Fixed Assets & Loans
This course covers Fixed Asset management in Quickenerp: asset profiles, depreciation methods, running the monthly depreciation, disposing of or transferring assets, reporting on your asset register, and managing loan amortization schedules.
| Responsible | System |
|---|---|
| Last Update | 07/21/2026 |
| Completion Time | 2 days 11 hours |
| Members | 1 |
Fixed Assets Overview
View allYour Full Asset Register
Go to Accounting > Reporting > Assets (or the Assets list view, grouped by profile/status).
Key Views
- Asset list – every asset with Purchase Value, Value Depreciated, and Value Residual (current book value) side by side.
- Depreciation schedule per asset – every past and future period's amount, and which have been posted.
- Group by Profile – total book value per asset category, useful for a fixed-asset note in annual financial statements.
Reconciling to the Balance Sheet
The sum of all Running assets' Value Residual should equal the Balance Sheet's Fixed Assets line (net of accumulated depreciation). Reconcile these every period-end — a mismatch usually means either a manual journal entry touched an asset account directly, or a batch depreciation run was missed.
Best Practices
- Tag every capital purchase to an Asset Profile at bill-entry time — retrofitting assets after the fact is far more error-prone.
- Run batch depreciation on a fixed schedule (e.g. the 1st business day of each month), not "whenever someone remembers."
- Do a physical asset count against the register at least annually and investigate any asset that can't be located.
- Keep asset profiles aligned with your tax jurisdiction's required depreciation method and useful-life assumptions.
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
| Method | How It Works |
|---|---|
| Linear | Equal amount each period: (Purchase Value − Salvage Value) ÷ Number of Periods. The most common method. |
| Linear-Limit | Same as Linear, but depreciates down to Salvage Value using the full Purchase Value as the base. |
| Degressive | A fixed percentage of the remaining value each period — larger amounts early, smaller later (declining-balance method). |
| Degressive-Linear | Starts degressive, then automatically switches to linear once the linear amount would be larger — a common tax-compliant hybrid in several jurisdictions. |
| Degressive-Limit | Degressive down to Salvage Value. |
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.
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
| Concept | Description |
|---|---|
| Asset Profile | A reusable template (e.g. "Computers – 3 years straight-line") defining the default accounts and depreciation method for a category of assets. |
| Asset | One physical item being depreciated: purchase value, salvage value, start date, and its own depreciation schedule. |
| Depreciation Line | One scheduled entry in the asset's depreciation plan (e.g. "Month 14: $250"). |
| Depreciation Base | The amount actually being spread over time — usually Purchase Value minus Salvage Value. |
| Salvage Value | The estimated value the asset will still have at the end of its useful life (e.g. resale/scrap value) — not depreciated away. |
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.