Getting started with Fixed Assets
The order in which to set up Fixed Assets before capitalising the first asset.
Before you begin
- Finance is set up, with a chart of accounts and open accounting periods. See Getting started with Finance.
- Decide who prepares and who approves. Preparers need asset.manage. Approvers need asset.approve. People with only asset.view can read.
- Keep the preparer and the approver as different people. The system refuses self-approval.
Steps
- Check the depreciation books. Open Fixed Assets > Configuration > Depreciation books. The financial book (code FIN) is created automatically the first time you open the screen and posts to the ledger. Add tax or management books if you need them: enter a Code, Name and Purpose (Tax or Management) and press Add book. A second financial book cannot be added.
- Create the accounts. Open Fixed Assets > Configuration > Asset categories and press New. Press Use the standard asset accounts to add any of the seven accounts (asset cost, accumulated depreciation, accumulated impairment, disposal proceeds clearing, depreciation expense, impairment expense, gain or loss on disposal) that are missing from the chart. Nothing is added twice.
- Create a category. Enter the Code, Name, Method, Life (months), Depreciate from, Residual value (% of cost) and the accounts. Press Save. It is saved as a draft.
- Activate the category. A different user with asset.approve opens the category and presses Activate. The five core accounts (asset cost, accumulated depreciation, depreciation expense, gain or loss on disposal, disposal proceeds clearing) must be filled in. Only active categories can be chosen on an asset.
- Create the first asset. Open Fixed Assets > Assets and press New. See Create and capitalise an asset.
- Capitalise it. A different user presses Capitalise.
- Run the first month of depreciation. See Run monthly depreciation.
What happens next
The asset appears in the Running tab of Fixed Assets > Assets. It shows in Fixed Assets > Reporting > Asset register and in the roll-forward, which compares the register with the ledger.
Good to know
- Once a category is active it is not edited. To change terms, archive it and draw up a new one. Existing assets keep their own terms.
- A draft asset or draft category cannot be deleted from the screen.
- Fixed Assets has no Features or Fields switches; it comes with Finance.
- Migrating from another system: use Comes from: An opening balance for each asset, so nothing is posted twice. See Create and capitalise an asset.