When setting up a new fixed asset register (or schedule/entity/client) in AssetAccountant, it is most likely you need to import assets that are already part way through their useful life or effective life.
The way to achieve a seamless transition is to import these assets with what is known as an opening balance at a certain date.
An opening balance may also be knows as:
- Written down value (WDV)
- Book value
- Net value
AssetAccountant allows you to define your transition date flexibly - when importing data by clicking Add Assets -> File Import -> Import Assets you can select an Opening Balance Date (typically the end of a period) and the AssetAccountant system will take the Book and Tax Values of your assets as 'gospel' from that Date.
By convention, AssetAccountant applies Opening Balances at the very end of the day - in other words they become the very last transaction on a particular day.
Prior to ~October 2024, Opening Balances were restricted to apply only on Period End Dates (eg 31 March 2023), however this restriction has now been lifted.
If you are adding assets manually one at a time, you can find the "Add Opening Balance" in the Actions menu when viewing an asset:
However, it is recommended you use AssetAccountant's File Import functionality.
This will allow to import a large number of assets in a single go, and you can set an appropriate Opening Balance Date and Written Down Values for both accounting and tax as part of the import process.
This will take into account the depreciation already applied to the asset before the period AA takes over your calculations and journaling of the depreciation expense from the system you used previously.
There's a great video outlining this process here:
Note if you don't have opening balance data:
The main thing to keep in mind with Opening Balances is that you MUST know the written down value for Tax and Accounts as at the Opening Balance date.
For example, if you purchased an asset for $10,000 on the 14th of October and had an Opening Balance date of 31st October, your written down value might be something like $9850, not $10,000.
What if you don't know exactly what your Opening Balance values are at the nominated Opening Balance dates?
Maybe consider importing your assets from 'first principles' - in other words, avoiding using an Opening Balance Date and just letting AssetAccountant work out the calculations based on the Purchase and First Use details of your assets.
Why does my import have data highlighted orange cells?
AssetAccountant will estimate the depreciation prior to your Opening Balance date using other data in your import E.g. purchase date. So when you run depreciation reports and it includes a date range prior to any Opening Balance date, the estimated numbers will be shown in orange.
Depreciation calculations are made in AssetAccountant automatically, there is never any need for you to attempt to trigger this.
When assets are imported with an opening balance, AssetAccountant assumes that any journals prior to your opening balance date would have been generated outside of AssetAccountant, so any transactions you make to these assets prior to the Opening Balance date are ignored.
If you want to apply transactions to an asset with an Opening Balance applied and for them to be journaled by AssetAccountant, you can follow these steps:
1. If these assets were imported using Import Assets, for example, find the import and click on the menu at the right and choose 'Rollback Import' - this will remove these assets from the system
2. If these assets were added manually, you will need to open up each asset and click on Reverse -> Opening Balance - this will remove the opening balance event and we will journal all transactions for this asset.