How assets and deferrals work
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Fixed assets answers one question for the books: how much of an amount paid or received belongs to each period. A laptop bought for three years, a year of rent paid in advance and a retainer billed up front are the same problem seen from three sides, so they share one record and one list, Assets & Deferrals.
One record, three types
The Type of a record decides which accounts it uses and what each entry posts.
| Type | Holds the amount on | Each entry |
|---|---|---|
| Asset | Asset, with the depreciation building up on Depreciation | debits Expense, credits Depreciation |
| Deferred Expense | Prepaid Expense, a current asset | debits Expense, credits Prepaid Expense |
| Deferred Revenue | Deferred Revenue, a liability | debits Deferred Revenue, credits Revenue |
Confirm checks that every account and the journal are filled and that the balance sheet account suits the type: an asset account for an asset, a current asset for a prepaid expense, a liability for deferred revenue.
How the schedule is computed
At Confirm, the record writes its whole schedule at once: Duration entries, one every month, quarter or year as Every says, each dated the last day of a month: the month of the start date first, then every one, three or twelve months. What is spread is the Original Value less the Salvage Value and less the Prior Depreciation (or Prior Recognition), the part already booked before the record was entered.
- Straight Line gives equal amounts: 3,600.00 over 36 months is 100.00 a month.
- Declining Balance takes each period a share of the current book value, the Declining Rate per year (0.3 is 30 %), but never less than an equal split of what remains over the remaining periods.
- Declining then Straight Line applies the declining share until an equal split of the rest gives more, then the equal split.
Pro-rata handles a start in the middle of a period. With No Pro-rata, the first entry is a full one. With Constant Periods, the first entry counts only the days from the start date to the end of its period, and what it leaves out is added to the last entry. With Based on Day Count, each entry follows the number of days of its month in the year. Pro-rata Date, when filled, replaces the acquisition date as the start.
Rounding differences go to the last entry. Entries that would fall on or before the company's lock date are not created.
Use Confirm alone: on this version, Compute Schedule followed by Confirm writes the schedule twice.
States and the actions they allow
| State | Means | Actions offered |
|---|---|---|
| Draft | Being prepared; no entry yet | Confirm, Compute Schedule, Cancel |
| Running | Schedule written, entries posting | Adjust, Save as Template, Set to Draft (only before the first posted entry), Cancel (same limit) |
| Paused | Marked as stopped | Adjust (to resume, change or close), Save as Template |
| Closed | Sold, disposed of or written off | Save as Template |
| Cancelled | Dropped before any posting | Set to Draft |
The Entries counter shows posted entries out of all entries; Book Value is the original value less every posted entry and the prior depreciation. Draft entries do not lower it.
How entries get posted
Each entry is created as a draft. With Entry Posting at Auto-post at Date, the default, the daily job of the accounting app posts it once its date has come; with Keep as Draft, it waits for someone to post it from the journal entries. The choice is copied into the entries when they are written, at Confirm or when Adjust rebuilds them. The job is described in Fixed asset automations.
Templates and categories
A template is a record kept in the Template state that holds a type, a method, a duration, accounts and a journal; choosing it on a draft fills those fields once. A category is a label for searching and grouping. Both are set up in Fixed asset settings.
Assets from bills, deferrals from bill lines
A vendor bill with Asset ticked creates its assets when it is confirmed (Create assets from a vendor bill). The accounting app has a second way to spread an amount: start and end dates on a bill or invoice line, with the deferred entries of Accounting settings. Use the line dates for a routine subscription booked from its bill; use a deferral record when the amount needs its own schedule, a pause or an early write-off.
The schedule report
lists every Running, Paused and Closed record, grouped under its asset account, whatever dates are chosen; drafts never appear. On this version its figure columns stay empty on screen, so read the values from the list of Assets & Deferrals. The toolbar of the statements is explained in Accounting reports.
What the app does not do
- Pausing does not hold back the entries already scheduled (Pause or change an asset).
- The Auto-create Asset option shown on an account form is not used: assets come from a bill only through the Asset box and the Asset Template column.
- There is no button to add a value increase to a running asset, and no print action on the asset form.
- It does not change the account of a bill line; put the asset account on the line yourself.
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