Ghost assets—items still carrying cost and depreciation after they left the premises—inflate the balance sheet and waste count time every year.
Begin with a location filter. Any asset coded to a closed plant should move to a holding status until evidence of scrap, sale, or transfer appears.
Ask facilities and legal for lease surrender documents, scrap contracts, and buyer invoices. These papers often exist outside the finance shared drive.
Where evidence is thin, management may need to write off remaining net book value with explicit approval. Leaving ghosts ‘pending investigation’ for multiple closes rarely ends well in audit.
After write-offs, renumber or freeze the old location codes so clerks cannot post new additions to a dead site.
A dedicated register cleanup engagement shortens this work when closures pile up across a group. The goal is a master file your team can maintain without annual archaeology.