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How Continual Tracking Improves Asset Audits

It's no secret that businesses need to keep track of their assets. From missing deadlines to decreased efficiency, not having a handle on your company's assets can be costly. That's why many businesses are turning to asset tracking software and solutions from RedBeam to help them keep tabs on everything. Asset tracking software platforms offer a variety of features, but one of the most important is continual tracking of assets. This allows businesses to improve asset audits and get a better idea of how the software is benefiting them financially and operationally.

What is an Asset Audit

Asset auditing is the process of assessing an organization's physical assets to determine their value. The purpose of asset auditing is to provide accurate information about the worth of an organization's assets, which can be used for financial reporting, tax compliance, and other purposes. One of the key components of asset auditing is identifying which assets are subject to depreciation. Depreciation is a method of accounting for the wear and tear of an asset over time. By properly accounting for depreciation, organizations can make more accurate estimates of their future income and expenses. As a result, asset auditing plays a vital role in ensuring the financial health of an organization.

Why are Asset Audits so Important

Asset audits help businesses ensure that they're meeting their goals for both budget allocation and efficient asset management. If equipment and inventory is missing or faulty, it can disrupt operations. Asset audits also help businesses determine the estimated value of their assets. This information is crucial when it comes to making budget decisions and ensuring that assets are being used efficiently. To do this, they’ll need information about the purchase price, market value, and depreciation of your assets. These initiatives for accuracy are increasingly important when compliance comes into the scope of operations.

Finally, asset audits help businesses improve their processes. By identifying areas where assets are being misused or not accounted for- businesses can make changes to their procedures to ensure that they're getting the most out of their investment.

3 Ways Asset Tracking Software Improves Your Asset Audits

1. Become an Asset Mastermind

Continual asset tracking of assets has a number of benefits for businesses. This solution saves time by eliminating the need to search for assets manually. This data about heavy asset movement and use can also be crucial to determining depreciation of assets such as vehicles. This can allow companies to make choices around replacement and budget forecasting. It also provides valuable insights into how assets are being used. These insights can be used to streamline procedures and improve efficiency or decrease waste.

Asset tracking software platforms make it easy to conduct asset audits. With all of the information in one place, businesses can save time and money by not having to search for assets manually. Additionally, asset tracking solutions can provide valuable insights into how assets are being used. This information can be used to make changes to processes and procedures to improve efficiency and decrease waste.

2. See Asset Data and Depreciation in Realtime 

Usually a company will develop a set of criteria to track their assets and perform the audit around changes to values of the criteria in predetermined intervals. In order to have accurate audits as time goes on, identifying information needs to be consistent for all assets. These can be asset location, model, manufacturer, serial number, and even manufacturing date or purchase date when applicable. This builds the basics of asset identification at quick glances.

The next stage of a continual tracking audit is determining the value and lifecycle position of the assets you identified using the above criteria. The end goal of this asset audit is usually determining the depreciated value and lifespan of assets under a company's accounting predictions. This will allow the company to adjust their forecast for replacement equipment or inventory. This data can also be used for calculating the ROI of the asset itself. Some additional information can be captured around the asset's user history, position changes or maintenance history can be added for increased visibility into depreciation.

3. Accurate and Timely Data in an Audit Trail

When you receive automated updates to your data in real-time, you can start focusing on more important aspects of your business. Asset tracking software can be tailored to you individual needs and give you accurate reports based on the criteria you set above. Your business will start seeing opportunities in the recurring data you need for asset depreciation and efficiency. This will help you build internal and external business credibility.

If regulatory agencies perform an external asset audit, one of the primary reasons is to identify fraud. External agencies like the IRS will look through your reporting with a close eye to determine if there are any discrepancies. The more thorough and accurate your history of reports is, the more credible you can become. This makes audit smoother and less invasive for both parties. This accurate reporting history can also make you a more favorable candidate to lending institutions if your business needs to request a loan for the acquisition of new assets.

Preparing for Your Future Asset Audits

If you're looking for ways to improve your asset audits, asset tracking software is a great place to start. By continually tracking assets, businesses can save time and money while getting a better understanding of their investment. Asset tracking software offers a variety of features to help businesses make the most out of their asset audits. RedBeam can customize the solution to fit your business and offers the features you need to get the most out of your asset audit process.

Contact us today and learn how we've helped thousands of other companies on their asset tracking journey.