Five signs your fixed asset register is drifting

A register can look orderly in a spreadsheet and still be wrong. These five patterns show up repeatedly in Hong Kong fieldwork before a painful auditor query.

1. Fully depreciated assets with no retirement plan

Lines at zero net book value that still occupy floor space — or worse, that left the building years ago — clutter samples and hide real control issues. Ask operations which zero-NBV assets are still in use.

2. Location codes that nobody recognises

After office moves or warehouse redesigns, location fields often lag. If your register still points to a floor you surrendered, existence testing will fail in volume.

3. Additions without serials or tags

Capex posted from project codes without physical identifiers makes later verification guesswork. Tag at receipt, not at year-end.

4. Disposals known to operations but not to finance

Warehouse supervisors discard broken plant; finance never receives a disposal form. The mismatch surfaces when someone walks the aisle with a printout.

5. Cost fields that cannot be vouched

Round-sum transfers, missing invoices, or bundled project costs without asset-level splits leave you unable to support carrying amounts. Clean those before sampling begins.

If two or more of these apply, a focused register review before the close is usually cheaper than explaining exceptions under audit pressure.