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Month End Results

xAssets Fixed Asset Management User Guide
Section 4 – Period End Processing

Month End Results

After running period-end depreciation, use the reports and queries described on this page to review the results before producing journals. Reviewing results is a critical step — once journals are exported and posted to your general ledger, correcting errors requires manual reversals in both systems.

Prerequisites

Standard Reports and Queries

The following reports and queries are available for reviewing period-end results:

Report / Query Purpose Best For
Asset Register by Category (and other "Asset Register by..." views) Compare net book value against original value, grouped by category, location, custodian, or supplier High-level overview of the register's financial position
Depreciation in Current Period Lists each depreciation transaction with the associated asset information Detailed review of individual charges — checking for outliers
Depreciation by Cost Centre and then Location Shows depreciation for the current period, year-to-date, and cumulative, grouped by cost centre and location Cost centre reporting and reconciliation
Depreciation by Cost Centre and then Category Alternative grouping showing depreciation by cost centre and category Category-based analysis within cost centres

How to Review Results

Step 1: Check the Total

Start with a high-level sanity check:

  1. Run the Depreciation in Current Period report.
  2. Check the total depreciation charge.
  3. Compare it to last month's total. The figure should be similar unless:
    • Significant new assets were added (total increases)
    • Assets were disposed of (total decreases)
    • Depreciation rules were changed
    • Assets reached full depreciation (total decreases)

A sudden, unexplained change in the total is a red flag that warrants investigation before producing journals.

Step 2: Check for Outliers

Sort the Depreciation in Current Period report by amount (descending) to identify any unusually large charges. Common causes of outlier charges:

Symptom Possible Cause Action
Very large charge on a single asset Incorrect recovery period (too short) Rewind, correct the recovery period, recalculate
Zero charge on an asset that should depreciate Missing or incorrect depreciation type Rewind, assign the correct type, recalculate
Negative depreciation Write-up or revaluation transaction affecting the formula Investigate — may be correct if a revaluation was intended
Charge on a disposed asset Disposal was not processed before calculation Rewind, process the disposal, recalculate

Step 3: Verify New Assets

If assets were added during the period:

  1. Filter the depreciation report to show only the new assets.
  2. Verify that each new asset depreciated at the expected rate.
  3. Check that the depreciation start date is correct — assets should not depreciate before their purchase or in-service date.

Step 4: Review by Cost Centre

If your organisation tracks depreciation by cost centre:

  1. Run the Depreciation by Cost Centre report.
  2. Compare each cost centre's total to the prior month.
  3. Investigate any cost centres with significant changes — these may indicate assets that were transferred to a new cost centre or cost centre assignments that were changed.

Ad-Hoc Queries

For investigations that the standard reports do not cover, create custom queries:

Financial Transaction Queries

Create queries of type Financial Transaction to list transactions with custom groupings, sort orders, and filters. Useful for:

  • Listing all depreciation transactions for a specific book
  • Finding transactions posted to a specific nominal code
  • Identifying transactions with unusual amounts

Asset Valuation Queries

Create queries of type Asset and include fields prefixed with AssetValue. to review depreciation and valuations across the register. Useful fields include:

Field Description
AssetValue.OriginalValue The acquisition cost
AssetValue.NetBookValue Current book value
AssetValue.AccumulatedDepreciation Total depreciation to date
AssetValue.DepreciationThisPeriod Current period charge
AssetValue.DepreciationThisYear Year-to-date charge

Tip: Save your custom review queries so you can reuse them each month. This ensures a consistent review process and makes it easy to compare results period over period.

Reconciliation

For formal reconciliation (especially at year-end), verify that:

  1. Opening NBV + Additions - Depreciation - Disposals = Closing NBV for each category or cost centre.
  2. Total depreciation in xAssets = Total depreciation in the journal file — the journal should contain the same figures that the reports show.
  3. Journal entries balance — debits equal credits for each journal entry.

If any of these checks fail, investigate before posting the journals. Common causes include:

  • Rounding differences (typically small and acceptable)
  • Transactions posted after the calculation but before the journal was produced
  • Manual transactions that were not included in the standard reports

Next Steps

After reviewing and confirming the results:

  1. Produce journals (see The Monthly Accounting Process, Step 3).
  2. Export the journal files to your general ledger.
  3. Optionally close the period to prevent further postings.
  4. File copies of the reports for your audit trail.