Acquisition Cost: The cost of an asset before applying sales tax, and before incentives and discounts are taken into consideration.

Active Asset: An asset that is being used on a daily basis or in regular company operations.

Amortization: A method used for spreading out the expense of an intangible asset over the course of its useful life.

Annual Depreciation: Also called annual depreciation charge or annual depreciation expense, the amount of depreciation charged against an asset or a group of assets over the course of a financial year.

Asset: Any resource that a business has invested in for long-term usage, requires close tracking, and has a monetary worth that can be calculated. Read full description.

Asset Accounting: The practice of properly registering and reporting financial transactions in order to manage and oversee fixed assets.

Asset Attributes: Properties that are related to an asset type or an asset.

Asset Category (Asset Group): A classification of fixed assets into seven categories: land, easements and right-of-ways; land improvements; buildings; ongoing development; infrastructure; machinery and equipment; and registered vehicles.

Asset Checklist: A complete list of all of the assets that an organization has. Read full description.

Asset Class: A collection of assets with a common set of traits. Useful life, salvage value, account code, category, replacement information, capitalization threshold, depreciation mechanism, and depreciation convention are among the information carried by these classes.

Asset Classification Scheme: A scheme used to categorize assets within databases.

Asset Cohort: A group of assets within one asset type having similar characteristics.

Asset Component: A part of an asset that contributes to the overall function of the asset, having specific attributes.

Asset Component Checklist: A list of component types that may be part of a typical asset of a particular asset type.

Asset Condition: A measure of an asset’s physical state that provides an indication as to whether service levels are being attained.

Asset Condition Assessment: The process of routine or infrequent monitoring, evaluation, measurement, and interpretation of the resulting data to show the state of a particular asset and determine whether preventive or corrective action is necessary. Determining an asset’s remaining useful life and its capacity to meet performance standards is an essential component of asset management.

Asset Condition Inspection: Also called an asset condition survey, the process of examining an asset to determine its condition.

Asset Data: Information used to identify an asset, including location, status, and physical characteristics.

Asset Disposal Plan: A schedule outlining the expenses and timing of asset disposal. Normally it is part of an asset management plan.

Asset Hierarchy: A structure for classifying an asset base into appropriate segments. The hierarchy of assets may be based on asset type, asset function, or a combination of the two.

Asset Identification Label: A plastic tag that can be attached to an asset to help identify it. The tags might or might not have bar codes.

Asset Inventory: A list of assets that contains enough detail to physically locate and identify each asset. Read full description.

Asset Lifecycle: The stages an asset will go through from acquisition to disposal during the course of its useful life.

Asset Management: The process of accurately recording and keeping track of physical assets in order to maximize use and reduce loss. Read full description.

Asset Management Framework: A group of documents, programs, and procedures that deals with an organization’s asset management obligations.

Asset Management Improvement Plan: A strategy plan that establishes monitoring and management of the activities for improving asset management. It establishes the connection between the annual operations plans and budgets and the asset management strategy.

Asset Management Plan (AMP): A strategy created to manage one or more infrastructure asset classes with the goal of running, maintaining, and replacing the assets within the class as efficiently as possible while maintaining a certain level of service.

Asset Management Policy: A high-level document that outlines the asset management strategy that an organization wants to use internally.

Asset Management Strategy: A strategy for establishing and documenting asset management practices, plans, processes, and procedures inside an organization. This high-level document governs the whole of asset management activities within an organization.

Asset Management System: A process a company uses to manage all of its assets across the business. Also refers to software used to record and track an asset throughout its lifecycle, which frequently integrates with other programs and can offer financial reporting capabilities.

Asset Mapping: A capability that gives users a comprehensive view and the data associated with each asset on a floor plan, schematic, site map, or any other image. Read full description.

Asset Numbering System: A naming convention used to name assets in a database so they can be quickly identified.

Asset Operations Management (AOMS): A comprehensive approach that goes beyond asset tracking to focus on how assets are operated and maintained daily. It integrates maintenance, compliance, performance monitoring, and analytics to improve uptime, safety, and efficiency and to reduce operational costs. Read full description.

Asset Portfolio: A collection of assets and buildings that fall under the same asset management system or program and are managed by the same entity.

Asset Register: A complete listing of a business or entity’s physical resources.

Asset Replacement: The predicted variation in capital expenditure for asset replacement over time.

Asset Replacement Value (RAV): A method of auditing maintenance programs by weighing their annual value against that of a complete asset replacement. Maintenance becomes a fraction of the total purchasing cost; the lower this maintenance percentage goes, the more valuable an overall maintenance program is to an organization.

Asset Sub-Type Class: A field in some asset management systems that is more detailed than the asset type field. It usually refers to an asset’s function, substance, size, and style.

Asset Sustainability Ratio: An approximation of the extent to which assets managed by a local government are being replaced as they reach the end of their useful lives.

Asset Tags: Labels with an adhesive backing used to track a physical asset’s location. Movable asset tags cover items that are not part of the building itself, such as furniture, computers, and equipment. Fixed or infrastructure asset tags cover long-term tangible assets such as road signs, bridges, tunnels, water and sewer systems, dams, lighting systems, land, buildings, and machinery attached to a building.

Asset Tracking: The method used to monitor and track physical assets, which may include scanning technologies and asset tagging.

Asset Type: A generic naming convention assigned to a group of assets with a similar or identical function. In an asset database or asset management system, it is typically a crucial field.

Association of Asset Management Professionals (AMP): An organization whose mission is to create a new era for the practice of maintenance and reliability in the context of asset management, so organizations can enhance the delivery of economic prosperity, environmental sustainability, and social responsibility.

Auditor: A person or firm responsible for performing an official examination of an organization’s financial assets or accounts.

Balance Sheet: A statement of the assets, liabilities, and capital of a business or other organization at a particular point in time, detailing the balance of income and expenditure over the preceding period.

Barcode Technology: An asset tracking system that makes use of adhesive barcode stickers, each distinct and featuring a pattern of bars, spaces, or numbers that, when scanned, identify the tagged item. Read full description.

Bookkeeper: A person responsible for keeping records of an organization’s financial activities.

Breakdown Maintenance: Maintenance that is performed on an asset after it has failed.

Brownfields Valuation: A valuation of an asset that takes into account the cost associated with existing underground services, adjacent buildings, or other similar constraints when calculating the replacement cost of the asset.

Capital Asset: An asset generally owned for its role in contributing to the business’s ability to generate profit. The benefits gained from these assets are expected to last longer than a year.

Capital Expenditure (CAPEX): An investment that results in the creation of an asset or lengthens the remaining useful life of an existing asset.

Capital Upgrade: Any project that enlarges or improves an asset to accommodate expansion or higher service levels, including the purchase of land.

Capitalization Threshold: The minimum cost at which an asset must be recorded in accounting records. The threshold may be set by government regulation or by guidelines established by the organization.

CMMS: Computerized Maintenance Management System, software that provides facilities and maintenance managers with the tools to organize and track everything from work orders, assets, equipment, preventive maintenance, inventory, workflows, safety compliance, teams, and expenses. The overall objective is to streamline processes, improve workflow, manage costs, and increase efficiency in maintenance operations. Read full description.

Component: A part of an asset that, for any reason, needs to be identified independently from its parent asset. The reason could be a differing useful life or maintenance schedule.

Composite Asset: A way of grouping many assets so that their total cost is carried by, and depreciated as, one asset.

Condition-Based Depreciation (CBD): A method that recognizes depreciation of an asset as a decline in value best measured by the cost of restoring it to near-new condition.

Condition-Based Maintenance: A maintenance strategy that monitors the actual condition of an asset to decide what maintenance needs to be done.

Core Asset Management: An approach that uses an asset register, maintenance management systems, job and resource management, inventory control, condition evaluation, simple risk assessment, and defined levels of service to establish alternative treatment choices and long-term cashflow forecasts. Priorities are typically defined based on the financial reward from performing the activity.

Corrective Maintenance: Maintenance done after a failure has occurred, with the goal of getting the item back to working condition. This could involve breakdown or emergency maintenance.

Creation/Acquisition Plan: A document that specifies how an organization decides when new assets need to be purchased and existing assets need to be upgraded, and the projected costs.

Credit Memo: A business document given by a seller to a buyer. The seller typically provides a credit memo for the same or a lower amount than the invoice, then returns the funds to the buyer or deducts them from other amounts still owed from previous transactions.

Critical Assets: The organizational resources essential to maintaining operations and achieving the organization’s mission.

Current Asset: An asset that is anticipated to be sold or used within one fiscal year.

Cyclical Maintenance: Routine maintenance that takes place on a regular basis.

Decoder: Barcode scanners and readers, also known as barcode decoders, recognize the encoded data on asset labels, translate it into digital ID numbers, and cross-reference it with a database to determine the contents of the tagged goods.

Defect: A flaw in an asset that has the potential to cause the asset to fail earlier than expected.

Depreciation: The process of spreading out an asset’s cost over its useful life. Although there are many different depreciation methods, the straight-line technique is the most widely applied.

Deprival Value: The amount that a business would lose if an asset could no longer be used.

Destructible Vinyl Labels: Asset tags made of destructible vinyl, used for interior assets when a high level of protection is required. These security labels are designed to break if they are altered. Their resistance to heat, scuffing, and chemicals ranges from low to moderate.

Digital Asset: Anything that is created and stored digitally, is identifiable and discoverable, and has or provides value.

Disposal: The process of selling an asset that has served its purpose and has reached the end of its useful life.

Downtime: The period of time during which a piece of equipment cannot be used, for example when it is broken or being repaired.

EAM (Enterprise Asset Management): The process of managing the lifecycle of physical assets to maximize their use, save money, improve quality and efficiency, and safeguard health, safety, and the environment. Read full description.

EAN Code: The 13-digit European Article Number, which includes flag digits, used for barcodes.

Economic Life: The period of time during which an asset remains useful to its owner.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP): An effort to connect all of an organization’s computer programs so that, for instance, maintenance software can share data with accounting software, which can exchange data with inventory software and production software.

Equipment Asset Management Software: Software used by companies to track their tools and equipment.

Exceptions Report: A report produced by an asset management solution that lists errors or assets that were not found during the re-inventory process.

Facilities Maintenance Management System (FMMS): Software that enables organizations to manage their entire repair and maintenance program from a web-based dashboard. Read full description.

Facility: A region with a set of assets that are connected in some way. The grounds and infrastructure surrounding a single main building could make up a modest facility. A more complicated facility, such as a depot or water treatment plant, could have numerous buildings and other kinds of assets.

Fair Value: The estimated price at which an asset is bought or sold when both the buyer and seller freely agree on a price.

Financial Assets: Investments in the property and securities of other institutions. Stocks, corporate and government bonds, preferred equity, and other hybrid securities are examples of financial assets.

Financial Capitalization Threshold: The minimum cost at which an asset must be reflected in accounting records and financial statements.

Fixed Asset: A tangible asset bought with the aim of long-term usage and not consumed or sold during the course of business. Fixed assets, which include land, buildings, and equipment, cannot be rapidly turned into cash.

Fixed Asset Register: A detailed listing of every fixed asset that has been acquired or built by a business.

Foil Asset Tags: Asset labels made of aluminum with graphics sealed into an anodized layer, creating a durable label. Combined with strong adhesive, these tags will frequently outlive the asset they identify.

Found Asset: An asset that was not recorded in an organization’s asset register when it was created but was later discovered to be owned by the organization and recognized.

GAAP: Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, a uniform set of accounting principles, rules, and procedures that firms use to construct their financial statements.

Geographic Information System (GIS): A solution that integrates GIS technology and enhanced interactive image mapping to improve the accuracy of tracking and mapping assets and work orders. Read full description.

Ghost Asset: A fixed asset that appears on a financial statement but is no longer in use because it has been lost or deemed unusable.

Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB): The board responsible for establishing and regulating accounting standards for local and state governments.

Green Asset: An asset that has a positive environmental impact. Examples include trees, waterways, and stormwater treatment plants.

Handhelds (Mobile Device): A small, hand-held computing device, typically having a display screen with touch input or a miniature keyboard. These are typically used for asset and inventory management, allowing a company to keep track of its assets and save both time and money. Read full description.

Hard Asset: A tangible resource or asset with fundamental value. Examples include a fleet of delivery trucks, land, real estate, and commodities.

High-Temperature Asset Tags: Tags produced using the Extra High Temperature (XHT) technique, employing aluminum barcode labels that can withstand temperatures of up to 1200 degrees F. High-temperature metal labels are most frequently employed in work-in-process applications.

Horizontal Assets: Assets that can be configured or networked for the purpose of moving materials or services from one place to another. Also known as linear assets, and frequently referred to as below-ground assets because most horizontal assets sit below ground.

Inactive Asset: An asset that is rarely used in business operations.

Income Statement: A financial statement detailing a company’s revenues and expenses for the purpose of reporting financial performance over the span of an accounting period.

Infrastructure Asset Management: The discipline of managing infrastructure assets.

Infrastructure Gap: The discrepancy between the price of replacing existing infrastructure assets and the present cost of maintaining those assets.

Installed Solution: A solution in which data storage servers are located on-site or in a data warehouse.

Intangible Asset: An asset that lacks physical substance. Examples are patents, copyright, franchises, goodwill, trademarks, and computer software.

Integration: Software’s capability to properly connect an asset management system with another program, such as Excel or QuickBooks, to improve the effectiveness and simplicity of the asset tracking process.

Intervention Level: The condition score below which the owner or operator of an asset has decided it should not be permitted to deteriorate; the point in the asset’s life when it should be programmed for renewal.

Inventory: Items bought for short-term use that do not need to be closely tracked. An inventory can be conducted in several ways: wall-to-wall, in which material enters a plant and is processed into finished goods without ever entering a formal stock area; by exception, a physical inventory method used to verify and document the existence and location of items whose location has not been verified since the last physical inventory; and random warehouse management, which bases inventory management on the free location-allocation of parts in the storage areas. Read full description.

Inventory Accounting: The practice of allocating costs to inventory in order to record it as an asset.

Inventory Control: All activities involved in maintaining an organization’s inventory, including ordering, shipping, receiving, tracking, warehousing, and storage.

Inventory Management Software: A computer-based solution that gives organizations the ability to track all aspects of their inventory.

Journal Entry: A record of a financial transaction posted to the general ledger. In asset management, journal entries capture acquisitions, depreciation charges, revaluations, impairments, and disposals so the asset register and the financial statements stay reconciled.

Key Asset: Property of utmost importance to a business that needs more protection through asset labeling and monitoring. To track performance and coordinate maintenance and repairs, major mechanical assets are frequently included in CMMS software.

LDAR: Leak Detection and Repair, the process that a facility uses to identify and fix leaking parts such as valves and pumps in order to reduce the emission of hazardous air pollutants and fugitive volatile organic compounds.

Length of Symbol: The number of characters that make up a barcode. Asset tags can have different barcode lengths with different features and symbologies, such as Code 128, Code 39, and Interleaved 2 of 5.

Level of Service (LoS): The types and amounts of service a system wants its assets to provide to customers relative to the capabilities and limitations of those assets. The level of service also indicates how a system will operate and maintain its assets to meet customer expectations.

Lifecycle Cost: The total cost of ownership for an asset over its lifetime, including the costs of planning, designing, building or purchasing, operating, maintaining, renewing, financing, and disposing of the asset.

Lifecycle Cost Analysis: A method for determining which asset option will be the most cost-effective over the long term.

Linear Assets: Assets defined by length, such as highways, roads, railway tracks, pipelines, or power lines, whose length directly impacts their maintenance.

Liquid Asset: An asset that can be turned into cash easily with minimum capital loss.

Lockout Tagout: Safety practices used to keep employees safe from assets that could injure or kill someone if hazardous energy is not correctly managed.

Magnetic Labels: Durable magnetic labels useful for rack labels since they can be readily moved as needed. Frequently used as inventory labeling solutions.

Maintenance: Any activity taken to maintain an asset’s ability to provide the expected level of service until its scheduled replacement, renewal, or disposal.

Maintenance Management: The management and organization of maintenance activities.

Maintenance Planning: The process of deciding which maintenance tasks need to be performed, how they will be completed, and which parts and tools are required.

Maintenance Program: A document that describes the specific maintenance tasks and their frequency of completion necessary for the continued safe operation of the assets to which it applies.

Metal Stickers: A component of asset tracking systems that allows businesses to accurately record and keep track of movable assets as they travel across the business.

MIL-STD-130: Military Standard 130, a comprehensive set of guidelines and regulations for the identity marking of U.S. military property.

Mobile Solution: A solution for asset management supported by the use of scanning technologies.

Modern CMMS: A software solution that helps teams create, prioritize, access, and measure all of their maintenance work orders and assets in a single system. Read full description.

Modern Equivalent Asset: A notional asset with which an existing asset’s service potential would be restored on deprival, using the most recent technology available in the normal course of business.

Monitored Expensed Assets: Fixed assets classified as theft-sensitive by authorized staff, with an initial cost of less than $5,000 but more than $150 including ancillary charges. Technology, cleaning, and grounds-keeping equipment are often included. These assets are tracked throughout their useful life and given a barcode label for identification.

Movable Assets: Furniture and equipment that are not part of a building. Computers are among the most common examples.

Narrow Bar: In binary level codes, the narrowest of two black bars with various widths. Wide bar refers to the thicker bars.

National Asset Management Assessment Framework (NAMAF): A methodology for assessing the maturity of a council’s asset management practices and processes.

National Property Management Association (NPMA): An organization committed to offering resources and support to property managers.

Network Asset: An asset considered to be a component of a network. Network assets are connected resources that depend on one another to deliver a service. The system might not operate to its full potential if a network asset is withdrawn.

Non-Current Asset (Long-Term Asset): A company’s long-term investments that are not easily converted to cash or are not expected to become cash within an accounting year.

Obsolescence: The condition that exists when an asset is no longer desired, even if it might still be in good operating condition. Obsolescence frequently results when a substitute becomes available that is better in one or more ways.

Operating Lease: A legal arrangement that permits the use of property without transferring ownership.

Operation: The process of using an asset. Asset operation regularly uses resources and energy.

Operational Service Level: A service level connected to an asset’s operation.

P&ID: A piping and instrumentation diagram, a schematic used in the process industry that displays all pipework together with the physical order of the equipment, instrumentation, reducers, valves, and control interlocks.

Passive Asset: A term used to describe underground assets like water and sewer mains.

Pattern of Consumption: A graphical representation of the rate at which the service potential of an asset is used up.

Periodic Maintenance: Maintenance similar to, but more extensive than, routine maintenance. Programmed upgrades, programmed painting, and programmed clearing are frequently used in periodic maintenance.

Planned Maintenance: Maintenance planned, coordinated, and completed according to a predefined schedule using records.

Pole Tags: Tags used in conjunction with automated utility pole repair programs that include anodized aluminum asset labels and GIS mapping activities.

Polyester Asset Labels: Labels with a shielding overlaminate to protect against abrasion and chemicals. Tamper-evident polyester security labels are also available, leaving a permanent void pattern on the label when removed from any surface.

Predictive Maintenance: A process designed to help determine the condition of in-service equipment in order to estimate when maintenance should be performed. Read full description.

Preventive Maintenance: Maintenance carried out at predetermined intervals, or according to prescribed criteria, and intended to reduce the probability of failure or the performance degradation of an item. Read full description.

Proactive Maintenance: Targeted maintenance programmed in response to measurements indicating a heightened possibility of failure.

Property ID: Property labeling used to identify inventory and company assets in order to reduce theft and streamline operations.

Property Manager: A professional responsible for the effective, efficient management of assets, including company equipment and materials.

Purchase Order (PO): A commercial document that a buyer issues to a seller outlining the kinds, amounts, and agreed-upon costs of goods or services the seller will provide. An official offer to acquire goods or services is made when a purchase order is sent to a supplier; no contract is formed until the purchase order is approved by the seller.

QR Code: A type of barcode that can be read easily by a digital device and which stores information as a series of pixels in a square-shaped grid.

Quiet Zone: Also called the margin, a minimal area of white space on both sides of a barcode. Scanners use that area to synchronize barcodes.

Rack Labels: Labels used in warehouse applications, available in polyester and magnetic options. Multi-level systems make it clear which racks to scan without the need for long-range scanning.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology: Technology used to identify objects by utilizing data-encoded RFID tags, which are captured by a reader through radio waves. Unlike barcode technology, RFID does not require a direct line of sight to the tag.

Real Asset: A long-term fixed asset held or used for a period greater than one year. Examples include real estate, buildings, equipment, and specific fixtures.

Reconciliation: The process of comparing asset information in the records with the current status of the assets, and fixing errors to keep asset records up to date.

Refurbishment: The process of restoring an asset to near-new condition.

Rehabilitation: Work done to repair, replace, or extend the life of an asset, including some modification, by rebuilding or replacing its elements or components.

Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM): A corporate-level maintenance strategy implemented to optimize the maintenance program of a company or facility.

Remaining Useful Life (RUL): The estimated length of time remaining before an asset will need to be replaced.

Renewal: The replacement or renovation of an existing asset or component with a new asset or component capable of providing the same level of service as the existing asset.

Renewal Funding Gap: Also called the asset renewal gap, the difference between what an organization spends on renewing its assets and what it needs to spend to maintain the current average condition and service level of those assets.

Renewal/Replacement Planning: The process of deciding in advance the asset replacement strategy. This process defines how an organization decides when assets need to be renewed, the projected cost of renewals, and the standards applicable to them.

Replacement: The total replacement of an asset whose life has come to an end, so that a comparable or alternate level of service can be provided.

Residual Value (Salvage Value): The anticipated remaining worth of an item after it has reached the end of its useful life.

Road Asset Management Plan: A plan created by a local road agency and approved by its governing body that includes provisions for asset inventory, performance goals, risk of failure analysis, anticipated revenues and expenses, performance outcomes, and coordination with other infrastructure owners.

Rugged Handhelds: Rugged mobile handheld computers commonly used in asset and inventory management, allowing companies to keep track of their assets and save time and money.

Scanning Technology: Technology used in conjunction with barcode or RFID tags. Scanners streamline the asset tracking process and maximize efficiency.

Scheduled Maintenance: Any repair or task that is given a deadline and assigned to a technician.

Security Seals and Security Labels: Tamper-evident features used to prove that an opening has not been tampered with or broken. They are available as tamper-evident polyester labels, where removal from any surface leaves a permanent void pattern, and as destructible vinyl labels, which break into tiny pieces upon removal, discouraging unauthorized asset transfers.

Sensitive Asset: An asset that might be affected by outside factors. A sensitive asset may fit into one of the following groups: sensitivity to theft, or sensitivity to interest.

Service Potential: The total future service capacity of an asset.

Servicing: A preventive maintenance process performed at predetermined intervals of time, number of operations, kilometers, or similar measures.

Software as a Service (SaaS): An internet-based software distribution model in which an organization subscribes to and accesses an application through the internet. Read full description.

Spreadsheet: A file created using applications like Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets. Companies often use spreadsheets to track assets as an alternative to asset management software. Though a cheaper option, there are many flaws and risks associated with using spreadsheets to manage assets. Read full description.

Strategic Asset Management Plan (SAMP): A document that specifies how the organizational objectives are to be converted into asset management objectives.

Supply Chain Management: The handling of the entire production flow of a good or service, from the raw components all the way to delivering the final product to the consumer. Read full description.

Tangible Asset: An asset with a physical presence that can be touched. There are two types of tangible assets: inventory and fixed assets.

Technical Service Level: A service level associated with the physical characteristics of an asset.

Teflon on Aluminum Asset Tags: Labels for uses needing resistance to pickling, painting, cleaning, or other operations. Teflon fused or laminated aluminum asset labels can withstand temperatures of up to 500 degrees F as well as contact with strong acids and caustics, and are frequently used in work-in-process applications.

Terotechnology: The economic management of assets. It is the application of a variety of management, financial, technical, and other techniques to physical assets including buildings, machinery, equipment, and other structures, in an effort to reduce their overall economic life cycle costs.

Two-Dimensional Barcode (2D Barcode): A barcode that uses rectangles, dots, hexagons, and other geometric patterns to create scannable squares and rectangles. A 2D barcode stores more than alphabetic data; these codes may also contain graphics, website links, audio, and other binary data, which means the information can be used whether or not you are connected to a database.

Underground Asset: An asset buried under the earth’s surface.

Unmonitored Expensed Asset: An asset with an original cost of $5,000 or less including ancillary costs and a useful life of at least a year. Because the fixed assets department does not track it, it is not barcode labeled in accordance with the fixed asset definition’s requirements. The term group asset usually refers to things like furniture, office supplies, tables, and seats. This kind of asset is most frequently tracked by end-user departments.

Unplanned Maintenance: Maintenance that is carried out without following a set plan.

Upgrade: Any physical improvement or series of improvements, including improvements that would increase the throughput capacity of any current section of an asset.

Uptime: The time in which a machine or asset is in operation.

Useful Life (Service Life): An estimation of how long an asset is anticipated to be used for its intended purpose after purchase.

Utility Meter Badges: Badges used by the utility industry to track meter rework and refurbishment history, enhance meter traceability, shorten the time needed for meter-to-ERT calibration, eliminate transposition errors caused by manual processes, and improve meter and ERT inventory control.

Vendor-Hosted Software: Software that is handled by a third party. Though the customer maintains ownership of the software database, a third-party vendor or data center is responsible for software maintenance and management, including backups and upgrades.

Voiding Asset Tags: Security labels available as tamper-evident polyester labels, where removal from any surface leaves a permanent void pattern on the label.

Warehouse Labels: Labels used in a warehouse management system. Examples include warehouse floor barcodes, rack labels, long-range retro-reflective barcode labels, returnable container, tote and tray barcode labels, pallet barcode labels, and custom warehouse signs.

Work-In-Process (WIP) Asset Tags: Metal labels that can endure temperatures of up to 1200 degrees F, as well as strong chemicals, caustic fluids, acids, paints, solvents, abrasion, and abuse in unforgiving conditions.

XHT Asset Tags: Extra High Temperature tags used to identify products in environments where the temperature can reach 1200 degrees F.

Year-End Close: The accounting process of finalizing the asset register at the end of a fiscal year. Depreciation is posted, additions and disposals are recorded, physical inventory results are reconciled against the register, and the closing net book value carries forward as the opening balance for the next year.

Zombie Asset: A capitalized fixed asset that is still in operation but is not shown in accounting records or financial statements.

Part of the eWorkOrders Learning Center

Acquisition Cost: The cost of an asset before applying sales tax, and before incentives and discounts are taken into consideration.

Active Asset: An asset that is being used on a daily basis or in regular company operations.

Amortization: A method used for spreading out the expense of an intangible asset over the course of its useful life.

Annual Depreciation: Also called annual depreciation charge or annual depreciation expense, the amount of depreciation charged against an asset or a group of assets over the course of a financial year.

Asset: Any resource that a business has invested in for long-term usage, requires close tracking, and has a monetary worth that can be calculated. Read full description.

Asset Accounting: The practice of properly registering and reporting financial transactions in order to manage and oversee fixed assets.

Asset Attributes: Properties that are related to an asset type or an asset.

Asset Category (Asset Group): A classification of fixed assets into seven categories: land, easements and right-of-ways; land improvements; buildings; ongoing development; infrastructure; machinery and equipment; and registered vehicles.

Asset Checklist: A complete list of all of the assets that an organization has. Read full description.

Asset Class: A collection of assets with a common set of traits. Useful life, salvage value, account code, category, replacement information, capitalization threshold, depreciation mechanism, and depreciation convention are among the information carried by these classes.

Asset Classification Scheme: A scheme used to categorize assets within databases.

Asset Cohort: A group of assets within one asset type having similar characteristics.

Asset Component: A part of an asset that contributes to the overall function of the asset, having specific attributes.

Asset Component Checklist: A list of component types that may be part of a typical asset of a particular asset type.

Asset Condition: A measure of an asset’s physical state that provides an indication as to whether service levels are being attained.

Asset Condition Assessment: The process of routine or infrequent monitoring, evaluation, measurement, and interpretation of the resulting data to show the state of a particular asset and determine whether preventive or corrective action is necessary. Determining an asset’s remaining useful life and its capacity to meet performance standards is an essential component of asset management.

Asset Condition Inspection: Also called an asset condition survey, the process of examining an asset to determine its condition.

Asset Data: Information used to identify an asset, including location, status, and physical characteristics.

Asset Disposal Plan: A schedule outlining the expenses and timing of asset disposal. Normally it is part of an asset management plan.

Asset Hierarchy: A structure for classifying an asset base into appropriate segments. The hierarchy of assets may be based on asset type, asset function, or a combination of the two.

Asset Identification Label: A plastic tag that can be attached to an asset to help identify it. The tags might or might not have bar codes.

Asset Inventory: A list of assets that contains enough detail to physically locate and identify each asset. Read full description.

Asset Lifecycle: The stages an asset will go through from acquisition to disposal during the course of its useful life.

Asset Management: The process of accurately recording and keeping track of physical assets in order to maximize use and reduce loss. Read full description.

Asset Management Framework: A group of documents, programs, and procedures that deals with an organization’s asset management obligations.

Asset Management Improvement Plan: A strategy plan that establishes monitoring and management of the activities for improving asset management. It establishes the connection between the annual operations plans and budgets and the asset management strategy.

Asset Management Plan (AMP): A strategy created to manage one or more infrastructure asset classes with the goal of running, maintaining, and replacing the assets within the class as efficiently as possible while maintaining a certain level of service.

Asset Management Policy: A high-level document that outlines the asset management strategy that an organization wants to use internally.

Asset Management Strategy: A strategy for establishing and documenting asset management practices, plans, processes, and procedures inside an organization. This high-level document governs the whole of asset management activities within an organization.

Asset Management System: A process a company uses to manage all of its assets across the business. Also refers to software used to record and track an asset throughout its lifecycle, which frequently integrates with other programs and can offer financial reporting capabilities.

Asset Mapping: A capability that gives users a comprehensive view and the data associated with each asset on a floor plan, schematic, site map, or any other image. Read full description.

Asset Numbering System: A naming convention used to name assets in a database so they can be quickly identified.

Asset Operations Management (AOMS): A comprehensive approach that goes beyond asset tracking to focus on how assets are operated and maintained daily. It integrates maintenance, compliance, performance monitoring, and analytics to improve uptime, safety, and efficiency and to reduce operational costs. Read full description.

Asset Portfolio: A collection of assets and buildings that fall under the same asset management system or program and are managed by the same entity.

Asset Register: A complete listing of a business or entity’s physical resources.

Asset Replacement: The predicted variation in capital expenditure for asset replacement over time.

Asset Replacement Value (RAV): A method of auditing maintenance programs by weighing their annual value against that of a complete asset replacement. Maintenance becomes a fraction of the total purchasing cost; the lower this maintenance percentage goes, the more valuable an overall maintenance program is to an organization.

Asset Sub-Type Class: A field in some asset management systems that is more detailed than the asset type field. It usually refers to an asset’s function, substance, size, and style.

Asset Sustainability Ratio: An approximation of the extent to which assets managed by a local government are being replaced as they reach the end of their useful lives.

Asset Tags: Labels with an adhesive backing used to track a physical asset’s location. Movable asset tags cover items that are not part of the building itself, such as furniture, computers, and equipment. Fixed or infrastructure asset tags cover long-term tangible assets such as road signs, bridges, tunnels, water and sewer systems, dams, lighting systems, land, buildings, and machinery attached to a building.

Asset Tracking: The method used to monitor and track physical assets, which may include scanning technologies and asset tagging.

Asset Type: A generic naming convention assigned to a group of assets with a similar or identical function. In an asset database or asset management system, it is typically a crucial field.

Association of Asset Management Professionals (AMP): An organization whose mission is to create a new era for the practice of maintenance and reliability in the context of asset management, so organizations can enhance the delivery of economic prosperity, environmental sustainability, and social responsibility.

Auditor: A person or firm responsible for performing an official examination of an organization’s financial assets or accounts.

Balance Sheet: A statement of the assets, liabilities, and capital of a business or other organization at a particular point in time, detailing the balance of income and expenditure over the preceding period.

Barcode Technology: An asset tracking system that makes use of adhesive barcode stickers, each distinct and featuring a pattern of bars, spaces, or numbers that, when scanned, identify the tagged item. Read full description.

Bookkeeper: A person responsible for keeping records of an organization’s financial activities.

Breakdown Maintenance: Maintenance that is performed on an asset after it has failed.

Brownfields Valuation: A valuation of an asset that takes into account the cost associated with existing underground services, adjacent buildings, or other similar constraints when calculating the replacement cost of the asset.

Capital Asset: An asset generally owned for its role in contributing to the business’s ability to generate profit. The benefits gained from these assets are expected to last longer than a year.

Capital Expenditure (CAPEX): An investment that results in the creation of an asset or lengthens the remaining useful life of an existing asset.

Capital Upgrade: Any project that enlarges or improves an asset to accommodate expansion or higher service levels, including the purchase of land.

Capitalization Threshold: The minimum cost at which an asset must be recorded in accounting records. The threshold may be set by government regulation or by guidelines established by the organization.

CMMS: Computerized Maintenance Management System, software that provides facilities and maintenance managers with the tools to organize and track everything from work orders, assets, equipment, preventive maintenance, inventory, workflows, safety compliance, teams, and expenses. The overall objective is to streamline processes, improve workflow, manage costs, and increase efficiency in maintenance operations. Read full description.

Component: A part of an asset that, for any reason, needs to be identified independently from its parent asset. The reason could be a differing useful life or maintenance schedule.

Composite Asset: A way of grouping many assets so that their total cost is carried by, and depreciated as, one asset.

Condition-Based Depreciation (CBD): A method that recognizes depreciation of an asset as a decline in value best measured by the cost of restoring it to near-new condition.

Condition-Based Maintenance: A maintenance strategy that monitors the actual condition of an asset to decide what maintenance needs to be done.

Core Asset Management: An approach that uses an asset register, maintenance management systems, job and resource management, inventory control, condition evaluation, simple risk assessment, and defined levels of service to establish alternative treatment choices and long-term cashflow forecasts. Priorities are typically defined based on the financial reward from performing the activity.

Corrective Maintenance: Maintenance done after a failure has occurred, with the goal of getting the item back to working condition. This could involve breakdown or emergency maintenance.

Creation/Acquisition Plan: A document that specifies how an organization decides when new assets need to be purchased and existing assets need to be upgraded, and the projected costs.

Credit Memo: A business document given by a seller to a buyer. The seller typically provides a credit memo for the same or a lower amount than the invoice, then returns the funds to the buyer or deducts them from other amounts still owed from previous transactions.

Critical Assets: The organizational resources essential to maintaining operations and achieving the organization’s mission.

Current Asset: An asset that is anticipated to be sold or used within one fiscal year.

Cyclical Maintenance: Routine maintenance that takes place on a regular basis.

Decoder: Barcode scanners and readers, also known as barcode decoders, recognize the encoded data on asset labels, translate it into digital ID numbers, and cross-reference it with a database to determine the contents of the tagged goods.

Defect: A flaw in an asset that has the potential to cause the asset to fail earlier than expected.

Depreciation: The process of spreading out an asset’s cost over its useful life. Although there are many different depreciation methods, the straight-line technique is the most widely applied.

Deprival Value: The amount that a business would lose if an asset could no longer be used.

Destructible Vinyl Labels: Asset tags made of destructible vinyl, used for interior assets when a high level of protection is required. These security labels are designed to break if they are altered. Their resistance to heat, scuffing, and chemicals ranges from low to moderate.

Digital Asset: Anything that is created and stored digitally, is identifiable and discoverable, and has or provides value.

Disposal: The process of selling an asset that has served its purpose and has reached the end of its useful life.

Downtime: The period of time during which a piece of equipment cannot be used, for example when it is broken or being repaired.

EAM (Enterprise Asset Management): The process of managing the lifecycle of physical assets to maximize their use, save money, improve quality and efficiency, and safeguard health, safety, and the environment. Read full description.

EAN Code: The 13-digit European Article Number, which includes flag digits, used for barcodes.

Economic Life: The period of time during which an asset remains useful to its owner.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP): An effort to connect all of an organization’s computer programs so that, for instance, maintenance software can share data with accounting software, which can exchange data with inventory software and production software.

Equipment Asset Management Software: Software used by companies to track their tools and equipment.

Exceptions Report: A report produced by an asset management solution that lists errors or assets that were not found during the re-inventory process.

Facilities Maintenance Management System (FMMS): Software that enables organizations to manage their entire repair and maintenance program from a web-based dashboard. Read full description.

Facility: A region with a set of assets that are connected in some way. The grounds and infrastructure surrounding a single main building could make up a modest facility. A more complicated facility, such as a depot or water treatment plant, could have numerous buildings and other kinds of assets.

Fair Value: The estimated price at which an asset is bought or sold when both the buyer and seller freely agree on a price.

Financial Assets: Investments in the property and securities of other institutions. Stocks, corporate and government bonds, preferred equity, and other hybrid securities are examples of financial assets.

Financial Capitalization Threshold: The minimum cost at which an asset must be reflected in accounting records and financial statements.

Fixed Asset: A tangible asset bought with the aim of long-term usage and not consumed or sold during the course of business. Fixed assets, which include land, buildings, and equipment, cannot be rapidly turned into cash.

Fixed Asset Register: A detailed listing of every fixed asset that has been acquired or built by a business.

Foil Asset Tags: Asset labels made of aluminum with graphics sealed into an anodized layer, creating a durable label. Combined with strong adhesive, these tags will frequently outlive the asset they identify.

Found Asset: An asset that was not recorded in an organization’s asset register when it was created but was later discovered to be owned by the organization and recognized.

GAAP: Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, a uniform set of accounting principles, rules, and procedures that firms use to construct their financial statements.

Geographic Information System (GIS): A solution that integrates GIS technology and enhanced interactive image mapping to improve the accuracy of tracking and mapping assets and work orders. Read full description.

Ghost Asset: A fixed asset that appears on a financial statement but is no longer in use because it has been lost or deemed unusable.

Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB): The board responsible for establishing and regulating accounting standards for local and state governments.

Green Asset: An asset that has a positive environmental impact. Examples include trees, waterways, and stormwater treatment plants.

Handhelds (Mobile Device): A small, hand-held computing device, typically having a display screen with touch input or a miniature keyboard. These are typically used for asset and inventory management, allowing a company to keep track of its assets and save both time and money. Read full description.

Hard Asset: A tangible resource or asset with fundamental value. Examples include a fleet of delivery trucks, land, real estate, and commodities.

High-Temperature Asset Tags: Tags produced using the Extra High Temperature (XHT) technique, employing aluminum barcode labels that can withstand temperatures of up to 1200 degrees F. High-temperature metal labels are most frequently employed in work-in-process applications.

Horizontal Assets: Assets that can be configured or networked for the purpose of moving materials or services from one place to another. Also known as linear assets, and frequently referred to as below-ground assets because most horizontal assets sit below ground.

Inactive Asset: An asset that is rarely used in business operations.

Income Statement: A financial statement detailing a company’s revenues and expenses for the purpose of reporting financial performance over the span of an accounting period.

Infrastructure Asset Management: The discipline of managing infrastructure assets.

Infrastructure Gap: The discrepancy between the price of replacing existing infrastructure assets and the present cost of maintaining those assets.

Installed Solution: A solution in which data storage servers are located on-site or in a data warehouse.

Intangible Asset: An asset that lacks physical substance. Examples are patents, copyright, franchises, goodwill, trademarks, and computer software.

Integration: Software’s capability to properly connect an asset management system with another program, such as Excel or QuickBooks, to improve the effectiveness and simplicity of the asset tracking process.

Intervention Level: The condition score below which the owner or operator of an asset has decided it should not be permitted to deteriorate; the point in the asset’s life when it should be programmed for renewal.

Inventory: Items bought for short-term use that do not need to be closely tracked. An inventory can be conducted in several ways: wall-to-wall, in which material enters a plant and is processed into finished goods without ever entering a formal stock area; by exception, a physical inventory method used to verify and document the existence and location of items whose location has not been verified since the last physical inventory; and random warehouse management, which bases inventory management on the free location-allocation of parts in the storage areas. Read full description.

Inventory Accounting: The practice of allocating costs to inventory in order to record it as an asset.

Inventory Control: All activities involved in maintaining an organization’s inventory, including ordering, shipping, receiving, tracking, warehousing, and storage.

Inventory Management Software: A computer-based solution that gives organizations the ability to track all aspects of their inventory.

Journal Entry: A record of a financial transaction posted to the general ledger. In asset management, journal entries capture acquisitions, depreciation charges, revaluations, impairments, and disposals so the asset register and the financial statements stay reconciled.

Key Asset: Property of utmost importance to a business that needs more protection through asset labeling and monitoring. To track performance and coordinate maintenance and repairs, major mechanical assets are frequently included in CMMS software.

LDAR: Leak Detection and Repair, the process that a facility uses to identify and fix leaking parts such as valves and pumps in order to reduce the emission of hazardous air pollutants and fugitive volatile organic compounds.

Length of Symbol: The number of characters that make up a barcode. Asset tags can have different barcode lengths with different features and symbologies, such as Code 128, Code 39, and Interleaved 2 of 5.

Level of Service (LoS): The types and amounts of service a system wants its assets to provide to customers relative to the capabilities and limitations of those assets. The level of service also indicates how a system will operate and maintain its assets to meet customer expectations.

Lifecycle Cost: The total cost of ownership for an asset over its lifetime, including the costs of planning, designing, building or purchasing, operating, maintaining, renewing, financing, and disposing of the asset.

Lifecycle Cost Analysis: A method for determining which asset option will be the most cost-effective over the long term.

Linear Assets: Assets defined by length, such as highways, roads, railway tracks, pipelines, or power lines, whose length directly impacts their maintenance.

Liquid Asset: An asset that can be turned into cash easily with minimum capital loss.

Lockout Tagout: Safety practices used to keep employees safe from assets that could injure or kill someone if hazardous energy is not correctly managed.

Magnetic Labels: Durable magnetic labels useful for rack labels since they can be readily moved as needed. Frequently used as inventory labeling solutions.

Maintenance: Any activity taken to maintain an asset’s ability to provide the expected level of service until its scheduled replacement, renewal, or disposal.

Maintenance Management: The management and organization of maintenance activities.

Maintenance Planning: The process of deciding which maintenance tasks need to be performed, how they will be completed, and which parts and tools are required.

Maintenance Program: A document that describes the specific maintenance tasks and their frequency of completion necessary for the continued safe operation of the assets to which it applies.

Metal Stickers: A component of asset tracking systems that allows businesses to accurately record and keep track of movable assets as they travel across the business.

MIL-STD-130: Military Standard 130, a comprehensive set of guidelines and regulations for the identity marking of U.S. military property.

Mobile Solution: A solution for asset management supported by the use of scanning technologies.

Modern CMMS: A software solution that helps teams create, prioritize, access, and measure all of their maintenance work orders and assets in a single system. Read full description.

Modern Equivalent Asset: A notional asset with which an existing asset’s service potential would be restored on deprival, using the most recent technology available in the normal course of business.

Monitored Expensed Assets: Fixed assets classified as theft-sensitive by authorized staff, with an initial cost of less than $5,000 but more than $150 including ancillary charges. Technology, cleaning, and grounds-keeping equipment are often included. These assets are tracked throughout their useful life and given a barcode label for identification.

Movable Assets: Furniture and equipment that are not part of a building. Computers are among the most common examples.

Narrow Bar: In binary level codes, the narrowest of two black bars with various widths. Wide bar refers to the thicker bars.

National Asset Management Assessment Framework (NAMAF): A methodology for assessing the maturity of a council’s asset management practices and processes.

National Property Management Association (NPMA): An organization committed to offering resources and support to property managers.

Network Asset: An asset considered to be a component of a network. Network assets are connected resources that depend on one another to deliver a service. The system might not operate to its full potential if a network asset is withdrawn.

Non-Current Asset (Long-Term Asset): A company’s long-term investments that are not easily converted to cash or are not expected to become cash within an accounting year.

Obsolescence: The condition that exists when an asset is no longer desired, even if it might still be in good operating condition. Obsolescence frequently results when a substitute becomes available that is better in one or more ways.

Operating Lease: A legal arrangement that permits the use of property without transferring ownership.

Operation: The process of using an asset. Asset operation regularly uses resources and energy.

Operational Service Level: A service level connected to an asset’s operation.

P&ID: A piping and instrumentation diagram, a schematic used in the process industry that displays all pipework together with the physical order of the equipment, instrumentation, reducers, valves, and control interlocks.

Passive Asset: A term used to describe underground assets like water and sewer mains.

Pattern of Consumption: A graphical representation of the rate at which the service potential of an asset is used up.

Periodic Maintenance: Maintenance similar to, but more extensive than, routine maintenance. Programmed upgrades, programmed painting, and programmed clearing are frequently used in periodic maintenance.

Planned Maintenance: Maintenance planned, coordinated, and completed according to a predefined schedule using records.

Pole Tags: Tags used in conjunction with automated utility pole repair programs that include anodized aluminum asset labels and GIS mapping activities.

Polyester Asset Labels: Labels with a shielding overlaminate to protect against abrasion and chemicals. Tamper-evident polyester security labels are also available, leaving a permanent void pattern on the label when removed from any surface.

Predictive Maintenance: A process designed to help determine the condition of in-service equipment in order to estimate when maintenance should be performed. Read full description.

Preventive Maintenance: Maintenance carried out at predetermined intervals, or according to prescribed criteria, and intended to reduce the probability of failure or the performance degradation of an item. Read full description.

Proactive Maintenance: Targeted maintenance programmed in response to measurements indicating a heightened possibility of failure.

Property ID: Property labeling used to identify inventory and company assets in order to reduce theft and streamline operations.

Property Manager: A professional responsible for the effective, efficient management of assets, including company equipment and materials.

Purchase Order (PO): A commercial document that a buyer issues to a seller outlining the kinds, amounts, and agreed-upon costs of goods or services the seller will provide. An official offer to acquire goods or services is made when a purchase order is sent to a supplier; no contract is formed until the purchase order is approved by the seller.

QR Code: A type of barcode that can be read easily by a digital device and which stores information as a series of pixels in a square-shaped grid.

Quiet Zone: Also called the margin, a minimal area of white space on both sides of a barcode. Scanners use that area to synchronize barcodes.

Rack Labels: Labels used in warehouse applications, available in polyester and magnetic options. Multi-level systems make it clear which racks to scan without the need for long-range scanning.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology: Technology used to identify objects by utilizing data-encoded RFID tags, which are captured by a reader through radio waves. Unlike barcode technology, RFID does not require a direct line of sight to the tag.

Real Asset: A long-term fixed asset held or used for a period greater than one year. Examples include real estate, buildings, equipment, and specific fixtures.

Reconciliation: The process of comparing asset information in the records with the current status of the assets, and fixing errors to keep asset records up to date.

Refurbishment: The process of restoring an asset to near-new condition.

Rehabilitation: Work done to repair, replace, or extend the life of an asset, including some modification, by rebuilding or replacing its elements or components.

Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM): A corporate-level maintenance strategy implemented to optimize the maintenance program of a company or facility.

Remaining Useful Life (RUL): The estimated length of time remaining before an asset will need to be replaced.

Renewal: The replacement or renovation of an existing asset or component with a new asset or component capable of providing the same level of service as the existing asset.

Renewal Funding Gap: Also called the asset renewal gap, the difference between what an organization spends on renewing its assets and what it needs to spend to maintain the current average condition and service level of those assets.

Renewal/Replacement Planning: The process of deciding in advance the asset replacement strategy. This process defines how an organization decides when assets need to be renewed, the projected cost of renewals, and the standards applicable to them.

Replacement: The total replacement of an asset whose life has come to an end, so that a comparable or alternate level of service can be provided.

Residual Value (Salvage Value): The anticipated remaining worth of an item after it has reached the end of its useful life.

Road Asset Management Plan: A plan created by a local road agency and approved by its governing body that includes provisions for asset inventory, performance goals, risk of failure analysis, anticipated revenues and expenses, performance outcomes, and coordination with other infrastructure owners.

Rugged Handhelds: Rugged mobile handheld computers commonly used in asset and inventory management, allowing companies to keep track of their assets and save time and money.

Scanning Technology: Technology used in conjunction with barcode or RFID tags. Scanners streamline the asset tracking process and maximize efficiency.

Scheduled Maintenance: Any repair or task that is given a deadline and assigned to a technician.

Security Seals and Security Labels: Tamper-evident features used to prove that an opening has not been tampered with or broken. They are available as tamper-evident polyester labels, where removal from any surface leaves a permanent void pattern, and as destructible vinyl labels, which break into tiny pieces upon removal, discouraging unauthorized asset transfers.

Sensitive Asset: An asset that might be affected by outside factors. A sensitive asset may fit into one of the following groups: sensitivity to theft, or sensitivity to interest.

Service Potential: The total future service capacity of an asset.

Servicing: A preventive maintenance process performed at predetermined intervals of time, number of operations, kilometers, or similar measures.

Software as a Service (SaaS): An internet-based software distribution model in which an organization subscribes to and accesses an application through the internet. Read full description.

Spreadsheet: A file created using applications like Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets. Companies often use spreadsheets to track assets as an alternative to asset management software. Though a cheaper option, there are many flaws and risks associated with using spreadsheets to manage assets. Read full description.

Strategic Asset Management Plan (SAMP): A document that specifies how the organizational objectives are to be converted into asset management objectives.

Supply Chain Management: The handling of the entire production flow of a good or service, from the raw components all the way to delivering the final product to the consumer. Read full description.

Tangible Asset: An asset with a physical presence that can be touched. There are two types of tangible assets: inventory and fixed assets.

Technical Service Level: A service level associated with the physical characteristics of an asset.

Teflon on Aluminum Asset Tags: Labels for uses needing resistance to pickling, painting, cleaning, or other operations. Teflon fused or laminated aluminum asset labels can withstand temperatures of up to 500 degrees F as well as contact with strong acids and caustics, and are frequently used in work-in-process applications.

Terotechnology: The economic management of assets. It is the application of a variety of management, financial, technical, and other techniques to physical assets including buildings, machinery, equipment, and other structures, in an effort to reduce their overall economic life cycle costs.

Two-Dimensional Barcode (2D Barcode): A barcode that uses rectangles, dots, hexagons, and other geometric patterns to create scannable squares and rectangles. A 2D barcode stores more than alphabetic data; these codes may also contain graphics, website links, audio, and other binary data, which means the information can be used whether or not you are connected to a database.

Underground Asset: An asset buried under the earth’s surface.

Unmonitored Expensed Asset: An asset with an original cost of $5,000 or less including ancillary costs and a useful life of at least a year. Because the fixed assets department does not track it, it is not barcode labeled in accordance with the fixed asset definition’s requirements. The term group asset usually refers to things like furniture, office supplies, tables, and seats. This kind of asset is most frequently tracked by end-user departments.

Unplanned Maintenance: Maintenance that is carried out without following a set plan.

Upgrade: Any physical improvement or series of improvements, including improvements that would increase the throughput capacity of any current section of an asset.

Uptime: The time in which a machine or asset is in operation.

Useful Life (Service Life): An estimation of how long an asset is anticipated to be used for its intended purpose after purchase.

Utility Meter Badges: Badges used by the utility industry to track meter rework and refurbishment history, enhance meter traceability, shorten the time needed for meter-to-ERT calibration, eliminate transposition errors caused by manual processes, and improve meter and ERT inventory control.

Vendor-Hosted Software: Software that is handled by a third party. Though the customer maintains ownership of the software database, a third-party vendor or data center is responsible for software maintenance and management, including backups and upgrades.

Voiding Asset Tags: Security labels available as tamper-evident polyester labels, where removal from any surface leaves a permanent void pattern on the label.

Warehouse Labels: Labels used in a warehouse management system. Examples include warehouse floor barcodes, rack labels, long-range retro-reflective barcode labels, returnable container, tote and tray barcode labels, pallet barcode labels, and custom warehouse signs.

Work-In-Process (WIP) Asset Tags: Metal labels that can endure temperatures of up to 1200 degrees F, as well as strong chemicals, caustic fluids, acids, paints, solvents, abrasion, and abuse in unforgiving conditions.

XHT Asset Tags: Extra High Temperature tags used to identify products in environments where the temperature can reach 1200 degrees F.

Year-End Close: The accounting process of finalizing the asset register at the end of a fiscal year. Depreciation is posted, additions and disposals are recorded, physical inventory results are reconciled against the register, and the closing net book value carries forward as the opening balance for the next year.

Zombie Asset: A capitalized fixed asset that is still in operation but is not shown in accounting records or financial statements.

Part of the eWorkOrders Learning Center