Fixed Assets & Loans

What Fixed Asset Management Does

When you buy something that will be used over several years (equipment, vehicles, computers, furniture) rather than consumed immediately, accounting rules require you to spread its cost over its useful life rather than expensing it all at once — this is depreciation. The Fixed Assets module automates that: it creates the asset record, calculates the depreciation schedule, and posts the monthly/yearly journal entries for you.

Core Concepts

Asset Statuses

• Draft – created but not yet confirmed; no accounting impact yet.
• Running – confirmed; depreciation lines can now be posted to accounting.
• Close – fully depreciated (last depreciation line posted).
• Removed – disposed of or sold; removal entries generated.

Asset Profiles (Categories)

Go to Accounting > Configuration > Asset Profiles. Set up one profile per category of asset you own (Computers, Vehicles, Office Furniture, Machinery) so new assets inherit sensible defaults instead of being configured from scratch every time.

Profile Fields

• Asset Account – the balance sheet account holding the asset's book value.
• Depreciation Account – the accumulated depreciation contra-asset account.
• Expense Account – where the periodic depreciation expense posts (usually a P&L "Depreciation Expense" account).
• Computation Method (see below).
• Number of Years/Periods and Period Length (monthly or yearly entries).

Depreciation Methods

Check what your local tax authority requires or permits before choosing — some jurisdictions mandate a specific method (or specific useful-life years) for tax depreciation, which may differ from what you use for internal management reporting.

Prorata Temporis

Enable Prorata so an asset purchased mid-period only depreciates for the portion of that first period it was actually owned, instead of a full period's worth of depreciation on day one.

Tracking Borrowed Money Over Time

A Loan record is the mirror image of a fixed asset — instead of spreading an owned asset's cost over time, it spreads a borrowed liability's principal and interest over a repayment schedule, automatically posting each period's split.

Creating a Loan

1. Go to Accounting > Accounting > Loans → Create.
2. Lender – the bank or individual/company that lent the money.
3. Periods and Period Length – e.g. 60 periods of 1 month each for a 5-year monthly loan.
4. Rate and Rate Type – Nominal APR, Effective Annual Rate (EAR), or a Real Rate, matching how your lender quoted the rate.
5. Is Leasing – flag if this is actually a lease being accounted for as a loan.
6. Set the Journal and the Short-Term/Long-Term Loan and Interest Expense accounts.

The Amortization Schedule

Click Compute to generate one line per period, each showing:

• Payment Amount – the total instalment for that period.
• Principal Amount and Interest Amount – how that payment splits between reducing what you owe and the cost of borrowing it.
• Pending Principal – what's still owed after this payment, split into short-term (due within a year) and long-term portions — exactly the classification the Balance Sheet's Current vs Non-current Liabilities sections need.

Posting Each Period

Confirm the loan to move it to Posted, then post each period's line as it comes due — same discipline as the Fixed Assets batch depreciation run: do it on a fixed schedule so the liability balance and interest expense stay current rather than catching up several months at once.

Closing a Loan

Once fully repaid (or paid off early), mark it Closed. If paid off early, the remaining schedule's future lines are no longer posted — confirm the final payoff amount matches what the lender actually charged, since early payoff sometimes includes a fee not reflected in the original schedule.