Books

A book is a complete, parallel set of financial transactions for your asset register. Each book maintains its own depreciation calculations independently, allowing you to track different valuations side by side. This page explains when and how to create books, and how to attach them to existing assets.

Prerequisites

• You must be in the Fixed Asset Management profile (see Fixed Asset Management Profile).
• You should understand your organisation's requirements for parallel depreciation — most organisations need at least a management accounting book.

Why Use Multiple Books?

Common reasons for maintaining multiple books include:

Each book has its own depreciation types and rates. When you run period-end processing, the system calculates depreciation independently for each book and can produce separate journals for each.

Tip: Even if you only need one set of depreciation figures, you still need at least one book. Most organisations start with a single "Management" book and add additional books later if needed.

Managing Books

Access the Books screen from Financial > Depreciation Setup > Books:

Creating a New Book

To create a new book:

1. Navigate to Financial > Depreciation Setup > Books.
2. Click New.
3. Enter the book name and description.
4. Set the Default Depreciation Type — this is the formula that will be used as the initial default when category-book records are auto-generated.
5. Set the Indexation flag if this book should apply annual indexation by default.
6. Click Save.

When you create a new book, the system automatically creates category-book records for every existing category, using the book's default depreciation type. This means every category immediately has a depreciation setting for the new book.

Warning: The auto-generated category-book records all use the same default depreciation type. After creating a new book, go to Categories and Books and review the settings for each category to ensure they match your organisation's policies.

Key Fields on a Book Record

Attaching a Book to Existing Assets

When you add a new book, it is automatically associated with all categories. However, existing assets do not automatically receive depreciation rules for the new book. You need to explicitly set up depreciation for existing assets using Bulk Update:

1. Navigate to an asset list and select the assets that need the new book.
2. From the Actions on Selected Records menu, choose Bulk Update Assets.
3. In the bulk update screen, navigate to the Depreciation Setup tab.
4. The new book should appear in the book dropdown. Select it and configure the depreciation rules.
5. Click OK to apply.

See Assigning Depreciation Types to Many Assets for detailed instructions on bulk updating.

Tip: If you add a new book to a production system with many existing assets, plan the rollout carefully. You may need to create opening balance transactions (purchases) in the new book for each asset, in addition to setting up depreciation rules. Consider using a data transformation to automate this process.

Deleting a Book

Books can only be deleted if no transactions exist in the book. In practice, this means you can only delete a book that was created but never used. If a book has been used and you no longer need it, consider marking it as inactive (if your configuration supports status flags) rather than attempting to delete it.

How Books Interact with Period-End Processing

During period-end processing, the system calculates depreciation for all books simultaneously. Each asset's charge is calculated independently for each book based on the book-specific depreciation rules. Journals can be produced per book, allowing you to post management and tax entries to different general ledger accounts.

Related Articles

• Depreciation Types — The formulae assigned to books
• Assigning Depreciation Types to Categories — Setting defaults per category-book combination
• The Monthly Accounting Process — How books are used during period-end
• Nominal Codes — How nominal codes map book transactions to your general ledger