Most fixed asset registers in India are wrong in two directions at once. There are assets on the register that no longer physically exist — scrapped, stolen, or written off in reality but never in the books. And there are assets on the floor that were never recorded, usually because they were bought as repairs or arrived with a project.
Fixed asset verification is the physical confirmation of the existence, location and condition of property, plant and equipment, matched against the fixed asset register, followed by a reconciliation of every difference.
CorporateWalla verifies fixed assets physically, against your register, at every location — recording what is there, what is not, where each asset actually sits, who holds it and what condition it is in — and gives you a reconciled register your statutory auditor can work from.
Sheet to floor. Start from the register and find each asset. This is what catches ghost assets — items carried in the books, still being depreciated, that are not physically there.
Floor to sheet. Start from what is physically present and trace it back to the register. This is what catches unrecorded assets — items bought and in use but never capitalised, often because the invoice was posted to repairs or consumables.
A verification that only runs sheet-to-floor tells you what you have lost. Only floor-to-sheet tells you what you never recorded. You need both to say the register is correct, and doing only one is the commonest way these exercises fail.
Asset verification services and physical verification of assets are used in the market to describe this same exercise. We say fixed asset verification because it is unambiguous: it means property, plant and equipment — not stock, and not the asset-search work that lenders and litigants sometimes mean by asset verification.
If what you need counted is stock — raw material, work-in-progress, finished goods, trading stock — that is stock audit and physical inventory verification. If it is laptops, plant, machinery, furniture, vehicles, servers or lab equipment, you are on the right page. Many engagements cover both, and where they do we run them together so the cut-off and the site visit are shared.
| Finding | What it means |
|---|---|
| Ghost assets | On the register, not on the floor. Still being depreciated. Still insured. Still in the tax base |
| Unrecorded assets | On the floor, not on the register. Usually expensed instead of capitalised |
| Location mismatches | The register says one branch, the asset is at another. Common after office moves, and after remote working normalised laptops leaving the building |
| Duplicate entries | The same asset capitalised twice, often once as a purchase and once as an installation cost |
| Unusable descriptions | Machinery. Computer. Furniture, 12 nos. A register line that cannot identify a specific physical object cannot be verified |
| No tags, or illegible tags | Verification becomes description-matching, which is slow and unreliable |
| Missing componentisation | Where Schedule II component accounting applies, a significant part with a different useful life should be tracked separately |
| Disposals never recorded | Scrapped or sold assets still carried at written-down value |
A tag is not decoration. It converts verification from "is this the lathe on line 47 of the register?", which is a judgement, into a scan or a lookup. It makes the next verification faster and cheaper than this one, which is why tagging usually pays for itself on the second cycle.
CARO's phrase is 'reasonable intervals', and it is deliberately not a number. What is reasonable depends on the value and mobility of the asset base, the number of locations, and the strength of your asset controls.
Manufacturing. Plant and machinery with components at different useful lives, tools and dies that move between machines, and assets installed by contractors that never reached the register.
IT and technology. The largest, most mobile asset class in the country — laptops and peripherals distributed across offices and employees' homes. Verification here is as much a custodian-confirmation exercise as a physical one.
BFSI. Branch networks with identical asset profiles repeated across hundreds of locations, where the register is usually accurate in aggregate and wrong per branch.
Healthcare and hospitals. Biomedical equipment with service histories, calibration status and, frequently, equipment on loan or consignment from suppliers.
Hospitality. Assets distributed across hundreds of rooms, plus low-value items that behave like inventory.
Education. Lab and IT equipment across departments, often bought from grants with separate reporting obligations.
Retail. Store fit-outs, display fixtures and POS hardware, where leasehold improvements at closed stores are routinely still on the register.
Infrastructure and construction. Equipment that moves between project sites, so location changes faster than the register does.
Both directions, always. Sheet-to-floor and floor-to-sheet. A single-direction verification is half a job sold as a whole one.
We say where our scope stops. Verification, tagging, reconciliation and audit evidence — yes. Valuation — no, and we will point you to the right asset class of Registered Valuer instead.
We fix the register, not just count against it. The deliverable is a usable register, not a list of differences you then have to act on alone.
Structured for your auditor. The evidence is organised the way a statutory auditor asks for it under CARO clause 3(i), so your audit does not become a second verification.
One team. DSG Corporate Financial Advisors LLP — Chartered Accountants, Company Secretaries, Cost Accountants and lawyers in house.
Physical confirmation of the existence, location and condition of property, plant and equipment against the fixed asset register, followed by a reconciliation of every difference.
Tagging attaches a unique identifier to each physical asset. Verification confirms that the asset exists, where it is and what condition it is in, and reconciles that to the register. Tagging makes verification faster and more reliable; it is not a substitute for it.
Sheet to floor starts from the register and looks for each asset — it finds ghost assets. Floor to sheet starts from what is physically present and traces it back to the register — it finds unrecorded assets. A complete verification does both.
CARO 2020 clause 3(i)(b) requires your statutory auditor to report whether PPE has been physically verified by the management at reasonable intervals and whether material discrepancies were noticed and properly dealt with. So the obligation to verify sits with management; the obligation to report on it sits with the auditor.
Reasonable intervals under CARO, judged on the facts. In practice: annually for high-value and mobile assets, and on a documented rolling cycle for low-value immobile assets, provided every location is reached within the cycle.
Assets carried in the fixed asset register that no longer physically exist — scrapped, stolen, disposed of or never delivered — but never removed from the books. They continue to attract depreciation, distort the net block, inflate insurance premiums and misstate the asset base.
Management is responsible for it. It is commonly performed by an independent firm on management's behalf, so that the result is evidence a statutory auditor and a board can rely on. Your statutory auditor reports on it but does not perform it.
No. We verify, tag and reconcile. Valuations required under provisions of the Companies Act, 2013 must be carried out by an IBBI-registered Registered Valuer in the relevant asset class — Land and Building, Plant and Machinery, or Securities or Financial Assets. We will tell you which one you need.
Yes. Asset verification is far less disruptive than a stock count — assets are generally static and can be verified area by area during working hours. Plant on a running line is scheduled around shutdowns or shift changes.
That population is handled by custodian confirmation supported by evidence rather than by physical attendance, and it is reported separately so the basis is transparent. For most IT-heavy companies this is now a material part of the asset base.
FAR reconciliation matches the register to the physical assets. FAR-to-GL reconciliation matches the register totals to the general ledger. They are different exercises and both can fail independently — a register can tie to the ledger perfectly and still describe assets that no longer exist.
Yes, where tags are missing or illegible. Tag type is chosen for the environment, so that the identifier survives the place the asset actually lives.
Send us your fixed asset register and your location list. We will come back with scope, timeline and fee.
Tell us how many locations there are, roughly how many line items the register carries, and whether your assets currently carry tags — no tags, partial tags and illegible tags are three different jobs. Say also why the verification is being done: statutory audit, CARO readiness, insurance, IPO or diligence readiness, a merger or transfer, or because the register has never been verified at all.
CorporateWalla, operating under DSG Corporate Financial Advisors LLP, 129A Bangur Avenue, Block A, Kolkata 700055.
We will scope the verification, tell you whether tagging is needed, and price it in writing before any site visit. Call 72783 76654. Mon–Sat, 10:00 AM – 7:00 PM IST.
