The Capital Assets screen

Here's what you'll see when you categorise a bill, expense or payment as a purchase of a capital asset.

You'll find the Capital Assets screen under Reports, under the Accounting menu.

What you'll see here is each asset that your business has bought, listed at its cost price, net of VAT.

FreeAgent will then work out its depreciation over its useful life.

The first year's worth of depreciation is posted on the day the asset was bought, because an asset immediately loses part of its value when it is no longer brand new. Think of a new car.

Then, every year on the anniversary of the purchase of the asset, FreeAgent will post another year's worth of depreciation, until the asset's useful life has finished. The asset would then be referred to as "fully depreciated".

How will the asset show in my accounts?

In the profit and loss account, only the depreciation for that year shows as a cost.

In the tax computation, that depreciation is added back to your business's profit. This is because, instead of including depreciation when you are working out the amount of profit to pay tax on, you have to use HM Revenue's prescribed figures, which are called capital allowances. FreeAgent will work a projection of these out for you.

In the balance sheet, you can see the cost of all the capital assets your business has bought, less the depreciation posted to that date. The cost less accumulated depreciation is called the book value, or net book value, of the asset.

In the trial balance, because it shows you all the accounts in your business, you can see both the depreciation charge which goes to the profit and loss account, and the total net book values of all the capital assets your business owns.