A small business accumulates gear fast — a till, tools, stock, a laptop that runs half the paperwork. It's easy to know it's all there because you see it every day. It's much harder to say, off the top of your head, exactly what you'd need to replace if the shop flooded overnight or a break-in cleaned out the back room.
Why business claims get complicated
Business insurance claims are scrutinised closely — insurers want an itemised list of what was lost, roughly what it cost, and ideally proof it existed and was in use. Without that, a claim can drag on for weeks while you're trying to reconstruct months or years of purchases from old invoices and memory, all while the business isn't earning.
It's also easy for equipment and stock values to creep up over time without the insurance policy keeping pace — worth checking every so often, not just after something's gone wrong.
What's worth having on record
- Photos of major equipment, fixtures and stock, updated as things change
- Purchase receipts or invoices, kept together rather than scattered across email
- Serial numbers for anything electronic or easily resold
- A rough running total, so you know if your cover still matches what's actually there
Where My Asset Mate comes in
My Asset Mate's Tools & Equipment and Electronics & Technology categories are free to use — no trial needed — which covers most of what a small business runs on. Log it all with photos and receipts, kept safely on your phone, and in the cloud too if you choose.
If something does go wrong, you've got a proper list ready for the insurer, not a scramble through old paperwork while trying to keep trading.
An hour spent now can save weeks of back-and-forth later.