There are many sound business reasons to use spreadsheets.Most computer users use spreadsheet software such as Microsoft Excel in the home and work and there are many uses of spreadsheets beyond simple arithmetical and data analysis.  The most important features of any spreadsheet are the calculation of figures using arithmetic signs or functions, so you can prepare a cash flow analysis for monitoring and predicting likely income and expenditure or predict changes in values such as effects of a price change on costs, discounts and profit. Perhaps the most frequent use of the spreadsheet is in financial and cost accounting. Many businesses use spreadsheets to calculate balance sheets, profit and loss accounts and cash books.  In all these tasks the spreadsheet proves a very important tool in simplifying the computation process and production of the results.

Flexible though these tools may be, organizations that use spreadsheets for the purposes of fixed asset accounting constantly struggle to address a variety of issues surrounding the accountability and traceability of their asset base.  From a purely operational standpoint, having an accurate asset register that shows location, condition and the responsible contact can help ensure that assets are available and usable when needed.  Just how a business manages its fixed assets also has multiple effects on the company’s finances, through the very tangible costs of heightened insurance premiums, property taxes and neglected depreciation.

These areas cannot be effectively addressed without a specialist fixed asset tracking system that ideally incorporates depreciation software. Manual fixed asset management methods can be very labor intensive and add considerably to the total cost of asset ownership. A good fixed asset management system that also incorporates barcode or RFID technologies will speed up your physical audits, making them both fast and efficient, leaving your finance team with more time to focus on other tasks at hand. It will also establish asset values and produce dependable depreciation and amortization calculations in accordance with relevant tax and accounting rules.