1. Decide what you are counting
Choose the scope first: every asset, one site, one category, or a sample. Agree on the date the register is frozen, so the list the team counts against doesn’t move during the count. Decide who counts each area and who owns each exception.
2. Make sure every asset can be scanned
A count goes fastest when each asset carries a label: a barcode, a QR code or an RFID tag. Print labels for anything that lost one, and tag new assets as they arrive rather than at count time. Our free QR code generator and barcode generator will do for a handful; for hundreds, print labels from your register.
3. Walk the site and scan
Counting by location works best: one room, line or floor at a time. Scan each asset, confirm its condition and note anything wrong. An asset found somewhere other than where the register expects is recorded where it was found, not silently moved.
4. Work through the exceptions
At the end of the walk you have four kinds of result: verified, found somewhere else, damaged, and not found. Each exception needs a person and a decision. Recount the not-found items before anyone writes them off; a reader log or a check-out record often explains where something went.
5. Close the count
When every exception has a decision, close the count. Moves are applied to the register, confirmed losses are disposed of, and the report becomes the record you give your auditor: what was expected, what was verified, and what changed and why.
Doing it in Asset Infinity
Asset inventory software in Asset Infinity runs the count as a round: scope, people and dates, then scanning on the phone (offline if the signal is poor), with counts building by site and room as the team walks. Exceptions carry their remarks and who recorded them, and nothing changes in the register until someone accepts it.