[GNC] An automated depreciation calculator would be really helpful.

[Gyle McCollam]

What I do is set up a placeholder account for the asset.  I set up sub accounts for the actual asset purchase and another for the depreciation of the asset.  You could then set up a scheduled transaction to record the depreciation each month, quarter, semiannually, or annually depending on how you want to record it.  There you can set up how many depreciation transactions you would like and it will stop at that point.


Thank You,
Gyle McCollam

Gyle McCollam

609.680.2326                     Mobile

gmccollam at live.com<mailto:gmccollam at gyleshomes.com>           email

________________________________
From: gnucash-user <gnucash-user-bounces+gylemc=gmail.com at gnucash.org> on behalf of Dr. David Kirkby <drkirkby at kirkbymicrowave.co.uk>
Sent: Wednesday, December 8, 2021 7:34 PM
To: GNU Cash User <gnucash-user at gnucash.org>
Subject: [GNC] An automated depreciation calculator would be really helpful.

A friend of mine bought some Excel spreadsheets for his company accounts.
He has used them for many years and finds them good. He has suggested I use
them, but I'm not keen on that idea. At any point in time he can see
exactly what the depreciation of an item is, and so exactly when the value
has fallen to zero.

I read about depreciation in GnuCash at

https://cvs.gnucash.org/docs/C/gnucash-guide/chapter_dep.html

but it seems rather limited. The last paragraph on this page

https://cvs.gnucash.org/docs/C/gnucash-guide/dep_accounts1.html

says

"The actual input of the depreciation amounts is done by hand every
accounting period. There is no way in *GnuCash* (as of yet) to perform the
depreciation scheme calculations automatically, or to input the values
automatically into the appropriate accounts. However, since an accounting
period is typically one year, this really is not much work to do by hand."

I don't think it's true to say it's not much work to do. I know my
accountant says one should start depreciating from the day something goes
into service, but he uses a different scheme, which is good enough. If an
item is purchased before the halfway through the month, he considers it
purchased on the 1st of that month, and if after 50% of the way though the
month, he considers it purchased the following next month. The errors in
this should be small.

So each time an asset is purchased, one needs to start depreciating it from
then. It's not true to say this is just done once per year.

Of course, I'm well aware that many people will have suggestions on how to
improve the software, and the developer's time is limited. But some
automated way of depreciating items would be very useful. As they say, if
you don't ask you will not get, so there's no harm in asking!

Dave
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