Asset Management09 May 2026 · 5 min read

Why your asset register is wrong, and the four sources that fix it

Inventory accuracy is not a tooling problem. It is a reconciliation problem, and it needs four independent sources.

Priya Raman

ITAM Practice Lead

Asset registers do not drift because the tool is bad. They drift because a single source is treated as the truth while three others quietly disagree with it.

Reconcile four sources

Procurement and finance records — what was bought and what it cost

Endpoint management and MDM — what is actually checking in

Physical audit — what is in the building or the store room

HR and directory data — who should hold it

The differences between these four are the interesting part. A device in finance but not in MDM is either lost or never deployed. A device checking in but not in finance came from somewhere you have no record of.

Make updates a by-product of normal work

Any process that relies on someone remembering to update a spreadsheet after a repair will fail. Tie record updates to the workflows that already exist: the ticket, the collection, the onboarding form.

Once accuracy is above 95%, the register becomes something you can budget from — refresh forecasts, warranty renewals and licence counts all stop being estimates.

Why your asset register is wrong, and the four sources that fix it

Reconcile four sources

Make updates a by-product of normal work

Tell us what the estate looks like.