The second step for conducting a physical audit

The second step an organization should take when planning a physical audit is to review and consolidate the data.  Utilizing a specialist asset management system makes this simple.  It should be easy to generate a report from your asset register to include the asset reference, description and location of the items that need to be audited.  If such a system is not in place, this can be a daunting task.  The first stage is to request a list (lists) of the items an organization thinks it has.  Many will ask their Finance, IT and Operations or Facilities departments to provide a spreadsheet.  Where larger corporations have subsidiaries, each may offer its own individual version of the spreadsheet.

Multiple spreadsheets should be consolidated and reconciled to eliminate potential duplicates.  Spreadsheets should be revised to include the data points determined in the first step for conducting a physical audit.