Fixed Assets

Track equipment, vehicles, property, and other long-term assets from purchase through disposal. Group them into categories with default depreciation settings, place them in service to capitalize them on the balance sheet, and let DayZero queue and post depreciation each month. On disposal, DayZero calculates gain or loss and removes the asset with a balanced journal entry.

Key capabilities

• Asset register with cost, salvage, useful life, serial numbers, vendor, and location
• Categories with default useful life, method, salvage %, and linked GL accounts (auto-seeded on first visit)
• Four methods: straight-line, declining-balance, double-declining, units-of-production
• Lifecycle: Draft → Active → Fully Depreciated / Disposed
• Capitalization journal entry on place in service (DR Fixed Asset / CR Accounts Payable)
• New from Transactions: turn purchases already booked to a depreciable or amortizable account into an asset with its schedule
• Placing in service queues the whole depreciation schedule; due months post automatically every day
• Run Depreciation posts everything due through a date you choose, with a preview first; already-depreciated periods are skipped
• Auto-promotion to Fully Depreciated when book value reaches salvage
• Disposal with automatic gain/loss and removal entry
• Four tabs: Assets, Categories, Depreciation Matrix (months across, assets down), and Scheduled Journal Entries (queued, not yet on the books)
• Per-asset Details, Schedule, and Journal Entries tabs, plus Export CSV
• AI Find Assets suggests expense transactions that should be capitalized
• Requires the Fixed Assets add-on

How it works

A draft asset is just a record. Placing it in service capitalizes it and queues one depreciation entry per remaining month. Each entry posts when its month arrives (or sooner through Run Depreciation) until book value hits salvage. Disposal removes the asset, drops entries not yet posted, and books any gain or loss.

flowchart TD
  draft["Draft asset"] --> serve["Place in service"]
  serve --> capje["Capitalization entry"]
  capje --> active["Active"]
  active --> run["Monthly depreciation"]
  run --> full["Fully depreciated"]
  active --> dispose["Dispose"]
  dispose --> gl["Removal entry + gain or loss"]

How to use it

1. Open Fixed Assets. Categories like Equipment and Vehicles seed automatically on first visit.
2. Click Add Asset and enter name, purchase date, and original cost (plus optional category, salvage, life, method). Or click New from Transactions, pick an account tagged depreciable or amortizable in the Chart of Accounts, select the purchases, and click Create Asset & Schedule.
3. For a draft asset, open it and click Place In Service, then set the service date — this capitalizes the asset.
4. Check the Scheduled Journal Entries tab for what is queued. Use Post due entries there, or click Run Depreciation, choose a through date, review the preview, and post.
5. Open an asset's Schedule and Journal Entries tabs for the projection and posted history.
6. When an asset leaves, click Dispose, choose Sold, Traded, Scrapped, Lost, or Donated, and enter proceeds when asked.

Pro tips

• Set up categories first — default life, method, and salvage % auto-fill every asset in that category.
• Capitalization debits Accounts Payable — pair the asset with the bill or payment so A/P clears correctly.
• Check the Run Depreciation preview before each close so period expense has no surprises.
• Deleting an asset with posted depreciation needs Delete + reverse entries, which removes its journal entries too; to keep history, dispose of it instead. Disposed assets cannot be edited.
• Use the Depreciation Matrix to see every asset's monthly expense, posted and queued, in one grid.
• Use AI capitalization suggestions to catch large equipment purchases miscoded as expenses.

In-depth guide

Depreciation methods

Lifecycle and categories

Default seeded categories include Equipment (60 mo), Vehicles (60 mo, 10% salvage), Furniture & Fixtures (84 mo), Computer Equipment (36 mo), Buildings (468 mo), and others — all default to straight-line. Categories can override GL accounts (asset, depreciation expense, accumulated depreciation).

Journal entries and runs

Each asset gets one entry per month and duplicates are skipped. Queued entries are not on the books until their date; Queue missing schedules fills in assets placed in service before scheduling existed. Assets created from transactions reclassify the cost from the source account (DR Fixed Asset / CR the source account) instead of crediting Accounts Payable. Disposal gain/loss equals proceeds minus book value.