Businesses of any size are required to manage a variety of assets. From IT equipment to buildings, fleet vehicles and operational equipment. The old ways of using paper forms and spreadsheets to manage these assets cannot compare to the efficiencies of managing assets, tools and equipment via asset register software.
With eight miner deaths in the past 20 months, the QLD government is “getting tough” with hefty fines on businesses who fail to protect their workers.
The Age – Eighth miner death in two years
Keeping your workers safe, improving productivity and reducing injury is paramount for any business. But with the government “getting tough” on businesses who fail to protect their workers, it is crucial to keep an accurate asset register to avoid not only unnecessary spending but to ensure regulatory compliance to keep workers safe.
Asset registers are extremely important to the functioning of any business. However, asset registers that include maintenance management provide the optimal source of control for assets, their maintenance and incident management.
Preventative maintenance management
Asset register software controls all of the little details that are so difficult to manage manually. Businesses controlling their financial details appreciate the functionality of depreciation and purchasing. Bundle with an asset register, and you have a single source of truth that puts the control in your hands.
Asset register software advantages over spreadsheets
There are many reasons businesses and accountants around the world use (fixed) asset register software. Below we take a look at the top eight.
1.Management of assets and maintenance events take less time when everything is organised using asset register software. The financial investment in the software is worth the many hours that are saved over manually managing every fine detail using spreadsheets.
2. Managing the asset register is much easier when you have some guidance from well-developed software. Comprehensive software ensures you keep all your important asset details in mind so you never miss a thing. Leverage user-defined fields and customizable options when implementing a new asset register solution to ensure your organization is equipped to capture all necessary asset data.
3. Missing work orders and maintenance events are a thing of the past! Tracking asset condition and maintenance with easy to use mobile apps can help you gain an accurate picture of your assets and a better budget for their replacement.
4. Modern asset register software is far more efficient and easier to keep up-to-date and accurate than systems of the past. A web-based solution or a cloud-hosted solution allows multiple users to access and update in real-time. No more multiple, messy spreadsheets. Regardless of the size of your business and the number of items in your organisation, you can save money with an asset register.
5. Instantly produce reports that meet the needs of management. With a robust reporting tool, there is no need to spend time manipulating spreadsheet data.
6. Assigning owners to assets allows you to pinpoint exactly who to go to when there are questions during the inventory or auditing process.
7. Uploading documents such as purchase orders, insurance policies, user guides, and images into your asset register keeps all the necessary information in one place.
8. Change requests and transfer of assets with e-mail notifications! Incorporate your own business rules and enforce compliance, increase efficiency and eliminate errors and delays when it comes to transferring assets and change requests. A complete, auditable history that can prove valuable during an audit.
Why you can’t use spreadsheets
While there is nothing erroneous about using spreadsheets, as your business grows and tasks become more complicated, the humble spreadsheet will not suffice. Mistakes in spreadsheets are hard to investigate and create expensive errors in the future.
Using spreadsheets to manage large amounts of data is plagued with inaccurate data and is infamously slow. Adopting an asset register solution increases asset life, tracks maintenance costs, prevents and predicts asset failures, improves productivity, reduces costly downtime, ensures compliance, and lowers the total cost of maintaining these assets.
As your business becomes more successful, a large number of spreadsheets will not only hamper your growth but will affect how successful your business can be. Your business is losing money when data is entered into multiple spreadsheets and/or software programs.
Paying to do a job already done is not only a waste of time and resources, but it’s also a waste of money!
Strategies for staying cost-competitive
Multiple spreadsheets and duplication of data (between files or software products) are the two common reasons why businesses move away from spreadsheets, into a ‘single source of truth‘ asset register.
Hardcat solutions help control your asset base
Hardcat’s software supports small businesses through our HardcatLite solution that caters for under 3,000 items. While our enterprise solutions cater to large businesses and global enterprises.
The Hardcat asset register software allows any asset from office/IT equipment and vehicles to plant equipment and machinery, to be managed and better utilised throughout the lifecycle and eventual ethical disposal.
Hardcat solutions give users the ability to quickly locate and redeploy existing assets to where they are needed most. As a result, companies can reduce the purchase of unnecessary assets, cut asset downtime and boost productivity.
Hardcat asset register access – restrict or permit
Have you ever needed information right away on a work order or problem? What about the geographical location of a critical piece of equipment or the location of spare parts within a facility?
HardcatWeb (accessible via a web-enabled device) is designed to help organisations competently track and maintain the property they own. The maintenance work orders app Hardcat MiCatX keeps your service crews “out-in-the-field” and a HardcatCloud deployment provides significant savings in terms of licensing infrastructure costs, and staff time.
With the release of domain control (administrators can define ‘domains’ of data to restrict or permit user access to information) for user roles, geo-mapping, issue and return and self-audit, many organisations are now expanding their asset management by rolling out web-based systems across their locations.
Increase efficiency; automated tracking and CCTV
Collecting data on asset location movement can be automated via a fixed gateway or doorway reader(s), or recorded via handheld or handsfree readers. The Hardcat pre-programmed interrogation system enables the system user to collate data in an organized format.
Read more: Hardcat RFID Sentinel – asset tracking with fixed readers
RFID security for people and assets
The deployment and use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology are growing rapidly across all types of industries. RFID asset management applies RFID technology not only in traditional applications such as asset or inventory tracking but also in security services such as manned and/or unmanned high-security locations. Tracking people and assets that move through locations alerting security when unauthorised activity occurs.
Read more: RFID security for people and assets
Asset register with preventative maintenance
You can save countless hours of manual reporting! An asset register with maintenance and incident capabilities will provide you with all your maintenance information quickly and easily. While performing MiCatX inspections on a mobile device, such as a tablet or phone, synchronize the inspection data back to the office. You can record detailed accounts, take photos and be able to perform preventative maintenance scheduling “in-the-field”.
Read more: Maintenance management
Taking control of assets is more than just asset tracking
Asset management improves the efficiency and financial strength of your business. Maintaining assets as economically as possible. Taking control of maintenance schedules and reducing unnecessary repairs, maintenance, purchases and upgrades. This maximises the value of the assets, providing the best returns to stakeholders.
Managed effectively, the benefits include improvements to worker safety, productivity and efficiency. Which places a company in a better position to increase its return on investment.
Hardcat solutions take control of all your assets and assists in growing your business.
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