Proper asset management is one of the more complex tasks of a facility manager’s responsibility. Understanding the day-to-day needs of your facility equipment, while also seeing the bigger picture of your assets’ worth to the facility as a whole can be a challenge to even the most experienced manager. Where these two worlds of macro- and micro-management meet are in asset depreciation.
With every repair or maintenance service that must be performed, your facility equipment depreciates in value. Day-to-day use of equipment will one day end up on your books and affect your taxes. This means that the quality of your maintenance, as well as the proper tracking of your maintenance program, is essential to correctly evaluate asset depreciation.
Your work order management is important to more than just your maintenance team. The maintenance and repairs you do on critical equipment will matter for your bookkeeping and tax records, so it is important to be diligent when logging service requests. Therefore, prioritizing work order management will be beneficial to your business long-term, even if it seems tedious.
To better prepare an asset management plan, here is what you will need to know in your maintenance records:
- The purchase price of each individual facility asset, as well as the total purchase price of a system (including installation service costs)
- The placed-in-service date
- The predicted salvage value of each asset at the end of its service life
- The predicted service life, as well as expected maintenance costs over that time
This information will not only help your finance team keep accurate records, but it will help your maintenance team to tailor a program that will best suit your equipment. They are primarily responsible for ensuring that your equipment reaches the end of its service life with little to no emergency maintenance. When they work together, your finance and maintenance teams can make your job as facility manager much easier.
Understanding the effects of maintenance on your asset value is essential in maintaining a healthy, profitable business. To learn more about maintenance strategy and tips for performance maximizing, visit our resource center.
