Managing Fixed Assets in a separate fund
Some organisations prefer to keep their Fixed Assets in a separate fund so that they can clearly identify their value when viewing overall fund balances.
Whilst this is not a requirement in fund accounting, if you'd like to set this up for your organisation, this article explains the steps you need to take when purchasing new Fixed Assets which are managed in a separate fund.
Setting up your Fixed Assets fund
If you create a new Fixed Assets fund, you'll need to add:
- a Fixed Asset category (to code Fixed Asset purchases to)
- an expenditure category (to code depreciation transactions to)
Fund transfers
When you purchase a new asset or move an asset to a new fund, you will need to make a fund transfer (for the purchase value) from the fund in which your cash sits (used to purchase the asset) to the fund where the asset sits on ExpensePlus.
Otherwise, your fixed asset fund cash balance will become negative.
Moving existing Fixed Assets to a new fund
See this help guide article for guidance on moving Fixed Assets to a new fund.
Purchasing new Fixed Assets
These are the steps you should take when purchasing a new Fixed Asset:
- Collect your cash used to purchase the new Fixed Asset in your General (or another) fund.
- Make a fund transfer for the purchase value from your General Fund (or other fund where cash was collected) to your Fixed Assets fund (there will now be a cash balance in the Fixed Assets fund).
- When the Fixed Asset is purchased, code the outgoing transaction to a Fixed Asset Category in the Fixed Assets fund (there will now be a Fixed Asset value in the Fixed Asset fund).
- Each year, code your depreciation for this asset to an expenditure category in the Fixed Assets fund (the value of the Fixed Asset will then decrease inside your Fixed Assets fund).
Top tip: You can ask your Independent Examiner to talk you through the balance sheet implications of coding Fixed Assets to a separate fund if you are not sure if this is needed.
To help you better understand the Fixed Assets module as a whole, please visit the module overview page here.