It doesn’t matter what type of assets you have, whether they’re intangible or tangible, managing them can be overwhelming, especially if you’re going to maintain an extensive collection of assets.
While it’s true that you’ll face various challenges in managing your assets in Australia, it’s still possible to make the process simpler and more comfortable.
You have to come up with an asset management plan which will serve as a roadmap for you and your organization to better understand your objectives. An asset management plan will also help you come up with a long-term strategy for managing your assets. Whether you’re planning to hire professional services for asset management in Australia or do it yourself, it’s essential to understand the strategic ways to manage the existing assets of your business.
This post has put together ways to simplify your asset management, thus optimizing the efficiency of your business. Read on below to learn more.
1. Know What You Have By Conducting An Asset Inventory
The first step to managing your assets is by conducting a full asset inventory. Of course, proper asset management is impossible if you don’t know what you have. Asset inventory is essential before you can create an asset management plan that works for you and suits your requirements.
Included in your inventory are the assets you have, the location of the assets, their corresponding values, when did you buy or build them, and their expected life cycles.
Here are other things you can do as part of asset inventory:
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Determine The Value Of Your Assets
So, you already have a list of your assets, what’s next? It’s time to assign a value to them.
Keep in mind that assets depreciate, so when determining their value, you won’t only look at the amount you paid for them initially. What you have to do instead is to look for a product that’s similar to your asset. A product that you think is about the same age as what you have. Once you found a similar product, check its sale value to get an idea of what the current worth of your asset is. While doing this isn’t an exact science, it helps and will be useful to you moving forward.
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What’s The Life Cycle Of Each Of Your Assets?
You also have to understand the life cycle of your assets, from the time you bought them to their disposal. Come up with a forecast or estimate of how long each asset will stay useful to you. Having an idea about the life cycle of your assets will help you determine when’s the perfect time to conduct asset maintenance.
Additionally, knowing the life cycle of your assets would help you make wise purchase decisions. An excellent example is opting to buy a more durable computer that would last longer compared to the one you currently have.
If you want to prevent yourself or your business from suffering financial losses, you have to keep track of your assets routinely. Tracking your assets would avoid unnecessary taxes, purchases, maintenance, and insurance. Without regular asset tracking, you’ll end up paying fees for depreciated assets or things that are not useful to you anymore. Therefore, you must compare the actual amounts of your assets against what you have recorded in your books.
You can effectively track your assets with the help of a software. If you’re still using manual systems for tracking, then you’re not doing it efficiently. Using software will save you energy, money, and time in the long run. Of course, tracking software is also more reliable and more accurate than manual systems as it removes human error in the scene.
3. Check and Understand Asset Depreciation
Knowing the depreciation of your assets allows you to find out which are not useful to you anymore. Understanding asset depreciation also helps in improving the efficiency of your employees by replacing outdated items that they’re still using in day-to-day operations. By doing this, you’ll figure which items have to be sold and when’s the best time to purchase new stocks.
After tracking the depreciation of assets, you can have the option to sell some of them. If you decide to sell, make sure you’re doing it right. Common reasons why selling some of your assets makes sense include liquidating your business or replacing old items with new ones.
Before you sell, determine the worth of each of your assets so that you can come up with a reasonable price tag. If you’re unsure how much to charge, you can always ask help from a professional to do the appraisal for you.
4. Protect Your Assets By Insuring Them
The reason why this post encourages asset tracking and value determination is protection. Up-to-date valuation of your assets is essential in your efforts to protect and insure them.
It doesn’t matter whether it’s your van you want to insure, or it’s the office space of your business, protecting your assets goes a long way in minimizing risks. Maintain the overall safety and health of your business by safeguarding your assets.
5. Outsource The Asset Management Process To A Reliable Person Or Team
It’s normal for some people to think that asset management is too much for them. They have a lot of responsibilities aside from looking into their assets and would prefer someone to do the hard work for them. Fortunately, there are now asset management services in Australia, having profound expertise to manage your assets effectively. If you don’t have the time to create an asset management plan yourself but would still like to have your assets in safe and right hands, outsourcing the work to the experts is never a bad idea.
Most asset management services in Australia also use automated solutions to optimize the entire process. Automated solutions can perform asset maintenance, value and depreciation tracking, cost analysis, contract management, report generation, and many more.
Conclusion
Effective asset management allows you to make sound decisions based on the value of your assets. Asset management is also a way to monitor the effects of your assets to the day-to-day running of your business or investments. So, whether you want to do the management of your assets yourself or you’re planning to determine someone to be responsible for your assets, consider the ways mentioned above to guide you in every step.