It’s time to “Ditch the Spreadsheet” for a specialist fixed asset system

Jan 31 2018

The trusty spreadsheet has been helping organisations monitor a number of aspects within their businesses for many years. Whilst there is no doubting the usefulness of a spreadsheet, there are also a number of weaknesses and tasks that require a lot more than rows, columns and cells to manage.

There will always be a place for spreadsheets. They are perfect for basic organisational tasks such as keeping lists, performing calculations and they’re even good for drawing up graphs and tables. In the fixed asset accounting world, a spreadsheet barely covers minimum requirements and leaves a lot to be desired.

Here are five things spreadsheet-based fixed asset accounting systems do not offer:

  1. A full audit trail of all asset transactions

    With a specialist fixed asset accounting system, all transactions are held against individual asset records, allowing organisations to track changes. This improves the reliability of data with all changes being date, user and time stamped and completely traceable. Having an insufficient audit trail can lead to expensive assets being misplaced, as plenty of organisations have found.

  2. The ability to easily recalculate asset adjustments and revaluations

    Performing recalculations would be an arduous and time-consuming manual task using spreadsheets. Fixed asset software enables users to add revaluation, transfer, disposal and impairment events to asset records and update values and details held within the system.

  3. Reduced risk of human error

    Using a specialist fixed asset solution ensures that users have to meet system rules and that there are no manual calculations involved. This greatly reduces the risk of mistakes being made and gives organisations peace of mind when it comes to month-end and year-end reports.

  4. An integrated asset tracking app

    Many solutions will include an app for tracking the location, status and ownership of all equipment. Users can add issue and return events using their smart devices, ensuring that organisations are able to easily identify where assets are and who they are with.

  5. A comprehensive report suite

    Fixed asset accounting software should feature a number of in-built reports that allow users to easily produce information regarding their assets. Being able to quickly run reports using a system provides huge time savings as finance teams would usually have to collect and collate a lot of information manually.