Inventory and Asset Management

Context

Finance departments are responsible for a variety of functions. These range from book keeping and project financing to compliance and tax returns.

One of the most important functions in terms of protecting the assets of an organization is keeping track of purchases, inventories and assets.

Asset tracking tends to be not an urgent-task. Where there is no dedicated team for asset tracking, it often gets relegated to a low priority item. As part of auditing, asset tracking is completed and depreciation calculated. However, many small and medium businesses do not track assets, categorize and differentiate between "performing assets" and "non performing assets" literally speaking.

As an example, a large unused table filled with unused material in an airconditioned office can significantly contribute to the electricity bills - a classic example of a costly non performing asset.

Aligning Inventories with Procurement

A good way to track assets is to start from the beginning - when an asset is first purchased. A good procure-to-pay process helps organizations with placing POs, receiving and qualifying goods and making payments in a streamlined manner.

When a procure-to-pay process is aligned with an inventorization process, every purchased item automatically enters an inventory. Often such items can be tracked in terms of their location within an organization (office, hall, proejct) using a simple inventory management system.

Aligning Asset Management with Inventory

An inventorization process allows procured items to be tracked. Even a simple inventory management system can support fairly powerful reports for asset management. These reports can be used for asset usage status, insurance coverage, asset checking and physical verification, computing gross block and net block.

Conclusion

There are many good business process management systems available today. Products such as V-One Procure offered on a SaaS model over hamara.in/SmartSite can make the entire process of procurement, inventorization and asset management a breeze. If you simply want to outsource the entire process, your organization may be able to take advantage of a comprehensive end-to-end BPO solution offered by SANKHYA BPO over the V-One SmartSite.