Opening Balances

The Opening Balances form is where you enter starting values for assets that were acquired in an earlier period or year that are added to Fixed Assets. You can enter the asset's capital cost, depreciation to-date, disposals values, and so on for each asset you add to Fixed Assets. To enter opening balances, the status of the asset must be New but you can also use the form as a view when an asset is Live.

The details you enter here are primarily concerned with depreciation to-date and the value of any assets, or any part of an asset, which has already been disposed of. The way in which the values are treated depends on how you complete the opening balance entries.

The following links explain the different approaches you can take when adding an asset to Fixed Assets, and the effect on an asset record after the Depreciation Calculation is first run.

In this situation nothing is entered on the Opening Balances form.

If you create a new asset without entering any opening balances, the Depreciation Calculation will:

create a transaction in this period for this period's depreciation
create a transaction in this period for any previous periods' depreciation for this year
calculate depreciation for previous years but without creating a transaction
update the asset's This Period, This Year, and To-Date values for all the depreciation
generate Nominal Ledger postings for depreciation this year and this period.

Scenario 2: The asset was acquired this year or in a previous year, the depreciation method has not changed, and the Nominal Ledger has not been updated in this year.

In this situation nothing is entered on the Opening Balances form.

If you create a new asset without entering any opening balances, the Depreciation Calculation will:

create a transaction in this period for this period's depreciation
create a transaction in this period for any previous periods' depreciation for this year
calculate depreciation for previous years but without creating a transaction
update the asset's This Period, This Year, and To-Date values for all the depreciation
generate Nominal Ledger postings for depreciation this year and this period.

Scenario 3: The asset was acquired this year or in a previous year, the depreciation method has changed since the end of the previous year, and the Nominal Ledger has not been updated in this year.

In this situation the previous year balances must be entered on the Opening Balances form.

If you create a new asset and enter just to-date values as at the end of the previous year but leave this year’s opening balance values at zero, the Depreciation Calculation will:

create a transaction in this period for this period's depreciation
create a transaction in this period for any previous periods’ depreciation for this year
update the asset's This Period, This Year, and To-Date values for all the depreciation including what you entered for previous years on the Opening Balances form.
generate Nominal Ledger postings for depreciation this year and this period.

Tip: You can calculate the previous year's depreciation by pressing the F7 key or by clicking Recalculate on the Action menu after entering the Addition Date to the Current Capital Cost boxes.

Scenario 4: The asset was acquired this year or in a previous year and the Nominal Ledger has already been updated.

In this situation the previous year and this year balances must be entered on the Opening Balances form.

If you create a new asset and enter to-date values as at the previous year end, plus this year balances, the Depreciation Calculation will:

create a transaction in this period for this period's depreciation
update the asset's This Period, This Year, and To-Date values for all the depreciation including what you entered for previous years and this year on the Opening Balances form.
generate Nominal Ledger postings for the depreciation this period only.

Tip: You can calculate both the previous years plus this years depreciation up to last period by pressing the F7 key or by clicking Recalculate on the Action menu after entering the Addition Date to the Current Capital Cost boxes.

Box	Description
Addition Date	The date the asset was added to Fixed Assets. This defaults to the acquisition date entered on the Processing form but you can change it.
Addition Year & Period	The year and period defaults to appropriate values based on the Addition Date.
Depreciation Start Date	The date to start depreciation calculations in Fixed Assets. This date uses the Depreciate In Start Period option on the Asset Category linked to the asset to set a default date. If the option is ticked, the depreciation start date is set to the first day in this period. If the option is not ticked, the depreciation start date is set to the first day in the next period.
Depreciation Start Year & Period	The year and period defaults to appropriate values based on the Addition Date. If you change the default year and period to a value outside of the depreciation start date, a warning message is displayed. The Depreciation Calculation uses this year and period combination to decide whether depreciation must be calculated.
Quantity At Year Start	The quantity at the start of the year. This defaults to the original quantity if the asset’s original date is not in a previous year.
Capital Cost At Year Start	The capital cost of the item as at the start of the year.
Current Capital Cost	The current capital cost of the item.
Accumulated Depreciation (To Date & This Year)	The value of accumulated depreciation for this year and to-date. You can calculate the previous year's depreciation, or both the previous years plus this year's depreciation up to last period, by pressing the F7 key or by clicking Recalculate on the Action menu. Note: If you calculate depreciation for this year, it will not include this period's depreciation. This period's depreciation will be calculated by the Depreciation Calculation command.
Depreciation On Disposed (To Date & This Year)	Enter the depreciation on disposed parts of this asset to date and this year. If the asset has already been partly disposed, the Depreciation on Disposed To-Date and This Year for the disposed quantity and the Cost of Disposals To-Date and This Year must be manually entered.
Cost of Disposals (To Date & This Year)	Enter the cost of disposals or part disposals of this asset. If the asset has already been partly disposed, the Depreciation on Disposed To-Date and This Year for the disposed quantity and the Cost of Disposals To-Date and This Year must be manually entered.
Fully Disposed	Tick if the asset has been fully disposed. When the Depreciation Calculation is run, the asset status is changed from New to Disposed. The Nominal Ledger is not updated.
This Year	Tick if the asset was fully disposed this year. Enabled if the Fully Disposed box is ticked.