Capital Asset Planning allows for the importation of existing assets as well as planning for new assets

Description

In the realm of Corporate Performance Management (CPM) software, capital asset planning is a crucial feature allowing organizations to import existing assets data and plan for acquisition of new assets. This function grants companies the ability to automate and integrate the management of their tangible and intangible assets within their financial planning. It enhances strategic decision-making by providing users with a comprehensive view of their organization's assets and their impact on future financial performance.

Example Use Case

Scenario: A mid-market enterprise in the manufacturing industry uses CPM software for financial planning. As the company grows, so does their pool of capital assets. They need a streamlined method to monitor, manage, and plan for their expanding asset portfolio, both for their current assets and prospective asset acquisitions.

Solution: The capital asset planning feature within their CPM software allows them to import details of their existing assets easily. This reduces the time required for data entry and ensures accurate data tracking. Furthermore, the platform enables strategic planning for the acquisition of new assets, offering insight into the potential financial implications of these investments.

Considerations

When importing assets, this requirement refers to each individual asset - not a lump dollar value of several like-assets. This means that the system should have sufficient scale to accommodate potentially thousands of existing and planned assets each with their own depreciations schedule and associated cost allocation.

While not stated here, it is best if the system can also create scenarios that include CapEx. This allows the user to model different asset purchase scenarios and see how that affects the business over a period of time.

Questions to Ask a Vendor

• Integration Process: How user-friendly is the asset import function? Can it handle mass asset data imports?
• Integration Setup: Is it compatible with our existing asset database? Can it import automatically?
• Lifecycle Management: Does your system cater to all stages of the capital asset lifecycle, including acquisition, maintenance, depreciation, and disposal?