Your equipment and assets are an essential part of your business — so how do you keep a close watch on them to make sure they're always accounted for? This is an especially pressing question when you're dealing with valuable technology tools or digital equipment that contains sensitive information.

This is where custom asset tags come in, providing a convenient way to track your inventory. These useful labels and stickers are available in a few varieties, from durable labels meant to prevent theft to stickers featuring barcodes and QR codes which can help with inventory. You can also opt for branded custom asset tags to make sure your company's name and logo are always front and center.

Your assets are a major source of investment, so you can't afford to take them for granted.

What Are Custom Asset Tags Used For?

Custom asset tags have a variety of uses, because there are ample reasons why a company would want to make sure it has visibility on the position of its most valuable equipment at all times. The primary use cases of asset tagging include:

• Theft and tampering prevention: Whether your organization's high-tech assets are expensive, filled with sensitive information or both, it's worth taking all possible steps to protect that equipment. This means deploying asset tags and property ID labels that are focused on security — these are tamper evident, meaning they leave a clear message when they've been removed, preventing potential thieves from hiding the source of ill-gotten equipment.

• Easy automated inventory tracking: Quickly entering information about an asset's location or status is easy when that item is stamped with a barcode. Custom tags that have conventional 1D barcodes or 2D barcodes such as QR codes integrate items into natural parts of digital inventory tracking efforts. Your staff members can check items in and out with a single scan when employees need to take them home.

• Branding and standardization: When you want to mark your equipment clearly, you can choose branded asset tags, stamped with your brand's colors and logo. People will know immediately that they're using company property, and therefore know where the equipment belongs.

A good asset tag is functional, unobtrusive and appealing to the eye. No piece of expensive or mission-critical company equipment is complete until it's been stamped with an appropriate property tag.

How Do Asset Tracking and Security Programs Work?

Modern inventory management is based on making sure assets are as easy as possible to identify and track. Equipment should be accounted for in digital databases to ease this process. The more automation your organization can inject into its inventory strategies, the easier, more accurate and less time-consuming it will be to manage assets.

Keeping track of company assets has become more important than ever in an era of widespread remote work and virtual contributions. When assets are checked in and out of various locations, there should be an easy way to account for where that equipment is going and what its status is at any given time. Such a program is simpler to manage when every asset is tagged and marked with a barcode or QR code.

Of course, asset tags still have value even without high-tech features or digital inventory tracking. Sequentially numbered asset tags allow every piece of gear to be accounted for by a simple visual check. Furthermore, durable asset tags have security value, allowing companies to clearly mark which assets belong to the company. Carefully asset tagging devices that contain sensitive information can help your business stay in compliance with regulations.

What Are Some Helpful Asset Tag Features?

What's in an asset tag? There are a few useful features commonly associated with these stickers and custom asset labels. You can mix and match the ideal combination for your inventory control, theft prevention and asset tracking needs.

• Tamper-proof functionality: Security-focused asset tags may be made of a specific polyester material that consists of two layers. When someone peels off one of these security labels, only the outer surface goes, leaving a VOID message. This clearly demonstrates that the item belongs to the company, and that the label has been tampered with.

• Over-laminate finish: A tough, durable finishing treatment can ensure asset tags stay in place — and remain legible — despite tough use. This is an especially important consideration when dealing with equipment that is handled often or is stored outdoors.

• Spot-color branding: You can use spot-color printing to ensure your brand's name and logo shows up clearly on asset tags. This is a valuable consideration for items that clients and consumers will see, but is also a nice touch for any asset tags.

• Sequential numbering: When each asset tag has a unique number, that makes it easy to track and sort items, or enter them into databases, without scanning a barcode. You can even combine barcode labels and sequential numbers, allowing staff members to perform inventory by whichever method makes sense at that moment.

• Barcodes or QR codes: A 1D barcode or 2D barcode (such as a QR code) makes it an easy, instant process to log an item's location into a system or look up more information about that object. QR codes can be especially useful, as they store more data than 1D barcodes. Employees can even scan QR codes with a smart device and be redirected to URLs containing up-to-date online information.

Building the perfect barcode for your needs means considering how you want to manage inventory and selecting the features that will get you to that goal. Do you track assets manually or digitally? Will the items be stored inside or outside? How sensitive is the information on your equipment? All this and more goes into your selection.

How Do You Choose a Provider for Custom Asset Tags?

Buying the right asset stickers for your brand doesn't have to be a challenge. When you work with Lightning Labels, you can turn to a trusted custom label provider to produce asset tags while also meeting all your other branded packaging needs.

Asset tags from the expert providers of custom labels at Lightning Labels can be die-cut to any shape or size you need, whether that's the typical 1-4-inch scale, larger or even smaller. You have the option to work with tamper-evident security materials, durable over-laminates, brand logo printing, barcodes and much more on your heavy-duty asset labels.

To find the ideal asset tags and property ID labels for your business, request a quote now