Despite having their problems, spreadsheets do have some features that come in handy. The main ones are that they can handle simple calculations, they can create graphics, create business forecasts to see how much money you will lose. They all tend to be useful for certain tasks. However, due to the number of problems they are, they simply aren’t good enough for tracking yourUK fixed assets.
Even though spreadsheets intially sound useful for managing asset data, they can’t compete against anasset tracking software UK package.
To a certain extent, a spreadsheet can prove to be useful for tracking assets, however, once you start wanting to store more data about more assets, the spreadsheet is no longer useful.
Here are just a few of the points that should be required by any asset management software.
- It must be able to store enough information for your use. 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 there is an asset that can be placed in a number of categories within a business, a simple spreadsheet will not be able to reflect this complex structure.
- They should be very flexible and be able to restructure very easily. Once a spreadsheet becomes very complex, it’s difficult to try and modify the data and especially the structure.
- They must be able to manage different price depreciation levels on seperate items. If items were bought at different points in time, for example a computer and a monitor. The software should be advanced enough to calculate a range of price depreciation factors.
- It should be able to cope with re-lifeing of assets. If one of your assets is assessed and found to be no longer useless, the levels of depreciation on the item should be changed.
- 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. Also, it’s the primary reason why a bog standard spreadsheet package is no good for storing asset data and managing it within afixed asset register.
