Service
Fixed asset tagging & reconciliation
A fixed asset inventory physically verifies what your books say you own — tagging what exists, flagging what does not, and reconciling the findings back to the fixed asset register. CPT performs floor-to-book and book-to-floor reconciliations that remove ghost assets, resolve grouped and vaguely described records, and produce a listing your tax, accounting, and audit teams can all rely on.
How a register drifts out of reality
No single event breaks a fixed asset register. It erodes. A capital project is booked as one line reading "various equipment." A machine is moved between plants and the location field is never updated. A line is scrapped and the disposal entry never gets made because the person who would have made it was not told. An acquisition arrives with an opening asset balance nobody has ever walked.
Ten years of that produces a register that is directionally right and specifically wrong — and it is the source document for your personal property filings, your depreciation, your insurance schedule, and your impairment testing.
Floor-to-book and book-to-floor
The two reconciliations answer different questions and a complete inventory runs both.
Floor-to-book starts on the plant floor: every asset found is matched back to a record on the register. It finds unrecorded assets — equipment that is in service, being taxed on someone’s roll, and missing from your books.
Book-to-floor starts from the register and looks for each record on the floor. It finds the ghost assets: items you are depreciating, insuring, and paying property tax on that are not there.
How the engagement runs
- 01
Register cleanse and planning
We analyze the existing register before anyone visits — identifying grouped records, duplicate entries, missing locations, and the assets most likely to be ghosts, so field time targets what matters.
- 02
Tagging
Durable barcode or RFID tags applied and mapped to the record, with a numbering scheme that fits how you actually organize assets by site, cost center, and class.
- 03
Field verification
Asset-by-asset capture of description, serial number, manufacturer, model, condition, location, and custodian — the detail that makes a record defensible instead of merely present.
- 04
Reconciliation
Findings matched against the register in both directions, with every exception categorized: found and matched, found and unrecorded, recorded and not found, or misdescribed.
- 05
Adjusted register and recommendations
A corrected listing with proposed write-offs, additions, transfers, and reclassifications — plus the process gaps that let the drift happen, so it does not simply restart.
What an accurate register is worth
- Improved financial reporting, on a fixed asset balance that reflects what exists
- Ghost assets removed, which directly reduces personal property tax liability every year forward
- More accurate business personal property statements, built from a register that can be trusted
- Grouped assets, duplicate records, and vague descriptions resolved into discrete, defensible line items
- Support for internal control and regulatory requirements including Sarbanes-Oxley
- A defensible schedule for insurance placement and for property tax audit response
Common questions
How disruptive is a physical inventory to operations?
Less than most people expect. Field verification works around production schedules, and in most facilities the counting team is a small crew moving through areas in sequence. The larger demand is on your team up front, confirming site layouts, cost center structure, and who can escort in restricted areas.
How often should a fixed asset inventory be performed?
A three-to-five year cycle is common for a stable manufacturing footprint. Sooner is warranted after an acquisition, a plant consolidation, an ERP or fixed asset system conversion, or an audit finding on asset existence — all four are events that reliably produce register drift.
Do ghost assets really reduce our tax bill once removed?
Yes, prospectively and directly. A ghost asset removed from the register comes off the next personal property return, and the assessed value falls by that asset’s reported cost basis. Whether prior years can be recovered depends on the state — that question belongs to the consulting review.
Can you work from our existing tag numbers?
Where a scheme exists and is intact, yes — retagging a facility that already has usable identifiers wastes money. Where tags are missing, duplicated across sites, or unreadable, we propose a scheme and re-tag from a clean base.
Related services
Business Personal Property Tax Consulting & Audit Defense
A review of returns already filed to recover overpayments, plus representation when an assessor or contract auditor comes calling.
Read more →Business Personal Property Tax Compliance
Preparation and filing of personal property returns in every state that levies the tax, with the deadline calendar managed for you.
Read more →Start with a review, not an engagement.
Tell us what you own and where. We will tell you whether there is an opportunity worth pursuing.