Improved Asset Management

Our new Finance Manager, George Marin joined TITEB in November 2020 and immediately identified an opportunity for improvement of our Assets Register. Working with IT development consultant, Sandeep Chitkara from Entity 1, George outlined the requirements of a new Asset Module to be integrated with our existing Financial Management System (FMS).

As Sandeep set to work modifying the FMS, George and Sharyn Howard, Finance & Payroll Support, conducted a mammoth stocktake of our real asset holdings, including almost 500 individual assets across four sites, including vehicles (pictured), machinery, tools, office equipment, kitchens and more. They discovered significant number of items older than 10 years on the asset list, many of which had been disposed of, or not in working order.

In the past, the method of depreciation used by TITEB was the ‘diminishing value’ method, which never eliminates or ‘zeros’ an asset. We have now updated to the ‘straight line’ method of depreciation based on a reasonable estimate of useful life. Once all assets more than seven years old and under $1,000 were removed, we were left with a list of 109 assets as at June 30, 2021.

The new FMS was tested and verified in April and is now in operation. A feature of the new system is identification of ‘assets by site’, which allows depreciation to be charged to the relevant site rather than Head Office. Depreciation is now automatically calculated and charged to Job Codes and if an asset is relocated, the Job Code is changed, and the depreciation cost follows the asset to the new location.

The new Asset Module has simplified and improved our processes no end. Thanks to George, Sharyn and Sandeep for working together to refine our FMS and create a more streamlined, accurate Asset Management System.

Pictured: TITEB Community Liaison Officer, Emmanuel (Manny) Tipungwuti