APV Valuers and Asset Management
APV is a leading valuation firm based in Australia that specialises in the valuation and depreciation of public sector assets in accordance with the accounting standards. They work internationally with their client base predominately in Australia, New Zealand and the south pacific.
APV implemented Asset Valuer Pro at the start of 2017, Prior to then all their valuations were delivered using Excel with associated valuation and methodology reports produced manually using Microsoft Word.
The main drivers for APV’s implementation of Asset Valuer Pro was the huge impact of changes in the requirements and complexity flowing from new accounting standards and guidance issued by the Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB). These changes resulted in the spreadsheets becoming much more complex and as a result prone to error. The significant increase in data requirements also resulted in huge file sizes and speed issues with calculations in Excel.
APV is also independently audited and certified under ISO:9001 Quality Management and the constant need to track updates to templates and ensure the correct version of spreadsheets were being used also created issues.
The impact for APV via the use of Asset Valuer Pro was immediate. The flexibility provided by Asset Valuer Pro enabled them to use their defaults while giving them the ability to quickly and efficiently tailor their hierarchy and assumptions for specific clients. Prior to using Asset Valuer Pro a change from defaults created significant work in Excel.
The mobile data collection capability also significantly reduced the time-in-the field by their staff while also significant reducing the time taken back in the office to produce draft valuations, check the figures and eventually finalise the valuations. In short there was a significant increase in efficiency.
Both their clients and the client’s auditors also expressed very positive feedback regarding having on-line access and the ability to run their own reports and take advantage of the value-added capabilities not previously available from spreadsheets.
APV also experience significant benefit from the reduced level of training required for new staff before they were considered ‘productive’. As the solution is built to fully comply with the accounting standards and they no longer needed to use very large and complex spreadsheets the staff were able to focus on the inputs, data collection and review of results. Whereas previously significant efforts were devoted to training in standards, methodology and Excel.