A company deploys equipment and resources in the workplace that employees use to perform the tasks of their jobs. Employees are expected to use these resources to create revenue for the company. Every day, they come to work, do their assignments, and leave when their shift is over.
The company owns these assets, and the employees use them. As long as employees take responsibility for the assets provided to them, the company does not need to worry much about accountability, and work is not disrupted.
Equipment Breakdown Is Prevalent
Equipment breakdowns and system failures can happen for unforeseen reasons. Damaged assets and machinery can cause business downtime. To avoid this, the organization needs a system to monitor its resources and how employees use them.
Suppose you run a retail business and your employees use company resources for their daily work. One day, you find that the steering wheel of the tow truck you provided for the warehouse is broken. Several questions come to mind.
Who did this? When was the vehicle assigned, to whom and for what purpose? Should I trust my employees? What would it cost to repair or replace the steering? Or should I buy a new vehicle?
Also Read: 5 Common Asset Tracking Issues That Need to Be Addressed
Here are some tips that will free your mind from worrying about asset breakdowns.
Establish an Asset Requisition Process
To control how assets are issued to employees, every company needs guidelines for allocation, known as the requisition process. It sets a formal procedure for handing over assets to employees.
The process records each request for equipment and each allotment, along with certain information. Each request leaves a record of who asked, who approved it and when, which is useful when assets are reviewed later.
From the requisition process, a company can see the status, condition and location of each asset and whom it was assigned to.
Monitor Your Workplace With Asset Tracking Software
With asset tracking software from Asset Infinity, you can keep an audit trail of the assets used in the business. You can check the movement history of one asset or many in the application.
The information includes the asset’s name, the date and time it was issued, its condition, its value, and the assignee’s name and department.
You can print barcode labels for many assets at once and issue them to users, departments and locations. This asset audit software shows you the status of each asset as well as its value.
Enterprise Asset Management Helps You Review Employee Profiles
Many companies face asset misappropriation involving employees. Some people misuse the resources provided to them or handle them carelessly, which can even draw the organization into a fraud scandal.
Asset Infinity helps protect your organization from this. When you issue assets, the record keeps:
- The custodian’s name
- Their department
- What they were issued before
- The types of equipment they have used, and
- How many assets they hold
From this accurate data, you can see each employee’s history and how they have used company resources over time.
For example, an employee asks for a brand-new computer. From the records, you find that the same person has had their computer replaced several times before. The administration can then look into why and decide what action to take.
Asset Tracking Software Can Help in Optimal Usage of Assets
With asset tracking software, you know how long a specific asset can be issued to a specific person. With equipment tracking software, you record each asset along with when it was issued.
For instance, a printer is assigned to an employee in a specific department. When you hand it over, you can set a due-back date. If the asset is not returned by that date, the system alerts you so it can be recovered.
What Is the Asset Requisition Process?
The asset requisition process can be hectic. When it is manual, it is time-consuming, because a large organization receives many requests from employees.
It is important to work out which employees actually need an asset and which do not. When employees are productive, the organization’s productivity increases too.
In the asset requisition process, employees who need an asset, or want to buy one on the organization’s behalf, raise a request to their manager, who approves or rejects it.
If the request is rejected, a reason is given. If it is approved, the request goes to the finance department, which checks the budget and quantity.
If the budget is limited, the quantity is reduced. If there is no budget at all, the purchase request is turned down with a reason.
Once the quantity is approved within budget, a purchase order is created and sent to the vendor. The vendor acknowledges the purchase order and delivers the quantity ordered.
When your organization uses purchase order software, the process becomes much simpler. Approval chains follow the value of each request, and approvers can decide straight from an email.
Accountability Built into Every Allotment
Asset Infinity is asset management software with mobile apps. It lets you track your assets using barcodes, QR codes, RFID tags and NFC tags.
Other features include asset audits and physical verification, maintenance management, utility monitoring and reports on your equipment, available from anywhere at any time. Asset Infinity offers a 14-day free trial.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. What Are the Benefits of Automated Purchase Order Software?
The benefits of automated purchase software are:
1. Lower chance of fraud.
2. Unnecessary expenses are avoided.
3. Fewer human errors.
4. Faster purchase orders.
2. What Is the Difference Between Purchase Requisition & Purchase Order?
The differences between a purchase requisition and a purchase order:
1. A purchase requisition stays inside the organization, whereas a purchase order goes to an outside supplier.
2. A purchase requisition can be changed, whereas a purchase order, once issued, generally should not be.
3. A purchase requisition asks for permission to buy, whereas a purchase order is a confirmed order.
3. How Are Purchased Assets Tracked?
After an asset is acquired, it is tagged and its information is stored in the database and the asset register, so it can be tracked easily and accurately.