Set Configuration for Computing Depreciation Based on Periods or Days for Date of Purchase Methods

On the Configure Fixed Assets Settings screen, you can select one of two system methods for computing current period depreciation. You can:

  • Compute depreciation based on the number of periods in the purchase year; or
  • Compute depreciation based on the actual number of days "owned" for the period.

When you establish each depreciation method on the Manage Depreciation Methods screen, you must specify whether the method uses the Date of Purchase or Fiscal Year basis. If you have specified a Date of Purchase basis depreciation method for use in any book in an Asset Master record, you must ALSO specify the system configuration to use during calculations.

Warning: YOU SHOULD DECIDE ON THE CONFIGURATION FOR USE AT YOUR COMPANY BEFORE INITIALIZATION. If you change the configuration after depreciation has been computed, subsequent depreciation calculations will be incorrect. In this circumstance, to ensure that future calculations will be correct after changing this configuration, you may need to manually edit the Days/Pds Remaining field for EACH affected asset master record.

The two system configuration options for the calculation of Date of Purchase basis current period depreciation are based on:

  • The number of periods in a purchase year.

    If you select this option, the system will spread annual depreciation evenly throughout the purchase year, based on whether or not you have selected the Number of periods in purchase year option. Unless you have made changes to key fields used in the computation, this option will compute consistent current period depreciation values from period-to-period across the purchase year among periods that may contain inconsistent numbers of days.

    Almost all users select this option, which is simpler to administer and maintain.

  • The actual number of days "owned" in each period.

    If you select this option, the system will compute current period depreciation based on the actual number of days in the current period. This option will compute varying current period depreciation values from period-to-period across the purchase year, depending on the number of days in each "current period." (For this configuration, the system uses a standard value of 365 days in a year (366 for a leap year) for calculations.)

    Few users select this option, which is far more time-consuming to administer and maintain.

Note: The default configuration for these options is to compute depreciation evenly based on the number of periods in a purchase year. (Most companies use the default configuration.) You can change the default configuration so that depreciation is based on the actual number of days "owned" in each period, but any such change should always be made before initialization.