How to Add, Edit, and Manage Your Company’s Fixed Assets and Tools

The Company Asset feature tracks company assets.  Assets can many times represent a significant portion of a company’s net worth.  Assets include vehicles, office equipment, and tools, etcetera. These are not customer owned and not to be confused with customer equipment.

Use the Asset Manager to record these assets, assign an asset to an employee or a truck, transfer an asset from one employee to another, and more.  Total Office Manger® can even be used to calculate the depreciation over the useful life cycle of the asset, then record the asset’s ultimate disposal.

You may also wish to track hand tools, power tools, and other items assigned to technicians. The Asset Manager was built for that too.

Form Access

• First open the Asset Manager List from the main menu by clicking Company | Asset Manager in the List section.
• In the Asset Manager List, right click anywhere in the list and choose +New from the pop-up menu.  The Add Asset form will appear.

Field and Button Definitions

Common Fields and Buttons

The following fields and buttons always appear, regardless of which tab is being viewed.

• Asset # – Total Office Manager will automatically propose a unique serialized identification number for the asset.  The proposed Asset # can be over-ridden by the user if necessary.
• Asset Name – Enter the name of the asset.
• Save & Close/Save & New – Saves and closes/Opens a new form.
• Cancel – Exits the form without saving.
• Menu-Save – Saves the record without closing or opening a new form.
• Menu-Notes – Opens the Notepad for the individual asset.  See the related topic, “Notes” for more information.
• Menu-Image – Opens the image window for the specific asset.  See the related topic, “Images” for more information.
• Menu-Log – Opens the log for the particular asset.  See the related topic, “Contact Log” for more information.
• Menu-Dispose – This button disposes of an asset but does delete it.
• Menu-Document Links – The use of Document Links can be invaluable when managing assets.  Manufacturers usually provide electronic versions of their user manuals online for downloading.  Download these manuals and other asset-related documents (like a scan of the sales receipt from when it was purchased) to a central location, then use that asset’s Documents Links to manage the information.

Asset Tab

• Model – The Model or more specific description of the asset.
• Serial/Vin – Use this area to enter a number of the asset or in the case of vehicles the VIN number for this asset.
• Location – Use this area to enter where this asset is located. (Example: equipment locker 4)
• Manufacturer – The manufacturer of the asset. The company that made it.
• Assign Asset to Employee – Use this area to enter the name of the employee this asset is assigned.
• Department – Use this area to enter the department the asset is assigned. (Example: Service Department)
• Assign Asset to Vehicle – Pick which vehicle to assign the asset to.  This field will not appear if the Asset Type is a vehicle itself.  In other words, you cannot assign a vehicle to a vehicle.
• Asset Type – Select the asset type from the drop-down list.  This is the IRS designated type for the asset so it cannot be edited.
• Warranty Information – Use this area to enter if any warranties is bought for this asset.
• Disposal Date – Shows the date the asset was disposed.
• Sale Price – Shows the amount the asset was sold for (if any) when the asset is disposed. This information is entered when disposing the asset through the Menu tab.
• Status – The Status of the record. It may be ‘Disposed’, In-Service etc.
• Remaining Time In-Service – Shows the amount of remaining life of an asset.
• Time in Service – The amount of time the asset has been in-service.

Depreciation Tab

• In Service Date – Date the asset was bought or brought into the company.
• Cost – The original cost of an asset.
• Useful Life – The useful life of an asset in years.
• IRS Dept. Type – The list is the designated Department types . This is the IRS designated type for the asset so it cannot be edited.
• Salvage Value – The value of an asset after the useful life has expired.
• Business Use – The percentage of business use for an asset. (Example: A company vehicle may have a business use of 80% and a personal use of 20%)
• Method – The preferred method of depreciation.
• Convention – The depreciation convention, Full-Year, Days, Half-Month etc.
• Basis – The basis of depreciation. This field is used when you don’t want the depreciation calculated on the original cost of an asset. (Example: You could enter the original cost + <any betterments> and calculate the depreciation on this value)
• Depreciation Table – This table shows the calculated depreciation of an asset for the life cycle of an asset, using several methods of depreciation. These methods of depreciation include Straight Line, Sum of Years Digits, Declining Balance, Double Declining Balance, Section 179, MACRS.
• Useful Life (yrs) – The life of the asset in years.
• When Acquired, This Asset was – Tick  for either ‘New’ or ‘Used’.
• Calculate – This button calculates the depreciation for an asset using the deprecation information provided by the user for the asset.
• Clear – This button clears the Deprecation table.
• First Month of Fiscal Year – This displays the first month in the fiscal year for the company (usually January). This is set in the Company Information.

Additional Info Tab

• User Defined Fields – Any custom UDF’s for assets will appear in the Additional Info Tab.  For more information, see the related topic, “User Defined Fields”.
• Lines can be Ticked for Available for Lease or rental, Included in Bills and Checks, Available to Schedule on Work Orders, Track on Schedule Board Map(if this asset ids being Tracked), Popup the Notes Form when this Asset is Opened.
• Allow Odometer/Meter Usage Tracking – Information in the spreadsheet below is from entries made in the timesheets

Tips

• Use the “Assign Asset to Employee” field to assign assets such as tools, test equipment, cell phones etc. to employees.  This is a handy way to keep track of which employee has what asset.
• Use the “Assign Asset to Vehicle” field to assign assets such as equipment that your company provides with each vehicle.
• Be sure to enter all asset tracking information, including an image of the asset, in case the asset is lost or stolen.

Related Content

Asset and Tool Tracking & Management