Fixed Assets

(0) Share

Report

Posted on by Jim W.

105

Account Group Setup:

Not sure how many of these I should create. We have 12 different G/L locations in GP, and I'm wondering if I shoud create a separate account group for each asset type at each location. Or not?

*This post is locked for comments

I have the same question (0)

All responses (6)

Answers (0)

Frank Hamelly | MVP... 46,625 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

Like (0)

Report

I wouldn't think you would need to unless the GL accounts are location-specific. Account Groups are typically tied to the Asset Class (type). If you need reporting at the location level, you can assign Location IDs to the assets.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Community Member on at

Like (0)

Report

It depends on your reporting requirements. We used them to designate different states in the past to make Property Tax reporting simpler.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Jim W. 105 on at

Like (0)

Report

Our GL accounts are location specific. So this means for each class, I must have a group???

Anyway, I don't see our deprectiation method (stright line half-year) available. I guess GP Fixed Assets won't work for us???

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Frank Hamelly | MVP... 46,625 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

Like (0)

Report

Yes, you would have to have a group for each class/location combination then. In GP, select Straight Line as the Depreciation Method and Half-year as the Averaging Convention. That should work for you.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Jim W. 105 on at

Like (0)

Report

Frank,

Thank you!

We use Purchasing & A/P currently, so how exactly do those interact with Fixed Assets? What is different about PO entry & A/P reciept & invoice entry? Is there a best practice for the Account Group "clearing accounts" and how/when that functionality starts in our system? Everything else looks pretty straightforward and I'll be importing my existing assets from other software after the set up is ready. Are there examples of how others do this out there?

Also wondering how & when depreciation expense is calculated, when that hits the GL and if it's a manual thing or automatic.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Suggested answer

L Vail 65,271 on at

Like (0)

Report

Jim,

Wow, lots of questions that are the very root of running fixed assets. You would be well advised to get your hands on the training manual and run through the exercises therein.

Integration with A/P

You will set up a 'trigger' account that will also be used as the clearing account on fixed assets account setup. Whenever your A/P clerk puts in an invoice for a fixed asset, she/he will debit the 'trigger account' NOT the fixed assets account. The amount of the invoice, along with other information will be written to a table that you access from the Fixed Assets General Information window. When you capitalize that item into fixed assets, the entry created will credit the trigger account and debit the fixed assets account.

Integration with PO

You have a choice here that you need to declare in the company setup window for Fixed Assets. You can either use a trigger account for the debit, or you can mark a specific line as a capital item by checking a box on the line item detail entry.

Depreciation Integration to GL

YOU will run the depreciation routine to calculate the depreciation. YOU decide when you want to create the GL entry and then transfer it to the GL module.

You say this is pretty straightforward, but each of your questions reveal that it is not as straightforward as you might think.

Fixed assets is a very good module and once you have it set up correctly it is seamless. You have received good advice in this series of posts. In my opinion, the mystery to fixed assets is having the right number of classes. Group your assets by depreciation method, life, and gl accounts (and insurance class if you are using them). Where they are EXACTLY the same, you have a class.

You may want to run through a couple of depreciation cycles in a test company so that you can see how all of these settings interact.

Kind regards,

Leslie

Was this reply helpful? Yes No