QuickBooks 2013 For Dummies

Fixed Assets Accounting in QuickBooks

Fixed assets accounting amounts to three things:

Keeping a list of the assets that you own

Recording depreciation on any depreciable assets

Recording the disposal of an asset, including any gain or loss on disposal

The Fixed Asset list, which I describe in the next section, takes care of the first task. The Fixed Asset list doesn’t directly help you with the second or third tasks shown in the preceding list, though. You need to understand this important point. You still need to calculate and then enter asset depreciation. And when you dispose of an asset, you still need to construct a journal entry that records the disposition.

Chapter 20 describes how depreciation works and how you go about recording the disposal of an asset. Read that chapter if you want to know how that stuff works.