Fixed Assets Management - List of Enhancements

Over the lifespan of the Fixed Assets system, a number of major enhancements and minor fixes have been applied.  Following is a brief summary, (listing the most recent items first).

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New and Different – Enhancements and Fixes in F/A

    For 2014

Click to expand/collapseFiscal Period Maintenance - "Ready for Year-End Processing"

When assets are depreciated for the last period of your fiscal year, internally, a flag is set to prevent further postings, or the disposal of assets, until the Year-End process is executed.  Now, that flag is displayed as a check-box in the Fiscal Period maintenance screen; and may be set or cleared as required.   (July-02-2014)

Click to expand/collapseResizing the Asset Codes Maintenance Grid Window

When the bottom of the display window is grabbed by the mouse and re-sized vertically,  the grid will also be re-sized and populated with more rows of information as needed.   (March-03-2014)

Click to expand/collapseAsset Codes Maintenance

The Asset Codes Export function has been enhanced to provide the functionality to save the selected fields to be exported as a template that may be reused.   There are also two system defined templates that may be chosen.   (March-03-2014)

 

    For 2013

Click to expand/collapseAsset Codes Maintenance

Access rights may be granted to individual menu items in the Fixed Asset system.   The Asset Codes Maintenance function previously supported "Full" and "Restricted" access.  "Restricted" access only allowed users to Modify the asset.  Now, "Semi-Restricted" access has been introduced for the Asset Codes Maintenance function.  Users with "Semi-Restricted" cannot Delete or Purge assets.   (May-29-2013)

Click to expand/collapseAsset Codes Maintenance

A problem was discovered when printing an Asset list grouped by Location or Category.  The problem has been fixed. (March-20-2013)

    For 2011

Click to expand/collapseManufacturer's Name/Code Maintenance

Assets may now be recorded with the Manufacturer's Name.  Manufacturer's Names are validated by the system with a new Manufacturer's Codes Maintenance routine.  When entering or selecting a Manufacturer in the Asset Maintenance function, a "Lookup" window may be selected, displaying a list of defined Manufacturers.  Also, when editing the Manufacturer's field in Asset Maintenance, if the code/name entered has not already been defined, the operator will be asked if it is to be added.   (May-16-2011)

Click to expand/collapseNew Fields Introduced to the Asset Master record

An assortment of new fields have been introduced to the Asset Master record.  The Asset Maintenance, and other functions have been revised accordingly.  The following fields are new:

 

Model Number
Manufacturer Name
Purchase PO Number
Warranty Period (days)
Asset On-Loan or Used By field

 

 

Also, in the Asset Codes Maintenance, the grid screen display has been revised so that the Manufacturer is displayed as one of the columns, and Assets may be displayed sorted by Manufacturer.   (May-16-2011)

Click to expand/collapseNew Feature to Attach Supporting Documents to Assets

You may now attach a variety of different documents to Master Asset records.  Up to 15 separate documents may be selected, and attached and viewed from the Asset Codes Maintenance functions.  The different types of documents support  are as follows:

 

PDF
Bitmap ( *.BMP files)
JPEG
TIFF
ASCII Text  ( *.TXT files)
MS Word 2003 documents
MS Word 2007 documents
MS Excel 2003 documents
MS Excel 2007 documents
ASCII Text  ( *.txt files)

 

(Apr-14-2011)

    For 2010

Click to expand/collapseAsset Codes Maintenance - Adding new Assets

When adding a new asset, the system previously required that a "Depreciated Upto Date" be entered, whereby the date entered had to be the last day of the fiscal period for which assets were last depreciated.  This is no longer the case.  Now when a new asset is added, (that has not been depreciated), no date should be entered.  The Asset Maintenance routines have been revised accordingly.  Also, the Asset Depreciation function has been revised so that these new assets will be correctly depreciated.   (July-15-2010)

Click to expand/collapseAsset Class Group Codes Maintenance

A new code has been introduced into the Fixed Asset system.  A "Class Group Code" may be created which is basically used to categorize assets for Canadian Depreciation methods.  Codes are defined in a format of XXX-PPPPPP-9999, where XXX is one of the Canadian Tax Classes, PPPPPP is a  user defined code, and 9999 may be used to indicate the year in which the asset was put into service.  Assets that have a Class Group Code assigned will automatically use a Declining Balance Depreciation method.  For each Class Group code defined, you may specify the % that is to be applied in the 1st year, and in subsequent years.   (July-15-2010)

Click to expand/collapseAsset Codes Maintenance - Import Function

A new function has been introduced that provides the ability to import Master Asset and Asset Entity record data into the system.  It provides for new Assets to be loaded, or for existing Assets to be updated.   The data loaded may be a tab-delimited file, a CSV file, or an Excel spreadsheet.   (June-02-2010)

Click to expand/collapseAsset Codes Maintenance

If an asset has been fully depreciated, but had a Salvage Value, you may edit the Salvage Value and (for Straight Line methods), set an "Adjusted Life Left".  If this change resulted in a non-zero Net Book Value, you would hope that it would be depreciated, the next time Depreciations are computed.  However, if you don't set the "Depreciated Up-To Date" to the day just prior to the Current Period's starting date, this would not occur.

The Asset Maintenance routine has been enhanced to advise the operator that if the Salvage Amount, or the Adjusted Life Left is changed, that results in a Net Book Value, then they should also edit the Depreciated Up-To date.   (Jan-29-2010)

Click to expand/collapseAsset Depreciation

Assets defined with a Straight Line Depreciation having an "Adjusted Life Left" and a Net Book Value, were not being depreciated.  The problem has been fixed.   (Jan-29-2010)

 

    For 2009

Click to expand/collapseAsset Codes Maintenance

A new function has been introduced to the pop-up menu that is presented when a given Asset, row of the grid display, is right-clicked.  The function Select Asset for Disposal may be chosen to have the given Asset recorded to be disposed of.  A record will be written into the Asset Disposal transaction file.  By default, it will be recorded with it's Reason for Disposition as "Abandoned", and with ZERO Proceeds amount. The asset is not actually disposed of until the Disposal of Assets operation is evoked, and the Post function executed.  The properties of the disposed asset may be changed prior to them being posted.   (Dec-18-2009)

Click to expand/collapseF/A Distributions Inquiry - Export

When exporting F/A Distributions, the option to have the resulting file emailed was defaulting as being set.  This has been changed so the default is not to email the exported file.   (Dec-12-2009)

Click to expand/collapseFunctions Exporting to Excel Spreadsheets

For those functions that export data to Excel spreadsheets, the following enhancements have been made:

 

When titles are output, they will be formatted as bold in 14-point
When legends are output, they will be formatted as bold in 12-point
When headers are output, they will be formatted as bold and italic
Dollar amount data column will be formatted for "Currency", (where $ signs will be displayed with 2 decimal places)

 

The following applications have been revised accordingly (Dec-11-2009) :

 

Fixed Asset Maintenance – Asset export
F/A Distributions Inquiry – Export

 

Click to expand/collapseAsset Codes Maintenance

When exporting Asset properties the "Date Purchased" field was not being output correctly.  The problem has been fixed. (Dec-10-2009)

Click to expand/collapseAsset Codes Maintenance

It is now possible to edit an Asset's Asset Code.  Previously, once an asset was added to the system, it was not possible to change the code that was assigned. (April-27-2009)

Click to expand/collapseAsset Codes Maintenance

The grid that displays the list of Assets in the Asset Codes Maintenance function has been revised.  It now displays Asset Code, Suppler, Description and Serial Number as the 1st four columns.  Also the "Detailed" Asset report now includes the Suppler Name for each Asset.   (March-18-2009)

 

    For 2008

Click to expand/collapseOn-Line Help

The Fixed Assets system now has On-Line Help.  You can access these help files from the application's screens or menu bars. (Aug-2008)