Fixed Asset Depreciation

by Demas Simeng
(Tabubil, Papua New Guinea)

I have bought some furniture and mini bus for our small church. As far as accounting is concerned these are classified as fixed assets.

1. How do I record this in the books of accounts?
2. What method depreciation can be best used?
3. Can I include depreciation as an expense and accumulated depreciation as an fixed asset in the book of accounts?

Please help me outstanding more on this.

Looking forward to hear from you.

Vickey's Reply

Determine first if your church is required to track depreciation See this post on church depreciation.

If you determine you need to track depreciation, then follow the steps below:

1. It would be recorded under your church’s fixed asset account.

2. There are several methods of depreciating an asset; however, the simplest and most commonly used is straight line depreciation. See this page for simple instructions on using this method.

3. Accumulated Depreciation is a long-term contra asset account (an asset account with a credit balance) that is reported on the balance sheet.

4. During each accounting period (year, quarter, month, etc.) a portion of the cost of fixed assets is used up. The portion used up is reported as Depreciation Expense on the income statement.


Comments for Fixed Asset Depreciation

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Nov 14, 2010
Tracking depreciation of fixed assets
by: Anonymous

How to you keep track of the depreciation of fixed assests, specifically equipment. At some point the equipment will be fully depreciated. We use QuickBooks Pro. Is this something that can be addressed with the program or does it require tracking outside of the system in an excel spread sheet?

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Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How? Simply click here to return to Accounting.

If you want to DIY your payroll, I highly recommend you look at using Gusto! It is very user friendly and their support is awesome! Plus they know how to set up and maintain payrolls for churches and nonprofit organizations.

Note: I am a "partner" of Gusto, but as I have told you before ... I never recommend anything that we or our clients have not tried and love =)



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