Fixed assets and depreciation

A fixed asset is something you buy once and use for years, such as a computer, a van or a machine. Instead of treating the whole cost as an expense on the day you buy it, you spread it over its useful life. That spread is depreciation. Open Assets and loans in the side rail to keep the register and post the charges.

Adding an asset

Choose Add an asset. You give the cost, the date acquired, the asset account, the depreciation expense account and the accumulated depreciation account. You can also set a residual value, which is what the asset is expected to be worth at the end.

You can add assets three ways:

• By hand.
• From a bill line. The cost is the line before tax, in your company currency, and the date is the bill date.
• Bring in a file. A CSV, Excel or JSON file. You see a dry run first. Nothing is saved unless every row is fine. The import can be undone as a batch.

If you have already taken some depreciation elsewhere, enter the amount taken and the "taken to" date.

How depreciation is worked out

Choose a method:

• Straight line.
• 150% declining balance.
• 200% declining balance.

Give a yearly rate or a life in years, not both. For declining balance, the rate is the straight-line rate and 150% or 200% of it is charged on the book value. There is no automatic switch to straight line. A charge never takes the book value below the residual value, and every charge is rounded to the cent.

For the first period you can charge a full period, half a period, or by the days held. Periods are calendar months, quarters or years.

What to do each period

1. Open the Depreciation tab and choose Depreciate up to a date.
2. Choose Preview. You see each period, each asset and any locked period.
3. If it looks right, post it. One entry is made for each period, dated the last day of the period.
4. To take a run back, roll it back. Only the newest standing run can be rolled back first.

If any period in the run is locked, the whole run stops and nothing is posted.

Selling or writing off an asset

Open the Disposals tab, choose the asset, the date, and the proceeds. Preview first. Pop Books posts depreciation up to the disposal date, then one entry that clears the asset and its accumulated depreciation. The gain or loss goes to the account you choose. A disposal can be undone.

Reports

The Reports tab has the asset register, the depreciation schedule (opening, posted, planned, closing and book value) and the disposal schedule. Each can be downloaded as PDF or Excel.

Good to know

• Only calendar periods are supported. Fiscal-year periods are not.
• An asset bought on a foreign-currency bill uses the base amount.
• No sale invoice or other document is produced for a disposal.
• The screens have not yet been tried by hand against a real company file. Check your first run carefully.
• Your tax rules may allow different rates or methods. Ask your accountant which to use.