Retail Stocktaking Services Case Study 1 – Yearly Verification of Fixed Assets for a Retail Chain
Requirements
Your needs
Retailer 1 requires the verification and valuation of their plant and equipment fixed assets at seventeen sites throughout Australia. In addition a yearly verification of the assets will be required, to be conducted simultaneously with the retail stocktaking service.
Asset Tag Barcodes
Retailer 1 requires a unique asset tag barcode to be attached to each fixed asset. A wide variety of asset tag barcodes are available ranging from inexpensive paper laminated barcodes to metallic barcodes that can cost around $1.00 each depending upon your requirements.
Data Collection
For the initial data collection, RGIS fixed asset audits will provide an asset assessor who will work systematically through the store, moving through each area identifying and collecting any relevant asset data.
The completed fixed asset data will then be collated, valued and formatted to suit the reporting requirements of Retailer 1 (MS-excel format) and forwarded for checking and verification. We welcome any queries at this point. After adjustments are finalised, a complete report will be prepared and sent to Retail 1.
Given the nature of the requirements, we assume an initial data collection rate of about 20-25 fixed assets per hour.
Data Fields Collected
RGIS will collect and report on the following data fields.
- Site/Location
- Barcode
- Description
- Make
- Model
- Serial Number
- Comment
- Reinstatement or Purchase Value
- Depreciated Replacement Value (Market Value)
Bulk Assets
Most items are individually barcoded. Some high frequency, low value and very mobile assets such as shelving or shopping trolleys may be combined and only a single description and total quantity recorded for each location. We call these a Bulk Asset. Describing some items as Bulk Assets reduces the size of the asset register and makes your asset maintenance much easier. These assets are not allocated a barcode, but may be assigned an asset number when entering into the asset register.
Reconciliation
After the initial round of stores is completed, Retailer 1 requires RGIS to conduct a yearly check of assets at each store to be completed at the same time as the stocktake. This would involve Retailer 1 supplying RGIS with a master file in an agreed format. Using a stocktake supervisor, RGIS will conduct an audit where each asset is individually reconciled with your existing asset register. At this time, where available, asset descriptions, serial numbers, location changes, asset categories and the like are updated. RGIS will be able to provide the following reports where sufficient information is available.
RGIS provide three reconciliation reports for each site visited:
- Found assets
- Not found assets
- New assets
Results
RGIS counted approximately 1,800 assets over 17 sites. Of these about 85% were marked with a barcode.
Approximately 75 hours were spent in data collection and valuation on this project, enabling a count rate of about 24 assets per hour, which was within the guidelines set. In addition about 20 hours were spent valuing the counted data and formatting the file for upload into Retailer 1’s asset database. The fee for this project was around $11,800, which included travel, barcodes and valuations.
Issues
Some issues that arose during the data collection and reconciliation are as follows:
- Initially it was decided to count each of the stores shelving, but after seeing the practical problems of trying to verify these assets yearly, it was concluded that an initial value would be assigned to shelving only.
Conclusion