Fixed asset management

Register equipment, vehicles and other long-lived assets in Nordlet, post their monthly depreciation, and record their sale or disposal.

A fixed asset is something your company buys to use for several years, such as a computer, a machine, a van or a building. Its cost is not an expense all at once. It is spread over the years you use it.

That spreading is called depreciation: each month a part of the asset's cost moves from the balance sheet to the income statement as an expense. The list of all your assets, with their cost and how much has been written off so far, is the fixed asset register.

Nordlet keeps that register under Assets and posts the depreciation to the ledger for you.

What Nordlet does

Asset groups. You group assets, for example "Computers" or "Vehicles". Each group names the ledger accounts its assets are posted to and can carry a default useful life in months.
Register an asset. You enter the acquisition date, the cost, the salvage value (what it will still be worth at the end), the useful life in months and the date depreciation starts.
Monthly depreciation. Nordlet works out each month's amount as the value still to depreciate divided by the months left. So the cost is spread in equal monthly amounts.
Preview first. Under Assets → Depreciation run you can see what a month would post, per asset, before anything is written.
One entry per month. Posting writes one journal entry, dated the last day of the month, for all active assets. Months that were missed are caught up in the same entry.
Automatic depreciation. With the setting on, Nordlet posts the previous month's depreciation once a day by itself.
Fully depreciated. When an asset's life or value is used up, its status changes to fully depreciated.
Locked periods are respected. Depreciation cannot be posted into a closed accounting period.

Changes during the asset's life

Corrections. You can change an asset until its first depreciation is posted. After that, the posted figures stay as they are.
Modernisation. An upgrade adds its amount to the asset's cost and can add months to its life. The remaining value is spread over the months left.
Sale, scrapping or write-off. Disposing of an asset removes its cost and its accumulated depreciation from the books. The remaining value is booked as a loss and any sale proceeds as a gain. Depreciation stops.

Tax details for capital goods

Under EU VAT rules (Article 187 of the VAT Directive), the VAT you reclaimed on a capital good can be adjusted if its use changes in the following years. Nordlet stores the facts the annual VAT return needs for that: the input VAT on the purchase, the date of first use, the share of use for taxable sales, and whether it is land or a building.

Bringing assets from another system

When you move to Nordlet, existing fixed assets can come over with the rest of your books in one import. See the migration guide.

Frequently asked questions

Which depreciation method does Nordlet use?

Equal monthly amounts: the value still to depreciate (cost plus modernisations, less salvage value, less depreciation already posted) divided by the months left. The difference between depreciation and amortization is explained in the glossary.

Can I post depreciation through the API?

Yes. Every step on this page is also an API call, for example assets/depreciation/preview and assets/depreciation/post. The API conventions guide explains how calls work.