Asset register versus the floor: missing and unrecorded assets

Many asset counts start with the register: print the list, walk the floor and tick off what you find. At the end you know which listed assets are missing. What you do not know is how many assets stand on the floor that nobody ever recorded, because nobody went looking for them. A reliable count walks in both directions, from the register to the floor and from the floor to the register, and sorts every finding into one of three groups.

Direction one: register to floor

Take the register, with asset number, description, location, custodian and serial number, and look for each line. Print the register sorted by location, so that nobody walks the same room twice. If the asset has a tag, scan it; if not, identify it from the serial number and description and photograph it. Each line ends up as found where recorded, found elsewhere or not found. Note the condition (in use, idle, out of order) and the actual user at the same time. Idle and broken equipment is the evidence you will need later when a transfer or disposal is discussed.

Direction two: floor to register

This time put the list down and walk every room. Look at everything that stands there: machines, racks, instrument cases, office furniture, forklifts. Scan each tag. If the number exists in the register, the asset is matched. If there is no tag, or the number is not in the register, mark it as unrecorded. Even for tagged assets, check once that the description in the register matches the physical item, because tags do sometimes end up on a different asset. Do not skip the places that are easy to forget: back corners of the warehouse, offices, the yard, mezzanines, containers, locked cabinets and technical rooms.

The three groups

• Matched: on the floor and in the register. If the location or custodian differs, note a correction.
• Missing: in the register but not found.
• Unrecorded: on the floor but not in the register.

For illustration, suppose the register has 420 lines. 392 are matched, 14 of them in a different location from the one recorded, and 28 cannot be found. The walk across the floor finds the same 392 plus 36 unrecorded assets.

Handling missing assets

Before concluding that an asset is lost, check whether it was moved to another line or site with a transfer document; lent out, at repair or at a supplier; scrapped but still on the register; sold; entered twice in the register; or whether its tag was moved to a different asset. Whatever remains gets an owner and a date for follow-up. For illustration, if 17 of the 28 are cleared in the first week through transfer papers and confirmations from suppliers, 11 remain, and those are the assets that really need attention. A write-off is not decided during the count. That decision belongs to the company, so pass on the facts only: last known location, when it was last confirmed, and who was the custodian.

Handling unrecorded assets

Fix a tag with a temporary number, photograph the asset with the tag visible, and record serial number, location and user. Then establish whose it is. Was it bought and never entered as an asset, moved in from another entity, leased or owned by a supplier, donated, or a low-value item booked as an expense? These are questions for finance, so keep a separate list and do not add the items to the register until a decision is made.

Summary

Checking only from the register to the floor finds missing assets but misses unrecorded ones. Walking both ways and using three groups makes the result easy to read. In its fixed-asset tagging and counts, Smart Inventory labels equipment, moulds, instruments and office assets, records location and condition, and compares the results with your asset register, bringing missing and unrecorded assets to light together.