Should Your Asset Management Live Inside Your Core Stack?
Not all assets are created equal
You’ve got assets - IT hardware, production equipment, furniture, props, maybe even staff uniforms. Now comes the question: do you manage them in the same systems that run the rest of your business, or do you keep them somewhere else entirely?
This isn’t really a tech decision, it’s about cost, complexity, visibility and whether your business can operate cleanly at scale.
The Case for Keeping It Close
There’s an argument for folding asset management into your existing stack. If your team already lives inside a core ERP or operations tool, extending that system to track assets feels logical.
Single source of truth: Everyone’s looking at the same data. No more copy-paste across spreadsheets.
Process alignment: Asset movements can be tied to workflows you’ve already built; like purchasing, finance, or ops.
Lower overhead: One system means one vendor, one login, and (ideally) one bill.
Built-in allocation logic: If your assets move between locations, say, uniforms shifting between stores based on size demand, it helps to integrate asset data into the same systems that already manage inventory allocation. That way, your asset transfers can ride the same rails as your stock replenishment logic.
Operational clarity: A store manager can log a shortage of large jackets, triggering a movement of assets from another site or warehouse. HQ has visibility into the request, the transfer, and the impact on both locations, without needing to swivel between tools or duplicate updates.
But.
Most Core Systems Aren’t Built for This
You’ll quickly hit limitations if your assets aren’t standard issue. The deeper you get into things like asset condition, location tracking, usage logs, or repair histories, the more you start bending your core platform to do things it was never designed to do.
Custom development required: Most off-the-shelf ERPs need heavy config to track non-financial asset metadata.
Poor UX for operational teams: Core systems are often optimised for back office, not warehouse or field teams.
Performance trade-offs: Bolting complex asset logic onto an already-bloated ERP risks slowing everything down.
What Kind of Assets Are We Talking About?
If you’re tracking laptops and monitors, your ERP probably has it covered.
If you're tracking modular display units, custom light fixtures, furniture, mannequins, signage, or other store-specific equipment, you're into a different category of asset entirely. These are physical items that may not be sold but still need to be tracked, maintained, and moved between sites based on visual merchandising plans, seasonal themes, or store openings.
You’ll need flexible structures, clean interfaces, and real-time visibility across multiple sites. That’s where low-code tools like Airtable or similar platforms start to shine.
Airtable as the Interface, the ERP as the Spine
In these cases, Airtable (or an equivalent low-code tool) can act as the control tower for physical asset visibility. It can integrate with your ERP, POS, or planning systems to track asset types, components, conditions, movements, and repairs. It also gives store or VM teams a user-friendly interface to log updates on the fly, no training required.
Not every brand needs that level of granularity. But if you're managing dozens of stores, running high-frequency store refreshes, or rotating campaign materials between sites, you can’t afford for this information to live in a spreadsheet. Or worse, across inboxes, Slack threads, and half-updated docs.
When to Keep It Separate
Your assets are varied, complex, and move across multiple locations.
You need operational teams to log data quickly and accurately.
You plan to scale and can’t afford data inconsistencies or version issues.
When to Fold It Into Your Core Stack
Your asset types are few and relatively static.
Your existing systems already support inventory and depreciation tracking.
You’re operating on tight budgets and want to avoid a new platform.
Final Word
Asset tracking should be a back-office afterthought, it’s a vital part of operations that gets more important the more you scale. Whether you build it into your core stack or keep it separate, what matters is that it works, it’s accurate, and your team actually uses it.