Why Your Excel Asset List Is Lying to You — and What We Did About It

Why Your Excel Asset List Is Lying to You — and What We Did About It

By Dave Fairburn, Co-Founder of CrewHero & North Point Outdoors

I ask this question to almost every company I meet — big or small:

“How much stuff do you own?”

And every time, I get the same look.

Somewhere between confused and exposed.

Because the truth is:

None of us really know.

The Great Spreadsheet Lie

We think we know.

We’ve got QuickBooks reports.

We’ve got a depreciation schedule.

We’ve got that one Excel file — you know the one — “AssetList_Updated_2023_FINAL_final.xlsx.”

That list starts out strong:

• You buy a truck → It shows up on the books

• You finance a skid steer → Accountant adds it to your chart of accounts

• You track it for taxes → Until it’s depreciated, then… poof

Once the loan’s paid off, it disappears from everything that matters.

But that truck?

It’s still running routes.

Still making you money.

Still worth 50% of what you paid for it.

You fixed it, welded it, painted it, re-lettered it.

You kept up with the maintenance because you needed it to last.

That truck still works hard.

But now it lives nowhere useful — just a row in a spreadsheet no one opens.

“The Yardsale List”

That’s what I used to call mine.

Not an asset list. Not a depreciation table.

A yardsale list — how much cash could I raise if I sold everything today?

Problem was, the list was trash.

Missing trailers.

Missing attachments.

Chainsaws? A mystery.

Cut saws? No clue.

Buckets? Good luck.

Blowers? Stolen? Broken? Maybe both?

And it wasn’t just the big stuff.

It was the pile of small, medium, and mission-critical tools that quietly added up to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

All of it bought with real money.

All of it used daily.

None of it organized.

But sure — “the list” is good…

You haven’t looked at it in 6 months.

Maybe since your accountant asked what you bought last year.

Sound familiar?

The Reality Check

Here’s the problem with databases:

They’re always someone’s side project.

They live in folders.

They don’t live in reality.

Your operations team doesn’t use them to dispatch.

Your mechanics don’t reference them to service.

Your frontline can’t access them when they need a hitch size, VIN, or part number.

They’re just there — floating — until they quietly fail you:

• A stolen mower never made it onto your insurance binder

• A skid steer was sent to the wrong crew because no one knew it was out for service

• Your field guy called you at the parts store asking for a serial number you don’t have

CrewHero Made It Real

When we started using CrewHero at North Point Outdoors, something changed.

The database actually mattered.

It had to be accurate — because we relied on it to dispatch.

That’s when we realized our old asset list?

Was wrong — with four G’s.

We were missing:

• Dozens of tools

• Multiple trailers

• Attachments, buckets, blowers

• Even a few whole vehicles that somehow slipped through the cracks

Now?

Mechanics add new assets in seconds.

They number them.

They label them.

They upload serials, VINs, hours, and miles.

They take photos of data tags and hitch sizes.

Everything lives in one place.

On our phones.

Searchable.

Trackable.

And 99% accurate. (Because 100% feels impossible, let’s be honest.)

The Real Win

Now when I walk into the shop?

I see the stuff we’ve worked so hard to buy — listed, categorized, tracked, and ready.

I know:

• What we have

• Where it is

• Who’s using it

• What it’s worth

My team can find what they need, without texting 14 people or stopping production.

At the parts store, I can pull up the exact part number — no texts, no photos, no wasted time.

That used to be noise.

Now, it’s power.

Final Thought

If your asset list is buried in Excel, it’s not helping you.

And if your team can’t access it? It’s worse than useless — it’s risky.

Your assets are your worth.

You spent years collecting them.

You maintain them.

You rely on them.

They deserve better than a forgotten spreadsheet.

CrewHero made our asset database real.

And in doing so, made our operations smoother, faster, and way more respected — by the people who need it most.

So, back to the question:

How much stuff do you own?

And more importantly:

Does your team know how to use it?

— Dave Fairburn

CrewHero Co-Founder

North Point Outdoors