Any organisation should look after their assets but it’s especially important for a not for profit organisation, as often raising the funds, arranging finance or obtaining a grant can be difficult.  If you have a good asset management process then your assets can remain in use for a longer period of time.

Ideally, any organisation should have a regular maintenance program that occurs throughout the year.  With larger organisations you may have a dedicated staff or for smaller organisations you may need to use external contractors to perform the task.  Either way the important issue is that you have a maintenance program in place as it more cost effective to maintain the assets than wait for them to get into a state of disrepair.

In addition, depending on the asset there can be legal requirements to ensure that appropriate tests and standards are met on a regular basis.  This not only applies to occupational health and safety standards but can also be required as part of any warranty agreement or coverage by an insurance policy.

Therefore, for each item that is listed in your asset register make sure you have a maintenance program that details what needs to be done as part of the maintenance schedule.  It is also important that details are recorded such as what repairs occurred, whether parts were replaced as well as a comment and assessment about the condition of the asset.

This information should be reviewed on a regular basis as it will help to identify when the asset needs to be replaced so it can be included on a capital budget.

The capital budget is the next post.