The Depreciation Menu

Press :\to open the Depreciation menu. To select a depreciation method, press I. See Figure 1. Input the values required for the calculation:

•Asset life

•Starting date or month of the depreciation

•Cost and salvage values

•Declining balance factor (DecBal and DBXover only)

•The first year for which you want to view the depreciation schedule

Scroll through the items of the sub-menu for the selected depreciation method by pressing <or >repeatedly. To change the value of the displayed item, key in a number and press I. For the Start item, enter either a number or an actual date, depending on the type of depreciation selected. Press <repeatedly to view the depreciation schedule.

NOTE: pressing <on the last item of a sub-menu returns you to the Year item and increments it (see Figure 1).

Brief descriptions of the methods used to calculate depreciation are provided in Table 11-1. Table 11-2describes the items found in the depreciation sub-menus. For an example calculating depreciation using the straight-line method, see Table 11-3.

Table 11-1 Depreciation Methods

Depreciation Method

Description

 

 

Sline

Straight line is a method of calculating depreciation presuming an asset loses a

 

certain percentage of its value annually at an amount evenly distributed

 

throughout its useful life.

 

 

SOYD

Sum-of-the-years' digits is an accelerated depreciation method.

 

In SOYD, the depreciation in year y is (Life-y+1)/SOY of the asset, where SOY is

 

the sum-of-the-years for the asset, or, for an asset with a 5-year life,

 

5+4+3+2+1=15.

 

 

DecBal

Declining balance is an accelerated depreciation method that presumes an

 

asset will lose the majority of its value during the first few years of its useful life.

 

 

DBXover

Declining balance crossover is an accelerated depreciation method that

 

presumes an asset will lose the majority of its value in the first few years of its

 

useful life, but that it will revert to a consistent depreciation during the latter part

 

of its life, which is then calculated using the straight line method.

 

 

French SL

Straight line French. This method of depreciation is similar to the Straight line

 

method, except an actual calendar date in mm.dd format is entered in for

 

Start= to indicate when the asset was first placed into service.

 

 

Amort F

French amortization. This method is an accelerated depreciation method with a

 

crossover to the French Straight Line method.

 

 

66 Depreciation