SELWOOD HOUSING SELECTS ASSET4000 FROM RAM TO CATEGORISE £126M ASSET BASE

~ Wiltshire-based housing association enlists RAM’s asset management solution to assist with component accounting ~

9th November 2011: Selwood Housing, a social enterprise and charitable housing association, has selected Asset4000 from Real Asset Management (RAM) to control and categorise its £126m asset base. The purchase will provide the Association with a robust, IFRS-compliant asset register, bringing it in line with SoRP 2010 guidelines.

 Selwood Housing has been improving homes and communities throughout Wiltshire and Somerset since 1989 and has over 5,500 properties with an estimated worth close to £126.4 million.

 In order to adhere to the regulations outlined under SoRP, housing associations will be obliged to categorise their asset register into components. A task of this scale is pushing associations to act now despite the deadline being a year away as Sue Eley, Head of Finance at Selwood Housing, explains: “Under the new rulings, each of our assets will be broken down into nine individual components, pushing our current register to almost 50,000. Given the sheer volume of data, the spreadsheet system that we currently use isn’t a viable option. Therefore we needed to investigate other solutions that could deal with this volume of data.”
 
The change in regulations meant that Selwood Housing needed to invest in a company that understood the changing landscape of component accounting, as Sue Eley continued: “We wanted to invest in a solution that was user-friendly and simple. We were aware that RAM had supplied many housing associations across the country with Asset4000 and it appeared to hold a comprehensive knowledge of the SoRP guidelines. We also received some good feedback from other organisations who had already invested in Asset4000.

 “In order to adhere to the new guidelines, there will inevitably be a lengthy period of implementation. The solution from Real Asset Management will provide us with a system that will ensure ongoing IFRS compliancy.” 
  “We hope that the reporting functionality provided by Asset4000 will ease the transition into component accounting. Real Asset Management’s knowledge of the industry and the SoRP guidelines should ensure we end up with an up-to-date and efficient system to work with.”

For further information, please contact:
Karen Conneely (Marketing manager)   
Real Asset Management   
Tel: +44 (0)1689 892100   
Email : solution@realassetmgt.co.uk