To get ready for Halloween, let me answer the question about ghosts.
You know those assets which are on your books but no longer exist, that haunt your every being [financials]? Those are Ghost Assets. One major reason to keep better track of your fixed assets, to get them off your books.
Ghost assets that are not identified can cause a series of mishaps:
- Loss of productivity due to the missing or unusable assets not being available when necessary
- Capital budgets are rendered inadequate because management is unaware of critical assets needing replaced
- Overpayments on Property Taxes AND Insurance
How do we find our ghosts?
Implement and conduct a physical inventory of your fixed assets! Once you’ve collected all your information out in “the field”, bring it back and take it through the reconciliation process — it’s then that you will uncover your ghosts!
Happy fixed asset exorcising!
Fun Fact: on an average, 14% of companies fixed asset listings are ghosts. Boo!
[...] exhausting labor comes into play. You get to find out what you have, what you don’t have (ghosts… BOO), where it is and who is responsible for [...]
By: Physical Fixed Asset Inventory / Audit: Quick Start « Crazy About Your ASSETS | b-l-o-g on March 31, 2011
at 11:35 pm