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Fixed assets
One generator. Two records, and both of them true.
Finance needs a number on the balance sheet. Operations needs to know where it is, who signed for it, whether the warranty has run out and what condition it came back in. AWRA OpsHub keeps both, tells you plainly which is which, and never quietly presents one as the other.
Five capitalised account classes · Depreciation posted monthly · Full operational register · Custody & movement history · Pool or serialised tracking
- Serial
- GN30-77A-2291
- Class
- Plant & equipment
- Acquired
- 14 Mar 2024 · KES 1,840,000
- Ownership
- Owned outright
- Custodian
- J. Mwangi · Facilities
- Location
- Industrial Area · Plant room
- Condition
- Good · risk: high
- Warranty
- Expires 14 Mar 2027
- Verified
- 08 Aug 2026 by A. Otieno
Requires approval to move. High-risk assets can be flagged so a transfer needs a decision rather than a click.
Why there are two
The same generator, seen from two ends of the building.
Most systems pick one of these and disappoint the other department. Keeping them separate but linked is what lets a finance figure stay a finance figure and an operational record stay useful to the person holding a spanner.
A total per capitalised account class, built the same way as every other statement figure: the sum of the journal postings that hit those accounts. It is what feeds the fixed assets line on your balance sheet.
- Five named classes, each an explicit account key rather than a name match
- Every class expandable to the individual postings that produced its balance
- Balances accumulated in the account's natural debit sense, consistent with the rest of the ledger
- Gated behind the accounting permission ladder, so it can be granted without granting the whole ledger
- Mirrored on the API alongside the other statements
One record per asset — or per pool — carrying everything a custodian, an auditor or a maintenance lead actually asks about. This is the register you walk the building with.
- Identity: asset code, barcode, serial number, model, manufacturer, category
- Acquisition: purchase date, purchase cost, currency, ownership type, warranty expiry
- Accountability: current custodian, department, location, warehouse, expected return
- State: condition, status, risk level, whether a move requires approval
- History: last movement, last verification and who verified it, retirement date, reason and who retired it
- Shape: a tracking mode, so things held in quantity run as a pool rather than as fake serial numbers
The two are linked rather than merged. An asset record can point at an inventory item, and there is a conversion path between the two — so a laptop bought as stock can become a tracked asset the day it is issued to somebody, without being counted twice or losing its purchase history. What the platform will not do is silently treat the operational register's purchase costs as though they were the ledger, because those are two different claims about the world and only one of them is a posting.
Capitalised classes
Five account classes roll into the fixed assets line.
You can add accounts to any of these, and a posting to any one of them lands in the fixed assets total on the balance sheet. The classes exist so a laptop and a warehouse are not the same row.
Fixed assets
fixed_assets The general capitalisation account, and the default landing place for anything not broken out below.
Office equipment
office_equipment Computers, printers, phones — the short-lived, high-churn end of the register.
Furniture & fixtures
furniture_and_fixtures Fit-out and fittings, which typically outlive the equipment and belong on their own line.
Vehicles
vehicles Separated because vehicles carry their own compliance, insurance and custody questions.
Land & buildings
land_and_buildings The long end. Kept apart from everything else because it behaves nothing like the rest.
The part most vendors blur
Depreciation that reaches the ledger, and a chart that does not pretend to.
There are two downward lines in the product, and they are different things. One is posted, one is a picture. We would rather you learned which is which from us than from a variance later.
Each asset you depreciate gets its own profile: the capitalised cost, a salvage value, the date it came into service, and a method — straight line over a useful life in months, or reducing balance at an annual rate. An asset you already owned can bring the depreciation charged to date with it. The profile names the asset, accumulated depreciation and expense accounts, defaulting to the system ones.
What the depreciation register does
- A monthly run you preview first, posting Dr Depreciation Expense, Cr Accumulated Depreciation — once per asset per month, refused for a closed period or a month that has not started
- A per-asset schedule of every charge still to come, and every charge already posted
- Disposal that takes the cost and accumulated depreciation off the books and posts the gain or loss against the proceeds
- The register checked against the ledger, account by account, with any difference shown rather than absorbed
What the register chart is not
- The operational register’s value chart applies one flat twenty per cent a year to every asset. It is labelled indicative and it is not book value
- Book value lives in the depreciation register, which is what the ledger agrees with
- Neither is a tax computation. Capital allowances are a different calculation on different rules
The conventions are stated rather than configurable, because they are the least surprising ones for a small organization: a full month’s charge in the month an asset comes into service and none in the month it is disposed of, no charge ever taking book value below salvage, and the last charge taking whatever is left so the asset lands on salvage to the cent. Reducing balance writes off its tail once a month’s charge falls below one unit of currency, rather than dribbling on for decades.
Rates and lives are set on each asset, not defaulted from its class. That is deliberate for a first version and it is the obvious next layer: a useful life, method and salvage percentage per asset class, filled in when a new asset is set up. It is the first item in the ledger below.
The operational life
From acquisition to retirement, with a name against every step.
A register nobody updates is a spreadsheet with extra steps. What keeps this one honest is that the movements are the same movements your teams already have to record.
Acquire Cost, date, currency and ownership type captured at the point of purchase.
Assign A custodian, department and location, with a custody receipt behind the handover.
Move Transfers, check-outs and returns — with high-risk assets able to require an approval first.
Verify Last verified date and who verified it, so an audit walk leaves a trace.
Condition Condition and status on the record, with warranty expiry visible before it matters.
Retire Retirement date, reason and the person who retired it, kept rather than deleted.
Straight answers
What the register does today — and what we can add to yours.
We have been precise about depreciation above. Here is the whole picture in the same spirit, including what we would build.
What AWRA OpsHub does today
- A finance view totalling five named capitalised account classes straight from the ledger, feeding the fixed assets line on your balance sheet
- Every class expandable to the individual postings behind its balance
- A full operational register: asset code, barcode, serial number, model, manufacturer and category
- Acquisition detail — purchase date, cost, currency, ownership type and warranty expiry — on every record
- Live accountability: current custodian, department, location and warehouse, with an expected return date where one applies
- Condition, status and risk level, with an approval requirement that can be switched on for the assets that warrant it
- A custody receipt behind handovers, and last-verified date plus verifier so an audit walk leaves a trace
- Pool or serialised tracking, so items held in quantity are managed as a pool instead of given invented serial numbers
- A conversion path between stock items and assets, so something bought as inventory can become a tracked asset when it goes into service
- Retirement kept rather than deleted — date, reason and the person who retired it
- A value trend chart labelled indicative on screen, naming its own rate, so nobody mistakes it for book value
- Depreciation per asset, straight line over a useful life or reducing balance at an annual rate, with salvage value and any depreciation already charged brought forward
- A monthly depreciation run, previewed first and posted once per asset per month to Depreciation Expense and Accumulated Depreciation, refused for a closed period
- A per-asset schedule of the charges still to come and those already posted
- Disposal accounting — cost and accumulated depreciation off the books, proceeds received, and the gain or loss posted
- An optional capitalisation entry when an asset is set up, for an asset not already on the books through a purchase
- The depreciation register checked against the ledger account by account, with any difference shown
- Preventive maintenance on the asset — calendar schedules that open their own work orders, overdue chasing, downtime recorded as movements, and labour, parts and other cost per work order
More we can add to your workspace
- Depreciation defaults per asset class — a useful life, method and salvage percentage filled in when a new asset in that class is set up
- Net book value per class on the finance view, with accumulated depreciation shown beneath cost for each class rather than as one contra account
- A scheduled monthly run, so depreciation posts on the first of the month without somebody pressing the button
- Further methods — units of production and sum-of-the-years digits — and part-month charging for an asset that comes into service mid-month
- A capital allowances computation for tax, on the separate rules your jurisdiction uses
- Revaluation and impairment postings on a basis your auditor specifies
- A reconciliation report tying the operational register's asset costs to the capitalised ledger balances, listing any asset without a posting behind it
- Automatic capitalisation from a purchase order line straight into an asset record and its account class
- Servicing that falls due on meter readings, with spares issued from stock onto the work order and the maintenance cost posted to the ledger
- Lease and hire-purchase accounting for assets held under agreement rather than owned
- A per-class asset ageing report and a replacement-forecast view built on real useful lives
Where we point you to a specialist
- The useful life and residual value of your assets are accounting judgements for you and your auditor. We will build the schedule to the rates and lives they set; we will not pick them from a template and call it policy.
- Whether a cost is capitalised or expensed has tax consequences, so the decision stays with your accountant. Give us the rule and we will build the posting that follows it every time.
- A valuation for insurance or for sale is a valuer's work, not a software output. We hold the cost and the history that a valuer will ask for.
- Your filed accounts carry your auditor's sign-off. We hand over the register and every posting behind it and stay out of the signature block.
Class defaults are the item on this page customers ask for most once depreciation is running, and they are additive rather than a rebuild — the profiles, the monthly run and the postings they would fill in are all already here. Tell us your classes, lives and methods and we will come back with a written spec, a timeline and a price.
Worth saying once more plainly, because it is the thing to plan around: book value is the depreciation register, which posts to the ledger and is checked against it, and the operational register's value chart is a shape rather than a balance. Neither is hidden and neither is dressed up.
Around the register
Where assets connect.
Asset Tracking The operational module in full — movements, custodians, pools, scanning and the eight actions an asset can accept. Balance Sheet Where the capitalised total lands, beside cash, receivables and inventory. Income Statement Where the monthly depreciation charge lands, in the depreciation group beside your other operating costs. General Ledger The postings behind every class balance, and how nothing can write one leg on its own. Proof of Handover The signature behind a custody receipt, and what happens when a signature cannot be stored. Chart of Accounts Adding an account to a capitalised class so it lands on the right statement line.
Questions, answered
Fixed asset register FAQ.
Is the fixed assets figure on my balance sheet the sum of my asset records?
No, and the distinction matters. It is the balance of your capitalised ledger accounts — what was actually posted. The operational register is a separate set of records with its own purchase costs. A reconciliation report tying the two together, and flagging any asset with no posting behind it, is work we can add.
Does it post depreciation to the ledger?
Yes. Each asset you depreciate has a profile — cost, salvage value, in-service date, and straight line over a useful life or reducing balance at an annual rate — and the monthly run posts Dr Depreciation Expense, Cr Accumulated Depreciation, once per asset per month, after showing you a preview. A closed period is refused. Rates are set per asset; defaults per asset class are on the list above.
Then why does the asset register still show a flat-rate trend?
Because it answers a different question — the shape of a fleet ageing — across every asset, including the ones you have not set up for depreciation. It applies one flat rate and says so on screen. Book value is in the depreciation register, built to the rates and lives your auditor sets, and that is the figure that reaches the ledger.
Can I track things I hold in quantity, like fifty identical chairs?
Yes. An asset carries a tracking mode, so you can manage a pool with a quantity and its own movement history instead of creating fifty serialised records with invented serial numbers.
How do I stop a high-value asset walking out of the door?
Set a risk level and turn on the approval requirement for that asset. Its movements then need a decision rather than a click, and every movement carries the custodian, the location and a receipt.
What happens when an asset is scrapped?
In the asset register it is retired rather than deleted — with the date, the reason and the person who retired it kept on the record, so the history survives the asset. In the depreciation register you post the disposal: the cost and accumulated depreciation come off the books, the proceeds go to the account they were received into, and the gain or loss is posted. The two are separate steps today.
Can I capitalise straight from a purchase order?
Not automatically today. Receiving posts to the accounts your purchase configuration specifies, and an asset record is created in the register. Wiring a purchase order line directly into an asset record and its capitalised account class is on the list above.
Ready when you are
Know what you own, and know which number is which.
A register that tells you where the generator is and who signed for it, a ledger balance that tells you what it cost, and a straight answer about the difference between them.