Asset management template

Many of us think of finances when we hear the word “asset.” But assets can be any object (large or small) that your company possesses, such as your office space or the raw audio file of your latest podcast episode. Your company likely has many different types of assets at any given moment. Managing all these business assets can get complicated—if you don’t have the right tools and systems in place to support you. 

That’s where an asset management template comes in.

What is asset management?

Asset management is the process of organizing, storing, and coordinating your business assets. In other words, it’s a specific type of project management for your assets. Your asset management process might involve determining an asset’s value, overseeing your asset’s lifecycle, finding ways to get more value out of an asset, or creating an asset inventory. 

Because it involves many different components, asset management is usually cross-functional work that happens across role levels, departments, and teams. For example, it’s not unusual for the CFO, a team lead, and an individual contributor to all be involved in the same financial asset management project.

Types of asset management

Financial asset management is just one type of asset management, here are the others: 

• Digital asset management: Managing digital files, services, or products—such as media files or a company blog.  

• Fixed asset management: Managing fixed company assets (assets that can’t be quickly converted into cash), such as the plumbing inside your office space.

• IT asset management: Managing company hardware and software, such as Microsoft software subscriptions and cloud storage.

• Enterprise asset management: Managing physical infrastructure, such as machinery  or company vehicle maintenance. 

• Financial asset management: Managing financial assets, such as stocks and real estate investments.

What is an asset management template?

An asset management template is an outline of your asset management workflow. This provides a clear set of asset management steps for team members and colleagues to follow, which reduces confusion and produces more consistent results. 

For example, let’s say you’re in charge of tracking company car usage each month. To start, a key step to your asset management process is to review the metrics for how often an employee signs out a car in any given month. You can save this (and other crucial steps) in your template. This way, even if someone else is managing the assets when you’re out of office, they know exactly what steps to take.

The benefits of using an asset management template

Whether you’re a small business, startup, or large enterprise company, creating an asset management template will help you keep your assets (and the teams responsible for them) organized. That’s because your asset management template:

• Optimizes asset tracking: If you know what you have and where it lives, it’s harder to lose track of your assets.

• Coordinates cross-functional efforts: Using a template ensures that all teams and departments are managing assets in the same way.

• Provides visibility: Stakeholders can see how you’re managing assets, which is especially helpful for C-suite executives or if you work with clients.

Note that not all asset management templates are created equal. If you build your template in a project management tool, it becomes dynamic. You can easily update, share, and reproduce information as needed. This gives you more capabilities than if you use a simple Excel spreadsheet template, which you have to manually update each time your asset’s value changes or you acquire a new asset.

Who uses asset management templates?

While anyone can build and use an asset management template, certain companies, teams, and industries will benefit more than others. 

Here are some industries or departments that would greatly benefit from templatizing their asset management process, plus example use cases:

• IT teams: When co-workers request products or services from IT departments, use a digital asset management template to triage and fulfill those requests. For example, if you’re distributing software licenses, you can save an asset management template that automatically receives new requests, assigns them to a team member to distribute, and sends the new software license out to the requester.

• Manufacturing: Use your template to streamline your asset management system, including tracking your asset inventory and coordinating asset production across departments.

• Human resources: Similar to IT, an HR team can use a digital asset management template to coordinate professional services for employees.

How to use an asset management template

There’s no strict playbook for managing assets. Assets can be many different things, and your company will likely have its own preferences for managing them. That means you’ll want a template that’s flexible and easy to use—or more than likely, you’ll want to create multiple templates.

But how do you create, save, and use a template for all these different functions? What if you need different templates for managing digital, fixed, and IT assets? Answer: Use work management software to build your asset management template. Once you build your digital template, you can use it to coordinate all your related asset materials—connect risk management plans, integrate with your resource management systems, and create clear roadmaps for how to use and boost your assets’ value.

You can create different types of asset management templates, including:

• Asset tracking templates

• Asset inventory templates

• Asset management process templates

• Asset management templates for specific types of assets (For example, digital, enterprise, or financial asset management templates)

Regardless of the type of asset management template you create, here are some helpful sections to include:

• Dates: List the purchase date, production date, or date of distribution. This helps with tracking your asset.

• Assignee: Who’s responsible for this asset? This is the person to go to for questions or updates on the asset.

• Asset type: If your company or team manages different types of assets, you can segment them here. Certain assets read the same (e.g. a software subscription could seem like an IT asset or a digital asset). Clarifying the asset type in your template reduces this confusion.

• Priority: How important is it that you manage this asset? This shows stakeholders and team members which assets are a higher priority to the business. 

• Status: Is this asset currently being managed by a team member? Let stakeholders see the status of each asset, so they don’t worry about whether or not you’re managing assets properly.

• Specific asset details: Depending on the type of asset, you might want to include additional details. For example, if the asset is your real estate holdings, you can include the purchase price, any revenue you’ve generated, and potential profits.

Integrations and apps to use with your template

Asana offers a host of features and app integrations to use with your asset management template.

Integrated features

• List View. List View is a grid-style view that makes it easy to see all of your project’s information at a glance. Like a to-do list or a spreadsheet, List View displays all of your tasks at once so you can not only see task titles and due dates, but also view any relevant custom fields like Priority, Status, or more. Unlock effortless collaboration by giving your entire team visibility into who’s doing what by when.

• Board View. Board View is a Kanban board-style view that displays your project’s information in columns. Columns are typically organized by work status (like To Do, Doing, and Done) but you can adjust column titles depending on your project needs. Within each column, tasks are displayed as cards, with a variety of associated information including task title, due date, and custom fields. Track work as it moves through stages and get at-a-glance insight into where your project stands.

• Custom fields. Custom fields are the best way to tag, sort, and filter work. Create unique custom fields for any information you need to track—from priority and status to email or phone number. Use custom fields to sort and schedule your to-dos so you know what to work on first. Plus, share custom fields across tasks and projects to ensure consistency across your organization. 

• Approvals. Sometimes you don’t just need to complete a task—you need to know if a deliverable is approved or not. Approvals are a special type of task in Asana with options to “Approve,” “Request changes,” or “Reject” the task. That way, task owners get clear instructions on what actions they should take and whether their work has been approved or not. 

Recommended apps

• OneDrive. Attach files directly to tasks in Asana with the Microsoft OneDrive file chooser, which is built into the Asana task pane. Easily attach files from Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more.

• Adobe Creative Cloud. Creative teams do their best work when they can focus on designing. With the Asana for Adobe Creative Cloud integration, creative and design teams can easily access the information they need to kick off work, get feedback from reviewers and approvers, and deliver final assets without leaving Photoshop, Illustrator, or InDesign. See new tasks, share designs, embed XD share links, and incorporate feedback delivered in Asana—all in Adobe Creative Cloud.

• Google Workplace. Attach files directly to tasks in Asana with the Google Workplace file chooser, which is built into the Asana task pane. Easily attach any My Drive file with just a few clicks.

• Dropbox. Attach files directly to tasks in Asana with the Dropbox file chooser, which is built into the Asana task pane.

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