Fixed Assets auto-depreciation

21

thanks

22

great

23

Any chance of an option to use the Acquisition Cost rather than the Current Book Value - this would give the option of Straight Line depreciation as well as Declining Balance?

24

And what is also missing is the possibility to set a residual value.
For a lot of assets, e.g. cars, it is very usual to set a residual value.

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25

Both @Joe91’s and @Hennie’s posts point to similar needs. The new Depreciation Calculation Worksheet supports only one depreciation method. Different depreciation methods require different inputs for calculation of current depreciation: acquisition cost, book value, residual/salvage value, anticipated asset life, statutory depreciation period, and so on. If one method is going to be supported, other common methods should be, too. And if asset definition is going to include one of the parameters, it ought to include those necessary for those other common schemes.

26

Great to see development in the area of depreciation. I agree these other methods of depreciation are definitely needed. I am wondering from a development point of view if a flexible custom calculation field for fixed assets could be introduced allowing the various depreciation methods to be introduced by the user say on a per asset basis? This may satisfy all users in one sweep?

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27

It would be great if we could set starting date of depreciation for newly acquired assets; or those acquired but not yet installed.

28

@jeffbangquil, do not mistake this feature for automatic depreciation. The worksheet just announced is only a method for calculating depreciation. It can be set for any time period you want. There is no point in entering a starting date, because nothing would happen. Depreciation in Manager is not something that goes on in the background without your involvement.

29

This change also seems to have created a new 'Depreciation Entry tab. Any way we could perhaps put this button under the fixed asset tab right next to the ‘New Fixed Asset’ button rather than having yet another tab? i.e. keep fixed asset related stuff under the fixed assets tab?

Thanks for considering.

30

This looks great, except the Depreciation Days are wrong for items acquired within the year. There should be some easy to find reference that indicates when an asset was acquired, at the moment, the only way to pull that up is to go and find the invoice on which the asset appears.

Currently, running a complete new sheet for half a dozen start dates is unrealistic, especially when all the items appear on the sheet.

Given everything is recorded in the database, if an item was acquired AFTER the start date, should not the “Depreciation Days” field automagically be calculated? And fixed assets that weren’t on hand at that time, should they appear at all?

My accountant calculates depreciation on the number of days held as per the ATO requirements:

When does a depreciating asset start to decline in value?

The decline in value of a depreciating asset starts when you
first use it, or install it ready for use, for any purpose, including
a private purpose. This is known as a depreciating asset’s
start time

In general, calculations seem to be something like:

                   days held        rate
asset cost    x    ---------  x   --------
                      365           years

I am aware there are various methods of calculating depreciation and I foresee that manager may in fact provide calculation sheets based on those variations, but days held seems to be across the board, unless I am reading it wrong.

a complete aside: An enhancement to the fixed assets screen could include an acquired date to quickly sort items by new and old, but that is just a nicety.

31

There is more involved here than the date the asset was first acquired. Depending on your depreciation scheme and local law, you may have to add to or subtract from initial purchase price. The easiest way to get all relevant information is to drill down through the Acquisition cost figure for the asset under the Fixed Assets tab.

No question, calculating depreciation during periods assets are added or disposed can be complex (again, often depending on local law). Frequently, there is no alternative but manual calculation for the asset(s) involved. The worksheet is most useful when all assets are held through the period. It also handles disposed assets just fine. But, if you want to use it for assets being acquired, and those assets cannot be depreciated over the full period, you need to bring all your other assets up to date first, then create another worksheet starting the day you acquire a new asset.

It is. But this cannot happen until the depreciation period is defined. Businesses depreciate assets on different time scales, including standard 4-week periods, calendar months, quarters, and years, as well as possibly on custom schedules when assets are acquired and disposed. So you need the ability to vary the inputs. See the previous answer, too, on why you might need multiple worksheets.

Depreciation is not simple, not least because it is often subject to legal tinkering to implement social or tax policy. Don’t lose sight of the fact that the worksheet is only a tool and makes no entries by itself. Even when using the feature to generate the depreciation entry from the worksheet, you can still edit individual assets’ depreciation amounts.

32

I really do get that it may be a convoluted process in practise, but I do think it would be relatively easy feature to tackle programatically. After all it is just a fancy SQL Query (wrapped in various loops, calculations and other queries )

Oh, ok, I hadn’t thought of approaching it that way, I’m still trying to process that, thanks…

So you would have several worksheets and combine the totals?

33

Yes.

34

Does anyone know what the end result of the Fixed Asset Module is going to look like? I am hoping it will develop to the point where it will largely handle the depreciation in an automatic way for reporting at financial year end.

35

Well I am so happy that something has been done at last. Something is better than nothing and It is much much better now .I am very gratefull that this much has been done works a treat for me Iit took me ages the manual way if all my clients just had 1 or 2 assets thats ok but most of them had 30+ so it took me for ever

36

I really appreciate the added function of a percentage deprecation on the asset.
@joe91 an @hennie already mentioned that the function is limited but a good start.
I understand that full deprectaion functionality might be rather complex and not feasable right now.
I do want the deprecation calculation worksheet to contain the asset cost.
Because it is very limited to just one depreciation method over the book-value and i need deprecation on the asset costs. It would help to include the asset cost on the calculation spreasheet. @patch I beleive that is a simple adjustment on the worksheet. With the method i use the report is currently not usuable.