which can cause a more literal zombie of an asset eating into your finances.

Then, if you're using assets that you haven't logged in your tax returns, you can risk fines. These assets will also mess with your insurance premiums as you're sending out invalid information.

The Cure For A Zombie Outbreak: Fixed Asset Management Software

What's the cure? It's quite simple: effective asset tracking software. With fixed asset tracking software, you can add assets to your fixed asset register while performing onsite audits.

Instead of making a note of your new acquisitions and updating a spreadsheet, therefore, you can instead just add the asset whenever you need to.

It's simple, fixed asset tracking software gives you much greater control over your assets with a lot more ease of use, which means you prevent the undead from seeping into your fixed asset register.

Your business can be free of zombies in under 28 days. In fact, with itemit, you can be rid of zombies a few moments after you sign up. We can import your asset information for you, then you only need to do one audit to see what's onsite, what's missing and what's not there that should be.

We're not zombie-killing experts, unfortunately, although some of our team do have high-scores on resident evil - but we can help rid your business of zombie assets.

To find out more about how itemit can help your business save time and money, contact us today at team@itemit.com. You can also fill in the form below to start your very own 14-day free trial.