Beginning Depreciation Fields

There are three fields that handle beginning depreciation: Beginning Date, Beginning Year-to-Date, and Beginning Accumulated.

The application automatically enters information in the beginning depreciation fields under several different circumstances. For more information, see When Beginning Depreciation Fields Contain Data.

You are required to enter data in these fields only if you are entering an asset on which depreciation was calculated in another system. These fields are not required for newly acquired assets or for assets that have never been depreciated.

Entering beginning depreciation amounts is your way of telling the application to accept your prior depreciation balances and to calculate depreciation from that point forward.

Example:Suppose your company owns an asset with an acquired value of $1,000 and a life of 10 years, and you are depreciating it using the straight-line method. The company's fiscal year-end is June. You placed the asset in service on July 1, 2008, and you are adding it to the application on June 30, 2017, after you have taken 9 years of depreciation. You would enter a beginning current YTD depreciation of $100, beginning accumulated depreciation of $900, and a beginning date of 06/17, for June, 2017. Note that the beginning accumulated depreciation amount includes the $100 depreciation for the current fiscal year.

Note: When applicable, the Beginning Year-to-Date and Beginning Accumulated fields should include bonus depreciation but not Section 179 expense or the 168 Allowance. You enter Section 179 expense in the 179 Deduction field. The system calculates the 168 Allowance and displays the amount in the 168 Allowance Amount field. The Section 179 expense and the 168 Allowance are displayed separately in Asset Detail because special rules and limitations apply to these values.