About the Asset Manager
The Asset Manager module is part of the company workspace. It is used to manage assets and depreciation. This manager allows users to can track assets and depreciation on their associated asset sheets. It allows users to enter company assets, set up depreciation schedules for them, and classify them into categories to make managing them more efficient. Ultimately, users can gather these assets onto a sheet to track asset depreciation in monthly, quarterly, or yearly increments.
The Asset Manager uses four depreciation methods: straight line, double decline, sum of year digits, and manual depreciation. For each method, asset depreciation is calculated for the entire life of the asset over a specified period. For example, if an asset is depreciating over two years and you specify a monthly depreciation increment, then the asset’s value is recalculated each month for two years from the date of acquisition.
The Asset Manager allows you to:
- Create, organize, and manage company assets
- Define an unlimited number of asset classes, and design an asset attribute form per asset class
- Create assets: manual, templates, or import
- Apply multiple asset depreciation methods: straight line, double decline, sum of years digits, manual
- Track an asset’s total cost of ownership (roll up maintenance-related costs from projects or company-level BPs to specific company account codes)
The Asset Manager does not directly use business processes; rather, it uses attribute forms to create asset classes and detail forms to create the assets themselves. In Unifier, an asset class maps assets to company account codes, tracks asset costs and depreciation, and keeps the company account sheet updated with current asset values. In addition, the manager uses reference processes to extract the asset’s acquisition cost from a company-level BP.
In User Mode, the Asset Management node lists the names of every class. These nodes are where users create and modify new assets, set up their depreciation schedules, and refresh assets to recalculate their values and update the asset class sheet and the company account sheet.
Asset Sheets: You can track assets and depreciation on asset sheets. There is one asset sheet per class, listing details about each asset in that class, plus an asset summary sheet, which helps you track all of your assets in one place.
Asset Classes: Assets are grouped in classes (for example, buildings, equipment, etc.). The detail forms that are used to enter asset information can be configured in uDesigner, per class. For example, you can design and use different forms for entering information about your company’s building assets and equipment assets. Each asset exists as a unique record.
Asset Codes: Asset codes are generated automatically when assets are created. The asset code will be built using different data elements defined on the asset form as segments. At runtime, the asset code is built automatically based on the data element values selected. A tree structure is automatically built to access these assets based on the asset codes. Assets with the same segment values will be grouped together to form a hierarchy.
Note: User permissions are granted per asset class or sheet. If you cannot view any part of the Asset Manager to which you require access, contact your company administrator.
Setting up the Asset Manager
Asset class forms must be designed in uDesigner. An asset class is a way to group assets of a similar type together. Examples of asset classes are buildings, vehicles, computer equipment, etc. Asset class forms are used to create new assets within each asset class, with a different form for different classes. The classes, forms, and corresponding logs are designed in uDesigner.
Step 1: Design the asset classes and forms in uDesigner and deploy them into Unifier.
Step 2: Configure and activate each class. This enables assets and asset sheets to be created for the class. It also enables projects to be associated with assets by creating asset categories for project creation.
Step 3: Grant template administration permissions.
Step 4: Create asset templates. These can be used to create assets under an asset class in User Mode.
Step 5: Set up a depreciation schedule in an asset template or in individual company assets.
Step 6: Create assets under asset classes in User Mode. You can create assets manually or by copying a template. If you did not set up the depreciation schedule in a template, you can do it per asset (Step 5).
Step 7: Set up the asset sheets. Asset sheets are maintained in User Mode.