Despite the debacle of Copenhagen and the growing band of “nay-sayers” about man-made global warming, governments around the world remain committed to Carbon Reduction Commitments (CRC). That’s certainly the case with the UK government, which is sticking to targets of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% over 1990 levels by the year 2050.

Companies that achieve reductions will be financially rewarded while those that do not will suffer the economic consequences. (more…)

Asset tracking has a variety of business uses and benefits for companies of all sizes.These tools to track and monitor the use of corporate assets, recording the location, age, value and other details of a wide range of fixed assets. An organisation’s fixed assets can be substantially greater (both in physical and financial terms) than you might think, including capital equipment like furniture, computers, phone systems, printers and other office equipment. This information can be invaluable in maximising asset utilisation, eliminating unnecessary purchases and ensuring proper tax accountability and depreciation. (more…)

Should Derek Acorah to do your fixed asset accounting?Is the most important piece of equipment for inventory management a Ouija board rather than barcode scanners or RFID tags? Provided you are a professional with years of experience and access to the latest software-driven inventory management systems you can determine the fair value of assets that you can locate and inspect. The key word or phrase here though is “locate.”

Asset tracking is probably a mixture of art, science and skill, but all too often, without access to the nether world, it can be difficult (if not downright impossible) to find assets that are listed on a property ledger.These are “ghost assets”: on the books,supposedly under the control of the company, but they appear to have “vanished”.They leave only a trace on the ledger without any apparent material pesence on this physical plane! (more…)

With finance departments and CEOs or CFOs being held personally accountable under the ever-stringent requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley (Sarbox) in particular, the need for an asset tracking system has never been greater for US companies.Penalties in Sarbox can be severe for non-compliance, false declarations and other violations.Failures in fixed asset accounting can easily contribute to potential violations of Sarbox, under/overestimating the value of fixed assets or the incorrect application of depreciation rules.

For many US accounting departments, fixed asset software consists of the good ole’ spreadsheet.Many businesses large and small use spreadsheets to calculate balance sheets, profit and loss accounts and cash books. In all these tasks it’s true that the spreadsheet proves a very useful tool in simplifying the computation process and production of the results.At the level of accounting complexity required in today’s legislative and business environment spreadsheets can quickly become complex and difficult to verify. (more…)