Fixed Asset Pro 16 User Manual

To get used to the software, you will need to study how the software works. The next few pages should help you know how each component of the software works.

Refer back to the main page (link below) to see a list of the manuals of each component.

This is the main form. It is the application window that is most often manipulated by the user. As seen in the picture above, it shows several fixed assets of a certain company. When you start the application for the first time, the data shown is dummy data, meaning that it is only presented as an example. You can then add fixed asset data of your own company and remove the dummy data later.

A quick refresher: what is a fixed asset?

There are three types of assets of a company or establishment: fixed assets (the one we will be dealing with), current assets, and intangible assets.

A fixed asset is a physical asset of a company that the company does not intend to sell, and lasts for more than one fiscal year (also known as an accounting period). They are used as "tools" to help the company do their work. Examples include motorcycles owned by a restaurant for delivery of food, tables and chairs owned by an office for employee use, etc. These have their own accounts in the journal entries of a company, such as a "Motorcycle Account" for a motorcycle, and "Fixtures and Fittings Account" for fixtures and fittings of a company premises.

A current asset is an asset owned by a company that is intended for sale or be used up within the fiscal year. Examples include smartphones for sale from a smartphone manufacturer, food items from a restaurant, etc. It also includes assets the company plans to use up within the fiscal year, such as fuel for food delivery services, stationery such as pens that may run out of ink within the year, etc., as well as debtors. Items for sale are generally recorded as purchases, debtors generally have accounts with their name on it, and other current assets such as fuel and stationery are recorded as expenses. Cash in hand (recorded in the Cash Account), as well as cash at bank (recorded in the Bank Account) are also regarded as current assets.

Do note that the same item may not necessarily receive the same classification between multiple companies. A delivery van is considered a fixed asset for a company that makes frequent delivery of their products, but it is considered a current asset for a company that sells delivery vans.

Finally, an intangible asset is a non-physical asset of some value to the company, such as goodwill and copyrights of their products.

The word "asset" or "assets" (without indication of their type) in this manual should be taken to mean fixed assets, unless otherwise stated.

Using the main form

If you double-click any asset in the main form, you will be shown a dialog box detailing the information regarding the asset, such as purchase information, service information, and depreciation methods used.

The sections below detail each menu's functions, and each can be accessed by clicking on the corresponding button in the main form.

This menu is used to replicate an existing asset. If you have several identical assets, this menu will save you the time needed to input identical descriptions for them.

What about adding assets that are not identical to any asset in your company? Add them using the Add Asset menu.

Dispose, revalue, write-off or transfer any asset here. Appropriate journal entry will automatically be generated by the system.

If an asset requires service maintenance (such as electronic equipment or motor vehicles), view and add any service history logs of the asset here.

To view the depreciation of your assets, you can view it here. This menu calculates depreciation online, and can be used to see depreciation in terms of a commercial period or fiscal period. There are multiple depreciation methods that can be used. These involve several complicated formulae, but you can simulate its effects using the software:

• * Non-depreciable: the asset will not be subjected to depreciation.
• * Straight-line (s/l): the residual/scrap value of the asset is assessed. Then, the annual depreciation is calculated as follows: \[D_n = {{V_0 - V_t}\over t}\] where \(D_n\) represents the annual depreciation, \(V_0\) represents the asset's purchasing value, \(V_t\) represents the asset's residual value, and \(t\) represents the asset's estimated lifespan, in years. The resulting effect is that the book value will decrease linearly (i.e. by a fixed value) per year, hence the name of the method:
  
  The system supports both straight-line and annualized straight-line methods.
• * Declining balance: also known as reducing balance (r/b) or diminishing balance, the value of the fixed asset will decrease by a certain fraction of its book value. This is given by the formula: \[D_n = V_nr = V_0r^{n + 1}\] where \(D_n\) represents the depreciation at year \(n\) of the asset's lifespan, \(V_n\) represents the asset's current book value, \(r\) represents the rate of depreciation, \(0 < r < 1\). The book value of the asset at a given point of time will be given in the following formula: \[V_n = V_0r^n\] where \(V_0\) is the asset's purchasing value, and \(n\) is the number of years the asset has been used.
  Using this method of depreciation will cause the depreciation in the first few years of the asset's lifespan to be much greater than the latter years as it causes an exponential decay of the book value:
  
  The system supports fixed declining balance, declining balance with percentage, as well as double-declining balance.
• * Sum of year digits: Calculation is as follows: \[D_n = \left({{t - n + 1}\over{\displaystyle\sum\limits_{i = 1}^t i}}\right)V_n = \left({{t - n + 1}\over{\displaystyle\sum\limits_{i = 1}^t i}}\right)^{n + 1}V_0\] Again, \(D_n\) refers to the depreciation at year \(n\) of the asset's lifespan, \(t\) refers to the asset's lifespan, \(n\) refers to the number of years the asset has been in use.
  The book value at year \(n\) is given as follows: \[V_n = \left({{t - n + 1}\over{\displaystyle\sum\limits_{i = 1}^t i}}\right)^nV_0\] where \(V_0\) refers to the asset's purchasing value. The following shows the decay of the book value as time passes:
  
  The system supports this method based on either the fiscal year or full year.

You can view and edit when an asset needs servicing or when does its warranty expire here.

You can set when your company's fiscal year starts, as well as the fixed asset acquisition date. Note that changing the settings here will greatly affect depreciation calculation, so make sure your settings are correct.

This will automatically generate the appropriate general journal entries. There is an option to print the journal entries out if you wish.

This will summarize the depreciation of your assets.

Closes the form.

If you have lots of fixed assets in your company, you can use this search function to save time to find an asset. Just type the name or part of the name of the asset and the system will search it for you.

The leftmost pane allows you to select categories of assets to filter the list. It can filter assets based on cost group, class, custodian, vendor, location and department. Click on the expand buttons (labeled "+") in this menu to select a category to filter the list.

Aside from a set of quick links previously mentioned in the previous sections, there is a shortcut menu that is located in the upper right corner of the application's main window of Fixed Asset Pro 16.

List of menus

As mentioned in the Quick Links section, this menu will bring back the main form of the application.

Please refer to the Importing and Exporting Data to and from Microsoft Excel section

This opens the Reports tab on the menu bar (will be explained later).

This menu is identical to the one we previously encountered in the Main Form. Refer to the corresponding section in the Main Form section.

View the list of assets and their service history here.

This menu is identical to the one we previously encountered in the Main Form. Refer to the corresponding section in the Main Form section.

The Operation quick link menu consists of several menu links. Most of them are similar to what is seen in the main form, so this section will only cover differences from the main form.

List of menus

This menu is similar to the main form, where it lists your assets in the menu. You can also edit and add assets in a similar fashion as in the main form. However, unlike the main form, you can filter assets based on status, i.e. whether they are unposted, posted, or deleted.

The system provides an excellent and less time-consuming way to input your data – using a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. This will be covered later in the Importing and Exporting Data to and from Microsoft Excel section.

All other menus function identically to its corresponding menu function in the main form. Please refer to the Main Form section for more information.

You can create and edit cost groups as well as automatically group your assets based on acquisition/transaction dates with the tools found in the Register quick link toolbar.

List of menus

Create your cost groups/cost centers for your asset. This will be useful to classify your assets according to ther cost group for journaling purposes. You would need basic accounting background to setup the chart of account related.

This tool provides automated asset grouping. You can view all your assets and filter them based on:

• * Whether they are acquired this year
• * Whether they are acquired last year
• * Whether they are transacted this year
• * Whether they are transacted last year

This is a tool in which you can create your own chart of accounts of your company. Note that basic accounting knowledge is necessary, but you can opt to use your existing account number. This complete chart of accounts is the extension of ExcelAcc Business Solution. If you like, you may also print it out using the print function provided.

Set asset custodian, location, department, class, service, provider, tables, etc. here. There is also a master table that must be set first before you insert asset data. This data is the data that will be a reference when you input asset data.

List of menus

This is a menu where you can view all the asset custodians, locations, departments, classes, services, providers, etc. You can also edit, add and delete any of these data here.

Set your asset custodians here. An asset custodian is a department or person who in charge of the assets. They are specialized financial institutions responsible for safeguarding a firm's or individual's financial assets. You may use common labels such as department names or employee names here.

You may manage vendors of your fixed assets here. These may be firms, companies or establishments that you have previously bought your fixed assets.

You may list down locations where your fixed assets are located here.

Here, you list down information regarding a provider, such as a person or institution that can provide service, maintenance as well as purchase of assets.

This menu is to list down your company's departments so that you can group your assets based on department.

Here, you classify your assets (e.g. whether they are considered computers, fixtures and fittings, motor vehicles, etc.)

Aside from a set of quick links previously mentioned in the previous sections, there is a shortcut menu that is located in the upper right corner of the application's main window of Fixed Asset Pro 16.

List of menus

As mentioned in the Quick Links section, this menu will bring back the main form of the application.

Please refer to the Importing and Exporting Data to and from Microsoft Excel section

This opens the Reports tab on the menu bar (will be explained later).

This menu is identical to the one we previously encountered in the Main Form. Refer to the corresponding section in the Main Form section.

View the list of assets and their service history here.

This menu is identical to the one we previously encountered in the Main Form. Refer to the corresponding section in the Main Form section.

Most Windows applications have a menu bar. If you are a Windows user, you will often see menu bars of applications on the top of the application window, just below the window title. These will typically have options such as "File", "Edit", "View", "Help", etc.

• * Action
• * Reports
• * Utility
• * Help, which has a menu that opens this user manual, as well as other stuff such as providing feedback
• * Exit, which exits the application

The Action tab in the menu bar comprises many options. Most of them were discussed in the previous sections.

List of menu items

Opens up the asset treeview (the main form).

This has its own section below in this page

Refer to the corresponding section in the Operation section.

Refer to the Transaction section in the Main Form section.

Refer to the Depreciation section in the Main Form section.

Refer to the To-do List section in the Main Form section.

Refer to the Importing and Exporting data to and from Microsoft Excel section.

We support customized versions of the application to our customers. Please contact us to get support for customized services.

The Register menu

The register menu provides a lot of the functionality identical to those discussed in the Register section.

The Reports tab of the menu bar is filled with tools that you can use to generate reports of your fixed assets. You can either print a hard-copy version of it or export the data to Microsoft Excel (97-2003) format.

Choose an appropriate report that you want to print from the menu tab, then a dialog box will appear for you to review the data to be exported. Afterwards, you may select whether you want a printout or an Excel spreadsheet to be printed.

Reset Chart of Accounts

It is a tool to delete all charts of accounts. Before deleting, there will be a confirmation message.

Backup

Used to backup the database and securing the future if there is damage to the database or there was an error during an operation data. Input your file name and select the directory where you want to store the backup file (the default directory is in the installation folder of the application). Once you have fulfilled the above step, click the OK button to perform the backup process. A message will appear if the backup process is successful.

Your backup file will be stored under the *.fab file extension.

Restore

Used to restore a backed-up database. Select the *.fab file that you store your backup in, click the OK button and the application will restart with your data loaded.

Maintenance

You can maintain the database with this tool. There are multiple options that you can select:

• Pack tables: Removes records marked for deletion from the current database. A database contains records marked for deletion after a table or view is removed from the database, or if the structure of a table in the database is modified.

• Re-index tables: updates all index files open in the selected work area. Index files become outdated when you open a table without opening its corresponding index file and make changes to the index files' key fields. When index files become outdated, you can update them by reindexing.

• Validate database: Ensures that the locations of tables and indexes in the current database are correct.

Copy data from demo version

If you start a new company, you can copy data from the demo version. You can then select the data that you want to copy, then click Process.

Import asset from Microsoft Excel

Refer to Importing and Exporting Data to and from Microsoft Excel.

Start new company

Fixed Asset Pro 16 is a data collection and asset management application that can be used with more than one company. The number of companies will be limited in accordance with the purchase of your license.

If the purchase of your license allows you to run this application for more than one company, you can create a new company with the following steps:

1. Select Start new company from the Utility tab of the menu bar
2. Fill in the form. Required fields are marked with an asterisk (*).
3. Click on Save Now
4. Click OK on the resulting dialog box
5. Exit the application
6. Click on Login As Different Company.
7. On the login page, select the new company that you have just registered in the Company drop-down menu.
8. You may then copy data from your previous company, using the Copy data from demo version tool (see above).

Edit company information

Edits the company information.

Edit security admin

You can change the User ID and password for login here.

When you first use this application, you have to input your fixed asset data to the application. However, if you have large numbers of fixed assets, inputting data may be very tedious. Fortunately, the application provides a convenient way to input your data, which is importing from Microsoft Excel.

Please note that the recommended file format for this application is the 97-2003 version of Microsoft Excel (with file extension *.xls).

Importing from Excel

1. Select Import Asset from MS. Excel from the main window or from the Utility tab of the main menu.
2. When the new window pops up, click on Export Template. This will download a template for you to fill your data in.
3. Click the Next button (located above the Exit button, in the form of a right arrow) for the second step.
4. Enter your fixed asset data to the excel template and save it to a convenient location.
5. Click the Next button again for the next step.
6. Click Get Asset Data file.
7. Select the Excel spreadsheet that you have inputted the fixed asset data in. Once the process finishes, the summarized translated data from the spreadsheet will apopear.
8. Click on the Next button.
9. For some of the data associated with the data of other assets such as Asset Group, Location, Department, Custodian, Vendor, Class and Account Number, you can change them in the resulting window by clicking on its column. Data shows "EMPTY" because your excel file does not match the data in the application. Please select the combo dropdown list to select the data.
10. Click on Process. A dialog box will appear to indicate a successful data input. Press OK to dismiss the dialog box.

Exporting to Excel

1. Select Export to Excel quick link near the top of the window.
2. Enter the file name for the new Excel file, select its directory, and press OK.