What is Fixed Asset Management and Why is it Important? 

A company generally owns many assets like equipment, machinery, and vehicles etc,. The assets which are used for over 1 year period are usually classified as Fixed Assets. When the assets are in use, the value of assets goes down due to the wear and tear, which is called depreciation. By using the Fixed Asset Management module from FactsERP, you can record the quantity, usability, allocation of assets and post depreciation periodically. 

It is vital for companies and management to keep a record of all the fixed assets and maintain them. As the fixed assets are the core assets of a company, FactsERP helps in easy management of fixed assets. When the assets are of high value or require continuous maintenance, a complete management solution is required. FactsERP comes with a Fixed Asset management module that helps in managing the complete life cycle of an asset. 

Features and Benefits of Fixed Asset Management in Facts ERP: 

Asset Purchase and Disposal: Simplify the asset purchase process while tracking the association quotation and Purchase orders. Also the accounting entry postings for purchase or disposal can be automated leading to reduced manual errors. 

Asset Issue Tracking: Track the assets issued to employees or projects or other divisions. This will also help in tracking the fixed asset cost allocation and management.

Alerts & Notifications: Get automated alerts and notifications for various processes like periodic machinery maintenance or vehicle maintenance. Alerts can be set for various parameters, such as the kilometers driven for a vehicle or duration of usage of machinery. 

Barcodes/ QR Codes: Print barcodes or QR codes for easy tracking of asset locations and movement of assets. 

Maintenery Maintenance: Schedule periodic maintenance of machines while tracking the usage of machines based on the jobs or batches. 

Depreciation: Schedule for automatic calculation and posting of periodic depreciation. 

Period Asset Reconciliation: FactsERP enables the period reconciliation of assets in the system with the actual count of physical assets. 

Impairment of Assets: Simplifies the process of fixed asset impairments. 

WIP Process: Easy process of creating WIP, booking of expenses and transfer of WIP to fixed assets. 

Attachments: Every fixed asset transaction comes with an inbuilt feature of attachments to attach any supporting document for future reference. 

For a free demo of Facts ERP with Fixed Asset Management, please get in touch on 052 630 3949.

Why is Job Costing Important? 

If you are engaged in the business of construction/contracting or project management, then tracking the costing at job or project level is crucial. The management would be interested in knowing the profitability of projects, reducing costs at project level, allocation of budget and variance report generation. 

Using Facts ERP with job costing, you can easily capture all the details at the project level. As the job costing is an internal process, it comes with greater flexibility in calculation and allocation of costs. If you are a contracting company, then job costing is a must have tool to track the profitability of jobs/projects. 

Features and Benefits of Job Costing in Facts ERP: 

Budgeting: You can set budgets at each activity level for the job or project. With easy import facility from Excel, all the activities can be imported for a particular project. All the costs and revenue can be allocated for each transaction which is linked to a particular activity. 

Periodic variance analysis can be done by comparing the budgeted and actual figures. This will help in better tracking and control of costs. 

Reduce duplication of work: All the costs you enter are allocated to jobs while doing the transactions. This will help in avoiding manual cost allocation and thus reducing the duplication of work. 

Store management: Usually the materials are stored in the warehouse or sometime at the job site before utilizing them for the job. The store management enables easy transfer of material from store to job site and vice versa.

TimeSheet Management: With the easy import facility of time sheets, both the attendance and cost can be tracked and allocated to respective jobs/projects. 

Subcontracting: All costs, purchase orders, payments and invoices related to subcontractors can be easily tracked and allocated to jobs/projects. Also, the budgeting can be done based on the initial quotations received from subcontractors which helps in better control of costs. 

Project Status updates: Regular notification and updates can be set regarding the status of the projects. These notifications will be received by the responsible engineer or project managers on their Dashboard or by email. 

WIP: Booking of revenue as per the progressive invoicing can be done using the WIP method in Facts ERP job costing module. Deducting of advance payment and reduction of retentions payment etc., can be automated without any manual calculation. 

Overhead Allocation: Although it is easy to allocate the costs of material or labor for a particular job or project. It is quite challenging to allocate the overhead costs as these are not directly related to any particular job. 

However, using a pre-defined basis of allocation, the overheads can be easily allocated to jobs. There are majorly three types of basis of overhead allocation for contracting companies as follows:

1. Number of labour hours allocated
2. Material Consumption
3. Value of project
4. Predefined percentages

Profitability analysis: All the revenue and costs are allocated to jobs at each transaction level. Also with the complete allocation of overheads, the actual profitability for each profit can be tracked easily. 

Performance Tracking: You can track the performance of manpower easily with job costing. This can be done by comparing the actual cost versus the budgeted cost of manpower. This can be used as a metric for evaluating the performance of respective project managers. 

For a free demo of Facts ERP with Job Costing, please get in touch on 052 640 3949.

What is AI and how its related to ERP

There has been an increased focus on Artificial Intelligence in recent years. With the use of AI across many technologies, businesses are looking forward to implementing it. Although ERPs have been traditionally streamlining business processes, AI can have a bigger impact on ERP software. 

Although AI has its own challenges, it provides many benefits by enabling it in the ERP systems. In simple terms, AI automates the repetitive tasks done by humans leading to avoiding manual errors. Also, AI utilizes human reasoning and behavior in providing valuable insights for businesses. 

Impact of AI on ERP Software:

Advanced Business Intelligence: For making better business decisions, the insights are crucial. With the addition of Artificial Intelligence tools, management will be able to generate advanced insights across various business functions leading to improved decision making. 

Better user experience: With the enhanced functionality and interface, users will have better experience in operating the system. Also, if you are having an integrated website or ecommerce extension the AI will add value in terms of improved customer service. 

Voice recognition: With the addition of Natural Language Processing (NLP), management and users will be able to generate reports or give instructions by voice. The ERP system will recognize the voice commands and convert it into text to generate reports or provide output. 

Planning and scheduling: The planning and scheduling activities across transportation systems or warehouses can be made easier with the use of AI. The system will automatically analyze without human interaction, the availability of vehicles or storage space in warehouses. This will help in improving the effectiveness of processes with less or no human interaction. 

Process Improvement: The overall business processes can be improved by automating the repeat tasks and removing redundant tasks which are lagging the processes. 

Improved Business Relationships: By extending the access to customers and suppliers, the information processing can become much easier. This will also help in better business relationships with the stakeholders. 

Sales and Marketing: There is availability of advanced analytics through the use of data in the system. The sales and marketing team can make the best of it to improve the lead generation, promotions, upselling and cross-selling. 

If you are looking for an advanced ERP system, get in touch with us. For a free demo of our application, call now on 052 640 3949.