Fixed assets: register and depreciation
Your vans, test instruments, tools, laptops and loaner units sit in one register with their cost, depreciation and book value. Depreciation posts to your books each month, and selling or scrapping an asset waits for your approval chain first.
PLANSFrom Growth
The problem it solves
- The list of what the firm owns is a spreadsheet the accountant updates once a year for the audit.
- You buy 10 multimeters and 10 drill kits on one bill, and nobody can say which technician has which.
- A van is sold or an instrument scrapped, and the books never hear of it.
How it works
- Your accountant sets up asset categories once, such as Vehicles for vans and Tools for instruments, each with its accounts, method and useful life.
- With Make Assets from Bills on, a vendor bill posted on the category's asset account makes draft assets, one per unit if you ask.
- Check the cost, the custodian (such as the technician who carries the instrument) and the place, and press Confirm. The depreciation board runs to the end of the asset's life.
- To move a tool to another technician or add a new engine to a van, press Change. Revaluing, impairing and changing the life wait for the Asset change approval chain.
- To sell or scrap an asset, press Dispose. Once the chain approves, the entry takes it off the books with its gain or loss, and a sale can raise the buyer's invoice.
Everything it does
Categories
- Kinds such as Vehicles, Tools, Computers and IT, Plant and Machinery, Office Equipment, Software and Licences
- Useful life: 60 months to start with; salvage as a share of cost; a yearly rate for written-down value
- Write Off Below: cheaper items, such as a crimping tool, are written off in full and still kept in the register
- Make Assets from Bills (off to start with), One Asset per Unit (on), Post Depreciation Each Month (on)
- No categories come ready-made: your accountant adds the ones you use
Depreciation
- Methods: Straight Line, Written-Down Value, Declining to Straight Line, Units of Use, Manual Schedule, Not Depreciated
- First period: by days from the day in use (the default), whole first month, next month, or half a year
- Each month's line is Planned or Posted, with its journal entry. Depreciation Schedule shows every line as a list or pivot by category, year and Entity
The asset
- Code numbered FA/year/, serial number, category, cost, salvage value, Bought On and In Use From
- Custodian (a user), Where (typed, such as Van 3) and an analytic account if you like; states Draft, Running, Paused, Fully Depreciated, Disposed
Changes and disposal
- Add Value (Improvement), Revalue, Impair, Change Remaining Life, Pause, Resume, Move / New Custodian
- Each change is kept on the Changes tab with the date, from, to and who made it
- Dispose as Sold (with the buyer and Make the Invoice, on to start with) or Scrapped
Your assets, not your customers' equipment
- The register holds what your firm owns; the equipment register on customer sites (with QR tags and service history) is a separate list
- The two are not linked: a customer's AC on a contract is not your asset
- With Scale and its parts stock, serial-numbered products of an asset category become assets when received, one per serial
Who uses it
The accountant (Asset Manager)Sets up categories, confirms, changes, sells or scraps assets.
Service manager (Asset Incharge)Reads the register and who has each instrument, once they also have an Invoicing role. With Scale, also gives out, takes back and counts.
Every technician and staff member (Asset User)With Scale, sees only the assets given to them, in With me in the SmartMy Desk app.
The ownerApproves sales, scrapping and value changes as an approver of the Asset change chain.
Where you use it
- Web: Invoicing > Fixed Assets (Fixed Assets, Depreciation Schedule, Asset Requests)
- Web: Invoicing > Configuration > Asset Categories
- The SmartMy Desk app: Find an asset for the Asset Incharge, by QR tag or serial number. The app is built and in testing, not in the app stores yet
- Not in the app: adding or changing assets, and depreciation. Not on the customer portal
- Not in SmartMy Desk: a tax book for income-tax depreciation by block, and capital work in progress
What you control
Settings
- Per category: Write Off Below, Make Assets from Bills (off), One Asset per Unit (on), Post Depreciation Each Month (on)
- Asset change approval chain: the asset managers to start with, with levels you add under Approvals > Configuration > Approval Chains
- Roles: only the administrator has Asset Manager to start with, and nobody has Asset Incharge. Every staff login has Asset User by itself
Approvals
- Asset change: revaluing, impairing, changing the remaining life, selling or scrapping an asset waits for the chain (the asset managers to start with). Improvements, moves, pause and resume go through at once.
Notifications
- Request Waits for Your Approval: to the approvers of the Asset change level. It goes in the app and by email, and by app push once the apps are in the stores. They also get a to-do in the back office
Questions
We bought 10 multimeters on one bill. Do we enter each one?
No. Turn on Make Assets from Bills on the Tools category. The bill line of 10 makes 10 draft assets at a tenth of the cost each.Is this the same as the equipment we service for customers?
No. The register is for what your firm owns. Customer equipment, with its QR tags and service history, is kept in the equipment register of SmartMy Desk.Does it work out income-tax depreciation?
No. SmartMy Desk keeps depreciation for the books, including written-down value. The income-tax block book is not part of it.Which plan has it?
Growth has the register, depreciation and the Asset change chain. Scale adds warranty and AMC care, giving and taking back, loaner units, software licences and physical verification.Related features
ASSETSAsset care, and assets issued and returnedGive an instrument to a technician, a ladder to a site or a tablet to a customer. A technician confirms in the app before the asset moves to them. Record its condition when it comes back. Keep the warranty, AMC and insurance of your vans and tools, with a reminder 30 days before each ends.ASSETSLoaner units while a customer's unit is in for serviceWhen a customer's laptop, TV or machine has to go to your workshop, lend them one of your own units from the ticket. They sign a loaner agreement with your terms, and the ticket does not close until the loaner is back.ASSETSPhysical verification of assetsCount your own assets on the ground: the instruments in each van, the tools in the store, the laptops in the office. Scan each QR asset tag and see what was found, what is missing and what turned up somewhere else, with who counted it and when.ASSETSSoftware licences, seats and renewalsKeep every software licence your firm pays for, such as remote-support, diagnostic or office software. Record its seats, the people and computers using them and the date it ends. The person looking after a licence is told 30 days before it ends, and a seat cannot be given twice.ACROSS SMARTMY DESKApproval chainsQuotes, time and materials go to the right people in order before they reach the customer or the invoice. You add levels, such as a service manager for large quotes, without code.PRIVACY, AUDIT, PLATFORMSeveral entities in one accountRun the service firms of your group, such as an AMC company and a trading arm, in one SmartMy Desk account. Each Entity keeps its own tickets, contracts, settings and books, and one team can work the tickets of several of them.
See one of your own jobs run through it.
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