This webinar discusses the risks of using spreadsheets to manage fixed assets and depreciation. It presents Sage Fixed Assets as a solution to eliminate these risks. Sage Fixed Assets integrates with Sage ERP systems to automate the fixed asset management process, including asset creation, depreciation calculation, and general ledger posting. This provides a complete solution and avoids errors common in manual spreadsheet-based processes. The webinar also covers best practices for other areas of fixed asset management like physical inventory, planning, and placing assets in service.

1. Welcome!
Start Time: 2:00pm EST

2. Webinar Details
• Presentation is roughly 1 hour
• All phone lines are muted
• If anyone has any questions during this webinar – please type them in
your Questions Box located at the bottom of your webinar panel

3. Today’s Presenters
Howard Finestone
Sage 100 ERP ‐ Practice Director
Net@Work
Grant Griebel
Fixed Assets Solutions Engineer
Sage

4. Net@Work Overview – Solutions & Services

5. Depreciation
doesn’t have to be as
complicated as you think

6. Depreciation: Eliminating the risks of
spreadsheets
Why shouldn’t I be using spreadsheets to
manage my fixed assets?
What are the risks?
What alternatives are available to me?
Depreciation doesn’t have to be as complicated as you think

7. Depreciation: Eliminating the risks of
spreadsheets
Agenda:
• Spreadsheet dangers
• Using Sage Fixed Assets Depreciation
• Managing the entire Fixed Asset Process
Depreciation doesn’t have to be as complicated as you think

8. What do you mean
spreadsheet dangers?

9. Spreadsheet dangers
No Audit Trail Manual Data Entry Security Concerns
Manual Formulas Cell References
No Predevelopment Design
Depreciation doesn’t have to be as complicated as you think
No Documentation
Manual Sorting
Version Control
Fraud Concerns
Inconsistent Reporting
Worksheet Updates
Sarbanes-Oxley

10. Depreciation: Overcoming the costs of spreadsheets 03 December 2014 10

11. Data control
Data control with spreadsheets is a headache. Here’s why:
• Spreadsheet knowledge tied to personnel
• Introduces the challenge of “version control”
• Minimal security and access control options
• Spreadsheets do not scale well with growing businesses
• Have to incorporate formulas for changing tax law by hand
Depreciation doesn’t have to be as complicated as you think 03 December 2014

12. Data integrity
Dirty data impacts multiple parts of your business:
• Bad reports
• Inaccurate asset values
• Inaccurate asset counts
• Potential audits
Depreciation doesn’t have to be as complicated as you think

13. Real world examples:
Eastman Kodak Company
“Eastman Kodak Company restated financial
results for the first and second quarters by $2
million and $13 million, respectively, due to an
erroneous spreadsheet that calculated
severance and special pension-related
termination benefits.”
Depreciation doesn’t have to be as complicated as you think http://www.pcworld.com/article/127189/article.html

14. Real world examples:
RedEnvelope, Inc.
“Shares of RedEnvelope Inc. tumbled more than 25 percent . . . after the online
retailer of specialty gifts drastically reduced its fourth-quarter outlook” Stanford
Group analyst Rebecca Jones Kujawa said in an interview. “ . . . they were
underestimating the cost of goods sold . . .” RedEnvelope spokeswoman Jordan
Goldstein said the budgeting error was simply due to a number misrecorded in one
cell of a spreadsheet that then threw off the cost forecast.
–Michael N. Day and Stephen Talbot, “Data Validation the Best Practice for Data Quality in Fixed Asset Management,” www.amrnow.com
Depreciation doesn’t have to be as complicated as you think http://www.eusprig.org/stories.htm

15. Real world examples:
CECO
“CECO’s in-house accounting staff has discovered an
accounting error in the spreadsheet calculations used by the
Company’s construction division for its ‘percentage of
completion’ accounting. The net effect will be a cumulative
reduction in revenue of $1,969,000 over the four year period
2000 to 2003 with an equivalent charge to pretax net income.”
Depreciation doesn’t have to be as complicated as you think http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/stories/2005/02/07/daily31.html

16. Spreadsheets kill data integrity
The facts:
• “64% of financial spreadsheets audited contained errors. Of those spreadsheets with errors, they
found ten had an error exceeding $100,000, six over $10 million, and one in excess of $100 million.”1
• “AMR has repeatedly found that 65 percent of fixed asset data is incomplete, inaccurate, or altogether
missing, while 10 percent to 30 percent of fixed assets are no longer owned.”2
• “30 to 90% of all spreadsheets tested suffer from at least one major user error. In addition, none of
the tests included spreadsheets with more than 200 line items, where the probability of error
approaches 100 percent.”3
1. http://panko.shidler.hawaii.edu/SSR/Mypapers/whatknow.htm 2.Data Validation the Best Practice for Data Quality in Fixed Asset 16
Management,” www.amrnow.com 3. 2007 study Tucks School of Business at Dartmouth College

17. How can Sage Fixed Assets
eliminate the risks of
spreadsheets?

18. How do Sage’s ERP Systems (like
Sage 100) Currently Handle Fixed
Asset Management?
ERP Offering Out of the Box Capabilities
Sage 100 None
Sage 300 None
Sage 500 None
Sage X3 Straight Line Depreciation only. No Tax Laws Included
Fixed Asset Management is an important part of your business,
and it is not a problem addressed by most ERP offerings.

19. Sage Fixed Assets is Designed to
Integrate with Sage ERP out of box
• Sage Fixed Assets offers
integration for AP/PO asset
creation and automated GL
postings for most ERP’s in the
Sage family.
• Integrating SFA to Sage 100
provides an enterprise solution
Depreciation doesn’t have to be as complicated as you think

20. Why should I consider integration?
We don’t need it…
Automated Process Manual Process with
chance for error Without Integration…
Purchase new
Manually export
• Data must be manipulated
assets in Sage
new asset data
ERP
from ERP AP/PO
manually, leading to dirty data
• Additional time and people
needed to format data for
export/import
• Must manually confirm that
both systems data is in sync
Format data for
SFA import
Manually import
new assets into
SFA
Run Depreciation
in SFA
Generate GL
Posting report
based on recent
Depreciation
Manually export
GL posting report
Format GL
posting report for
import
Manually Import
entries into
ERP’s GL

21. How does integration provide a
complete fixed asset solution?
Assets flow
into Sage
Fixed Assets
Run
depreciation
on assets
SFA
generates
GL entries
New assets
purchased
via ERP
AP/PO
GL entries
flow into
ERP
With Integration…
• Less manual data entry, which
means less human error, leading to
cleaner data
• Automated data flow makes
processes more efficient, saving
time
• Provides a complete fixed asset
management cycle

22. What about the rest of
the Fixed Asset Process?

23. How does inaccurate asset data
impact my bottom line?
We can estimate the potential impact of
inaccurate asset counts using some
averages:
• Average federal tax rate: 30%
• Average state tax rate: 6%
• Average property tax rate: 3.4%
• Average insurance rate of 0.01 per $1
Depreciation doesn’t have to be as complicated as you think

24. Begin taking physical inventories of
your assets!
Sage Fixed Assets – Tracking
• Takes advantage of existing data in Sage Fixed
Assets – Depreciation
• Ensures when you perform a physical inventory
asset data is accurate and up-to-date
Depreciation doesn’t have to be as complicated as you think
Sage Fixed Assets – Tracking Sage Fixed Assets – Depreciation
Sage Fixed Assets Database

25. Plan, budget and place WIP’s
into service
Depreciation doesn’t have to be as complicated as you think
Sage Fixed Assets – Planning
Sage Fixed Assets
Database
Sage Fixed Assets – Planning
• Invoices are compared to budgets
• Finished assets are passed into the database

26. Please type in
your questions
Start Time: 2:00pm EST

27. Thank You!
For any questions or information about how Sage Fixed Asset can impact your business, contact:
Shaun Garrity | Net@Work
Phone: 800‐719‐3307 Ext. 0817
sgarrity@netatwork.com
Pat Russo | Net@Work
Phone: 800‐719‐3307 Ext. 1767
prusso@netatwork.com
Stephanie Davis | Net@Work
Phone: 800‐719‐3307 Ext. 3812
sdavis@netatwork.com
Ashley Bonser | Net@Work
Phone: 800‐719‐3307 Ext. 6080
abonser@netatwork.com