Two things happen, each exactly once

When the company buys equipment, two separate things have to happen:

The purchase reaches the ledger. What it cost is debited to a fixed asset account, and the money, the debt or the owner's capital is credited. This puts it on the balance sheet.
The asset goes on the register, so it can be depreciated month by month. This posts nothing by itself.

So registering asks one question — How did the cost reach the books? — and every situation below is an answer to it. The only mistake that matters is answering “it's already in the books” when nothing put it there.

The three tabs

Tab	What it shows
Register	Every asset, its category, cost, accumulated depreciation and net book value, newest acquisition first (Sort › Number, lowest first for the register's own order; search by name, number, serial, location or cost); purchases not yet registered; and In the ledger, which proves the register agrees with the accounts
Depreciation	Periods owed, the automatic-charging setting, previewing a period, and every run
Schedule	The movement of each asset and category between two dates, for your accountant

Categories and their three accounts

A category is a class of asset — Computer Equipment, Motor Vehicles — and it names the accounts every asset in it uses. You never choose accounts per asset. Five standard categories are created for you.

Category	Code	Default life
Furniture and Fixtures	FF	60 months
Office Equipment	OE	60 months
Computer Equipment	CE	36 months
Motor Vehicles	MV	60 months
Leasehold Improvements	LI	60 months

Account	What it is	Typical account
1 · Cost account	A Fixed asset account. What the assets cost sits here until sold or scrapped.	1520 Computer Equipment
2 · Accumulated depreciation account	A Contra asset account. Each run credits it; it shows as a deduction under cost.	1590 Accumulated Depreciation
3 · Depreciation expense account	An Operating expense account. Each run debits it — this is the profit-and-loss charge.	6700 Depreciation
Disposal gain account	An income account a profit on selling lands in. Must be income, because a sale's VAT is read from it.	4910 Gain on Disposal
Disposal loss account	Where a loss on selling or scrapping lands.	6710 Loss on Disposal

Create or change a category

Press Categories, then New category (or choose Create category in the category field).
Enter a Code and Name. Choose the three accounts — each list shows the accounts that fit that slot first.
Set the defaults new assets copy: Default method, Default convention, Default life (months), Rate (% a year) and Residual (% of cost). Life and rate fill each other in: change either and the other follows. For straight line the rate is 100 ÷ years, so 60 months is 20%. For reducing balance it is the yearly rate that brings the cost down to the residual over the life; with no residual there is no such rate, so enter both.
Save. Add the standard classes re-adds any of the five standard categories that are missing.

Register an asset — the six situations

Situation	Do	What posts
A supplier sent a bill and you will pay later	On the bill line press Fixed asset and choose New fixed asset (every register field is there), Add to an existing asset or Part of the assets' cost; approving the bill registers them. Or approve first, then press Register beside the line in the purchases list — see Register the assets on a bill below	The bill posts the cost; registering posts nothing more, except moving a delivery or installation charge (or an addition coded to another account) onto the asset's cost account
You paid on the spot with no bill	Receipts & Payments › + Enter payment › Direct, tick Add this purchase to the fixed asset register	Debit cost account, credit the bank (+ input VAT)
Straight onto the register, paid from the bank	Register an asset › Paid from a bank or cash account	Debit cost account, credit that bank (+ input VAT if you pick a tax code)
The owner bought it and brought it in	Register an asset › Contributed by the owner › choose a capital account	Debit cost account, credit owner's capital
Owned before these books started	Register an asset › Owned before these books started, with Depreciation already charged and Charged up to	Debit cost, credit accumulated depreciation brought forward, credit Opening Balance Equity — dated the day before the books began
A journal you wrote already posted the cost	Register an asset › Already in the books	Nothing. Only when an entry really exists.

The form

Press Register an asset. Choose the Category and give the asset a Name. Leave Asset number blank to number it automatically.
Enter Acquired (the date bought), In service if it was brought into use later, and the Cost.
Set Residual value if it will be worth something at the end, and change Method, Convention, Useful life (months) or Rate (% a year) only if this asset differs from its category. Life and rate fill each other in here too: change either and the other follows.
Add Serial number, Location, Supplier and Description.
Answer How did the cost reach the books? as in the table above. The form shows the entry it will post.
Press Register asset.

Register the assets on a bill

A bill is made of lines, and one bill often buys several assets plus a charge that belongs to all of them — say three items and a delivery charge. Each asset is linked to the bill lines its cost came from, and to how much of each, so the register and the bill always add up to the same cost.

Register several assets from one bill

Open Fixed assets. Under purchases not yet on the register, each bill line coded to a category's cost account is its own row, showing what is still left to register. Press Register beside any line of the bill — or open the bill and press Register as a fixed asset (Register as fixed assets when several lines qualify).
Register assets from bill lists every line with something left. For each, choose what This line is: Assets, Part of the assets' cost, or Not now.
For a line of assets, set How many (a line of 3 laptops starts at 3) and the Class. Its amount is shared equally between them.
Mark a delivery, installation or setup charge as Part of the assets' cost. It is shared across all the assets in proportion to what each took from its own line.
Check Assets to register: each asset's From its line, Added cost and Cost. Rename any asset, then press Register N assets. All of them are registered together, or none are.

Line	What posts
Coded to the asset's own category cost account	Nothing — the bill already put it there
Coded to any other account (delivery in an expense account, or another category's cost account)	One journal per asset: debit the asset's category cost account, credit the line's account, for that asset's share. Dated the bill's date, or today if that period is closed

A line stays in the purchases list until assets carry all of it, so you can register some items now and the rest later. The asset's Cost posted by shows each bill line and amount, and the journal that moved any added cost.

Methods and conventions

Setting	Choice	What it does
Method	Straight line	The same charge each month: what is left (cost less residual less charged so far) over the life that is left
Method	Reducing balance	A percentage of the remaining value each year — larger early, smaller later. Needs a rate and a life, and never charges less than straight line would, so the asset still reaches its residual by the end of its life
Method	Not depreciated	No charge — land, for example
Convention	Full month	A whole month's charge in the month it goes into service, and none in the month it is disposed of
Convention	Actual days	Charged by the days in service in each period

Charging depreciation every month

On the Depreciation tab, a banner lists every period that has ended with no depreciation posted. Until a period's run is posted, its charge is missing from the profit and loss and the assets stand at cost.

Catch up in one go

Press Post all N periods. Every owed period is computed and posted, oldest first.
If one cannot be posted — a locked or closed month, for example — it stops there and says why. Nothing after it is attempted, because each month's charge starts where the previous one ended.

Or check one period first

Under Preview a period, choose the Period and the Book, and press Compute the charge. This saves a draft and posts nothing.
Check the charge per asset.
Press Post this run, then confirm. One journal posts: debit Depreciation, credit Accumulated Depreciation — one pair of lines per category.

Having depreciation charged for you

Under Charging it for you, tick Post depreciation automatically when a period ends. It is off until someone turns it on.

Each month's charge is computed and posted once that month has ended — the same entry you would post by hand.
It never charges a month still in progress, never posts into a locked period, never posts a period twice, and never skips a month it could not post: it stops there, and the banner shows what is still owed.
Turning it on or off is recorded in the audit trail, because it decides whether an automatic process may write to your ledger.

Reversing a run

On the Depreciation tab, click the run's row — or its Open link. A panel opens below the list.
Press Reverse this run and say Why this run is being reversed.
Confirm. The run's journal is reversed, the assets' depreciation goes back to where it was, and the period can be run again.

In the ledger — does the register agree?

On the Register tab, In the ledger lists each category's cost account, accumulated depreciation account and this year's charge, with the Ledger NBV beside the Register NBV and whether they tie. Every account links to its general ledger.

When a category does not tie, the row underneath says why, in full sentences. The usual reasons:

The cost account is a bank account's ledger account — cash and equipment are sharing a balance. Point the category at a fixed asset account.
The accumulated account is debit-natured — it is a cost account, so depreciation reads as negative equipment. Point it at a contra account such as 1590.
An account is already another category's — both categories stop tying. Give each its own.
Assets carrying cost are not linked to a bill, a payment or a journal the register posted — the register holds a cost the ledger has never seen. Open the asset and post the cost (below).

An asset whose cost never reached the ledger

Open the asset. If nothing carries its cost it says so: Registered as already in the books, but no bill, payment or journal carries its cost.
Press Post the cost.
Choose where the cost came from — Paid from a bank or cash account, Contributed by the owner or Owned before these books started — and press Post the cost.

The acquisition posts and the asset's detail shows the journal. Nothing is deleted. If a bill or payment really did buy it, register it from that purchase instead, or the purchase is counted twice.

Editing and deleting an asset

What	When it can change
Name, description, serial number, location, supplier, notes	Always
Method, convention, life, rate, residual value	Until it is disposed of; applies from the next run
Cost, dates, category, depreciation brought forward	Only while no posted run has charged it. If the register posted the purchase, it reverses and re-posts that journal. If a bill or payment bought it, correct the cost there instead.

Delete is available only while no run has charged the asset. Deleting reverses a purchase the register posted; for an asset from a bill or payment, the purchase goes back to the list of purchases not yet registered. An asset that has been depreciated is written off instead.

Selling, scrapping or writing off

Open the asset and press Sell, scrap or write off.
Choose How it left and the Disposal date.
For a sale, enter the Proceeds and any Costs of selling, choose the VAT treatment — selling a business asset is normally a taxable supply — Where the money lands and the Buyer.
Add Notes and confirm.

Depreciation up to the disposal date is charged first. Then one journal removes the cost and the accumulated depreciation, records the proceeds and VAT, and puts the difference to the disposal gain or loss account.

Selling a laptop

Cost 6,000; accumulated depreciation 4,000; net book value 2,000.
Sold for 2,500 plus 5% VAT, into the bank.

Posts: debit Bank 2,625; debit Accumulated Depreciation 4,000; credit Computer Equipment 6,000; credit Output VAT 125; credit Gain on Disposal 500.

Adding to an asset

Under Capital additions, press Add to record an improvement that increases the asset's cost — What was added, the Date and the Amount. The remaining depreciation is spread over the life that is left.

Fixed Assets and Depreciation