Fixed Assets Module
Tracking Fixed Assets
How to record equipment, vehicles, and property you own, let straight-line depreciation post itself every period, and dispose of an asset correctly once you sell or scrap it.
Start here
1Before you start
This module is for anything the business owns that loses value over time and is expected to be used for longer than a single accounting period — a vehicle, a laptop, machinery, furniture, or a building. It’s not for inventory held for resale (see Inventory) or short-lived purchases (record those as a normal expense).
Depreciation posts a real GL journal only for companies running in Double-Entry accounting mode. A Simple-mode company can still record assets and see their book value here — it just won’t generate a journal entry.
2Add an asset
In Fixed Assets, click + Add Fixed Asset. Fill in:
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Name | Required — e.g. “Delivery Van” or “Office Laptop — J. Osei”. |
| Category | Vehicles, Equipment, Furniture & Fixtures, Computers & Software, Buildings & Property, or Other. |
| GL Asset Account | Which account on your Chart of Accounts this asset’s cost sits on. Leave unset to use a default “Fixed Assets” account, created automatically. |
| Purchase Cost | Required, greater than zero. |
| Residual Value | What it’s still worth once fully depreciated — see Choosing a residual value. Defaults to zero. |
| Useful Life | Required, in months — e.g. 60 for five years. |
| Purchase Date | Defaults to today. |
| Depreciation Start Date | Defaults to the purchase date. Change it if depreciation shouldn’t begin until the asset is actually put into use. |
Saving doesn’t post anything to the ledger by itself — it just registers the asset. Depreciation begins on its own from the start date you set (see below).
3How depreciation posts
Every asset depreciates straight-line: the same amount each month, calculated as (Purchase Cost − Residual Value) ÷ Useful Life in months. A background check runs once a day and posts that period’s depreciation for every asset that’s due — you don’t trigger this yourself.
Each asset tracks which periods it’s already posted, so the daily check simply catches up whatever’s missing — if a site is quiet right on the 1st of the month, the next real page load still posts it correctly, with no duplicate entries.
When at least one asset is due, all of that company’s due assets are combined into a single journal entry for the period, itemized one line pair per asset — the same way a payroll run posts one journal covering every employee rather than one per person. An asset stops depreciating the moment its accumulated depreciation reaches Purchase Cost − Residual Value, and its status becomes Fully Depreciated.
4Dispose of an asset
When you sell, scrap, or otherwise get rid of an asset — whether it’s fully depreciated or not — open it and click Dispose. Enter the disposal date and, if you received anything for it, the proceeds.
This removes the asset and its accumulated depreciation from the books in one journal entry, and automatically recognizes a gain or loss if the proceeds don’t exactly match its remaining book value:
| If proceeds are… | What happens |
|---|---|
| More than book value | The difference posts as a Gain on Disposal of Assets. |
| Less than book value | The difference posts as a Loss on Disposal of Assets. |
| Exactly book value | No gain or loss — just the asset and its accumulated depreciation come off the books. |
Any proceeds you record are debited to your Operating Bank Account directly as part of this journal entry — they won’t separately appear as a transaction in Banking.
Common tasks
Choosing a residual value
Residual (or salvage) value is what you realistically expect to get for the asset once you’re done using it — trade-in value, scrap value, or resale value. It’s fine to set this to zero for anything you expect to be worthless by the end of its useful life.
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Estimate honestly, don’t guess high
An inflated residual value understates depreciation expense every period — most small equipment and vehicles are safest set to zero or a conservative trade-in estimate.
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Watch for the fully-depreciated nudge
Once an asset reaches its residual value, it shows up as a suggestion on your Dashboard’s insights panel prompting you to review whether it’s still worth keeping or ready to sell.
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Dispose of it when the time comes
Acting on that nudge just means opening the asset and clicking Dispose — see Dispose of an asset above.
Editing an asset after it’s started depreciating
Name, category, and notes can always be changed. Purchase cost, residual value, useful life, depreciation start date, and the linked GL account can only be changed before the asset’s first depreciation entry has posted — once real depreciation has been recorded against the original numbers, changing them would silently make past journal entries wrong. If you made a genuine data-entry mistake after depreciation has already posted, dispose of the asset and re-add it correctly instead.
Reference
GL accounts used
| Account | Type | When it’s used |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed Assets (or your chosen account) | Asset | Holds the asset’s original cost. |
| Accumulated Depreciation | Asset (contra) | Credited each period depreciation posts — reduces total assets on your Balance Sheet. |
| Depreciation Expense | Expense | Debited each period depreciation posts. |
| Gain on Disposal of Assets | Income | Only if disposal proceeds exceed remaining book value. |
| Loss on Disposal of Assets | Expense | Only if disposal proceeds are less than remaining book value. |
All five accounts are created automatically the first time you need them — nothing to set up by hand first.
Asset statuses
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Active | Still depreciating. |
| Fully Depreciated | Reached its residual value. Still owned, just done depreciating — a candidate for the disposal nudge. |
| Disposed | Sold or scrapped. Removed from active totals; its history stays on record. |
What this module doesn’t do
Declining-balance, units-of-production, and other depreciation methods aren’t available yet — every asset depreciates in equal monthly amounts.
An asset starts depreciating from its Depreciation Start Date at the same monthly amount regardless of which day of the month that falls on.
Cash received on disposal posts straight to your Operating Bank Account’s GL balance as part of the disposal journal — it won’t show as a line item in Banking’s own transaction list.