What are capital assets?

A capital asset is something you buy to keep and use in the business - a laptop, a van, office furniture. Unlike an everyday expense, its cost is not used up straight away: it sits on your Balance Sheet and loses value gradually through depreciation.

The asset register

Go to Reports and choose Capital Assets. The register lists every asset with its Purchased on date, Asset name, Asset type, Depreciation method, Tax treatment, Purchase price, and current Net book value, with a Total row at the bottom.

Filter it by Date, by Asset state (All capital assets, Current capital assets, or Disposed capital assets), or by Asset type. Export report downloads the register as a CSV file.

How assets get onto the register

You never create an asset directly. When you record a purchase against a capital asset category - such as Computer Equipment, Fixtures and Fittings, or Motor Vehicle - Kontala adds the asset to the register automatically.

The one exception is equipment you already owned before you started using Kontala. That has no purchase document here, so you record it from Settings, then Opening Balances - see Opening balances.

If you are on the cash basis

On the income-tax cash basis, most capital spending is deducted when you pay for it rather than relieved through capital allowances.

Cars are the exception and keep their capital allowances, so Kontala asks, on each asset's own page, whether it is a car.

Until you answer, neither treatment can be given, and the tax year cannot be closed - see Close a tax year.

The asset page

Click an asset's name to open it. The Asset timeline lists its ledger events with the running Net book value, and the Asset details panel shows everything recorded about it, including the Purchase transaction it came from.

Choose Edit asset details to rename the asset or change its Depreciation method or Tax treatment. The purchase price and the current values are engine-owned - they follow from the purchase and from depreciation, and cannot be typed in here.

Assets that have left the register

An asset leaves the register for one of two reasons, and the page says which:

• Sold or otherwise disposed of - see Dispose of a capital asset.
• The purchase was reversed - the bill or expense that bought it was credited or removed. Nothing was sold; the purchase is simply undone.