The complete guide to effective fixed asset management in MENAT

Introduction

In today’s increasingly regulated business landscape, it’s crucial to keep track of your company’s physical assets and account for each asset’s current valuation. Businesses in the Middle East face an overwhelming amount of new global compliance requirements. By pivoting to a smarter Fixed Asset Management (FAM) strategy, these companies save enormous amounts of time, money and headache for their financial departments, and foster opportunities to outpace competitors in the global marketplace.

Hassle-free fixed asset management

This guide aims to help you understand fixed asset management and the benefits an end-to-end solution can provide to your organisation. It will also explain the best industry practices and long-term advantages of Fixed Asset Management, so that your company and financial teams can expertly learn how to:

• Pass fixed asset audits effortlessly
• Perform preventative maintenance to extend asset lifetime
• Build a flawless fixed asset register
• Systematically tag, track and monitor assets and upload to the cloud
• Automate compliance and regulatory requirements
• Reduce financial damage from theft, loss or depreciation
• Generate accurate financial data views in real time
• Save time, money and effort on fixed asset verification
• Store and manage fixed assets in a sustainable manner
• Calculate and report asset depreciation

About Iron Mountain fixed asset management

At Iron Mountain Incorporated (NYSE: IRM), we strive to give our customers end-to-end solutions—the people, processes and technologies—that streamline fixed asset verification. We work with our partners to help them become true industry leaders in efficient and automated asset accounting in ways that are sustainable, compliant, and competitive.

Proper fixed asset management can help your business cut costs, improve future planning, decision-making, as well as eliminate headaches from audits and regulatory pressures.

Fixed asset management defined

What is a fixed asset?

A fixed asset is a long-term physical or capital asset that a business owns and uses to produce income. They are tangible goods that allow a business to operate, from buildings, machinery and furniture, to computers, vehicles or any other physical objects considered an “asset” to business.

Typically, these assets are expected to last more than a year, without being consumed, sold, converted to cash or rendered useless. Importantly, fixed assets are not expensed normally during their time of purchase but are rather capitalised and depreciated over time.

Most common fixed assets

• Buildings
• Furniture
• Office equipment
• Vehicles
• Machinery
• Artwork
• Computers

Fixed assets vs. capital assets

Fixed assets fall under the larger category of Capital Assets on a balance sheet. Just like fixed assets, capital assets are physical and generally illiquid properties which a business intends to use to generate revenue and expects its usefulness to exceed one year. In accounting, they are often represented as Property, Plant, and Equipment (PP&E) or buildings and factories. Knowing when, how, and why to depreciate (or appreciate) capital assets over the source of their lifetime is key to successful management.

Because capital assets are a broad category, it can include non-current assets, which should not be confused with fixed assets. Notably, some capital assets may appreciate in value over time (like artwork or intellectual property), while fixed assets often depreciate (like machinery or office furniture).

What is fixed asset management?

Perfect Fixed Asset Management is achieved when many solutions come together to create an overall streamlined process. It includes the processes, strategies, systems and professionals that help organisations efficiently measure, track, monitor, and maintain their fixed assets. This is essential for using assets effectively, verifying their value, and ensuring regulatory compliance.

Unify your fixed asset management

The future of fixed asset management means perfect synergy between advanced software solutions, reliable hardware, machine learning, and expert human input. Iron Mountain unifies all of these aspects for your financial department, so that you never need a separate solution for each challenge. An end-to-end, fully integrated solution that provides a single source of truth for all your company’s fixed assets.

The full Iron Mountain ecosystem

Iron Mountain goes beyond just Fixed Asset Management services to ensure that your entire digital ecosystem thrives. Our expertise fulfills many solutions at the intersection of data management, digital security, and end-to-end paperless transition.