Introduction
This is the screen headed Asset Financial. It holds what each vehicle cost you and how much of that cost is written off every month — one row per vehicle that has those details recorded, and nothing at all for the vehicles that do not. Each column has its own search box along the top, a Unlinked assets button sits up there with them, and the list follows below. At the end of every row are two small icons: a pencil, which opens the record, and a trash can, which removes it.
You come here when:
- a car has just been delivered and the purchase invoice has to be recorded against it;
- your bookkeeper asks what a van is still worth in the books;
- you are going through this month's vehicle costs and the write-down amounts should be sitting there with the fuel and the repairs;
- a vehicle has been in the fleet for a while and nobody ever entered what it cost;
- you want to see which cars are still being written down and which are not.
Words these screens use
Skim this once; come back to rows as needed:
| The app says | It means |
|---|---|
| Asset, Object | A vehicle, or any other item you rent out |
| Asset financial profile | The purchase and write-down details for one vehicle |
| Purchase price | What you paid for the vehicle |
| Residual value | What you expect it to be worth when you are finished with it |
| Useful life months | How many months you are spreading the cost over |
| Book value | What the vehicle is currently worth in your books |
| Depreciation | Writing a bit of the purchase price off each month |
| Unlinked assets | Vehicles that have no purchase details recorded yet |
| Cost Origin | Where a cost line came from. Write-downs are marked Depreciation |
Every way to reach this
| Route | What you get |
|---|---|
| The Financials screen, then Asset financial overview under Costs | The list of vehicles that have purchase details recorded |
| Unlinked assets, then Create on a row | Starts the details for a vehicle that has none. See the steps below |
| The Financials screen, then Cost overview under Costs | Where each month's write-down turns up as a cost line against the vehicle |
Use this page when you are entering or correcting what a vehicle cost. The rest of the vehicle record lives elsewhere; see Add a vehicle to your fleet.
How to use
Configuration
There is nothing to switch on. The list starts empty and fills as you add vehicles, and no setting elsewhere changes what this screen does.
Two things about it are worth knowing before you start, because neither is visible on the screen. The first is that the app works out and adds the monthly write-down by itself, on a schedule — nobody presses a button for it. The second is that the amount lands on the Cost overview screen as an ordinary cost line, not on this one.
Before you start: you need a company administrator account. Everything on these screens — opening them, Create, saving a record — is limited to administrators, so if the screen will not open or the buttons do nothing, that is why; ask your administrator. The vehicle itself must already exist in the fleet, because you pick it from a list of vehicles rather than typing its plate here.
Using the financial records
From the main menu open Financials — the screen carrying the Invoices and Payments tiles — go down to the Costs heading and click Asset financial overview. The screen headed Asset Financial opens. There is no menu entry straight to it.
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Look for the vehicle in the list. If it is already there, click the pencil icon at the end of its row to open its details.
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If it is not there, click Unlinked assets, above the list. A second screen opens listing every vehicle with no purchase details, with one column, Registration number. Find your vehicle and click Create on its row.
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Fill in the screen headed Asset financial profile. Either route opens it with the vehicle already attached, so there is nothing to pick. Work down the fields:
Field Starts as What it does What it accepts Purchase price 0 What you paid. The whole write-down is built from it Amounts with decimals Purchase date Empty When you bought it. For your records only A date Book value 0 What the vehicle is worth in your books today. You set this yourself Amounts with decimals Residual value 0 What it will be worth at the end. Subtracted before the cost is spread Amounts with decimals Is sold Off Tick it once the vehicle has been sold. Ticking it reveals Sale price and Sale date, which stay hidden until then A switch Depreciation active On Whether the app keeps adding monthly amounts for this vehicle A switch Depreciation method Straight line Straight line or Declining balance. Both produce the same monthly amount today — see Key details Pick from the list Useful life months 60 How many months the cost is spread over Whole numbers only, 1 or more Depreciation start date Empty The month from which write-downs may start. Nothing happens before this date A date Depreciation last run date Empty Shows when the app last added an amount. Leave it alone A date -
Click Save, at the bottom. Cancel beside it throws your changes away, and so does the arrow at the top left. Nothing you type is kept until Save is pressed.
You land back on the list with the vehicle's row showing your figures. To stop the write-downs later, open the record, untick Depreciation active and press Save; the amounts already added stay where they are.
Key details
How the monthly amount is worked out. The app takes the purchase price, takes off the residual value, and divides what is left by the number of months. A van bought for €24,000 that you expect to be worth €6,000 at the end, spread over the standard 60 months, gives €18,000 ÷ 60 = €300 a month. Shorten the spread to 12 months and the same van writes off €1,500 a month instead; set Useful life months to 1 and the whole €18,000 goes in one line.
Two figures that can make the amount useless. A residual value equal to the purchase price leaves nothing to spread, so the monthly amount is €0. A residual value higher than the purchase price makes it negative, and a negative cost is posted every month. Check the two against each other before you save.
Both methods give the same answer. Straight line and Declining balance are both offered in Depreciation method, but the app always uses the straight-line sum shown above. Declining balance is not implemented and is not planned, so the choice records a preference and nothing more. Pick the one that matches how your bookkeeper describes the vehicle and expect the straight-line amount either way.
Where the amount appears. Each write-down turns up on the Cost overview screen, reached from the Cost overview tile under Costs. It is one line: the vehicle's plate under Object, the amount under Amount, the date it was added under Date, Depreciation under Cost Origin, and Category left empty. It does not appear on this screen or on the vehicle record.
Book value does not move on its own. Nothing recalculates Book value from the write-downs; it stays as you typed it until you change it. For the €24,000 van above, you would type 24000 on the day you bought it, and after a year of €300 months change it to 20400. At the end of the 60 months, the €18,000 written off leaves it at the €6,000 residual value you set.
None of this reaches a rental. Purchase price, book value and write-downs change no booking price, no quote and no invoice.
What to do next: go to Cost overview and check the write-downs for the vehicle are there and the amounts are what you expect. If they are not, work through the questions below before entering anything by hand.
Q&A
No write-down lines have ever appeared for a vehicle, however long the record has existed. This is the one to check first, because it is the difference between your monthly cost figures being right and being empty. Open Cost overview, sort or search on the vehicle, and look for lines whose Cost Origin is Depreciation. If there are none at all, the automatic run is not picking the record up. In the meantime, enter the amount yourself: on Cost overview, click New, put the vehicle in Object, the monthly figure in Amount, and today in Date. Then tell your administrator, because this will not correct itself.
Why does the list show an ID number instead of the number plate? The first column of Asset Financial is ID, a number the app gives each record, and no column on that screen names the vehicle. There is no way to add one. To be certain which vehicle a row belongs to, note the figures, then find the vehicle on Cost overview, where the Object column does show the plate.
I ticked Declining balance and the monthly amount did not change. It will not, and it is not going to. The setting is recorded against the vehicle, but the app works the amount out the straight-line way whichever method is chosen. If your bookkeeper needs a reducing monthly amount, it has to be worked out and entered by hand on Cost overview.
A monthly amount came out as €0, or as a negative figure. Open the record and compare Purchase price with Residual value. Equal figures leave nothing to write off; a residual value above the purchase price turns the amount negative. Correct whichever is wrong and press Save — and delete the wrong cost lines on Cost overview with the trash-can icon at the end of each row, because correcting the record does not go back and fix what has already been posted.
Can I set the write-downs up from the vehicle's own record? No. The vehicle record does have a Financial tab — the tenth of its thirteen — but it holds the vehicle's active period and its tax figures, and nothing about purchase or depreciation. See Add a vehicle to your fleet for that tab. Purchase price, book value and everything about depreciation live only on the screens described here.
I deleted a record by mistake. The trash-can icon at the end of each row on Asset Financial removes the purchase and depreciation details straight away, and there is no undo. Nothing else is harmed: the vehicle stays in the fleet, and the cost lines already written stay on Cost overview. Put the vehicle back through Unlinked assets and Create, and type the figures in again — including Book value, which nothing else holds.
I cannot find the Financials screen. It is its own main-menu item, not something under Assets where the rest of the vehicle record lives. If it is not in your menu, ask your administrator — everything on these screens needs a company administrator account in any case.
Related pages. Add a vehicle to your fleet for getting the vehicle into the fleet in the first place, and Change which fields your vehicle records show for the tabs and fields on the vehicle record itself.