Updated: May 2021, August 2021, January 2022
As a micro-business, you may be wondering what benefits asset management software can offer to your small firm or startup. The fact is that all businesses, big, small and micro, need to protect their assets. In this guide, we’ll cover:
Why Is Asset Management Crucial for Micro Businesses?
The general definition of a micro business is one with 0-9 employees. In a recent government review, 96% of UK businesses are classed as micro-entities.
Accountants, hairdressers, catering companies, photographers, childcare providers, driving instructors, and graphic designers are all examples of a micro business. Each one of these micro-businesses would have assets, both tangible and non-tangible, that need to be managed and maintained.
For example, a graphic designer would have a range of physical assets like IT equipment, a mobile phone, and potentially premises, furniture, and fixings too. They may also have digital assets like design software, font licenses and vector graphics, which may be purchased upfront or via a recurring subscription.
Some might argue that assets belonging to a micro business are even more crucial than those of large corporates. This is because if an asset is misplaced, damaged or stolen, it could have a severe financial impact on business.
6 Benefits for Micro businesses using Asset Management Software
As a micro-business, you may already be managing assets by a manual process. Perhaps you’re using a spreadsheet to log inventory, detail asset acquisitions, and calculate asset depreciation.
However, there can be many benefits of implementing asset management software that can effectively impact your micro business.
Asset Management Offers Comprehensive Features
Keeping spreadsheets or paper-based records can have limitations. But, an asset management system provides a range of features designed to help boost efficiency and productivity.
This can give you a level of accuracy and protection that manual methods can’t.
As an example, typical asset management software features can include:
- Allows for real-time asset tracking with functionality to support photos, videos, and notes.
- Produces accurate and detailed records of purchases, leases and contract information.
- Designs an effective plan to scheduled maintenance and repair assets in your micro business.
- Offers support for multiple users, each with designated roles and permissions.
Effectively Manage Your Inventory
Though you might not have many assets, at least high-value assets, they still need to be tracked and managed.
For example, imagine a small independent retailer that has a variety of assets in the form of stock. By using asset management software that features barcoding tracking technology, they could track and monitor demand for products. They can then improve cost-efficiencies by buying in bulk or using excess stock for in-store promotions.
An asset management system can provide a centralised overview of business assets, helping to keep track of assets continuously while implementing business strategy and operations.
Asset Management Is Cost-effective in the Long Run
Although asset management software is an investment, it can help you to reduce operational costs by helping to avoid unexpected problems and costs.
For example, with modern Asset Management Software, it is possible to set up maintenance schedules for assets. With these schedules in place, you can also receive alerts when assets need to be inspected or when routine maintenance needs to be carried out.
As a micro-business, you’ll likely find that an off-the-shelf asset management solution will be perfectly adequate for your needs, as well as being cheaper than a customisable option.
A Good System Enables Good Record-keeping
Asset management software allows you to run detailed reports with various parameters in just a few clicks. As a result, accurate record-keeping becomes much easier when all your data is contained in a purpose-built system.
Plus, you’ll have the added security of data back up with a cloud-based asset management system.
Having all the essential details of your assets in one place can help, especially if you choose to carry out in-house auditing. This would also be of help should you have to undergo an HMRC inspection.
AMS Helps Scale and Grow Your Micro Business
As your micro business grows, so will the need for effective asset management.
There may come a point where you need to collect information from different data sources or work together with colleagues on specific areas of asset management in one shared workspace.
Getting the right asset management software in place now puts you and your business in a good position for any future growth.
Replaces Manual Asset Management Processes
Asset management software can bring automation to your micro business, which in turn can save a tremendous amount of time.
Let’s say you currently track assets in a spreadsheet, but you accidentally miss a zero off a barcode when logging information. It could take hours to find your mistake and rectify it. An automated solution takes the risk of data inaccuracies away.
By using asset management tools, you can set up and run automated reports that give you an understanding of your assets’ entire lifecycle. This includes when you need to put preventative measures in place, buy replacement assets and dispose of those assets that are no longer effective.
Conclusion
In conclusion, even businesses with less than ten employees can significantly benefit from a reliable asset management solution. With the right software, you can maintain a centralised view of all your assets in one place. You can also protect your assets from loss, damage or unexpected repairs and even predict their performance in the future.
A cloud-based asset management tool means you can update information about your assets on an evening from your mobile device at home, ready to see it at work on a desktop device the following morning.
You can do away with twenty-five different Excel files, possibly containing broken formulas, empty cells, or inaccurate data. Instead, you can combine all the data you need to keep track of in one asset register that you and your employees can log into and use.
Though asset management software is an investment, it’s one that can pay off substantially, especially if you intend to scale your business.