FAS is not a consulting firm, we are a problem solving firm.

We believe too many consultants have already told you your problems, but none have provided you with a complete turnkey solution. We have the answers and we have the satisfied clients to prove it.

FAS began as a firm that handled Personal Property Tax. To this day, FAS still maintains a staff of tax professionals capable of evaluating all the Personal Property Tax requirements for all states. However, with time, the Personal Property Tax reporting has been integrated with Fixed Asset Physical Inventories.

The integration began for us in 1990 when a client requested that we take a physical inventory of all of their fixed assets. FAS knew that taking the inventory was not the problem. The problem was how to conduct future inventories using an improved method of technology. The introduction of barcode technology was the solution.

Barcoding has become the technology of choice for fixed asset physical inventories. It enables companies to capture and reconcile enormous amounts of information quickly, accurately, and cost effectively. In order to take advantage of barcoding's technological superiority, however, companies must plan implementation of such a system appropriately.

Barcoding is technology used to record data automatically through scanning a barcode label. Data recorded through this scanning process is stored in a portable code reader, which allows for downloading and interfacing with other systems.

Our Chief Programmer spent over 6 months analyzing and developing software programs to make the new technology work (remember this was 1990). The problem for our Programmer was that the Client required the use of their existing fixed asset number. FAS could have taken an ascending set of numbers and tagged the assets, but the Client's requirements were:

1) Use the existing fixed asset number
2) Locate, tag, record, and reconcile the fixed assets
3) Install hardware, software, and rewrite the accounting procedures to install a "turnkey" system
4) Must be done using Generally Accepted Accounting Principles

We knew we could do requirements 2 and 4 but were uncertain of how we were going to accomplish requirements 1 and 3.

FAS purchased a Swedot 196 thermal transfer printer and began to integrate the software codes with FAS's proprietary program using Rbase. Our programmer was successful in achieving integration. He downloaded the ASCII accounting files, imported to FAS's proprietary program, and printed the barcode label from the Swedot printer using the Client's existing fixed asset number.

FAS's second major innovation to the barcode process was to have the description of the asset printed on the label. FAS eliminated the introduction of a new number to the fixed asset system by printing the existing number and the current description of the asset on the barcode label. These two innovations have not been duplicated by anyone else and have been one of the main reasons FAS's clients have specifically contracted with FAS.

For more information about FAS, or to schedule a review, please call 1-888-488-1116, or e-mail us at fasllc@fas-llc.com