We’ve all used them, spreadsheets, whether it’s to do a simple list of items, or whether you are looking to create advanced sums for business forecasts. Despite being a pain to use and not having all our required features, we still use them for our work. No doubt this is because they come free with our operating systems and the majority of people prefer to put up with a free one instead of buying a new one.
Even though spreadsheets come with a number of problems, they do have some useful features. The major ones are that they are able to create simple calculations, create graphics and manage your business forecasts. We generally find use of these at some point. However, due to the large number of problems spreadsheets have, they simply are not appropriate for tasks like tracking your UK fixed assets.
Although spreadsheets sound like they would be good for storing company asset data, they are simply not as advanced as an asset tracking software UK package.
Up until a point, asset management can live with a spreadsheet, however, once you wish to start storing more assets and keeping more data about each item, the spreadsheet quickly becomes useless.
Here is a list of a few features that every asset management software package should contain.
• It must be able to store enough information for your use. Although a standard spreadsheet has the ability to store vasts amount of data, in some cases it may not be sufficient. The information stored might not be in enough detail as required.
• They must be able to reflect the structure of the company. If the asset sites in a number of sectors within the company, a spreadsheet cannot reflect this type of structure.
• It should be flexible enough to be restructed quickly a easily. Altering the structure and data of a spreadsheet is easy, but once it becomes complex, the task automatically becomes difficult.
• It must be able to cope with calculating several different depreciation levels on different assets. If a number of assets has been purchased all at different points in time, but they are linked together, like a computer, keyboard, mouse and monitor. The software must be able to calculate different price depreciation levels.
• Must be able to handle 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 are not good for creating structured graphical reports.
Those are just a few features that should be contained within any software package designed for asset management. Also it’s the reason why a spreadsheet is not good for adding asset data to a fixed asset register.
