Asset depreciation values

Assets lose value over the course of their use. This accounting principle is known as depreciation. Businesses usually record the amount of depreciation as expenses, thereby to gain tax relief. You can calculate the depreciation of an asset or multiple assets any time in Civic Platform.

Civic Platform keeps a history of all depreciation calculations performed on each asset. You can view an asset's depreciation history to see all past depreciation calculations.

Civic Platform calculates asset depreciation based on the passage of time. The depreciation rate is the depreciable cost of an asset divided by the number of years of its useful life.

Example: A vehicle is purchased at a cost of US$24,000 and has a salvage value of US$4,000. If the vehicle depreciates over 5 years, it depreciates at US$4,000 per year: ($24,000 − $4,000)/5 years = $4,000.

Note: Depreciation Formulas:

Depreciation per Year = (Start Value - Salvage Value)/Useful Life

Depreciation Period = (Depreciation End Date - Depreciation Start Date)/365

Years Elapsed = (Current Date - Depreciation Start Date)/365

Depreciation Amount = Depreciation Period x Depreciation per Year

Depreciation Value = Start Value - Depreciation Amount

Current Value = Start Value - Years Elapsed x Depreciation per Year

Remaining Life = Useful Life - Depreciation Period

There are two values after depreciation: depreciation value and current value. The depreciation value deducts the depreciation amount from the start value based on the depreciation end date you specify; the current value deducts the depreciation amount from the start value with the current date as the depreciation end date. If you specify the current date as the depreciation end date, the two values are identical.

The formulas require the following fields to be completed.

  • Start value: the start value must be greater than 0.

  • Depreciation start date and Depreciation end date: the depreciation start date cannot be null, and the depreciation end date must be later than the depreciation start date.

  • Useful life: the useful life must be greater than 0.

  • Salvage value: the salvage value must be no greater than the start value.

For a description of these fields, see Asset usage fields.

If any of these fields is left blank, Civic Platform skips the depreciation calculation and displays an error message.

After the creation of an asset, you may calculate its depreciation any time during its useful life.

To calculate the depreciation for an asset

  1. From the Assets page, find and open the desired asset.

  2. Complete the asset fields that act as the criteria in the asset depreciation formulas. See Asset depreciation formulas.

  3. Select Recalculate value.

    Note: Civic Platform updates the following three fields of the asset: Depreciation Amount, Depreciation Value and Current Value.

You may need to calculate the depreciation for a group of assets or all assets in your agency. Civic Platform gives you the option to perform group depreciation.

To perform asset group depreciation

  1. On the Assets page, select the check box next to each asset you want to perform depreciation on. You may select assets of the same type or of different types.

    Note: Skip this step if you plan to perform group depreciation for all the assets in the current list.

  2. Choose Menu > Group depreciation.

  3. Set the depreciation options.

    Option Description
    Through Date The depreciation end date. This field defaults to the current date. Adjust as needed.
    Depreciation For Select whether to calculate depreciations for the selected assets or all assets in the current list. The Selected Assets Only option does not display if you skipped step 2.

  4. Select Recalculate.

    Note: Civic Platform displays the Group Depreciation Report, which shows depreciation results by asset types.

    • The values for each asset type (including Start value, Depreciation amount, Depreciation value, Salvage value and Current value) are the sum values of the assets that belong to the asset type and succeeded in the group depreciation calculation.

    • Recalculation succeeded displays the number of calculations that succeeded for the asset.

    • Recalculation failed displays the number of calculations that failed for the asset. For information on why an asset fails in depreciation calculation, see Asset depreciation formulas.

  5. (Optional) Select Menu > CSV export to export the report to a CSV (comma-separated value) file.

  6. To exit the group depreciation report, select Close.

Civic Platform provides the ability to track the depreciation history for each asset. The history information may assist you in evaluating the asset depreciation status.

To view an asset depreciation history

  1. From the Assets page, find and open the desired asset.

  2. Choose Menu > Depreciation history.

  3. Do one of the following:

    • Export the log to a CSV (comma-separated value) file by selecting Menu > CSV export.

    • Remove a history record by selecting the check box next to the record and then selecting Delete.

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