Assets & Inventory: Every Lift, Generator and Light Bulb Your Building Owns, Tracked and in the Books

Ask a committee what the building owns and you'll usually get a long pause. The lifts and the generator, sure. But the water pumps, the CCTV system, the gym equipment, the lobby furniture, the fire extinguishers? When were they bought, what did they cost, when is the next service due, and is the warranty still running? That information lives in a drawer of invoices, a supervisor's memory, or nowhere at all.

The store room is worse. Bulbs, cleaning supplies, diesel and spare parts are bought every month, and nobody can say how much is left or where the last carton went.

Nizam's new Assets & Inventory module fixes both, and because it's built on the same double-entry books as everything else in Nizam, the numbers on the Finance screen and balance sheet match what's actually in the building.

A Register of Everything the Building Owns

Add an asset in under a minute: its name, category, where it is and who looks after it. Fourteen categories come ready, from lifts and generators to CCTV, fire safety and furniture, and you can add your own straight from the form. Then, if you have them, add the details auditors and technicians always ask for:

• Brand, model and serial number, plus photos.
• Documents: the invoice, the warranty card, the manual.
• Status and condition: in use, in store, under repair, out of order; new, good, fair or poor.
• A full history: every move, hand-over, repair and change, with who did it and when.

Each asset gets its own tag number. Search by name, tag, serial number or place, and filter by category, location or status.

Into the Books the Right Way

The question that trips up most software is "how did this asset get here?" Nizam asks it directly, and each answer posts the right entries:

• Bought now: records the purchase, either paid now from any cash or bank account, or left as a bill to pay later, which you can then pay from Finance or put on a payment voucher for committee approval.
• Already in expenses: if you recorded the purchase in Finance before, pick that expense and it moves from expenses to assets, so it's never counted twice.
• Owned before Nizam: the lift installed ten years ago goes on the books at its original cost less the depreciation it has already had. Nizam suggests that figure for you.
• Just track it: keep it in the register for location, warranty and service, without touching the accounts at all.

You also set an asset threshold. Anything that costs less (a kettle, a plastic chair) is still tracked but is booked as an ordinary expense rather than depreciated.

Depreciation That Posts Itself

Enter the cost, the useful life and what it may still be worth at the end, and Nizam shows the monthly charge as you type. After each month ends, Nizam posts that month's depreciation for the whole complex as one journal entry (Depreciation Expense against Accumulated Depreciation). Nobody has to remember to do it.

• Equal every month (straight line), with each asset's life and remaining months shown on its page.
• Closed months stay closed. If a month has already been closed, its depreciation is posted in the current month instead.
• Selling or scrapping an asset posts depreciation up to last month, then records the gain or loss. Choose sold, scrapped, lost or stolen, donated or written off. Made a mistake? Undo the disposal.
• Finance shows the real value. The Fixed Assets line on the Finance screen is net of depreciation, and tapping it opens the asset register.

The balance sheet should show what the building owns. Now it does, and it stays right on its own.

Services, Warranties and AMCs, Never Missed

For each asset, set how often it's serviced (monthly, every 3 or 6 months, yearly or every so many days) and the dates its warranty, insurance and AMC (Annual Maintenance Contract) end. Nizam reminds whoever manages assets:

• Services: 3 days before, and on the day.
• Warranty, insurance and AMC: 30 days before, 7 days before, and on the day.

Log every service or repair with what was done, who did it and what it cost. The cost can be recorded as an expense in the same step, and the next service date sets itself. Create a work order straight from the asset and assign it to staff or a vendor. The asset's page then shows every service, repair, work order, complaint and spare part used on it, so you know which generator costs you the most to keep running.

QR Labels Anyone Can Scan

Print QR labels for one asset or all of them and stick them on. Scanning a label opens the asset in Nizam, and any phone camera works, not just the app. Residents and staff can tap Report a problem to tell management the lift is making that noise again, and the report goes straight to management with the asset already attached.

Labels also make audits fast. Start an asset audit, walk the building, and scan or tick each asset as you find it. Assets found somewhere else are moved to where they were found, and missing ones stay listed so you can follow up or write them off.

A Store Room That Adds Up

Inventory covers everything the building keeps on the shelf: bulbs, cleaning supplies, fuel and oil, plumbing and electrical supplies, spare parts. Keep one store or several. For each item, set its unit, a reorder level and the usual order quantity. Then everything that happens to stock is a numbered entry:

• Stock in: bought now (paid or as a bill), linked to an expense already in Finance, opening stock already on the shelves, or received free.
• Issue: to a work order, an asset, a place, a staff member or anything else, so you can see exactly what the electrician used on Block B.
• Move between stores, and adjust for damaged, expired, lost or found stock.

Stock is valued at average cost. When an item falls to its reorder level, everyone who manages inventory gets a low-stock alert. A stock count lets someone count a store against what Nizam expects; when it's finished, every difference becomes one stock adjustment, with its value shown before you confirm. Got an entry wrong? Reverse it with a reason; the original stays on record.

Simple or Exact: Your Choice of Stock Accounting

• Expense when bought (the default): store purchases go straight to Stores & Consumables. Simple, and what most buildings do.
• Keep as Inventory: stock is an asset on the balance sheet until it's issued, when it becomes an expense. More exact, and preferred by many auditors.

Switch any time; Nizam posts one adjusting entry so the books stay correct. Either way, the Finance screen shows the value of stock on hand and opens the inventory when tapped.

Five New Reports

• Fixed Asset Register: every asset with its cost, depreciation and book value, checked against the ledger, so you see at once whether the register matches the books.
• Depreciation Schedule: depreciation charged per asset and month.
• Asset Maintenance: services and repairs done, their cost, and what is due.
• Stock Summary: the quantity and value of every item on any date.
• Stock Movement: opening, in, out and closing stock, and what it was used on.

Like every Nizam report, they export to PDF, Excel and CSV for the committee or the auditors.

Also New This Month

Assets & Inventory is the headline, but it isn't the only thing that shipped:

• Several cash and bank accounts. Add a cash account for each person who collects (the guard, the supervisor) and every bank account the complex uses. Every payment and expense says which account it went into or came from, and transfers between accounts take a tap.
• Payment references and back-dated payments. Record the cheque number, bank reference or transaction ID on every payment form, and when a payment was received on an earlier day, enter that date; the receipt and the books use it.
• Cancel and correct. A wrong expense or income entry can be cancelled with a reason. It stays on record as cancelled and the books are reversed. A bill paid by mistake, fully or partly, can be marked unpaid, and any wallet money goes back to the wallet.
• A bills report for every unit. One report for a period: which flats (or offices, houses or shops) paid in full, paid in part or haven't paid, how they paid and into which account, plus their previous dues.
• Staff loans, advances and bank details. Approving a loan or advance no longer moves money until it's actually paid out, whether straight away, later, or through a payment voucher. A new loans report shows what each staff member still owes. Staff bank name, account number and IBAN now print on the payroll sheet.
• Fair leave and overtime rules. An absence comes out of the staff member's leave balance first and is unpaid only once leave runs out. Only approved overtime is paid.
• A faster camera in the app. Visitor photos at the gate and bill photos in Finance now open an in-app camera that captures the moment you tap. Update the Nizam app to get it.
• Keyboard shortcuts on the web. Press Ctrl+K (⌘K on a Mac) to jump to any page, report or action, g then a letter to go straight to a section, and Esc or Enter in any dialog. Press ? to see them all.

The Details That Matter

• Separate permissions for assets and inventory: who can view, manage and change the settings.
• Built for every kind of building: housing societies, apartment buildings, office complexes and gated communities.
• Available in every language Nizam supports, in your own currency.

Assets & Inventory is live now for every complex on Nizam: open Assets from the menu. Read more about housing society management, office building management and all features, or start a free month today.