Blogging For Cash

When it comes to problems in an organisation pertaining to organising and reorganising data, the spreadsheet is one of the most humble and basic tools. Even though they are not really advanced enough for some of our requirements, we still use them. This is mainly because the majority of people would put up with a free one that comes bundled in when you buy your pc, rather than forking out the cash for a decent package.

Even though spreadsheets come with a number of problems, they do have some useful features. The main advantages are that they can manage simple math calculations, create visual graphs and finally create easy to manage business forecasts. These all come in handy for certain jobs. However, due to the number of problems they are, they simply aren’t good enough for tracking your fixed asset.

Although spreadsheets sound like they would be good for storing company asset data, they are simply not as advanced as an asset tracking package.

Up until a certain point, a spreadsheet would prove to be useful for asset management, however, as obtain more and more assets and you wish to store more data about the assets, the spreadsheet becomes redundant.

Here are some features you should look out for when buying an asset management software suite.

• It should be able to hold enough data and in enough detail as you need it to. Despite being able to store massive amounts of data, a spreadsheet can’t store enough for asset management. The data that’s stored may not provide enough detail.
• It must be able to reflect the structure of the company, no matter how complex. If the asset can be placed in a number of categories within the company, a simple spreadsheet cannot handle this complex structure.
• They should be very flexible and be able to restructure very easily. Once you start creating a more advanced spreadsheet, it then becomes tough to add new data and alter the structure.
• They must be able to manage different price depreciation levels on seperate items. If different assets had been bought at different stages, but they were connected, like a computer and a keyboard. The management software should be able to handle multiple depreciation levels.
• They should be able to manage re-lifeing of company assets. If an asset is assessed and found to be useful, the depreciation level must be altered as the asset is now useful.
• They must be able to export the data into structured reports. Spreadsheets cannot easily created a structured data report.

Those were just a few of the points that a specifically designed asset management software package must include. Plus it’s why a standard spreadsheet package is not suitable for storing company asset data and adding the data to a depreciation inventory.