Any business, regardless of type or size, needs an asset management system to thrive. Tracking all of your business assets—from computers and servers to machinery and vehicles—will help you save money, increase workplace efficiency, provide better customer experience, and scale your business more easily. Without a good tracking and management system in place, things can get messy as your business grows. Here’s what you need to know about small business asset management and how to set up your own foolproof system.

Develop an Asset Tagging Process

Tagging your assets with labels or barcodes is an essential first step in the asset management process. These labels make it easier to monitor the location, maintenance schedules, and costs of your assets, which will help you conduct audits, prevent theft, avoid costly downtime, and locate missing assets. It’s a good idea to come up with a specific process for tagging assets as you acquire them. Start the tagging process by identifying the asset type and giving it a unique identification number so it can be distinguished from other assets of the same type. Then, enter all of the relevant data into your asset management system. Besides the identification number, this data may include the asset’s value, maintenance requirements, and the date you acquired it.

Use Asset Management Software

The best way to meet your asset management needs is to use reliable asset management software. According to Kissflow, managing your assets with a manual spreadsheet comes with a massive administrative burden and is prone to human error. On the other hand, asset management software allows you to add, update, and remove assets from your records in seconds. Many software systems also provide detailed reports so you can review the overall cost or depreciation of your assets easily. Choose a software solution that will work best for your particular business needs. When looking at your options, consider the software’s user-friendliness, scalability, pricing, mobile device compatibility, and extra features like maintenance alerts and reordering reminders.

Take Inventory

Before you get started on an asset management system, you must create a database of all your existing assets. Determine the type and quantity of your assets, affix a label to each, and enter it into your system. Starting with a record of your business assets is a must! Otherwise, all of the valuable things you can learn from your asset management system—maintenance reports, inventory costs, and supply counts, for example—will be inaccurate. This process will also help you identify and eliminate ghost assets that are hurting your bottom line.

Automate Reordering

The best asset management systems will allow you to automate many of your time-consuming business tasks. For example, automatic reordering of supplies and inventory can save you time while preventing problems with over- or understocking. This is important since supply and product shortages can cost you sales, hurt your reputation with customers, and cause frustration among your employees. On the other hand, IOU Financial reports that overstocking can also hurt your income due to deteriorating merchandise, unbalanced spending, and increased storage expenses. Find software that allows you to set minimum thresholds for assets that need regular refreshing to prevent these issues.

Use Asset Management for Maintenance and Compliance

Your asset management system can help you save even more money by ensuring you inspect and maintain expensive equipment before it breaks. As you know, malfunctions can cause work delays and costly downtime. Scheduling maintenance routines into your asset management system will help you stay on top of the maintenance needs of each asset. You can even assign maintenance tasks to particular employees. Along these same lines, asset tracking will help you maintain your compliance with laws and regulations by allowing you to generate accurate, up-to-date reports quickly.

A solid asset management system is essential for accurate asset tracking in your company.

While it may sound a little complex, asset management is surprisingly simple to implement, especially when you get started while your business is still on the smaller side. Prepare your growing business for tomorrow by coming up with an asset management plan today.

IKTAR consultants can bring your business improved proficiency and greater performance by designing and delivering profit-oriented business solutions! Schedule an appointment today!