Real Asset Management has announced that Cardiff Community Housing, South Yorkshire Housing Association and Worthing Homes are set to use its Asset4000 system to support component accounting and for compliance with the Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) which takes effect from April 2012.
Under the new SORP guidelines, housing providers will have to divide their asset registers into components, typically resulting in a seven-fold increase in the number of individual assets. At the moment, a single housing unit is classed as one asset but under SORP, anything that is considered replaceable, such as kitchens and bathrooms, will be classed as a separate asset.
CCHA’s 60,000 asset records
Cardiff Community Housing Association is using RAM to help with the implementation of component accounting in advance of SORP compliance. CCHA expects to have over 60,000 assets in its register under the new accounting regime.
Paul Westwood, fixed asset accountant, Cardiff Community Housing Association, said, “A major benefit of RAM’s software is the audit trail it provides – we will now be able to track who has updated our records and why. This feature also means that our offsite engineers can add notes to the system remotely.
“High security is crucial when dealing with an asset base of this scale and value. As the asset register expands, so will the need for secure data management. It’s therefore vital to carefully control what different users are allowed to do. For example, those who are solely inputting information won’t have the authority to change other data.”
Asset4000 supports SYHA’s £288m assets
For South Yorkshire Housing, SORP will mean that the register for its 6,000 properties will increase to around 42,000 individual assets. Beverly Carr, finance manager, South Yorkshire Housing Association, said, “It was crucial that we implemented a system from which we could generate an audit trail. With the details of component accounting as they are, we need a system that could easily track and depreciate our asset base in accordance with SORP guidelines.
“The benefit of Asset4000 is that it gives us added security features, allowing us to allocate different levels of access to individuals which will help us if we decide to roll out the system further.”
Worthing Homes abandons spreadsheets
Worthing Homes expects that the register for its 3,000 properties will increase to around 24,000 individual asset components, with Asset4000 providing the component accounting tools necessary to support SORP compliance.
Helen Neal, finance manager, Worthing Homes, said, “Given the new rulings, we needed a system to manage the high volume of detailed data securely and to provide a smooth transition as we take on component accounting.
“Before the introduction of Asset4000, we kept all our asset data on spreadsheets as the number of assets was reasonably low and manageable. Under component accounting, a spreadsheet system would be unmanageable.”
