If you’re new to the idea of asset tracking, you might also not be familiar with the term ‘asset register.’ An asset register, or a fixed asset register, is a complete and detailed list of all assets a company owns. Its purpose is to enlist all items or assets with all their relevant details in one place.
An asset register records important information like asset ID, location, owner, and condition. It also records financial data like the cost of purchase, date of purchase, current valuation, depreciation details and more.
Maintaining an asset register holds countless benefits for a business. But the way a business maintains its asset register determines how much time and effort goes into keeping it accurate and up to date. Asset management, ideally, should take minimum input, i.e, time and resources, while delivering maximum output, i.e, productivity.
In this blog post, we will discuss how different businesses maintain their asset registers. You’ll get to review different asset management methods in detail so you can decide which one is the best for you and your business.
Conventional Ways to Maintain an Asset Register
Pen and Paper
The pen and paper method is the most rudimentary option for asset tracking. It’s just one step better than trying to remember all your business assets in your mind. It involves keeping a physical ledger where you can record asset details.
As compared to other asset tracking methods, it might seem like the simplest one but there are various drawbacks to using pen and paper to maintain an asset register. For one, you have extremely limited space. You cannot keep comprehensive asset profiles that cover all essential details about an asset.
Secondly, this method is prone to a lot of human errors, and there’s no way to correct an error except to form a new entry altogether. Handwritten text and numbers are more likely to be miswritten or misread, and it’s hard to spot a mistake. If you do spot a mistake, you cannot just remove the entry and re-enter it correctly. You’d have to strike it through and write in what limited space you have left.
In terms of time and resources, the pen and paper method takes outrageous amounts of time and can sometimes eat whole workdays up. This asset tracking method is strictly not recommended if your business owns more than 10 assets.
Spreadsheets
Just like asset tracking with pen and paper is better than trying to remember asset details in your head, using spreadsheets is one step better than using the former. It’s a paperless option and takes away some of the drawbacks of using pen and paper.
For example, it gives you more space. Each asset is usually allocated a row, and you can have as many rows as you like to record as many asset details. But still, things can get really messy. Working with giant spreadsheets can often become overwhelming and boring.
Spreadsheets also do not have any advanced asset tracking features that are needed for robust asset management in the modern business world. There is also a very limited opportunity for multiple employees to collaborate on spreadsheets.
While this method is a lot better than using pen and paper, it’s not nearly enough to keep up with a fast-paced work environment. This brings us to asset management software.
