Fixed Assets

Use Fixed Assets when you buy something that lasts more than a year and should be spread over its life instead of expensed at once. The register keeps each asset’s cost, accumulated depreciation, net book value, status, and the journal entries behind them. The breadcrumb reads Finance > Assets & Leases > Fixed Assets. You can also reach it from the command palette, from the Add Asset picker on Finance > Assets & Leases > All Assets (choose Owned (Fixed Asset), then Continue, and the Add Fixed Asset window opens for you), from the “Open Fixed Assets” link in the notice a vendor bill shows when it creates assets, and from the lease buyout banner on a lease.

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Prerequisites

• Opening the register and any asset needs permission to view accounting. Without it the page shows a no-access panel that names the missing permission.
• Adding, editing, placing in service, transferring, recording units, suspending, resuming, impairing, disposing, and logging maintenance all need permission to manage fixed assets. Without it those buttons are hidden.
• Run Depreciation needs permission to close periods and is hidden without it.
• A category with default accounts must exist before you add an asset. Categories live in Settings > System > Fixed Asset Categories; see Fixed Asset Categories.
• The location lists in the Add Fixed Asset and Transfer windows come from settings, so a role without settings access may see no locations to pick.

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Open The Fixed Assets Register

The top of the register shows four tiles you can collapse: Total Cost, Total NBV, Monthly Depreciation, and Pending Service (a count). Below them the table has a tab for each status: All, Active, Pending Service, Fully Depreciated, Suspended, and Disposed.

• Search looks across name, asset code, and serial number (“Search by name, code, or serial”).
• The Category filter narrows the table to one category.
• The Columns menu shows or hides columns: Asset Code, Name, Category, Acquired, Cost, NBV, Accum. Depr., Method, Location, and Status. Every one of them sorts when you click its header (ascending, then descending, then cleared).
• Click a row to open the asset. A saved link to the Pending Service tab opens straight to it, and the tab you pick is kept in the address so you can bookmark it.
• Export CSV downloads the register. If it fails you see “Export failed”.
• With no assets the table says “No fixed assets yet” and “Click Add Asset to capitalize your first asset”.

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Create An Asset

1. Open Finance > Assets & Leases > Fixed Assets and click Add Asset.
2. Step 1 of 3: pick a category. Useful life, method, MACRS class, and the three accounts fill in from the category’s defaults.
3. Step 2 of 3: enter the Name, optional Description and Location, Cost Basis, Salvage Value, Useful Life (months), and Method. Choose a MACRS Class when the method is MACRS or Bonus + MACRS. Set Acquired (required, defaults to today), optionally Placed in Service, and an optional Serial Number. A panel shows the estimated straight-line monthly depreciation; the real schedule for the other methods is built when you create the asset.
4. Step 3 of 3: review the Asset account, Accumulated depreciation, and Depreciation expense accounts, which come from the category.
5. Click Create Asset.

The methods you can choose are Straight-Line, Double-Declining Balance, Sum-of-Years Digits, MACRS, Section 179, Bonus + MACRS, and Units of Production. MACRS classes run from 3-Year to 39-Year. What happens next. You land on the new asset and see “Asset (code) created (category)”. If you gave a placed-in-service date, the asset is Active, the depreciation schedule is built, and the acquisition entry posts: it debits the asset account and credits Accounts Payable when the asset came from a vendor bill, or your operating bank account otherwise. If you left the date blank, the asset is Pending Service: no schedule and no entry yet.

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Understand Asset Status

• Pending Service: the asset exists but has no schedule and no acquisition entry. Place in Service moves it to Active.
• Active: the asset depreciates each month. Suspend moves it to Suspended; Dispose moves it to Disposed; reaching its depreciable basis moves it to Fully Depreciated.
• Suspended: monthly depreciation is paused and the schedule is kept. Resume moves it back to Active. You cannot record units on a suspended asset.
• Fully Depreciated: depreciation has reached the depreciable base (cost less salvage). The asset still carries its salvage value until you dispose of it.
• Disposed: the asset is retired. A disposed asset cannot be placed in service, impaired, or disposed again: only Edit stays on the asset.

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Work An Asset

Open an asset to see its name, status badge, asset code, category, and location, with these buttons (all need permission to manage fixed assets, and the right-hand ones depend on status): Disposal first posts any catch-up depreciation to the disposal date, then posts the disposal entry (cash, accumulated depreciation, and the asset, with the gain or loss closing it). There is no unpost for a disposal.

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Recover an impairment

Recovery is off by default because impairment is final under US GAAP. In the Impair Asset window you will see “Impairment is final under US GAAP (ASC 360). To enable recovery for IFRS-aligned entities, turn on “Allow impairment recovery” in Settings, Fixed Asset Categories.” When an administrator turns Allow Impairment Recovery on in Settings > System > Fixed Asset Categories, the window gains Impair and Recover toggles. Recovery cannot exceed the net impairment history; with none, the window says “This asset has no net impairment to recover.” A recovery debits accumulated depreciation and credits impairment expense, and you see “Impairment recovered”.

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Run depreciation for the whole register

Run Depreciation on the register queues the monthly depreciation job for every eligible active asset (it also runs the monthly lease entries). You see “Monthly depreciation job queued”. It needs permission to close periods. A Monthly Depreciation Log page, opened by its own link and also needing that permission, lists each run with its start, completion, records, duration, status, and any error, and has a Run Now button.

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Detail Tabs

• Overview: Asset Information (code, category, name, location, serial number, acquired and placed-in-service dates, description) and a Financial Summary (cost basis, salvage value, useful life in months, method and MACRS class, monthly depreciation, accumulated depreciation, net book value, and a percent-depreciated bar). Once an asset has impairment events, an Impairment History panel shows total impaired and total recovered. An asset made by a lease buyout shows “Originated from a finance lease buyout” with a View source lease link.
• Depreciation Schedule: monthly rows with beginning value, depreciation, accumulated depreciation, and ending value. When the asset has tax depreciation, Book and Tax toggles appear.
• Maintenance: the maintenance history. Add Maintenance Log records performed-on date, next due date, a description (required: “Description is required”), cost, vendor, and notes. You see “Maintenance log added”, and an empty tab reads “No maintenance logs yet.”
• History: the activity history for this asset: creation, edits, transfers, suspensions, impairments, and depreciation posts.
• Documents: shows “Documents coming soon”. Attaching files to an asset is not available yet, so keep purchase and warranty paperwork with the vendor bill or in your document storage for now.

If you open an asset link while working in a different one of your companies, Arcus looks for the asset in your other companies and switches you with “Switched to (company) to open this fixed asset.” If none of them holds it, the page reads “Failed to load asset.”

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What Gets Posted And Recorded

• General ledger: placing in service or creating with a date (acquisition entry), each monthly depreciation, recording units, impairing, recovering an impairment, and disposing all post journal entries. Edit, transfer, suspend, resume, and maintenance logs do not post money.
• Audit trail and live updates: every action above is written to the asset’s History and refreshes the register for other people viewing it.
• Closed periods: an entry dated in a closed period is refused with the server’s message. Post it in an open period or follow the reopen process on Period Close.

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Common Fixed Asset Blocks

• Depreciation did not run: check that the asset is Active (not Pending Service, Suspended, or Fully Depreciated) and has a placed-in-service date, life, and method.
• Asset is stuck pending: open it and click Place in Service.
• Add Asset says the accounts are not set up: pick a category whose defaults include the asset, accumulated depreciation, and depreciation expense accounts, or finish Fixed Asset Categories.
• Wrong cost basis or method after service: cost, life, and method are locked once the asset is placed in service. Dispose of it and add a new asset.
• A button is missing: check the asset’s status in the table above and your permissions.

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