Fixed Assets - Quick Start Guide

Prosaic’s Fixed Assets register helps you track asset costs, depreciation and book values while keeping the register and general ledger in sync.

This quick start covers the shortest path to get up and running: create an asset type, add an asset, activate it and run depreciation.

For field-by-field guidance and less common workflows, see Setting Up Asset Types and Managing Fixed Assets.

Step 1: Create an asset type

Asset types provide the account mappings and depreciation defaults used by individual assets.

1. Go to Workspace → Asset Types.
2. Click Create fixed asset type.
3. For a standard type you want to reuse across clients, turn on Make this a workspace asset type?, then choose the chart templates it applies to. You can also apply it to existing entities using those templates.
4. For a one-off type, leave the workspace option off and select the entity.
5. Choose the asset, accumulated depreciation and depreciation expense accounts. Add a private-use account if assets of this type may have a personal-use portion.
6. Choose Straight Line, Diminishing Value or No depreciation, then save the asset type.

For account requirements, workspace behaviour and asset-type limits, read Setting Up Asset Types.

Step 2: Add a fixed asset

There are three ways to add assets:

• Create one manually: go to Fixed Assets and click Create fixed asset.
• Import a register: click Import to upload a Xero fixed asset CSV or use Prosaic’s CSV template. Imported assets are created as drafts for review.
• Create one from bank reconciliation: reconcile a purchase to a fixed asset account. Prosaic creates a draft using the transaction’s date, amount and description.

Select the entity and asset type, then check the purchase details and depreciation settings. The asset type supplies defaults, which you can override for the individual asset where needed.

Choose Save as draft if you want to review the asset later, or Create and activate if it’s ready to use.

If you’re moving an existing register from Xero, see Bring across the fixed asset register.

Step 3: Review and activate

Draft assets don’t affect your accounts and can be edited freely. Before activation, check the purchase price, start date, asset type and depreciation settings.

1. Open the draft asset.
2. Update any details and click Save draft.
3. Open Actions and click Activate.

For a manually entered purchase that hasn’t already been recorded in the ledger, you can create and post a purchase journal as part of activation. Don’t create another purchase journal for an asset drafted from a reconciled bank transaction.

Once active, the asset is ready for depreciation. Its name, asset number and description remain editable, while its value and depreciation settings are locked.

Step 4: Run depreciation

1. On Fixed Assets, select one or more active assets.
2. Open Bulk actions and choose Run depreciation. You can also open one asset and use its Actions menu.
3. For the first run, choose the month to start from. Then choose the month to run up to and including.
4. Review the assets included, then click Run Depreciation.

Prosaic posts the monthly depreciation journals and updates each asset’s accumulated depreciation and book value.

What’s next

Once the register is running, you can roll back depreciation when a correction is needed, dispose of assets with a disposal journal, use bulk actions and export the current register as CSV, PDF or Excel.

Read Managing Fixed Assets for these workflows and for explanations of depreciation fields, mixed-use assets and imported opening balances.

Need help? Use the 💬 button in Prosaic or email help@prosaic.works.