Asset management deals with the process of developing, maintaining, operating and selling assets cost-effectively. Every business must keep track of its assets as they play a critical and vital role in how a business/entity works. In addition, asset management provides accurate knowledge of what assets are available and what can be used to provide optimum returns by maintaining a record of assets or inventory for certain organizations. This also helps in fund management and investment management. Therefore, the significance of asset management in the everyday activities of the business's operation should not be underestimated.

Objectives of Physical Verification and Asset Management

• It is a statutory requirement under CARO 2016.
• It ensures the existence of an entity's assets
• Facilitates the valuation and correction of any accounting discrepancies.
• To control the entity's internal compliances
• It is important for continuous customer support
• Controlling unauthorized or inappropriate use of assets
• Facilitates fund management by identifying obsolete assets

Importance and Advantages of Developing a Strategic Asset Management Plan 

1. It Is More Than Just Counting Your Assets 

Many firms are discovering how much competitiveness they would lose if they do not upgrade the way they track and handle their assets. Asset management entails more than just numbering pieces of equipment and entering the information into an excel spreadsheet. Knowing more in-depth and accurate details on an asset's worth over the entire lifecycle assists businesses of all sizes in saving money invested per asset and efficient fund management. This allows businesses to get the most out of their asset. In addition, by understanding where the assets are at all times, who has them, and what state they are in, you can avoid expensive issues such as duplicate transactions or last-minute maintenance needs.

2. Stay Ahead of the Competition 

Asset and liability management assists businesses in staying ahead of the market. When you have a strong asset management strategy in place, you can concentrate your efforts on the areas where your company has a scope to flourish (like marketing, sales, or customer service). This experience gives the company an advantage, as well as a positive vision for the future. For example, companies who keep inventory to sell should have real-time awareness of what products they have or when supply is running low, and it's time to reorder. None of the companies wants their customers to go to their competitors because of being out of stock. Asset management tends to prevent this from happening.

3. Improves Workflow and Productivity 

Asset management and monitoring have also been shown to increase performance and efficiency, document casualties in the case of a natural disaster, minimize employee theft, and eradicate the incidence of missing or damaged inventory. Proper investment management and asset management allows for more effective planning and organization within the business, as well as more accountable and responsible staff. It's a win-win situation for everybody.

4. Better and Easier Compliance

Government bodies, non-profit organizations, and businesses must provide detailed information on how they obtain, use, and dispose of assets. To make monitoring easier, the majority of them store their asset information in a centralized folder. As a result, when it is time to prepare the data at the end of the fiscal year, they will have easy access to all of the information they need.

From the benefits mentioned above, we can deduce that an asset management plan directly or indirectly facilitates fund management, investment management and asset liability management.

Process of Physical Verification of Assets 

1. CFO intimates the unit's head to initiate the physical verification of assets for the client.
2. Unit Head passes the instructions to the respective departments, such as scheduling, accounts and others.
3. The team must start the filing process for physical verification of assets. In this, any remark by the technical expert must be given high importance.
4. Reconciliation of land agreements can be deployed for the verification of the assets. Similarly, intangible assets can be verified with the FAR by the reconciliation of related supporting invoices and licenses.
5. On completing the above-mentioned steps, the final sheet must be signed by all the team members, and the Unit Head must give final approval.
6. A Reconciliation Statement should be prepared based on the reconciliation process, which includes the assets that have not been reconciled with the FAR.
7. Furthermore, assets designated as obsolete or unusable by technical experts must be included in the FAMS reconciliation declaration.
8. After consulting with the entity's Accounts Head, Head of User Department, and Stores Personnel, reasons for shortages or surplus amounts must be reviewed.
9. Following that, the document must be reviewed and signed by Team Members as well as Heads of Departments for Accounts for further approval by the Unit Head and sent to the CFO at Head Office.
10. After meeting with the entity's Executive Director, the CFO may decide to approve a write off of the Physical Verification and Gap Report of Assets.

Why Leverage Asset Management Services From TRC Corporate Consulting? 

TRC Corporate Consulting has professionals with proven experience in asset management who have been involved in asset management for multi-faceted clients, resulting in efficient management. Some of their tasks include:

1. Categorization of assets and maintaining a register
2. Physical Verification of Assets
3. Tagging of New and Existing Assets
4. Reconciliation of Fixed Assets
5. Construction of Fixed Assets Register
6. Maintaining Existing Assets Register
7. Physical Verification of Assets
8. Standard Operating Procedure for Fixed Asset Verification

Our professionals visit the clients' site to have a clear understanding of its business and operations, such that they can offer customized plans. Some of our key offerings are off-the-shelf software suites, resource planning systems, etc., which help fetch accurate data and track assets effectively. Also, asset tags are affixed on all the fixed and moveable assets of the business for recognizing individual assets, and asset tags with barcodes can be easily scanned using a hand-held barcode reader. 

In the context of asset management and tracking, we capitalize on the easy-to-use software, enabling your company to make a financially wise decision, which will benefit you in the long run.