Depreciate your assets

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Depreciation may not be turned on for your workspace or plan. If you don't see it, contact your workspace admin.

Depreciation records how an asset loses value over its life. You define the rules once as a profile, attach that profile to an asset along with its acquisition cost, and Belrald Assets accrues the loss month by month — writing each accrual to the Ledger so it never has to be re-entered. The result is a running book value and accumulated depreciation you can read on any asset.

Depreciation lives under Finance → Depreciation, which has three tabs: Profiles, Runs and End-of-life.

The depreciation methods

A profile uses one of three methods:

• Straight-line spreads the cost evenly across the asset’s life. It needs a Useful life (years).
• Reducing balance takes a fixed percentage of the remaining book value each period, so more is written off early. It needs a useful life; you can also set a Declining rate %. Left blank, it defaults to double-declining (200 ÷ life).
• Units of production depreciates by usage rather than time, and needs a Total expected units.

Every profile also carries a Currency, a Salvage value (the floor the book value won’t drop below), and a First-period convention — Full month, Mid month or Half year — which decides how the first period is prorated.

Note

Units of production needs the Meters feature, which is coming soon. Until it is turned on, assets on that method stay un-accrued.

Create a depreciation profile

1. Go to Finance → Depreciation → Profiles.
2. Select New profile.
3. Enter a Name, for example Plant & machinery · 7 years.
4. Choose the Method. The fields below change to match it.
5. Fill in the method’s inputs — useful life, declining rate, or total units.
6. Choose the Currency and enter a Salvage value.
7. Pick a First-period convention.
8. Select Save profile.

Note

Built-in profiles ship with their method and useful life locked. To change one, use Duplicate to customise and edit the copy.

Assign a profile to an asset

Depreciation only starts once a profile and an acquisition cost are attached to the asset.

1. Open the asset and select its Depreciation tab.
2. Select Assign profile.
3. Choose a Profile.
4. Enter the Acquisition cost and Acquisition date. The cost must be in the profile’s currency, and the salvage value must be less than it.
5. To post history back to the acquisition month, tick Recompute history from acquisition date. Left off, depreciation starts from the current period.
6. Select Assign profile.

To stop an asset accruing, select Detach. Existing entries and their ledger history are kept, so you can reassign a profile later.

Read an asset’s book value

The asset’s Depreciation tab shows the current position: Book value, Accumulated depreciation, Acquisition cost and Salvage, alongside the method and useful life. A Book value over time chart plots the schedule down to the salvage floor, with maintenance spend overlaid. Badges flag an asset that is Fully depreciated or Near end of life.

Run depreciation

Belrald Assets runs depreciation automatically on the 1st of each month. The Runs tab lists every run with its Period, Status, Trigger, assets Considered, entries Posted, assets Skipped and the Total accrued per currency.

Owners and admins can also run one by hand:

1. On the Runs tab, select Recompute.
2. Choose a Scope — A period, One asset, or Backfill history.
3. Enter the Period (YYYY-MM), and an asset or backfill start if the scope needs one.
4. Select Recompute.

Runs are queued and processed in the background, so a new run appears in the list a moment later. Periods that already have entries are skipped unless those entries have been reversed.

Caution

A recompute that targets a closed accounting period is rejected — corrections post to the current open period instead. Reconcile before you close.

Open a run to see its totals broken down per currency and a link to the matching depreciation entries in the ledger.

Find assets near end of life

The End-of-life tab lists assets approaching the end of their useful life or their salvage value. Filter by Book value below a figure or by Age ratio, and each row shows the Reason — Book value low or Age exceeds life. Select Flag for disposal to raise a disposal for that asset with its details prefilled.

Archive a profile

To retire a profile, archive it from the Profiles tab. Archived profiles can’t be assigned to new assets, but existing entries are kept and assets already using it keep accruing.

Note

A profile that is still attached to assets can’t be archived. Detach it from those assets first, then archive it.