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Part 3 of 7 · Asset register keeper series ~5 min read

How things get onto it and off it

Acquisition solves itself if you attach it to purchasing. Disposal has to be invented, because nothing in the natural course of throwing something away involves a register.

Key takeaways

  • Trigger acquisition from the invoice, above the threshold.
  • Print the label at that moment; a label applied later is a label never applied.
  • Disposal has no natural trigger, so attach it to something that does happen.
  • The replacement purchase is the best available disposal trigger.
  • Never delete a disposed asset; mark it, with a reason and a date.

Acquisition is easy

How a purchase becomes a labelled asset on the registerA vertical chain of five steps entered by a box labelled An invoice from purchasing. Step one asks whether each line is over the threshold; if not it exits to Not an asset, nothing happens. Step two asks whether it is on the exclusion list of licences, leases and stock; if so it exits to Not an asset, a different system. Step three creates the record with price, date and supplier. Step four prints a label, now rather than later. Step five scans it into place when it arrives. A note says the label printing at step four is the difference between a register and a list.AWS ACCOUNTAn invoicefrom purchasingOver the threshold?per lineNot an assetnothing happensnoOn the exclusion list?licences, leases, stockNot an asseta different systemyesCreate the recordprice, date, supplierPrint a labelnow, not laterScanned into placewhen it arrivesThe label printing at step four is the difference between a register and a list.
Fig 1. How an asset is added. The label is printed as part of the purchasing flow rather than as a separate task, because a separate task does not happen.
  • Compute
  • Database
  • App integration
  • Security & identity
  • Analytics
  • Front-end & mobile

The label is the system

A register entry with no corresponding label on the physical object is a row in a spreadsheet that can never be verified. Somebody looking at a machine cannot tell which row it is, and somebody looking at a row cannot find the machine.

The label needs to be durable enough for the environment — a paper sticker on a workshop machine lasts about four months — and it needs a human-readable code as well as a barcode, because barcodes get damaged and people read numbers over the phone.

Disposal has no moment

Three ways assets are disposed of and the documents they produceThree boxes stacked on the left. It broke and went in a skip, labelled no document. It was replaced and the old one went in a cupboard, labelled no document. It was sold or traded in, labelled sometimes a document. All three converge on The register, which still says we have it, and that leads down to For years, and it accumulates. A note says two of the three most common disposals generate nothing at all.It brokeand went in a skipno documentIt was replacedold one in a cupboardno documentIt was soldor traded insometimes a documentThe registerstill says we have itFor yearsand it accumulatesTwo of the three most common disposals generate nothing at all.
Fig 2. The three ways things leave and how little evidence they produce. Only one of them touches a system anybody looks at.
  • Compute
  • Security & identity
  • Analytics

Creating a trigger

The most reliable available trigger is the replacement purchase. When something is bought that replaces an existing asset, the purchasing flow can ask one question: which one does this replace? A dropdown of plausible candidates, one tap, and the old asset moves to awaiting disposal.

That catches a large share of disposals because most things are replaced rather than simply removed, and it attaches the question to a moment that definitely happens.

The other triggers

Where else disposal can be caught

  • The replacement purchase. The best one, and it catches most of it.
  • A skip or waste collection. Whoever books it can be asked what is going in it.
  • The verification sample. An asset that cannot be found three times running is probably gone.
  • A person leaving. The equipment assigned to them has to go somewhere, and that is a natural moment.
  • An IT refresh. Bulk disposals, and the easiest to record because they are planned.
  • None of these is complete. Together they get most of the way, which is the same pattern as visitor check-out.

The third one is worth building deliberately. An asset that the sampling process cannot find repeatedly is evidence, and after a stated number of attempts it should move to a presumed-disposed state with a person confirming rather than sitting on the register indefinitely.

Never delete

How an asset disposal is recorded as a state rather than a deletionA horizontal row of five boxes. Disposed: marked, not deleted. With a reason: scrapped, sold or stolen. And a date, for the accounts. And a person who says so. Still queryable: what did we scrap in 2027? A note says deleting the row loses the accounting event and the pattern it belongs to.DISPOSAL IS A STATEDisposedmarked, not deletedWith a reasonscrapped, sold, stolenAnd a datefor the accountsAnd a personwho says soStill queryable'what did we scrap in 2027?'Deleting the row loses the accounting event and the pattern it belongs to.
Fig 3. How a disposal is recorded. Keeping the record is what allows disposal patterns to be analysed and what satisfies the accounting requirement.
  • Machine learning
  • Management
  • Analytics
  • Front-end & mobile
  • People

The reason field is more useful than it looks. A category of equipment being scrapped consistently earlier than its expected life is a purchasing finding, and a rising count of stolen is a security one. Neither is visible if disposals are deletions.

Next: knowing whether it is true.

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