Mobile-based asset tracking software is what a verification team carries onto a site today instead of a handheld scanner. The tags on the assets are the same. What changed is the device that reads them, and that change decides how many people you need at each location.
This page explains how mobile capture works on a tagging and verification engagement, where it fits and where it does not, and what it changes about team size, cost and timelines. For the wider process, see our fixed asset verification services.
Why the Handheld Became the Constraint
A handheld scanner does not work on its own. It has to stay tethered to a laptop as the team moves through a site, which means a location needs at least two people: one on the scanner, one on the laptop recording and reconciling entries.
A mobile application removes the second person. One auditor scans the tag, records the condition, photographs the asset and syncs the record, all from the same device. On a single-site engagement that is a convenience. Across forty branches it is the difference between forty teams and eighty people.
The other constraints are practical rather than technical. Handheld units have to be bought or hired, charged, transported between sites, and replaced when they are dropped. Every team member has to be trained on the specific model. None of that applies to a phone the auditor already owns.
What Gets Captured Against Each Asset
A scan on its own is not audit evidence. What makes the record usable is everything captured alongside it:
- The tag number, and the Fixed Asset Register line it reconciles to
- Asset description, category, make, model and serial number where the asset carries one
- Location — building, floor, department, plant or shed
- Condition and usage status: running, idle, under repair, or not traced
- A photograph of the asset in position
- Location coordinates, and the date and time of capture
- Who verified it
An auditor working to SA 500 on audit evidence is testing existence. A photograph of a tagged asset in its recorded location, timestamped and attributable to a named verifier, answers that question in a way a spreadsheet line cannot.
How Mobile-Based Asset Tracking Software Runs on Site
- The team installs the application on standard Android or iOS phones.
- Assets are scanned from their QR or barcode tags using the phone camera.
- Condition, location and photograph are recorded at the point of scanning.
- Records sync to a cloud dashboard as the walk progresses, and queue offline where a plant basement or a remote branch has no signal.
- The captured data is reconciled against the register and classified line by line.
Fixed asset verification runs during working hours, because fixed assets do not move. Inventory counts are the opposite case: stock moves, so a count runs overnight or on a closed day against a fixed cut-off.
Where Mobile Capture Is Not the Answer
Mobile scanning reads QR and barcode tags, which require line of sight — the auditor has to see and reach each tag. That covers most office, IT, furniture and plant environments.
Where assets sit in dense racking, inside enclosures, or in volumes high enough that reading them one at a time is the constraint, RFID is the better fit, because it reads in bulk without line of sight. That decision is made asset by asset during the survey, not taken for a site as a whole. Most engagements use a mix.
Tag choice follows the same logic. QR and barcode labels run ₹2–15 per tag and suit clean, dry environments. Passive RFID runs ₹10–200 per tag before volume discount, with on-metal and specialised types at the upper end. See RFID tagging cost in India for the full build-up.
How Many People, and For How Long
A duration is not a planning figure unless a headcount comes with it. These are per person, per day, for tagging and data capture:
| Asset type | Assets per person per day | What sets the pace |
|---|---|---|
| Office furniture and fittings | 100–150 | Found and recognised without help |
| Laptops and IT equipment | 100–120 | Serial numbers must be read and recorded |
| Plant and machinery | 80–100 | Identification often depends on the machine’s user or the maintenance team being available |
The rate follows the asset, not the site. A warehouse or a retail store is whatever mix of those three its asset base holds. Where a machine can only be identified by the person who runs it, that person’s availability paces the work, not the team’s.
What It Costs
- Manpower — ₹15–35 per asset for tagging, data capture and verification. The lower end applies in Delhi NCR and anywhere a small count can be run by a local team; the upper end where a full team travels and accommodation, transport and daily allowance load the cost.
- Tags — ₹2–15 for QR and barcode, ₹10–200 for passive RFID, depending on the tag type the environment requires.
- A complete engagement — tagging plus physical verification plus FAR reconciliation delivered together — runs ₹80–350 per asset. Tagging alone costs less, because it is only the manpower and the tag.
There is no separate hardware line, because the work is done on phones the team already carries.
Running Your Own Verification Cycles
We are a field services firm, not a software vendor. We do not sell a fixed asset management system, and the verification work is delivered by our own teams.
Where a client wants to run its own cycles between engagements, the asset tagging application is available on subscription: upload the register in Excel, generate QR labels, and run verification in-house on the same mobile capture the field teams use. The QR and RFID versions are separate applications and are priced accordingly, from ₹25,000 to ₹2,00,000 a year depending on which and on scale.
For inventory verification there is no subscription. Client access to the record is available on the day of the audit for anyone who wants it.
What the Reconciliation Produces
The deliverable is a reconciliation, not a scan log. Every register line lands in one of four categories: traced and matched; traced with corrections to location, description or condition; recorded but not found; found but not recorded.
The reconciled report follows within about a week of the client agreeing the findings. The longer wait usually sits on the client’s side — assets in the register but not traced on site get searched for thoroughly before anyone writes them off, and that search can run for weeks.
Verification data is delivered as structured files formatted for upload into your accounting or ERP system. The upload is carried out by your team or your ERP vendor. On one auto components engagement across three plants and a corporate office, the reconciled register was used as the asset master for the client’s own system migration.
Where CARO 2020 Fits
The Companies (Auditor’s Report) Order, 2020 places the reporting duty on the auditor, not on the company. Two clauses bear on fixed assets:
- Clause 3(i)(a)(A) — whether the company maintains proper records showing full particulars, including quantitative details and situation, of Property, Plant and Equipment. “Situation” means location.
- Clause 3(i)(b) — whether PPE has been physically verified by management at reasonable intervals, whether the interval is reasonable, and whether material discrepancies were noticed and properly dealt with in the books.
The verification itself is management’s responsibility. Neither tagging nor any particular capture method is required by the Order. Auditors work to SA 500 on audit evidence and SA 330 on responses to assessed risks, both of which are easier to satisfy when each asset carries a unique identity and a dated record of who verified it.
What We Do
We tag and physically verify fixed assets across plants, offices, warehouses and branch networks, and reconcile the findings against your fixed asset register. Work is delivered by our own field teams, and through associate teams where a small asset count is spread across many locations. We have completed 395+ projects across 1,500+ locations in India, covering 10 lakh+ assets tagged.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do we need handheld scanners or RFID readers?
Not for QR or barcode tagging, which covers most requirements. The team scans from standard Android or iOS phones. RFID readers are used where bulk scanning without line of sight is worth the additional tag cost; we do not supply readers.
Can data be captured without an internet connection?
Yes. Records are captured offline and sync when connectivity returns, which matters in plant basements, remote branches and warehouse interiors.
How many people will be on site?
It depends on the asset count and mix. At 100–150 assets per person per day for furniture and fittings, or 80–100 for plant and machinery, a 6,000-asset site of mixed machinery is roughly 60–75 man-days. The survey before the project fixes the team size and sequence.
Can the data be loaded into our ERP?
Verification data is delivered as structured files formatted for upload into your accounting or ERP system. The upload is carried out by your team or your ERP vendor.
Can we run verification ourselves afterwards?
Yes, on subscription to the asset tagging application — register uploaded in Excel, QR labels generated, verification run in-house. The QR and RFID versions are separate applications and are priced from ₹25,000 to ₹2,00,000 a year.
Does verification disrupt operations?
Fixed asset verification runs during working hours, because fixed assets do not move. Inventory counts are different — stock moves, so a count runs overnight or on a closed day.
