Asset management software can help small businesses manage their assets better

It’s not easy to run a small business. When you think you have all of your systems figured out and are ready to go, something changes in your industry or your business starts to grow. Small businesses will always grow and change. But the need for small business asset management software will stay the same. The assets of a company are what keep the business going. No matter how big or small your business is, you need to know that managing your assets is a key part of running a dynamic and profitable business.

Challenges small businesses face with asset management

Today, small businesses have more to lose when it comes to managing their fixed assets because they own fewer assets. If any of them aren’t there, it will be more noticeable in terms of productivity and the bottom line.

In smaller businesses, employees often have to wear more than one hat and do more than one thing at the same time. You might be keeping track of your fixed assets by hand, or you might not be keeping track of them at all. But either way is likely to make mistakes, especially when employees have more than one job to do. Those in charge of keeping track of assets must always know what the company owns, where it is, and what kind of shape it is in. If you don’t know that information, it could cost you money, make your job harder, or even get you into tax or legal trouble.

Let’s say you asked one or more of your employees to keep track of all of your fixed assets on an Excel spreadsheet. Will they remember to update that spreadsheet every day or week with new assets or changes to old ones? What if they get busy with other important projects and forget to update the spreadsheet? Or what if they make a mistake when typing in the barcode number, which happens all too often? What if that worker takes time off or moves to a different job?

The point is that it’s easy for things to get lost because they fall through the cracks. Another risk is theft, which can come from inside or outside your company. Employees find it hard to keep up with schedules for preventive maintenance, software updates, audits, and depreciation. Your fixed assets are living, moving things that need to be watched over all the time. Fixed asset management software does all of these things and more in an accurate and organized way. Fixed asset management software is, in a nutshell, the best way for small businesses to keep track of and manage all of their fixed assets throughout their entire lifecycle.

Benefits of having an effective asset management system

Boost Productivity

When you and your employees have a good way to keep track of where assets are, who is using them, and if they need maintenance, among dozens of other things, everyone has what they need when they need it. This cuts down on wasted time and makes it easier for your organization to get everyday tasks done without confusion or delays.

Accurate Forecasting

When you can keep better track of your assets and how they are doing, it’s easier to keep an eye on the costs that will come up in the future because of those assets. These include the costs of repairs and maintenance, as well as the costs of replacing assets that are no longer useful. With a good barcode system, all it takes is a quick scan to get a report on an asset’s maintenance history and find out what costs are coming up for that item.

Cloud-based Access

Some asset tracking and barcode system products sync with the cloud. This lowers costs and gives you access to real-time data 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You can use your smartphone or mobile device to check the status of items from your office, anywhere in your building, or even when you’re not there.

Cost-effectiveness

It’s easy and cheap to order barcodes. Many platforms let you use the smart devices you already have as scanners. This makes setting up an asset tracking system much cheaper.

Compatible with the current system

Some software for tracking assets with barcodes should be easy to connect to legacy systems and other popular software solutions.

Overcome the challenges of asset management

Make a list of all the things you own and the stock you have.

This is a task that every small business should do regularly. Some of your small business’s assets may have special rules or requirements that you need to keep track of. How many do you have of each thing? Please tell us when your small business added them to its stock, where you bought them, and how much they cost.

Use asset management tools like CloudApper asset management software that allows employees to scan and track assets from their smartphones or tablets. It saves money and lets you get rid of those expensive hand-held scanners that get lost or broken all the time. You can also easily set up and run regular asset audits to make sure your information is correct.

Know the location and where your assets are going

Do you keep your assets in one place or in several places? You might have different distribution warehouses, storage rooms, job sites, and offices all over the country. How do you plan to keep track of things that are being moved around?

It’s helpful to set up a “parent-child” relationship between locations so that you can find an item on the right shelf. Again, a barcode scanner comes in handy here. Employees can scan the asset as it is being checked out, and all users who have access to the item know who checked it out, where it is going, what it is being used for, and when an employee will return it. With this information, the work process doesn’t stop, and everyone knows where an asset is.

Find out the consistency of who is using your assets and how

How often do employees just take something that they may or may not need? With tools for managing small business assets, a company can keep track of who needs or is using what. This makes sure that things like construction tools or AV equipment stay in the hands of the people who need to use them.

Know the value of your assets

Keep in mind that an asset’s true value won’t be the same as the price it was bought for because its value goes down over time. Accounting and tax purchases both need correct depreciation. You will need to figure out the right schedule for your assets’ depreciation.

CloudApper asset management software for small business

CloudApper EAM is a fixed asset management platform for small businesses that is both powerful and easy to use. CloudApper is completely flexible and can be changed to fit any business’s needs. This lets small businesses save money and time while protecting their investments. Our asset management software for small businesses comes with a free mobile app that syncs with the cloud and has a barcode scanner built in.