Keeping track of hundreds and thousands of assets is not a mere plug and play process because organizations have a whole host of equipment and other assets that require proper identification and tracking. Asset tracking sorts out numerous business challenges paving way for a framework that lets companies boost their bottom line. It does that by making the best use of existing resources eventually becoming more efficient.
You can get the most out of your asset tracking solution and make asset management simpler through the valuable tips and tidbits that we have enlisted. These asset tracking tips will walk you through tactics and strategies that enable seamless implementation.
1. Streamline tracking of asset depreciation
Upgrading or replacement costs, repairs, usage or shelf life – all adversely affect asset management. As all of these are considerably happen frequently in your business, begin using asset tracking software to manage the planning and tracking of each of these events. Inventory that is past its useful life or shelf life should be retired and written off your books. When you don’t do this, it results in paying increased amounts of taxes and insurance.
Incorporating equipment, machines and tools into your maintenance and repair schedules of your software will increase their lifespan, reduce abrupt failures and cost of emergency repairs.
As long as the purchasing information is accurate, asset tracking solution will also make an accurate calculation of depreciation. Even minor mistakes in asset depreciation can be costly to the pockets of business budgets. In addition to this, when you fail to depreciate assets appropriately, it can result in a violation of regulatory compliance.
2. Differentiate between asset and inventory
If you want to attain a better understanding of inventory management needs of your company, you need to go beyond asset tracking. You need to be able to differentiate between asset tracking and inventory management – assign financial valuation that both data types need and be able to understand how those values have an impact on the overall corporate structure. You probably know that asset management and inventory tracking have tremendous positive effects on your business but you also need to know that inventory is what you sell while the asset is what your company owns.
Asset tracking is being aware of the items of value that a company makes use of, knows who has them and where they are. There are certain things that fall under the umbrella of asset tracking. That may include monitoring the warranty contracts, maintenance, and depreciation – tracking items being lent out and managing the location of internal resources required for seamless operation. On the flip side, inventory tracking involves monitoring inventory reorder levels, tracking of shipment, and managing products that are consumed, distributed or sold. With asset tracking solution, you can perform both inventory and asset management processes to assist you in the overall growth of your business.
3. Determine responsibility for the assets
Determining who is responsible for what asset may not be an ordinarily easy task since asset use and management is spread among different staff members. It is not easy to figure out which transport manager, technician, driver or teacher is responsible for which different aspect of your operation. Ideally, organizations track all their assets but normally it is very costly to assign ownership and track each and every asset that sits in your company. As a result, companies usually track assets that are of more importance than others. This importance can be determined based on factors like compliance requirements on the asset, critical point, value, cost, and sensitivity. Such important assets should have an owner assigned to them in order to protect it.
With asset tracking solution, you will always know who is responsible for your valuable assets.
Asset tracking solution allows you to assign assets to different employees using a user-friendly dashboard. It also prevents overbooking and double booking of assets keeping operations free of unwanted disruptions. Asset tracking software comes with an easy-to-use check-in and checkout feature that enforces accountability among your workers along with reducing the time spent in receiving and passing out assets. In case an asset gets damaged, you will also know who last had it as the asset tracking solution maintain a history of asset usage.
4. Embrace mobility
Assets can range from pipelines and poles to moving parts and vehicles. With the mobile app that asset tracking solution comes with, your workforce can integrate asset tracking and inventory management into monitoring daily tasks resulting in an improved overall operational efficiency. Whether you happen to be an event management organization or a construction company, there is an increase in workforce mobility and workers travel to different places. A lot of your workers will be left at your office.
All your workers have smartphones and you can put their smartphones to good use with asset tracking mobile app.
With asset tracking mobile app, you can remain in control no matter where you are. You can easily update your employees about the availability of items or arrival of assets on a certain location. Just assign barcodes to all your items in your inventory and every time the asset is used by the employees off premise, they will be able to update information through their mobile app using smartphones.
5. Assign a unique reference to every asset
Everything can get really messy if you assign same number or references to your assets. All your assets should have unique tracking numbers. When you are using the serial number as the tracking number, duplicate numbers can trigger a lot of confusion as you can’t differentiate between the two assets. This can damage data integrity and result in inaccurate customer balances, leading to unsatisfied customers. You can cancel out such issues by using a unique tracking number for each of your assets. Just in case you lose a tracking number which is a rare happening, the asset can easily be found using its serial number and given a new label which helps to retain the asset’s history.
Tracking multiple quantities of identical assets can be tough and confusing. Yes, you can give each item a unique asset tag and history but that’s not only tiresome but also time-consuming, particularly, if it is an office with few hundred keyboards or maybe a school that owns thousands of textbooks. Asset tracking software makes the tracking process easier by allowing you to manage such multi-quantity items under one ID or asset number.
Interested in knowing more about our asset tracking software?
EZOfficeInventory is a leading asset tracking software used by countless business around the world. Improve asset utilization, increase productivity, save costs and much more by implementing asset tracking software.
For more assistance, drop us an email at support@ezo.io.
