Annual Report
1996

Financial Statement

As ASAP moves into its second decade, we can begin to confidently make longer term plans for the future. This change in vision and expectation means a shift in emphasis towards putting more resources into the planning and management structures. 1996 saw a large increase in our infrastructure and assets, and while this impacted on our potential return for the year, this larger infrastructure considerably increases our ability to secure and perform a much higher level of work. On-going budget allocations have been made to allow ASAP to pursue a more active marketing strategy and to allow professional archival staff to develop research funding proposals and pursue their own research projects of relevance to ASAP.

ASAP's revenue has increased dramatically over the last few years, due primarily to our move into large-scale industry projects (see Figure 4). This increased revenue has not yet led to significant returns as the move into this new area of work involved considerable investment.

Considerable resources were committed to develop and refine ASAP's tools. ASAP's gross income for 1996 was $150,359. Our task now is to ensure that we are able to put time into those aspects of our work that will further ASAP's longer term goals, for example, research and heritage projects.

In 1996, the Industry Sector provided over 90 per cent of ASAP's income. While the income from Scientific and Medical Institutions increased by 9 per cent, this reflected increased commitments by existing clients rather than new work. ASAP's expenditure changed between 1995 and 1996 with salary expenditure increasing by 22 per cent and spending on assets by 10 per cent, reflecting the increased infrastructure needed to run large-scale projects. The overall division of spending between areas remained relatively constant, with salaries by far our main expense. 1996 also saw a substantial increase (38 per cent) in project specific expenditure. This expenditure reflects the cash flow generated by large purchases made by ASAP on behalf of our clients, which attract an administrative fee but do not otherwise add to ASAP's revenue. Figures 3a and 3b detail the income and expenditure breakdown for 1995 and 1996.

With our dramatic growth stabilised, and infrastructure in place, ASAP's 1997 assets and running budgets have been decreased in comparison to previous years. ASAP is currently operating three vehicles, and this should adequately fulfil our needs for the foreseeable future. The money-saving aspects of owning our own cars is expected to become even more apparent in the longer term. Our computer assets remain our biggest expense; while all ASAP staff now have computers adequate to the demands of their work, we continue to make a commitment to continually upgrading our technology.

Published by the Australian Science Archives Project on ASAPWeb, 23 January 1998
Prepared by: Elissa Tenkate