Fixed Assets & Depreciation

Log capital purchases in Kantivo, let it generate a depreciation schedule automatically, and post the recurring journal entries on a cadence — or all at once. Three industry-standard methods supported.

Adding an Asset

When the business buys something with a useful life beyond one year — equipment, furniture, vehicles, machinery — register it in Kantivo so the cost is depreciated over its life instead of expensed in one period.

1. Open Fixed Assets from the sidebar
2. Click Add Asset
3. Enter a descriptive name ("Ford Transit — Sales Fleet" works better than "Truck")
4. Fill in purchase date and original cost
5. Enter salvage value — what you expect the item to be worth at the end of its useful life
6. Set the useful life in years
7. Pick a depreciation method: straight-line, double-declining balance, or sum-of-the-years-digits
8. Pick the category (drives the GL accounts — see below)
9. Click Save

The depreciation schedule appears immediately. You can review every future period's expense before anything posts to the books.

Asset Categories

Categories group similar assets together and bind them to the right GL accounts (asset, accumulated depreciation, depreciation expense). Kantivo ships with common categories with sensible defaults:

Edit defaults or add new categories under Settings → Asset Categories if your business has equipment that doesn't fit the standard set.

The Depreciation Schedule

The moment an asset is saved, Kantivo builds the full period-by-period schedule:

• Period — month or year inside the useful life
• Depreciation expense — what gets expensed that period
• Accumulated depreciation — running total taken so far
• Net book value — original cost minus accumulated depreciation

Inspect the whole schedule on the asset detail page before anything posts. Useful for budgeting and for sanity-checking your method choice.

Methods Explained

Straight-Line

The simplest method. Equal expense every period.

Formula: Annual expense = (Cost − Salvage) ÷ Useful Life

Example: $10,000 asset, $1,000 salvage, 5-year life → $1,800/year.

Double-Declining Balance

An accelerated method — bigger expenses up front. Often better for assets that genuinely lose most of their value early, like laptops or smartphones.

Formula: Annual expense = Book value at start of year × (2 ÷ Useful Life)

Kantivo automatically switches to straight-line in the final periods so the asset reaches exactly its salvage value at the end of its life.

Sum-of-the-Years-Digits

Also accelerated, but with a smoother taper than DDB.

Formula: Annual expense = (Cost − Salvage) × (Remaining Life ÷ Sum of All Years)

For a 5-year asset, the sum is 1+2+3+4+5 = 15. Year 1 uses 5/15, year 2 uses 4/15, and so on.

Posting to the Ledger

Manual Posting

1. Open the asset
2. Go to its Depreciation Schedule
3. Click Post Entry on the current period's pending row

Auto-Post

Toggle Auto-Post Depreciation in Settings and Kantivo will post entries at month-end for every active asset — debit Depreciation Expense, credit Accumulated Depreciation.

The posted journal entry looks like:

Book Value Tracking

The Fixed Assets dashboard shows the live snapshot:

• Total original cost across all active assets
• Total accumulated depreciation to date
• Total net book value currently on the balance sheet

Click into any asset for its full history, remaining schedule, and current book value. Export the entire asset register as CSV for an external accountant or auditor.

Disposing an Asset

When you sell, scrap, or retire an asset, record the disposal so the balance sheet stops carrying it:

1. Open the asset
2. Click Dispose Asset
3. Enter the disposal date and sale proceeds ($0 if scrapped)
4. Kantivo computes any gain or loss on disposal
5. Confirm; the system posts the entries

The disposal entry strips the asset's original cost and accumulated depreciation off the books and routes any gain or loss to the appropriate income or expense account.