Fixed assets are the things your business owns and uses for more than a year: vehicles, generators, computers, furniture, buildings. The register lists every one with what it cost, how much has been depreciated, and its book value (cost minus depreciation). Business Sensor posts the accounting entries for you.
Before you start
- Fixed Assets is part of the top edition of each product: Gold for hotels, Professional for DMS, Manufacturing and POS (and the Pharmacy edition), and Enterprise where there is one. If Fixed Assets isn't in your menu, your edition doesn't include it; an Administrator sees an upgrade option.
- You need the Asset Setup permission to add or change assets (Asset Reports is enough to look).
- Check Fixed Assets → Categories. Each category sets the default depreciation and the accounts its assets post to. A General category is ready to use.
- To buy an asset on credit, the vendor must exist. To record payment, you need the bank or cash account it was paid from.
Steps
- Go to Accounting → Fixed Assets and click New asset.
- Enter the Name, choose the Category and Department, and optionally a location, custodian (the person responsible), serial number and tag. Leave Asset number empty to number it automatically (FA-00001, FA-00002 …).
- Under How it was acquired, pick one:
- Bought now: choose the Vendor, enter the Cost, and the Amount paid now with the account it was paid from. If nothing was paid yet, leave 0 and pay the vendor later from Pay Bills.
- Already owned: for assets you had before using Business Sensor. Enter the original Cost, the Depreciation to date and the date those figures are as at (usually your go-live date). Depreciation starts the month after.
- Recorded on an expense: the purchase was already entered as an expense or bill, so only the register entry is added and nothing else is posted. That expense line must be coded to the category's cost account (for example Property, Plant and Equipment), not to an expense account. Otherwise your balance sheet never shows the asset, and selling or writing it off later takes out cost that was never put in.
- Under Depreciation, check the method, useful life and salvage value. They come from the category, and you can change them for this asset.
- Click Add asset, or Save as draft if you are not ready. A draft posts nothing until you click Put in service.
- To move an asset to another department, location or person, open it and click Transfer. Each move is kept under Movements, and the new custodian is notified.
Tips
- Book value on the register is cost minus all depreciation charged so far.
- Open an asset and look at the Depreciation tab to see its full schedule: months already posted, and the months still to come.
- Use Not depreciated for land.
- Changing the useful life, method or salvage value after depreciation has started only affects future months. Past depreciation stays as it was.
Common problems
- Fixed Assets is missing from the menu, or a page says it isn't part of your plan. Your edition doesn't include Fixed Assets. Ask your Administrator about upgrading.
- The cost or category is greyed out. Depreciation has already been posted for this asset, so its cost and acquisition can't change. To correct the cost, reverse the depreciation runs back to the start, then edit.
- "Delete" is missing. You can't delete an asset once depreciation or a disposal is recorded. Use Sell / scrap / write off instead.
- An asset says "needs a category" or "came from the desktop app". Open it and click Convert. Choose its category and method. It keeps its own account and the depreciation already charged, and from then on is depreciated here.
- "That period is closed". The date it was bought (or the "as at" date) is in a closed accounting period. Use a date in an open period, or ask your accountant to reopen it.
- Department and custodian can't be edited. Use Transfer, so the move is recorded.