Equipment Appraisal Blog | Understanding Machinery Appraisals

Natural disasters are getting more costly for businesses—and scientific studies suggest these disasters will only be more prevalent going forward, with this century forecast to see a 40 percent increase in tropical storms rated Category 3 to 5. The best way to protect your business assets from a natural disaster is to purchase sufficient business insurance—and this means getting your industrial equipment appraised. Find out how industrial equipment appraisals protect your valuable assets during a natural disaster. 

If you don't have insurance that covers your industrial equipment, you will be forced to pay for replacement equipment out of hand. Many businesses are forced into bankruptcy after a devastating event, such as a fire or flood, because they do not have the capital to replace the equipment they need to fulfill orders. Studies estimate that 40 percent of small business never reopen after a natural disaster. 

Before you can purchase insurance for your assets, you need to understand your risk. What types of natural disasters occur where you do business? Are there other incidents that are uncommon, but may happen? 

Consider that hurricanes typically affect coastal areas, but they don't always stick to the seaboard. While you may be at low risk of a hurricane, since these storms are relatively rare, it may make sense to buy hurricane protection because a single storm could wipe out your facility overnight. 

Next, determine your tolerance level for risk. Would you prefer to protect your business against all foreseeable hazards, or do you want to stick with coverage for the most common incidents that affect your area? 

Review your insurance coverage, paying special attention to policy exclusions. Insurance policies often exclude earthquakes for facilities that lie near fault lines. With hurricanes, some damage may be covered by business property insurance while other types of damage are excluded. For instance, policies treat hurricane rain differently when it's falling and on the ground. Once rain hits the ground, insurance companies consider it flood water, rather than part of the hurricane. They may then refuse to cover damage to your industrial equipment unless it was damaged before the rain hit the ground (for instance, if it came through a broken window). 

You may purchase supplementary insurance to cover these gaps or exclusions, safeguarding your assets and ensuring replacement in the event of disaster. 

To buy insurance, however, you need to know how much insurance you need—and that's where the industrial appraisal comes in. An industrial appraisal provides an accurate valuation for your equipment so you know exactly how much it would cost if you needed to replace, say, a hoist. 

There are different ways to value equipment. An appraiser might determine what it would cost to replace your industrial equipment by comparison shopping for used equipment of a similar make and model or by gauging the new replacement cost of a similar asset, then factoring in the indirect costs of ownership (e.g. maintenance, labor, and tax). 

Recent sales transactions shine a light on market value for a given item, so some appraisers take the market value by looking at recent sales databases or auction houses. 

Any method that delivers an accurate cost estimate of your critical equipment is acceptable. 

You never know when your area will be hit with fires, floods, or storms. To be safe, get all of your mission critical industrial equipment appraised as soon as it's convenient to get losses covered during the next natural disaster that affects your area. 

When your company deals with serious machinery, it's important to know its value for insurance and tax purposes, right? Actually, there are a number of other reasons why appraising industrial equipment assets can help improve your company's situation, flexibility and adaptability in the marketplace. Here's a quick look at how you can use your equipment values to leverage everything your business has to offer, allowing you to improve your position in the market.

How appraising industrial equipment helps improve your company's bottom line

Whether you're processing materials, manufacturing products or otherwise have industrial equipment involved in your business, you know you've got a lot invested in your machinery. But is it really that important to know exactly what your equipment values are? After all, it's accounted for in your books through depreciation, which are based on commonly used tables, right?

Unfortunately, depreciation tables rarely provide an accurate representation of your equipment values. Why? Because they're an average amount of asset value loss over time, they tend to be overly generalized. Virtually every business has equipment that has been fully depreciated for years, yet that equipment continues to deliver value through its use on a regular basis. If that machinery were to suddenly fail, the business would suffer for its loss in terms of production, and an investment would need to be made in terms of new machinery, costing the company capital that it may have already allocated to other operations.

Most companies also have equipment that has failed before it has been completely depreciated. Whether it was a press that was expected to be used hard and abused to a certain extent for a particular project or machinery that has simply failed before it was fully depreciated, it will still show up on the books as having value, even though its only value is as scrap metal. These situations, where equipment has excess or lack of value in the books that doesn't represent real-world values, can create a false sense of your company's assets. This, in turn, can create serious problems when you use those bad figures for securing loans or as a basis for expanding the company's operations.

What about market conditions? When you depreciate a piece of equipment, you have an expectation that the depreciated value may reflect current market demand for that machinery. But when the market is growing, that equipment may be worth more than its depreciated value. This can be problematic when a piece of equipment fails and you base the replacement cost on the depreciated value of the equipment. When this happens and the market is strong, you may have a difficult time finding the machinery you need at the price you expect. Conversely, when the market is poor, you may have a hard time finding a buyer at a higher price point. Machinery appraisal helps provide you with an accurate assessment of the equipment's real value.

By taking the time for appraising industrial equipment, you can learn a great deal about your machinery's condition, performance and value. This, in turn, allows you to leverage that value and condition to your company's best possible benefit and growth. But how do you start the process of having your industrial machinery appraised? Start by finding a certified equipment appraiser who has experience with your industry's machinery. Certification ensures that the appraiser knows exactly how to determine your equipment's value for your specific situation.

If you spend any time looking at the news, you're probably noticing the same thing we are - the more the news says, the more uncertain the market looks. How do you make smart business decisions when the market seems to be in a constant state of flux? Surprisingly, an industrial equipment appraisal may help. But how does knowing the value of your industrial equipment help your business get through these changes in the market? We thought you'd never ask:

Weather market changes with an industrial equipment appraisal

• A poor economy tends to cause a related rise in crime. Having an equipment appraisal helps ensure that you can recover the full value of your equipment from your insurance company when you have a theft at your business.
• A poor economy also increases the number of people who are homeless. We've all heard horror stories about a squatter's fire getting out of control and burning down any number of buildings in the area. A machinery valuation can prove the value of your equipment even if it isn't performed until after a loss.
• Of course, a good economy means governments want to raise taxes. Have you ever received a property tax assessment that was so high as to be completely ridiculous? A machinery appraisal proves the value of the machinery using standardized methodologies that have stood the test of time.
• Tax increases also provide the opportunity for tax deductions when you donate your industrial machinery to a worthy cause. But how do you know how much the donation is worth? Having an appraisal performed provides rock solid documentation of the value of the equipment you've donated.
• Are you considering expanding your business? When the economy was doing poorly when the housing bubble burst, new regulations came into effect to tighten access to business loans. Having your equipment valued provides you with documentation so you can use your equipment - and only the right amount of equipment - as collateral to secure a loan for expansion.
• When the economy is recovering, it's very tempting to upgrade your industrial machinery so you can increase production, improve quality and similar concerns. When you have a machinery appraisal, you know exactly what you can get for your old equipment to help finance the purchase of the upgraded machinery.
• If you're ready to expand your business but have sticker shock over the cost of new equipment, have you looked at used machinery? Having an equipment appraisal on a used piece of machinery ensures you'll know what kind of conditions the equipment is in and won't have any nasty surprises.

Whatever happens with the market and economy, having an industrial equipment appraisal can help you keep your business running smoothly. But where should that appraisal come from? Though you could get a quote from a local dealer, their focus is selling you equipment, which will color their appraisal. They may say your equipment isn't worth much or that it's worth far more than you think it should because they want it as a trade-in. You could look in the local paper, but unless there's another business in the area selling the same equipment you are, it's not going to be an accurate assessment either. Using a certified equipment appraiser ensures that you'll receive an appraisal report that will stand up to scrutiny in legal, financial and insurance circles.