For ministries with limited budget and staff to manage the process, simply tracking things in an Excel Spreadsheet or Google Sheet could be the way to go. For mid-sized and larger churches, cloud-based subscription services or other options might work best.
When serving in tech ministry, it almost goes without saying that two of our top priorities are to run services effectively and manage/train volunteer teams to run those services.
But another key part of our jobs is to be effective stewards of the resources we’ve been given and manage the equipment and technology effectively and wisely.
A critical part of this equation is to have an effective asset management process in place so gear can be logged, tracked, and maintained effectively.
Regardless of the size of one’s church, department budget, or volunteer team, having a solid asset management system in place is also a critical part of the longer-term budget planning process.
Options no matter your church's size
For churches with multiple campuses or venues, or large amounts of equipment that needs to get managed, tracked, or assigned to different rooms or locations, more costly subscription-based cloud services could be the best option (such as Flex Rental Systems or Current RMS) because of their ability to track items between almost unlimited locations and add multiple layers of detail.
For smaller or mid-sized churches, options like UpKeep or Asset Panda could be a great fit, due to a more cost-effective price structure and with less bells and whistles than other options.
Or, for ministries with limited budget and staff to manage this process, simply tracking things in an Excel Spreadsheet or Google Sheet could be the best way to go.
Once a platform for managing assets has been determined, it’s best to then decide what type of equipment needs to be in the system. For starters, one could simply track everything but signal and power cables (TVs, converters, lighting fixtures, mics, etc.).
Having a solid asset management system in place is also a critical part of the longer-term budget planning process.
If it could get too cumbersome due to nitpicking over smaller items, it may be easier to set a monetary cutoff (based on original purchase price) and simply track anything over that dollar amount (like $500 or $1,000). This decision could even be made in conjunction with the church’s accounting or finance team to assist them in tracking depreciating assets.
As a sidebar, there may also be value in considering a way to track or list any items that are trashed or donated as well, in case the finance team needs to remove those items from a global asset list. And further, tracking things over a certain dollar amount could be of great value to the church’s insurance company when helping determine coverage amounts or payout in the event of a claim.
What gear information is most important to log?
Once it’s been decided what gear to track, then comes the decision for what information is necessary to keep tabs on.
For starters, original purchase date (and price) and model/part/serial numbers should always be included. By having all of this information readily available, that will make it immensely easier when sending gear off to be replaced or having to file any sort of warranty claim. Plus, if you ever need to buy an additional (or replacement) unit, it’s easier to have all of the info at your fingertips than to go digging through a rack to try and read the stamp on the back of the gear.
For organizations that need to consider a more robust asset system, many of those platforms have the ability to generate their own internal barcodes, which can then be printed on labels and affixed to the gear. Then, if something needs to get moved to a different room or venue, it can be scanned (or manually pulled up in the software) and reassigned elsewhere, making it infinitely easier to know where the critical equipment is living at any given time.
For organizations that need to consider a more robust asset system, many of those platforms have the ability to generate their own internal barcodes, which can then be printed on labels and affixed to the gear.
But if an internal barcode or asset numbering system is being used, that becomes another item that is critical to track in any sort of master document.
Beyond just information on the equipment itself, an effective asset management system should also have the ability to track repair/maintenance history or even give proactive reminders for when preventative maintenance should be done. The proactive piece of this is of huge importance so that gear can get maintained or replaced before it fails at a critical juncture.
Again, at a low level, this could all just be columns/rows in a Google sheet, and by manually setting periodic reminders in Outlook.
In a more robust system, though, these features tend to come built in and are critical components.
Keeping tabs on maintenance history
Tracking maintenance history can help tell a story for when it’s time to replace a particular item (if damage/failures are occurring more frequently). If there’s the ability or desire to log the number of hours spent working on a specific piece of gear, those man hours could also be used as justification for purchasing something newer or more efficient.
Or, if looking at global time spent on maintenance, it could be used to show why additional production staff are needed, simply to focus on maintaining infrastructure.
Having as much data as possible can show the correlation between usage and failures so church leadership can get a better understanding of the actual operational cost of adding additional events or locations.
It can also more effectively help with longer-term budget planning, painting a picture of the expected life cycle of equipment. This can help finance teams better project longer-term capital expenses and know how to keep money sitting aside for costly repairs or replacement items.
Having as much data as possible can show the correlation between usage and failures so church leadership can get a better understanding of the actual operational cost.
For many in the finance area, having data to allow them to make proactive decisions with budgeting and expenses is critical. When done properly, this proactive process can also provide important “street cred” for a tech with church leadership by showing his or her ability to think longer-term and plan out higher-dollar expenses.
And on that note, it can be valuable to consistently maintain a running list of actual maintenance expenses that can show what that investment looks like year over year (i.e., is it costing more or less to maintain what is currently happening?). This can then be used as ROI data to help justify why replacement expenses should be allocated.
As a whole, an asset management/tracking system probably isn’t the most exciting thing on the radar for many church techs. But it can be one of the most important, and is a crucial part of effectively stewarding the systems we manage.
It’s a critical piece of maintaining systems on a day-to-day basis, and it’s invaluable when helping do long-term planning.
