Contents

Introduction

The Fixed Assets feature allows you to record and track long-term property (assets) you own, such as buildings, land, vehicles, furniture, equipment, or major renovations.

Fixed assets are managed separately from regular financial accounts and day-to-day transactions. They are not linked to bank accounts, categories, or funds, and they do not appear in budgets, Income Statements, or category and fund reports. Their value is only reflected in the Balance Sheet.

You can find the feature by going to Accounting > Accounts > Fixed Assets. The section is right under your main list of accounts.

Add an Asset

To add a fixed asset:

Go to Accounting > Accounts > Fixed Assets.
Click Add Fixed Asset.
In the Add Fixed Asset window, enter the following:
- The Name of the asset, e.g. Vehicle / Building, etc.
- An optional Number for this asset.
- The asset’s Initial Value (the current value).
- The Acquisition Date.
- Enable Depreciation if the asset decreases in value over time and you want to reflect this in your accounting. Depreciation is optional.
  - Enter the Useful Life in Years, meaning how long the asset is likely to be in use. The depreciation will be recorded in a straight line, once per year.
  - Enter the Depreciation Start Date, which is when the asset begins to depreciate.
  - Enter the Salvage Value, meaning the monetary value the asset is likely to retain at the end of its useful life. This value does not count towards depreciation, meaning it is subtracted from the asset’s initial value and depreciation occurs based on the remaining value. For instance, if an asset’s initial value is $50.000 and the salvage value is $5.000, then depreciation is calculated for $45.000. If an asset reaches its salvage value before the end of its useful life, then its depreciation stops.
  - Check the Preview to get an idea of what your depreciation records will look like over the next six years. The system will generate depreciation records every year. These records are visible, but not editable or removable.
- Click Save when done.

After a first asset is added, you can add further records by clicking the arrow next to Add Financial Accounts and selecting Add Fixed Asset.

Once your asset is added, it is listed under the dedicated Fixed Assets section.

Add Assets Already Depreciating

If you need to add assets that have already been depreciating for some time, then that past time has already been recorded in your previous accounting system. This needs to be accounted for when entering your asset in ChMeetings Accounting. There are two fields to pay attention to:

The Initial Value you should enter is the current asset value shown by your previous accounting - which accounts for past depreciation.
The Useful Life should reflect the remaining amount of time. So if the total useful life of an asset is 10 years and 6 have already been recorded, then the useful life to enter is 4 years.

The Asset Page

The Asset Page is where all of the information related to a particular asset is available. You can access it by clicking the asset name under Fixed Assets.

Here is where you can find the following information:

Current book value
Initial value.
Acquisition date.
Useful life (years).
Salvage value.
Depreciation start date.
Depreciation Status.
A dated history of manual value adjustments and automatic depreciation entries.

If an asset does not depreciate, then the details page will not contain any depreciation-related information.

Asset Options

Once your asset is recorded, there are a few options you can access via its context menu (...) and asset details page. You can edit the asset, make value adjustments, edit depreciation settings, archive or delete the record.

Edit an Asset

You can edit assets using the Edit option in its context menu. You can edit the asset’s name and associated number.

Depreciation Settings

You can adjust an asset’s depreciation settings anytime after initial recording. However, keep in mind that the new configuration only applies to future depreciation. The depreciation that has been recorded in the past will not change.

Under the Depreciation Settings, you can enable or disable depreciation, edit the useful life, salvage value, and depreciation start date.

Historical depreciation records are always visible on the asset page, but they are not editable or removable.

Adjust Asset Value

There are valid reasons why you might need to adjust the value of an asset after its initial recording. You can adjust the asset value from the asset details page, by clicking Add Adjustment. Here is where you can adjust the following:

Choose whether you are recording an Increase in Value (for improvements, upgrades, or corrections that raise the asset’s value), or a Decrease in Value (for damage, write-downs, disposals, or corrections that reduce the asset’s value). Note that the asset’s value cannot decrease below the salvage amount.
Set the adjustment Date.
Add the Amount by which the asset changes value - NOT the new asset value. For instance, if your asset’s current value is $250.000 and you want its value to increase to $300.000, then the amount to enter here is $50.000.
Enter a Memo / Reason for the value change. The memo is optional.
Add an Attachment that justifies the change. The attachment is optional
Click Save Adjustment when done.

Once the adjustment is saved, it is reflected in the Value History section on the asset’s page. You can edit or delete the adjustment record anytime.

Value History Options

The Value History section on the asset details page shows all records that relate to manual value adjustments or automated depreciation records.

Adjustment records may be edited or deleted. Depreciation records are locked and cannot be changed. The list can be exported to Excel and the attachments associated with adjustment records may be downloaded right from within the list.

Archive an Asset

You can archive assets if you want to keep them recorded but they are no longer active.

Archived assets will be hidden from the active list but their history is preserved.
To archive an asset:

Open its context menu (...).
Choose Archive.
Confirm your choice by clicking Archive in the confirmation window.

Once an asset is archived, a toggle is shown at the top of your assets list, which allows you to Show the Archive. Turn the toggle on to show the archive, and toggle off to hide it.

When archived items are shown, they display with an Archived label next to them.You can restore archived assets from the context menu > Restore. Restoring an asset takes it back to the active list and removes it from the Archive.

Retire an Asset

Archiving alone does not remove the asset’s value from the Balance Sheet. To retire, sell, scrap, or donate an asset, please first decrease the asset’s value to zero and only archive afterwards.

Delete an Asset

You can delete assets using the Delete option in the context menu.

Deleting assets also removes their value history. Deleted assets cannot be restored. Please proceed with caution!

Fixed Assets in the Balance Sheet

Fixed assets are hidden from the Balance Sheet by default. You can enable them using a show/hide option at the top of the report. Toggle on Include Fixed Assets then click Filter to adjust the balance sheet accordingly. When fixed assets are enabled:

There is a dedicated Fixed Assets section within the Balance Sheet.
Each asset displays its book value as of the report date.
Asset values are included in Total Assets and Net Assets.
Fixed Assets are included in the Excel export.
In the fund matrix view, assets appear under the “Other” column because they are not assigned to a fund.

Adding a fixed asset directly increases Total Assets and Net Assets without creating an offsetting transaction.