ixed assets can be created within the organization or purchased. The examples of fixed assets are equipment, furniture and fixtures, machinairy, or buildings. Also there are intangible assets, such as trademarks, copyrights, or goodwill that add value to your organization. An asset's useful life is the duration when it is used for your business. Generally, fixed assets are assets whose useful life exceeds one year.

As a fixed asset is in use, its value will decline over time. Depreciation is the process of allocating an asset's cost over the course of its useful life. Notice that generally most of tangible assets are depreciated except for land that is never depreciated. Some of the intangible assets are not depreciated because they may have unlimited useful lives with their values not declining over time.

FirstBIT ERP provides the functionality that allows you to account for the fixed assets from their purchase or construction to disposal.

Setting up the functionality

To enable the Asset Management module and the fixed asset accounting functionality, select the Enable Fixed Asset Accounting option on the Administration > Configuration Settings > Asset Management form.

If you need to use non-current asset classes, select the Enable Non-Current Asset Classes option on the same form.

To be able to calculate depreciation of fixed assets, select the Enable Depreciation of Fixed Assets option.

If you are going to use the Preparation for Fixed Asset Sale or Conservation of Fixed Assets documents and the corresponding functionality of fixed asset accounting, select the Enable Preparation for Fixed Asset Sale and Enable Conservation of Fixed Assets options, respectively.

If your organization is able to create fixed assets and needs to track construction costs, select the Enable Construction in Progress for Fixed Assets option.

If you select the Enable Capital Improvements to Fixed Assets option, the corresponding functionality will allow you to register any costs incurred while improvements are made to specific fixed assets and to revise accordingly their useful lives and gross costs.

For details, refer to Settings: Asset Management.

Fixed Asset Life Cycle and Statuses

Each fixed asset goes through several stages during its life: planning, acquiring, using, maintaining, and disposal. The statuses correspond the stages of fixed asset lifecycle. Some statuses are changed automatically on posting of specific documents, while other statuses can be changed manually.

Different documents are used to register different stages of fixed asset life cycle.

Brief description of handling different stages are contained in the sections below. 

Planning Stage

Planning for new assets is the first stage of their life cycle. Asset managers need to identify particular business needs, budget restrictions, and perform market research. At this stage, it can be decided whether it is worth constructing or manufacturing the asset by the entity's own means.

• Initial Cost: the total of all costs and additional expenses incurred when purchasing the items, transporting it to the premises, assembling, and adjusting.
• Salvage Value: the residual cost of the asset after usage.

To start depreciation calculation, you must select one of the supported depreciation methods:

• Straight Line and specify the Useful Life of the asset in months.
• Units of Production and specify the Estimated Production Volume.

Then, select the Depreciate check box to start depreciation in the month next to the month when the fixed asset was accepted to accounting – this is the default option. If you choose to start depreciation in the same month in which the asset was accepted to accounting, select the Depreciate in the Current Month option. Depreciation process continues until the net book value of the asset reaches the salvage value.

For detailed information, refer to Creating a Fixed Asset Entry.

On posting the document, the status of the listed fixed asset changes to Active.

During usage, the fixed asset cost is depreciated according to the selected for this asset depreciation methos and parameters. For more information, refer to Overview of Depreciation of Fixed Assets.

Maintenance and Capital Improvements Stages

Generally, depreciation is continuous and reflects expected wear and tear to fixed assets.

Periodically, business reasseses their fixed assets for impairement. Over time, an asset's book value may become lower than the current market value (CMV) at which the asset could be sold, for instance due to unexpected damages. In some cases, the CMV of a specific asset may become higher than the book value. This means that its value on the balance sheet must be adjusted accordingly. In some countries, an organization cannot selectively apply revaluation to individual fixed assets. Instead, it must be applied to entire asset classes.

To register the results of reassessment, you can use the Changes of Fixed Asset Parameters document. Here, you can enter the revised Gross Cost, Salvage Value, and Useful Life.

Fixed assets may need some preventive maintenance works to prevent damage or emergency repair over their useful lives. If the works require idle time measured in financial periods, you can initiate conservation of the fixed assets. Also, it may happen that you won't need to use specific assets some time for some reasons.

To register the fixed assets placed into conservation, you can create Conservations of Fixed Assets documents with the Start of Conservation transaction type, that are located as follows: Asset Management > Fixed Asset Documents > Conservations of Fixed Assets.

The fixed assets in conservation will appear on the balance sheet, however, the depreciation will not be calculated. The status of the fixed asset changes from Active to In Conservation.

To indicate that the fixed asset is again in use, you can create a Conservation of Fixed Assets document. with the Cancellation of Conservation transaction type. Posting of this document changes the status from In Conservation back to Active.

The fixed asset, once conservation is cancelled, will be depreciated. The duration of useful life is not changed, however, it is just divided into the interval before conservation and the interval after cancellation of this conservation. The depreciation calculation will be resumed. For more information, refer to Conservations of Fixed Assets.

If you decide to make capital improvements to a fixed asset, that is, to replace the significant parts with parts with higher efficiency characteristics or perform other essential works, necessity to place the asset in conservation may depend on how long the fixed asset will be out of use.

Generally, improvements could extend the useful life and increase the cost of the asset. You can capitalize the costs of these improvements and register changes in other parameters by creating a Capital Improvements to Fixed Assets document.

Also, in this document you can calculate the current depreciation if needed. If the asset was in conservation during the improvement works, you will need to cancel the conservation.

After that, you will be able to calculate depreciation with the revised parameters resulted from capital improvements made to the asset.

Disposal

Disposing of the fixed asset represents the final stage of the asset's life cycle in your organization. Disposal can be done by selling or writing off.

Disposal by Sale

Generally, when the asset net book value reaches the salvage value, the asset is sold for a salvage value which is the asset's estimated value if it were broken down and sold in parts.
However, some fixed assets can be sold for a higher price or earlier than at the planned end of their useful life. After some period of fixed asset usage, the organization may decide to sell the asset.

If you need to make specific preparations before you can sell the fixed assets, you create a Preparation for Fixed Asset Sale document which involves moving the fixed asset from the balance sheet, to a specific GL account (by default, Held for Sale). On posting the document, the asset's status changes to Held for Sale, and depreciation is not calculated.

Sales of fixed assets are registered by creating the Fixed Asset Sales documents. For details, refer to Fixed Asset Sales. If you used Preparation for Fixed Asset Sale, then you will be able to generate a Fixed Asset Sale document based on the Preparation for Fixed Asset Sale document.

At the period of sales, the asset's net book value is the difference between the Gross Cost and accumulated depreciation.

Note. If the sale occurs before the end of the month, you can manually run the depreciation calculation for the current month by clicking the Calculate Depreciation button on the toolbar of the Fixed Asset Sale (create) form.

The Fixed Asset Sales document assigns the Disposed status to the asset. Any difference between the proceeds from sales and the fixes asset's net book value is recognized as either a gain or a loss.

Disposal by Write off

In some cases, the fixed asset may become obsolete and will, therefore, be disposed of (discarded or recycled) without receiving any payment in return.

A fixed asset is written off when it is fully depreciated, becomes obsolete and is of no use, significantly damaged, or by other reasons. Either way, the fixed asset is written off the balance sheet as it is no longer in use by the organization.

Writeoffs of fixed assets are registered by creating the following documents: Asset Management > Fixed Asset Documents > Fixed Asset Write Offs.

The Fixed Asset Write Off document assigns the Disposed status to the listed fixed assets.

If the asset is written off before it is depreciated down to the Salvage value, the current month depreciation expense is calculated as the Net Book Value - Salvage Value. If the Accumulated Depreciation is greater than the Gross Cost, the difference is recorded as a gain. For more information, refer to Fixed Asset Write Offs.

Viewing the documents related to a fixed asset

To find all the documents related to a particular fixed asset, go to: Asset Management > Master Data > Fixed Assets, locate the fixed asset master record, open it, and click the Fixed Asset Documents link on the top. Then, you can view all the available documents related to this fixed asset. For more information, see Fixed Asset Documents.

Viewing information on the fixed assets in reports

Your organization must show both tangible and intangible assets on your balance sheet, with tangible assets listed first. For details, refer to Financial Statements.

For managing fixed assets, you can use the following reports in the Asset Management module:

• Inventory Card: Using this report, you can view the net book values of fixed assets with some details of depreciation. You can filter the data by entity, status, department, specific fixed assets.
• Fixed Asset Output: The report lists the fixed assets with the Units of Production depreciation method. For each such fixed asset, the output in the specified units of production during the selected period is shown.
• Statement of Depreciation: The report lists the fixed assets grouped by department with the details of depreciation. You can filter the data by entity, department, and specific fixed assets.

For more information on details, refer to Asset Management: Reports.