Book Information Fields
Follow the guidelines provided below to complete the book information fields on the Main tab in Asset Detail.
The book information fields are extremely important since they determine your depreciation calculations. You must complete most of the fields according to rules imposed under GAAP or by the IRS. Although the application displays a warning message when it detects entries inconsistent with these rules, it does allow you to override the warning and make your own entries (it assumes you know what you're doing). However, if you are unsure about what you're doing, we recommend you heed the warning messages and re-think your entry. If you need a brush-up on depreciation rules and regulations, or if you need to simply look up a depreciation concept, refer to Depreciation and Fixed Asset Concepts.
The book information fields on the Main tab are organized in rows and columns. Each field contains depreciation data specific to the book heading up the column.
The system enters default information in the other open books based on the Tax book entries. For this reason, you might want to complete the Tax book first. Then, you may only need to make slight changes to each additional book. If you need to set default values in other books after the initial setting, you must use the Apply Book Defaults option on the Asset menu.
Following are the book information fields:
Items in this window
| Item | Notes |
|---|---|
| Acquisition Date | The date you acquired the asset. |
| Acquired By | Indicates whether the asset was received in a purchase or a like-kind exchange. |
| Open Books | Displays the number of open books in the company. |
| Property Type | Affects which depreciation methods will be available. |
| Placed-in-Service Date | The date the asset was placed in service (versus the date it was acquired). |
| Acquisition Value | The dollar amount to acquire the asset, including freight and installation charges. |
| Depreciation Method | There are 29 possible depreciation methods to choose from. |
| Estimated Life | The estimated life (Internal book) or recovery period (tax-related books) of the asset. |
| ADS Life | For the tax-related books, this is the life assigned to an asset for the MACRS Alternative Depreciation System. |
| Business Use % | The percentage of business use (as opposed to personal use). |
| 179 Deduction | Either the Section 179 amount or bonus depreciation, if applicable. |
| 168 Allowance % | The Section 168 percentage to use when calculating depreciable basis. If the Section 168 Extra bonus percentage is applied to an asset in any book, this field label is displayed in bold, with a plus sign (+) to the right. |
| Salvage Value | The estimated dollar amount for which an asset can be sold at the end of its life. |
| Investment Tax Credit | The amount of Investment Tax Credit, if applicable. |
| Beginning Date | The date through which depreciation was calculated before the asset is entered into the application. |
| Beginning Year-to-Date | The amount of depreciation already taken for the fiscal year in which you are entering the asset in the application. |
| Beginning Accumulated | The total depreciation taken to date on the asset. |
| Prior Through Date | The system uses this book information field to display the prior date through which depreciation was calculated. The application automatically updates this field every time you calculate depreciation for the asset. |
| Current Through Date | The date through which the application last calculated depreciation. |
| 168 Allowance Amount | The additional allowance deduction that the system calculates when you select a "Plus 168" depreciation method. |
| Depreciation This Run | The amount of depreciation calculated for an asset since the last time the application calculated (that is, ran) depreciation. It can be for almost any length of time, but usually it will be for a month or a quarter of a year. |
| Current Year-to-Date | The current year-to-date depreciation. |
| Current Accumulated | The depreciation from placed-in-service date through the current through date. |
| Net Book Value | The current net book value. |
| Period Close Date | The date through which depreciation was last calculated for a period close. |
| Period Close Year-to-Date | The current depreciation expense through the most recent period close date. |
| Period Close Accumulated | The total depreciation taken from the placed-in-service date through the most recent period close date. |