Who Provides Fixed Asset Register Preparation Services for Companies?
Last updated: 5 October 2026
Quick Answer: Fixed asset register preparation services come from asset verification firms, internal audit practices and accounting firms other than your statutory auditor. Choose a provider that tags and physically verifies every asset, records the particulars CARO 2020 paragraph 3(i)(a) expects, applies Schedule II useful lives and reconciles the register to the books. Coimbatore-based Astral Business Consulting LLP offers this service.
The need usually surfaces during the statutory audit. The auditor asks for the property, plant and equipment register. The finance team produces a spreadsheet of capitalised invoices with no location, no tag number and no link between a machine on the floor and a line in the ledger.
The Companies (Auditor's Report) Order, 2020 obliges the auditor to state whether proper records have been kept, and depreciation is only as good as the records it is based on.
Which provider type should build your register?
Three kinds of provider do this work: specialist asset verification firms, internal audit practices with a verification team, and accounting firms that are not the company's statutory auditor. Some companies also build the register in-house with finance and maintenance staff.
The statutory auditor should not be involved in the preparation. Section 144 of the Companies Act, 2013 does not allow the auditor to provide accounting and bookkeeping services to the company, and the same auditor later reports on the register under CARO 2020.
| Provider type | Suits | Check before engaging |
|---|---|---|
| Asset verification firm | Multi-plant or multi-branch companies needing tagging and counts at scale | Whether it also reconciles to the books, or only counts |
| Internal audit practice with a verification team | Companies wanting the register built and then tested in the internal audit cycle | Independence of the team from the year's internal audit findings |
| Accounting firm (not the statutory auditor) | Single-site companies with good purchase records | Ability to physically identify plant, not only vouch invoices |
| In-house finance and maintenance team | Companies with a small asset base and spare capacity at year end | Custodians recording their own assets without review |
The right provider depends on the number of locations, the age of the records and whether tagging is needed, so compare two or three providers across these types on the same scope.
Astral Business Consulting LLP, a Coimbatore-based management consulting and audit firm, offers register preparation within its Cycle Count division's fixed asset services, together with coding and tagging of assets and verification with reconciliation.
What fields should a fixed asset register carry?
A register should let anyone quickly find each asset, assess its worth and trace its history. Although CARO 2020 does not define the term "proper records", the ICAI Guidance Note on CARO 2020 (June 2020 edition; ICAI has since issued a revised 2022 edition) lists the particulars it generally expects. The table groups them by purpose and adds practical columns, including tag number, cost centre, custodian, verification history and references to the documents, that make the register easier to verify:
| Field group | Particulars to record |
|---|---|
| Identification | Asset description sufficient to identify it, tag or code number, quantity in units |
| Location | Plant, building or branch; cost centre; custodian for movable items |
| Financial | Original cost, year of purchase, revaluation adjustments and date, impairment |
| Accounting | Classification head in the accounts, component-wise break-up, residual value |
| Lifecycle | Date put to use, useful life, rate or basis of depreciation, current year and accumulated depreciation |
| Verification | Date and result of the last physical verification, discrepancies noted |
| Evidence | Invoice, bill of entry, title deed or vehicle registration reference; sale, discard or demolition details |
How each class is identified
The Guidance Note suggests land by survey number and deed, vehicles by registration book, each movable machine as a separate record, and immovable plant sub-divided by process. Right-of-use assets under Ind AS 116 also belong in the register.
How is the register reconciled with the books?
The register must agree with the general ledger. The aggregate original cost, depreciation to date and impairment under each head should reconcile with the figures in the books of account.
A clean reconciliation follows four steps:
- Match the opening balance of each asset head in the register to the audited balance sheet.
- Trace each addition to a capitalisation entry and supporting invoice, and each deletion to an approved sale or discard.
- Recompute depreciation in the register and agree it to the charge in the profit and loss account.
- List every difference, explain it and pass the approved adjustment entry.
Exceptions from the physical count, such as assets missing from the register or entries not found on the floor, feed the same reconciliation.
What do Schedule II and CARO 3(i)(a) require of the register?
Under Paragraph 3(i)(a), the auditor must report whether proper records are maintained, and Schedule II sets the useful lives and residual values the register uses for depreciation.
Paragraph 3(i)(a) of CARO 2020
Sub-clause (A) asks whether the company keeps proper records of property, plant and equipment, showing full particulars including quantitative details and situation. Sub-clause (B) asks the same of intangible assets. The Guidance Note states that the absence of a register is a serious documentation and control lacuna, which the auditor should report. CARO 2020 does not apply to One Person Companies, small companies, banking, insurance and section 8 companies, or certain small private companies; the exact exemption limits are set out in our guide to fixed asset physical verification under CARO.
Schedule II useful lives
According to Schedule II to the Companies Act, 2013, useful life shall not ordinarily differ from Part C, and residual value shall not exceed 5% of original cost. A different useful life or residual value must be disclosed in the financial statements with justification supported by technical advice. Useful lives selected from Part C are:
| Asset (Schedule II, Part C) | Useful life (years) |
|---|---|
| Factory buildings | 30 |
| Plant and machinery, general rate (not continuous process) | 15 |
| Continuous process plant (no special rate) | 25 |
| Furniture and fittings, general | 10 |
| Office equipment | 5 |
| Servers and networks | 6 |
| Desktops, laptops and other end user devices | 3 |
| Motor cars, not used in a hire business | 8 |
A significant part with a different useful life must be depreciated over its own life, so the register needs a component break-up. Double-shift use raises depreciation for that period by 50%, and triple-shift use by 100%, unless the asset is marked as NESD (no extra shift depreciation).
How is a register rebuilt when purchase history is incomplete?
Rebuild it from the floor and the ledger together, using reasonable, documented assumptions. The Guidance Note anticipates missing years, unrecorded disposals and a single cost covering multiple assets. Practical steps that follow its approach:
- Identify on the floor first. Use people who know the assets, such as maintenance staff, and fix a code number to each asset at the point of identification.
- Allocate cost by analysis. Work back through purchases and disposals of earlier years to assign cost to each identified unit.
- Use stated assumptions. Where disposal details are missing, treat the earliest acquired asset as the one sold. Where small items share one cost, pro-rate the total by estimated individual cost.
- Group low-value items. Chairs, tables and similar items may be grouped, and assets with the same useful life may carry group depreciation.
- Apply materiality. Spend investigation time on high-value and recently purchased assets, and document every adjustment management approves.
What should a company ask a provider before engaging one?
Ask for the deliverables in writing, so proposals compare like for like:
- Fields and tagging: every particular in the table above, and tags suited to heat, oil or outdoor areas.
- Reconciliation: head-wise to the ledger, with an exceptions list, proposed entries and a Part C useful-life comparison.
- Handover: a register the finance team can maintain, covering plants, branches and job workers.
What goes wrong in practice?
Most register failures in the industries of Western Tamil Nadu are due to additions and transfers that never arrive at the register. Illustrative examples:
- Dairy: bulk milk coolers placed at village collection centres are recorded at the head office, with no custodian or situation.
- Foundry: a furnace relining of significant cost is added to the furnace's single line instead of being tracked as a component.
- Spinning mill: humidification and compressor plant installed with a new shed is capitalised with the building, at a 30-year life.
- Education company: laboratory equipment at a school run by a section 8 company is depreciated over 10 years, though Schedule II gives 5 years for laboratory equipment used in educational institutions.
An asset the register cannot locate cannot be verified or protected.
Need a register your auditor can rely on?
If the register is a list of invoices or has not been reconciled for several years, discuss the scope with our team, covering tagging, the field list and the reconciliation to your books.
