Tracking Fixed Assets with GP
Does your organization own Dynamics GP, but rely on a byzantine Excel workbook to track your fixed assets? Have you ever earned a headache tracking down the source of an imbalance between your general ledger and the Excel file, or worried that transactional details weren’t tracked for the sake of a simpler spreadsheet? Well, fret no more!
You already own GP’s fixed assets module, you only need to start using it.
How to Get Started Using Dynamics GP to Track Fixed Assets
The two major steps for getting started with Fixed Assets (FA) are the configuration of the module and the importing of your existing asset data to GP. Most of the decisions for the module configuration, such as depreciation method, distribution accounts, and averaging convention, have already been made by your organization, we just need to configure the FA module to match those decisions. For more detail on module configuration, please watch my previously recorded webinar, which takes a closer look at the setup process: https://youtu.be/G3JEK1KmVlc
With the module configured, we then need to import your current asset data. Conveniently, the FA module includes an asset import utility right inside GP. You do not need to own an integration product such as Integration Manager or SmartConnect to push your current asset data into the FA module. The utility works by building a macro, then running that macro to input the asset data into the appropriate windows.
The import utility is able to import all asset general data, depreciation data, and user-defined fields. The depreciation data includes life-to-date and year-to-date values, so switching to using the FA module can be done at any point in your fiscal year.
Moving Forward
Now that you have the GP configured, and your assets imported, it’s time to start using the FA module: additions, retirements, depreciation, and posting to the general ledger.
Capital purchases made via purchase orders and payables invoicing can be integrated into the module. The capital items identified when posting in the Purchasing module will be available in the FA module to be added to a new or existing asset. The integrated purchase amount can also be split between multiple assets when processing the additions. Assets can be fully or partially retired, and the FA module will store the retirement transaction information. If a mistake was made with the retirement, you can run a Retire Undo transaction to restore the asset to its former state.
You are able to depreciate assets individually, by selected group, or all at once. The routine generates all depreciation amounts for the assets between each asset’s Depreciated To date, and the selected Depreciation Target Date, and then sets the asset’s Depreciated To dates equal to the Target Date. Thus, once depreciation has been generated for an asset on a date, you cannot unintentionally double-depreciate an asset for that date.
If an error is made, such as an incorrect depreciation method configured on a new asset, there is the option to reverse depreciation. Both the originally calculated depreciation and the reversal of that depreciation will appear in the asset’s transactional history. Note that there is also a routine for projecting depreciation. This will calculate the expected depreciation for assets without creating the depreciation transactions on the assets and is a useful tool for verifying the setup of new additions.
Once your monthly additions, retirements, and depreciation have been processed in the FA sub ledger, you will use the FA GL Posting routine to generate the GL batch. This routine finds all unposted FA sub-ledger transactions that match the selection criteria you set when running the routine and creates a journal entry to record those transactions in the GL. Criteria include fiscal period range, FA transaction types, asset IDs, and asset classes. The criteria can be used to post all transactions for an entire year or to only post the addition of a single selected asset.
Please note the progress bar at the very bottom of this window. Be sure to let the routine’s progress complete after clicking the Post button, or else you risk interrupting the creation of the GL batch. This is the most common FA issue I fix for our FA clients, and it is easily avoided by being mindful of the routine’s progress.
Questions?
GP’s Fixed Assets module has far more features than can be covered in this article, but this is a great place to start
If you have any questions about the capabilities of the module, require training, or assistance with the implementation of GP’s fixed assets, please reach out to Stoneridge Software's GP support team, and we’ll be happy to help in any way we can!
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