The Asset Register
The register is the list of what the business owns and cares about — plant, vehicles, IT equipment, tooling, fixtures.
Where to find it
Architect Panel → ERP - Operations:
- Asset Register — the console — the register and its current position
- Assets — the underlying records
Architect Panel → Data:
- Record Numbering — the scheme that allocates asset numbers
What an asset carries
- Asset number — allocate with a number scheme rather than typing.
- Entity — which legal company owns it, and therefore whose books depreciation reaches.
- Class — the grouping that drives depreciation method and useful life.
- Item reference — a link to the product record where the asset is something you also sell or stock.
- Location and custodian — where it is and who holds it.
- Acquisition date, cost and currency — the basis for everything financial that follows.
Get acquisition data right at entry
Cost and date drive every depreciation calculation. Because depreciation is written per period rather than recalculated on demand, correcting an acquisition cost after periods have posted does not retrospectively fix them — you are left reconciling posted figures against a basis that has since changed.
Verify before the first depreciation run. It is far cheaper than the alternative.
Custodian and location
These are what make the register useful operationally rather than only financially. An annual verification asks a custodian to confirm they still hold what the register says, and that is only possible if somebody is named.
Keep them current when equipment moves. A register nobody updates becomes a list of things you used to own.
Classes
Keep classes aligned to how your accountants group assets, because that is what the depreciation policy attaches to. Resist a class per asset type — the register is not the place to model your product hierarchy.
Disposals
Record disposal rather than deleting the asset. The history — what it cost, what it depreciated, what it sold for, and the resulting gain or loss — is exactly what the accounts need at year end, and a deleted asset takes all of it with it.
Worked example
A fleet of 40 vehicles is loaded with acquisition dates, costs and registration numbers, classed as Motor Vehicles with a four-year life. Each has a custodian. The annual verification is an email to 40 drivers asking them to confirm the vehicle they hold — which found two vehicles recorded against people who had left.
Recommendations
- Verify acquisition cost and date before the first depreciation run.
- Name a custodian on everything portable.
- Keep classes to your accounting policy, not your product structure.
- Record disposals; never delete an asset.