How asset tracking helps your business
Businesses worldwide implement asset tracking in order to monitor the movement of tools and equipment across locations. Basic asset tracking involves assigning equipment Barcodes or QR Codes to facilitate identification, logging actions taken on items, and centralizing this data for added convenience.
Using a cloud-based system for asset tracking can be extremely helpful for businesses. It eliminates the need for manual data entry, which can give rise to human error and cause delays in work operations. Another benefit is the more effective organization of your asset data. This is made possible with the help of asset reports.
Why is it important to run regular reports?
A lot of companies use asset tracking data to run regular reports. This helps them forecast future demand, and isolate blockages in their workflow. With all this information accessible through the cloud, they can share reports with colleagues and easily benchmark and evaluate monthly goals as a team. But let’s get specific. What are some ways organizations can benefit from asset reports?
- Enable asset recovery: A recent study found that U.S businesses suffered an average loss of $1.13 million as a result of employee theft in 2016. Prominent targets included small and medium sized businesses. In order to lower the risks associated with asset misplacement, firms tend to run asset tracking reports for increased transparency.
- Ensure financial feasibility: Asset tracking reports can help you keep track of procurement and maintenance costs. This can help companies lower costs and stay on budget.
- Establish accountability: Most organizations carry out dozens of tasks daily, both on and off-site. Asset reports can help these organizations account for all related movements and expenses.
- Raise efficiency levels: Automated asset management helps you upgrade your business strategies for a higher rate of return. Useful reports can lead to fewer roadblocks and improved collaboration.
- Carry out regulatory management and compliance: Tracking and logging asset details on a regular basis allows you to keep tabs on calibration, testing and maintenance requirements. This makes it easier to gain regulatory compliance.
The five most meaningful asset tracking reports to run
One way to meet business goals and objectives is to keep all your assets and tools running at optimal levels. To this end, running asset reports can be extremely beneficial. But what are the most meaningful reports your company can run? We’ve outlined five for you below:
A) Asset services report
The very first step to take after you purchase an item is to set it up for service and maintenance. This is important because tools and equipment get worn down over time and can malfunction unexpectedly.
To start off, this report will show all the service vendors for your assets. These can include manufacturers with warranties and repair mechanics. A service report also focuses on the cost of repair. This is critical because you don’t want to spend money on tool repair if you could just purchase a new kit for the same amount. You can also use this report to see if certain assets are getting sent to maintenance too frequently and have outlived their useful life. In short, this report includes everything your equipment goes through from the moment of purchase to its disposal.
B) Asset utilization report
The successful execution of daily business operations is only possible through robust asset management. In order to ensure seamless work activities, it is crucial to note down asset consumption. This can be done by generating an asset utilization report that uses tracking usage history and check-in and checkout records. It helps companies set out inventory supply thresholds, and rotate equipment for longevity if needed.
Most importantly, tracking consumption through utilization reports lets you automate procurement. This ensures you don’t face delays due to shortages. Tracking month-by-month procurement trends using reports such as these can greatly lower administrative overheads for your company.
C) Asset location report
For firms that run a lot of off-site projects, tracking asset location is extremely important. Employees must have the ability to scan asset labels and instantly update location data. Following asset tagging best practices can make this process extremely easy. Such information can then be fed into a location report, allowing fleet or warehouse managers to quickly retrieve tools as needed.
Data on positioning increases productivity by documenting stock at different sites. This can help asset managers prepare toolkits when employees set out to work, or to redistribute assets over different locations for maximum efficiency. In addition to this, asset location reports also bolster accountability by pinning loss through misplacement and theft down to a specific location.
D) Audit reports
Best practices in asset management include running regular audit reports. Audit reports basically document the custody and status details of equipment. They let you tackle fraud and theft and ensure that employees are held accountable for the items in their possession. Audit reports include updated information on the location and time of an asset’s checkout, which makes it even easier to spot unauthorized usage.
All this can be facilitated by custodians scanning asset labels whenever they check an item out for use. The great thing about this is that most asset management systems come with mobile apps that allow you to scan these labels on the go. This is not only more convenient, but also ensures that data is logged in real time.
E) Asset reservation reports
In order to provide backup support for daily tasks, businesses often invest in an online reservation system. With an asset tracking software, you can enlist all your tools for booking, making it easier for your team to carry out events and tasks as planned. Reservation reports help you minimize manual workloads and eliminate the last minute unavailability of critical assets. You can also check the reservation details of specific items to see how long particular assets get booked for, and whether you’d be better off procuring additional assets to lessen the load.
Data on asset reservation allows you to counter-check usage as well. It is quite possible that employees are booking equipment and not really using it. It is critical to stop unwarranted bookings if you want your equipment to be allocated equitably, and an asset reservation report makes reducing those unnecessary bookings incredibly easy to do.
Conclusion
Reports come in many shapes and forms. You can use them to validate your current decisions, carry out A/B testing by handling the same project in two slightly different ways, or just have some good looking data to send to your manager at the end of every month.
A cloud-based asset tracking program offers reports to help you maintain structured data. This is absolutely necessary to document asset workflows and spot consumption trends. It leads to higher ROIs, smoother processes, and better informed business decisions across the board.
Momina Sohail works as a Communications Manager at EZOfficeInventory, a web based asset tracking software. She is interested in the way technology interacts with contemporary business culture, enabling businesses to focus on core efficiencies.
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