Access Group customer events 2014
The recent Access Group customer events 2014 for Not For Profit and Supply Chain customers proved a great success for clients and partners.
Simpler together? Fixed assets in a new Scotland
3 big changes an independent Scotland would make to fixed asset management
Whether you agree with the Better Together campaign or not, one thing is clear, from an accounting point of view it would certainly be simpler to stay together. Much has been made of big banks such as the Royal Bank of Scotland’s proposed move out of Scotland if there is a yes vote, but the impact for many smaller businesses will be significant as well. Overnight, businesses across the country could become multi-nationals just by virtue of having a branch in Scotland.
Victoria Stanley, Senior Consultant at FMIS, talks about 3 key issues that will need to be considered by fixed asset accountants and management teams in the event of an independent Scotland.
Multi-currency
Bank of England governor Mark Carney and leading figures in Downing Street have made it clear that a straightforward currency union is unlikely. A new Scottish currency could create the need for valuing assets in multiple currencies. For firms using simple Excel based registers or even some off the shelf products, this would be a big challenge.
Multi-company
Having business units in different countries can mean the creation of multiple companies within a group. In addition to the initial complexities of restructuring a business, the changes will need to be reflected in a company’s asset register as well. Simple fixed asset actions like moving an item from one branch to another will now require an inter-company transfer and all the assets will need allocating to one of the companies. Again this is going to get complex when working with a spreadsheet or basic asset management system.
Tax-rules
The SNP has certainly positioned itself as a left of centre party, and as the Guardian points out, a new government would need to fund the creation of new systems and structures, all of which seems to point to increasing not decreasing taxes. Different tax rules mean that assets will need to be treated differently depending on where they are.
Where to now?
At the time of writing, the outcome of the vote is too close to call and any changes may take months or years to come into full effect. The reality is, however, that an independent Scotland would mean significant changes to how businesses record their fixed assets and the nice simple spreadsheet is unlikely to be an option.
FMIS asset management software is multi-company, multi-currency and flexible enough to handle international tax reporting requirements. For more information on FMIS Fixed Assets and other products, please see our product pages or contact one of the team directly at sales@fmis.co.uk or on +44 (0) 1227 773003.
Purchase Order Processing case study
Purchase Order Processing case study
Exponent: engineering and scientific consulting
Exponent is an international engineering and scientific consulting company with 25 offices worldwide. Their engineers and scientists have worked on many high profile incidents.
“Exponent has been using Vision since 2007. We found that though the majority of the company was not purchasing intense, there were several groups that were, and each had their own process. It was time to unify and standardise the process. In FMIS, Exponent found a system that provided the flexibility we needed to accommodate our approval matrixes while still seamlessly interacting and taking advantage of the capabilities of Vision.”
Sue Lawless
Business Manager at Exponent
Flexible approvals
Because Exponent staff are involved in a diverse range of projects, they needed a comprehensive but flexible purchase order processing (POP) software system. Their requirements included access to an approval process that allows their requisition orders to be signed off by the appropriate staff in line with their individual approval limits and project association, before the purchase orders are automatically generated.
Deltek Vision integration
Because Exponent already used Deltek Vision, they needed purchase order processing software that linked directly with their existing system. All FMIS products including Purchase Order Processing are designed to integrate directly with the Vision software. FMIS Purchase Order Processing will automatically match purchase orders against the relevant invoice, with any amends flagged for approval before posting to the general ledger in Vision.
Established name
When considering suppliers, Exponent wanted to be confident that their chosen provider had the experience and stability to provide the level of service required over the long term. FMIS software is used in over 40 countries worldwide and has been leading the industry for over 30 years, thus Exponent was able to call industry leading clients, such as Transammonia as a reference.
For more information on FMIS Purchase Order Processing and other products, please see our product pages or contact one of the team directly at sales@fmis.co.uk or on +44 (0) 1227 773003.
The AA uses FMIS Leasing software
Leasing software case study
Why the AA uses FMIS Leasing
The AA was recently confirmed as the UK’s most trusted brand*, so it’s great that they trust FMIS Leasing software to forecast, calculate and track the monthly leases for their operational fleet. FMIS was commissioned to reduce the total time it took to prepare the month end accounts for all of the fleet adjustments, additions and periodic forecasts. FMIS was able to reduce the time required for the whole process from several days to a matter of hours.
“The AA is a diverse business with several different types of operational vehicles and a complex VAT structure. We chose FMIS as our partner as they demonstrated how their system was flexible enough to meet our requirements. The FMIS support team are working closely with us to continually improve and develop the Finance Lease Software that meets our on-going requirements.”
Brian Burkett
Head of Finance
Flexible
The AA has a wide variety of lease types that the selected system had to be flexible enough to handle such as:
- Periodic tax changes impacting irrecoverable VAT and the fixed assets values
- Changing maintenance and service provisions
- Multiple invoices within a period
- Extensions of the lease term
- Finance charges based on fixed rates
Reporting
Tailored dashboards allow all the key stakeholders from Operations through Finance to view the information they need, when they need it and in a format that is useful to them.
Support
As the AA’s requirements have developed, FMIS Leasing software has been flexible enough to grow with them. FMIS provides ongoing support for all their clients including regular product enhancements to ensure FMIS Leasing remains ahead of the game and compliant with all accounting standards, such as IAS17.
For more information on FMIS Leasing and other products, please see our product pages or contact one of the team directly at sales@fmis.co.uk or on +44 (0) 1227 773003.
* Source: Survey of more than 3,000 people in the UK aged 18-74 between 4 January and 7 February 2014 by Rainey Kelley Campbell Roalfe / Y&R’s BrandAsset Valuator (BAV).
5 reasons to beware of the fixed asset spreadsheet
Learn about the risks of using spreadsheets to manage fixed assets in this insightful article from FMIS. Discover the five reasons why relying on spreadsheets can be dangerous, and find out how you can improve your asset management processes to ensure accuracy and reliability.
Fixed asset management software guide
Fixed asset management software guide
10 steps to follow and 10 questions you need to ask
Choosing the right fixed asset management and tracking software for your business can be a complicated process, so we have put together the 10 Steps Asset Management Software Guide to help guide you it. The number of different solutions and providers can make finding the right option pretty difficult if you are not sure what you need. Over 25 years’ experience in providing a range of leading asset management software and solutions have highlighted the importance of asking the right questions before you start. Now we have condensed all these into one comprehensive guide. We’ll cover the 10 simple steps to take and the 10 tough questions you need to ask when choosing asset management software.
10 simple steps
Changing any system can be daunting, particularly when it needs to be closely integrated with other existing systems. Our experience is that breaking down the process into a number of steps makes the transition manageable, far more likely to go smoothly and easier to schedule. These 10 steps will help ensure that you have considered not only the immediate issues, but that your ultimate asset management system meets the long term needs of your business.
- Step 1 Understand the need
- Step 2 Pick a partner not a product
- Step 3 Map the asset life cycle
- Step 4 Decide how to code your assets
- Step 5 Select an asset management system
- Step 6 Integrate related systems
- Step 7 Decide how best to use barcoding
- Step 8 Audit and reconcile
- Step 9 Implement with care and assistance
- Step 10 Maintain, maintain, maintain!
10 Tough questions
A good salesman can make almost any product look like a great option in a quick one off demo, but making the right long term decision when choosing asset management software means asking the tough questions that aren’t always answered in the brochure. If the product is really up to the task, the provider won’t mind going through these 10 tough questions:
- Q1 How easy is it to use and how easy is it to maintain?
- Q2 Are all depreciation methods supported – for every country, legal entity and requirement?
- Q3 Is the system multi-company, multi-currency and multi-book?
- Q4 Can the system be tuned to reflect my own specific requirements?
- Q5 Are reporting and enquiry facilities comprehensive, flexible and easy to use?
- Q6 Can the system handle real-life mistakes and problems?
- Q7 Will it work with my existing systems and be accessible from any location?
- Q8 Does the system cover each and every aspect of asset management?
- Q9 Can the system be used for budgeting and forecasting?
- Q10 How exactly does month end work?
For more information on asset management software or FMIS’ range of products, please see our product pages or contact one of the team directly at sales@fmis.co.uk or on +44 (0) 1227 773003.
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Fixed Assets v11 release
FMIS Fixed Assets v11 release
The latest version of FMIS Fixed Assets software, v11, has now released. It brings with it significant improvements in many areas, especially for high volume users and those who want to see even more detailed reconciliation reports on their fixed assets at year end.
Many of our clients have already upgraded to the latest version free of charge, but if you are still running an older version, upgrading is normally quick and easy and most importantly free. For more information, or to request an upgrade to FMIS Fixed Assets v11, simply contact us using the form below or via the support page.
Not yet using FMIS Fixed Assets?
If you don’t currently use FMIS Fixed Assets software, you may be interested to know that we offer free upgrades to all our clients. Whenever we make an improvement, we offer it free to all our clients. To find out more about FMIS Fixed Assets, have a look at our product page or get in touch with us directly.
Fixed Assets v11 release – upgrade request
Equipment and Maintenance case study
Education – research loan equipment case study
Our customer is a world class university providing research facilities. They required a system allowing them to control the short term loan of specialist research equipment. FMIS provided a full asset tracking and loan service using the Equipment and Maintenance module within FMIS. The key requirements of the system included rapid access to any equipment item available within a particular date range and that loans could be pre-booked within a key calendar view, which has been configured around the equipment specifications.
Researcher request equipment
All students have access to the system through fixed assets integration with Active Directory. Every student who is part of the research group can make a request for equipment. Using the extensive search capabilities the equipment is booked to the loan diary/calendar.
Equipment issue
A full history and extensive set of attributes are held for each piece of equipment. The equipment items can be allocated in advance for as many potential researchers as possible. Equipment is formally issued to a researcher and a full audit trail is maintained.
Active alerting
Students are reminded by email of the exact return dates. The system equipment managers are regularly alerted to those pieces of equipment not returning within agreed time spans, this can be via email or by workflow alerts.
Damages
Any malfunction or failure in the use of the equipment can be recorded and the correct remedial action routed through work orders. The issues can be raised as part of the Research Portal.
Equipment and inventory
A full history is maintained for the complete life-cycle of each piece of equipment. Replacement planning and total cost of ownership can now be managed with ease.
Transfers and physical Audits
Equipment can be transferred between different departments and owning groups. A full audit can be conducted using barcode scanning facilities.
Utilisation and reporting
A number of additional reports were added to the standard product incorporating the feedback from the customer.
Sales Order Processing case study
Engineering Sales Order Processing case study
The customer, a comprehensive professional services firm providing design solutions to private and public sector clients, required an efficient sales order processing system integrating with Deltek Vision. Key requirements included: billing interface with Vision, accounts payable interface via invoice matching, strong control over product item master records, including complex bill of material assembly.
Sales Order Processing
Sales Order Processing flow chart
The sales order can be made up of many combinations of assemblies, items and services. As a user constructs the sales order the system provides real time control over margins and build specifications. The system allowed an easy set up of all required parts and a straight forward authorisation trail.
Fulfilment: purchase or stock
The purchase order will be automatically routed to the preferred vendor for the associated items within the bill of assembly. Vendor selection can be overridden on the sales order if required. The user can also select the item to come from stock, selecting a specific batch quantity or serial number to be added to the packing list. Any final purchase orders will be emailed to the vendor once any authorisation has been completed.
Purchasing
Vendors receive the purchase order by mail or by email. A system alert manager monitors the progress of the purchase against the required delivery dates. Purchase order amendments can be raised at any time. Utility bills and other contracted costs can also be entered as purchase contracts.
Goods receipt
Each category of product has its own set of attributes to be used when recording the eventual receipt of the goods or service. Any serialised item can have make, model, year of manufacture, serial number or any other items captured by electronic entry, manual entry or through the punch-out service.
Equipment and inventory
Any IT equipment is logged into the physical asset register passing on all of the prior information collated to date. The Equipment system allows for asset tracking and automatic reconciliation with the Fixed Asset register.
Invoice matching
Vendor invoices can now be easily matched (two, three or four-way) against the system. The batch of vendor invoices are automatically generated into the Vision Accounts Payable system. Any variances, subject to route and category limits, will automate the production of a new purchase order change request.
Shipping/billing
All part/full shipments will generate a billing entry in Vision with the correct sales order references, quantity and values. Shipping documents can be formatted and templated by the system.
Barcoding in hospitals: Bristol NHS trust uses FMIS software
Barcoding in hospitals
NHS Trust required a flexible solution
The technician team in the Trust Services division within University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust uses FMIS Barcoding and Equipment modules to keep track of everything from high-end human patient simulators through to laptops and even syringes. The department not only need to be able to track and identify a wide range of fixed assets and inventory across different departments, but also require the flexibility to loan many of them out for periods to other areas of the Trust and beyond.
“We are very unique when it comes to asset management. Three medical departments, very expensive high fidelity human patient simulators, resus manikins, training limbs, flat screen televisions, laptops and MacBooks, other IT and A/V equipment, plus a whole host of other kit right down to boxes of syringes!”
Rob Kozlowski
Technical Support Manager
Equipment and Maintenance
FMIS Equipment and Maintenance module allows a full log of any maintenance work carried out to be logged and future work planned for and scheduled ensuring that maintenance plans are adhered to. The module’s full life cycle tracking functionality combined with the simple creation and disposal of fixed assets means that the purchase, warranty, repair, maintenance, assignment or transfer of equipment is centrally logged and easily accessible to staff members within the team at any time.
Integrated barcoding
Integration of FMIS Barcoding with the Equipment and Maintenance module simplified the process of data collection and attribution significantly. FMIS arranged for the scanners and durable branded labels to be sent directly to the Trust in Bristol and worked with their IT departments to ensure that all hardware, IT security and sourcing requirements were met within budget. Even after implementation of the project, FMIS developers worked with the team to provide additional functionality to enable the handling of more complex equipment loans. The ongoing support package means that an experienced developer or consultant is available to answer queries and handle any issues.
For more information on FMIS Equipment, Maintenance and Barcoding products, please see our solutions page or contact one of the team directly at sales@fmis.co.uk or on +44 (0) 1227 773003.
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