THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO CREATING A SUCCESSFUL INVENTORY MANAGEMENT PROGRAM

A successful inventory management program is essential to keep your company’s fixed assets in order. It is also beneficial when it comes to annual inventory audits. Because we know inventory audits can be laborious, we have created a guide to help you lessen your load. Below, we have listed three important tips that can help you keep your inventory in check.

TIP #1: KEEP DATA CLEAN THROUGHOUT THE YEAR

Accurate asset data is the first step to lessen your load come time for your inventory audit. One of the best ways to do so is to ensure your data is clean all year round. This means that no matter how many hands are in the pot, your company is making a large effort to stay abreast asset changes, such as location, user and condition of the asset.

You should also ask yourself how frequently you are updating your asset records. If the answer to this question does not implicate that changes are being made every time an asset’s locations changes then you have a problem. To eliminate ghost assets and incomplete records, asset data should be updated each time an asset changes.

By maintaining asset data throughout the year you are more likely to have reports you can rely on come annual audit time.

TIP #2: KEEP TRACK OF YOUR ASSETS

Clean asset data has many benefits, including the ability to keep a close eye on all your assets and their data. With accurate data, your company will be able to pull reports that are helpful in keeping you audit ready. Running asset reports periodically throughout the year allows your company to track all asset details and helps pinpoint pertinent asset-related data. This in turn reduces wasted time on unwelcome surprises.

Some asset reports that may be helpful to pull periodically include:

• Asset transfer history
• Asset change history
• Asset disposal history
• Status history
• Monthly Disposal

TIP #3: CREATE A FIXED ASSET POLICY

A successful asset management program requires structure. Structure can be built by implementing a Fixed Asset Policy that indicates individual responsibilities. The Fixed Asset Policy should include a detailed outline of company objectives, definitions and responsibilities. This should also include a procedure for the recording and tracking of your company’s assets on an on-going basis.

Some important elements to include in your policy include:

• Clear instruction on individual or department responsibilities
• Capitalization thresholds
• Required procedures for recording asset disposal
• Data elements for each asset