Fixed assets

A fixed asset is something the business buys to use for years — a laptop, a camera, a vehicle — rather than something it consumes in the month it pays for it. Instead of landing as one large expense, its cost is spread over its useful life as depreciation, a monthly charge that reflects the asset wearing out. PulseBooks does that spreading for you.

The asset register is available on the Pro and Business plans — see Plans & billing.

The asset register

Go to Assets in the sidebar. The register lists every asset with its cost, depreciation method, current book value (the cost minus the depreciation charged so far) and status — Active, Disposed, or Written Off. Summary tiles show the number of assets, total cost, total book value, and how many are fully depreciated. You can search, filter by status and acquisition date, and sort any column.

Adding an asset

Go to Assets → Add Asset and fill in:

• Name, and an optional description — "Office Laptop", "Delivery Vehicle".
• Category — an asset category such as Computer Equipment or Vehicles. A standard set is created for you, and you can add your own under Settings → Categories.
• Acquisition date and acquisition cost — when you bought it and what it cost.
• Residual value — the estimated value at the end of its useful life. Depreciation stops there rather than at zero.
• Useful life — in months, with one-click presets from 1 to 6 years.
• Depreciation method — Straight line charges an equal amount each period over the asset's life; Reducing balance charges more early and less later, based on the remaining book value.

Registering an asset does not move any money by itself — record the purchase payment the way you normally would. The register's job is everything that happens after the purchase.

Automatic monthly depreciation

You never post depreciation by hand. At the start of each month, a scheduled job charges the previous month's depreciation for every active asset: one journal entry per asset, dated the last day of that month, charging depreciation expense and adding to accumulated depreciation (the running total charged against the asset so far). The entries are visible like any others — see Journals.

A few details worth knowing:

• An asset that is fully depreciated, or whose charge for the month is zero, is simply skipped — no noise entries.
• A month is never charged twice: re-running the job posts nothing new.
• Depreciation on a disposed asset stops at its disposal date.

The depreciation schedule report

Reports → Depreciation Schedule shows the whole register as at any date you pick: each asset's cost, method, accumulated depreciation, book value, current monthly charge and status, with portfolio totals, and it exports as a PDF you can hand to your accountant. The balance sheet also carries the net book value of your fixed assets.

Disposing of an asset

When an asset is sold, scrapped, lost or obsolete, open its actions menu on the register and choose Dispose / Write Off:

• Disposed — the asset was sold or passed on. Enter the disposal date and the amount received.
• Written Off — nothing was received. The disposal amount is always 0.

Disposal posts a journal entry dated the disposal date: the asset's cost comes off your books, the depreciation charged up to that date is released, the proceeds are recorded, and any difference between the proceeds and the remaining book value — the gain or loss on disposal — is posted as its own line marked for review, so you or your accountant can classify it deliberately.

If the entry cannot post, nothing is saved and the asset stays active on the register — a disposal is never left half-recorded. A disposal dated into a closed period is refused; see Period close.

Plan availability

The asset register and everything on this page require a Pro or Business plan. On the Free plan the Assets pages show an upgrade prompt, and the depreciation schedule sits with the other advanced reports, which are Pro and up as well.