Fixed assets

The Fixed Asset Register tracks long-lived things your business owns — fit-out, vehicles, IT equipment, furniture — from purchase to disposal. SolaCount posts the capitalisation journal, calculates and posts monthly depreciation, records transfers between locations or departments, and posts the gain or loss when you sell, scrap or write off an asset.

Plan availability: the register is a plan feature (Fixed Asset Register). Depreciation, disposals, transfers, asset reports and approvals are separate features on the same plan family. If you don't see Fixed Assets in the Accounts panel, your plan does not include it — the workspace owner can check Settings → Plan & Features.

Where to find it

If your plan also includes rentals, the same panel shows Linked Rental Properties: the rental properties that are linked to an asset (see Rental properties & leases).

The asset list

The list is titled Fixed Assets with the subtitle Asset Register and an asset count. The header buttons are Excel (export), Categories, Budgets (capital budgets, if your plan includes them) and Register Asset.

Summary tiles

The money tiles count only recognised assets: posted assets that are not drafts. A draft that has not been posted has no accounting effect, so its cost never inflates the portfolio. The count and the table still list drafts so you can finish them.

Below the tiles an Intelligence strip shows a health score out of 100 and short notes such as assets nearing end of life, over 80% depreciated, idle, or missing an assignment. The Quick reports bar links to the Register Report, Depreciation Schedule, Disposal Report and Transfer History.

Filters: search ("Search assets..."), Status (All, Active, Fully depreciated, Disposed and so on), Category, Acquired From and Acquired To. Filter applies, Reset clears.

Columns: Document #, Name, Category, Acquisition Date, Cost, Net Book Value, Status and a row menu (View, Edit for drafts).

How it fits together

Draft ──Post & Activate──▶ Active ──monthly runs──▶ Fully Depreciated
  │                          │  └──Transfer──▶ Active (new location / department / cost center)
  │ (approval on)            └──Dispose──▶ Disposed / Written Off
  └──▶ Pending Approval ──approved──▶ Active

Only draft assets can be edited. Once an asset is posted, its cost and accounts are locked; correct mistakes by reversing the accounting activity.

Balances follow the lifecycle (October 2026 corrections):

• A draft asset has no accumulated depreciation, no net book value effect and is excluded from every portfolio total and from the Fixed Asset Register totals. Its timeline entry reads Asset registered; after posting it reads Acquisition posted.
• When a depreciation run is reversed, the asset goes back to Active or Fully Depreciated according to its recalculated net book value (net book value at or below the salvage value means Fully Depreciated). A draft stays a draft.
• Reversing an earlier run keeps later charges: the asset's accumulated depreciation is reduced by that run's amount only, not reset to the figure it had after that run, so depreciation posted in later months stays in place.
• A disposed asset page shows the accumulated depreciation recorded at the time of disposal (not a reset figure), and a disposed asset is not flagged as fully depreciated.

Set up asset categories

A category gives every new asset in it a default depreciation method, useful life and three GL accounts, so you don't pick them each time.

1. Go to Accounts → Fixed Assets → Asset Categories and click Create (top right).
2. Fill in the form (New asset category) and click Save.

Notes:

• Category accounts are defaults. Each asset can override them, and if neither is set SolaCount falls back to your organization's default accounts. The order is: asset override → category → organization default.
• Gain and loss on disposal are not set on the category — they always come from the organization default accounts.
• You cannot delete a category that has assets: "Cannot delete category with existing assets." Untick Category is active instead.

Register an asset

1. Click Register Asset (sidebar or the asset list header). The page is titled Register Fixed Asset.
2. Fill in the sections below.
3. Click Save Draft to keep it as a draft, or Save & Post to save and post the capitalisation journal in one step (both are at the bottom right).

Asset Information

Financial Details

Acquisition Posting — "How was this asset acquired? This determines the credit side of the capitalization journal entry."

Use Asset Clearing when the cost was already booked through a bill to a clearing account — the asset posting then moves it from clearing to the asset account, so the cost is not counted twice.

Depreciation

GL Accounts — "Override org/category defaults for this specific asset." When a category is selected the three account fields (Fixed Asset Account, Depreciation Expense, Accum. Depreciation) are locked to the category values; tick Override category accounts to change them for this asset only.

Location & Notes — Location, Department, Cost Center, Notes, Internal Notes. Transfers change these later.

The side panel shows the Capitalization Entry that posting will create: Dr Fixed Asset Account, Cr Asset Clearing (or the bank/cash/AP account for the chosen mode).

Post and activate an asset

1. Open the asset (click its row on the list).
2. Click Actions (top right) → Post & Activate, and confirm in the dialog.

What happens:

• If asset acquisition approvals are on, the asset goes to Pending Approval and you see "Fixed asset submitted for approval." An approver approves it from Pending Approvals (or the approval panel on the asset), and the asset is posted then.
• Otherwise the journal is posted and you see "Fixed asset posted and activated." The asset becomes Posted / Active.

The asset page then shows Asset Details, Financial Summary (cost, salvage, depreciable amount, accumulated depreciation, net book value), Acquisition Posting with the journal lines, Depreciation, GL Accounts, Lifecycle Timeline, Alerts (with Resolve) and Audit Log.

Depreciation

How the charge is calculated

• Whole months only. The first month charged is the month of the in-service date (or the acquisition date if there is none). There is no part-month proration — an asset bought on 28 January gets a full January charge.
• Straight line: monthly charge = (cost − salvage) ÷ useful life in months, rounded to 2 decimals. The final month of the useful life absorbs the rounding remainder, so total depreciation equals cost − salvage exactly. The final month is found by the calendar (month number = useful life), not by "whatever is left": if you skipped a month, the final month absorbs only the rounding difference, never the missed month's charge.
• Declining balance: monthly charge = current net book value × annual rate ÷ 12, so the charge gets smaller each month. Once the remaining value is smaller than the next charge would leave, the last charge takes the asset straight down to salvage.
• Depreciation never takes net book value below the salvage value.

Run depreciation (all active assets)

1. Open /depreciation (Asset Depreciation Overview) and click Run Depreciation.
2. Pick the Depreciation Date and click Preview. The page lists the Open periods; if there are none it says "No open accounting periods."
3. Check the preview table: Document Number, Name, Cost, Salvage, Accum. Before, This Month, Accum. After, NBV After, Accounts, plus the total and how many assets were eligible or skipped.
4. Optionally add Notes (optional) and click Execute Run.

You see "Depreciation run completed: N assets processed, total X."

Rules:

• The run covers every Active asset, for each month from the start of the accounting period containing the date up to the date's month. Months already depreciated for an asset are skipped, so running twice never double-charges.
• Each month's entry is dated at the month end (or the run date, if earlier). Months in a closed or locked period are skipped.
• If any asset has no expense or accumulated depreciation account, the button is replaced by "Some assets are missing depreciation accounts." Set the accounts on the asset, its category or your organization defaults.
• If no period exists for the date: "No accounting period found for date." If it is closed: "Period name is not open."
• Each entry posts Dr Depreciation Expense / Cr Accumulated Depreciation.

Review or reverse a run

Click Run History (/depreciation/history, Depreciation Run History) to see each run's Run Number, Run Date, Period, Assets Processed, Total Amount, Status and Posted By. Open a run to see its entries and journals. To undo a run, click Reverse Run and confirm: SolaCount posts offsetting journals and restores each asset's figures ("Depreciation run reversed successfully."). Only completed runs can be reversed.

Transfer an asset

Use a transfer when an asset moves to another location, department or cost center.

1. Open the asset → Actions → Transfer.
2. Fill in transfer date, and at least one of to location, to department, to cost center id; add notes if useful.
3. Click Save.

A transfer does not post a journal; it updates the asset and adds a row to its transfer history and the Asset Transfer History report. With transfer approvals on, you see "Asset transfer submitted for approval." instead of "Asset transfer recorded successfully." The targets are checked before a request is queued for approval as well as when it is applied, so an invalid transfer (an unknown or inactive cost center, a date before acquisition, nothing different from the current assignment) is refused at once instead of failing later in the approval queue.

Errors you may see:

• "At least one non-empty transfer target field is required."
• "At least one transfer target field must be different from the current asset assignment."
• "Selected cost center is invalid or inactive."
• "Transfer date cannot be before acquisition date."
• "Draft assets cannot be transferred." / "Disposed or written-off assets cannot be transferred."

Dispose of an asset

1. Open the asset → Actions → Dispose.
2. Fill in:

3. Click Save.

What SolaCount does:

1. Catches up depreciation first. Any months up to and including the disposal month that have not been depreciated are posted automatically ("Auto catch-up before disposal"), so the gain or loss is based on the real net book value. You do not need to run depreciation by hand first. If one of those months is in a locked period, the disposal stops: "Cannot dispose: depreciation for YYYY-MM is in a locked period; reverse/adjust first."
2. Posts the disposal journal (below) and marks the asset Disposed (or Written Off). You see "Asset disposed successfully. Disposal #n posted." — or "Disposal submitted for approval." if disposal approvals are on.

The disposal journal:

No gain/loss line is posted if proceeds equal net book value exactly.

To undo a disposal, an allowed user reverses it from the disposals list (/fixed-assets/disposals): "Disposal reversed successfully." (or "Disposal reversal submitted for approval.").

Worked example (AED)

Al Noor Trading LLC fits out a new showroom for AED 70,000 (excluding VAT), paid from its Emirates NBD account. Category "Office fit-out": straight line, 36 months, no salvage. Acquisition date 10 January 2026.

1. Register and post (Acquisition Mode Bank Payment):

(The 5% VAT of AED 3,500 is recovered through your purchase/VAT records, not through the asset.)

2. Monthly depreciation. 70,000 ÷ 36 = 1,944.444…, rounded to 1,944.44. January 2026 is a full month even though the asset arrived on the 10th.

Months 1–35 post 1,944.44 each (68,055.40). Month 36 (December 2028) absorbs the remainder: 1,944.44 + 0.16 = 1,944.60, making the total exactly 70,000.00.

3. Sale on 15 January 2027 for AED 50,000. Depreciation was last run for December 2026; the disposal automatically posts January 2027 first. Accumulated depreciation = 13 × 1,944.44 = 25,277.72; NBV = 44,722.28; gain = 5,277.72.

If the fit-out were scrapped instead, proceeds are zero and the whole NBV is a loss:

Declining balance comparison: at a 30% annual rate the first month is 70,000 × 30% ÷ 12 = 1,750.00; the second is 68,250 × 30% ÷ 12 = 1,706.25, and so on.

Second example: reversing an earlier depreciation run

The same AED 70,000 showroom asset (36 months, monthly charge AED 1,944.44) has been depreciated for January, February and March 2026, so accumulated depreciation is AED 5,833.32 and net book value AED 64,166.68. The January run was posted against the wrong date and is reversed from Run History with Reverse Run.

The asset now shows accumulated depreciation of AED 3,888.88 (5,833.32 minus the reversed run, February and March stay) and net book value AED 66,111.12; it remains Active. The register report's Reconciliation Difference stays 0.00 because the ledger moved by the same amount.

Asset reports

Under Reports → Fixed Assets (each has an Excel export):

The asset reports require the Asset Reports plan feature. Depreciation and disposal journals also appear in Journal entries and the asset's Acquisition Posting / related journals.

October 2026 changes to the reports

• Links. On every asset report the asset name opens the asset page and the Journal reference opens the journal entry (transfers have no journal). In Journal entries a fixed-asset journal opens its asset, or its depreciation run, and a reversal opens the original.
• Register reconciliation. The Fixed Asset Register lists recognised assets only (posted, not draft) and shows these summary figures: Assets, Active Cost, Active Accumulated Depreciation, Active Net Book Value, Disposed Cost, GL Asset Balance, GL Accumulated Depreciation and Reconciliation Difference. The difference is the active cost minus the ledger asset balance plus the active accumulated depreciation minus the ledger accumulated depreciation; a zero difference means the register agrees with the ledger. The subtitle reads "Current fixed asset register." or, with an as-of date, "As-of register through <date>."
• Excel exports keep your filters. The Excel button now carries the report's From, To, Status and Category filters, and the file's titles, column headings (Asset, Period, Date, Amount, Accumulated After, NBV After, Journal, Type, Proceeds, Gain / Loss, Status, From, To, Department Move, Cost Center Move), summary labels and the disposal type and status words are in the page language, including Arabic.
• Titles and subtitles are translated: Disposal Report ("Disposal proceeds, gain or loss, and journal references."), Depreciation Schedule ("Posted depreciation by asset and period.") and Transfer History ("Asset movement history between locations, departments, and cost centers.").

Approvals and capital budgets

• Approvals. Acquisition, disposal (and disposal reversal) and transfer approvals can each be switched on. They also follow your organization's application-wide approval rules (see Workflow & approvals). Pending requests are listed at Pending Approvals (/fixed-assets/approvals), with Approve / Reject per row. While a request is pending, other actions on the asset are blocked: "A fixed-asset approval is pending for this asset." If approval is required: "Approval is required before this action can be executed."
• Budgets. With the Asset Capital Budget Controls feature, Budgets on the asset list (/fixed-assets/budgets) holds capital budgets per category and fiscal year. A budget that has been used cannot be deleted.

Permissions

Ask your workspace owner or administrator to grant these through Team access roles.

Error messages

All actions use the shared confirmation dialogs and show a success or error notice afterwards. If a notice says the outcome is uncertain, refresh the asset to check its status before trying again — don't submit twice.

Tips

• Register the asset with Asset Clearing mode if the purchase bill already went to a clearing account; use Bank Payment or Cash Payment only when the asset posting is the only record of the payment.
• Run depreciation once a month, after the month ends and before you lock the period.
• Check the run preview's Accounts column — missing accounts block the whole run.
• Changing a category affects new assets only; existing assets keep their own method, life and accounts.

Related

• Chart of accounts — asset, accumulated depreciation, expense, gain and loss accounts.
• Bills — buying assets from suppliers.
• Journal entries — the journals posted by assets.
• Fiscal years and lock dates — open periods for runs and disposals.
• Workflow & approvals — approval rules.
• Rental properties & leases — properties linked to assets.
• Reports — all report groups.