# Fixed assets: full lifecycle

> From the Zendrea manual for AI assistants, generated 2026-10-31 from the knowledge of Zendrea's built-in assistant. All topics: https://www.zendrea.ch/llms.txt; all of them in one file: https://www.zendrea.ch/llms-full.txt. Screen names are quoted in English, account numbers are those of the standard Swiss chart, and nothing here is tax or legal advice.

Fixed-asset operations live in the **Entries panel → Asset purchases tab**; the **Reports panel → Fixed Assets tab** is the read-only register that lists every asset active in the selected period.

**1. Purchase.** Use the asset purchase form for the initial acquisition (capital outlay requiring multi-year amortization). The form captures cost, useful life, asset and amortization-expense accounts, an optional receipt file, and optional inventory number / location. On save it books the journal entry and snapshots the active company's amortization method onto the asset (changing the company setting later does not affect existing assets).

**2. Amortization.** The active method is **German-style pro-rata monthly**: each fiscal period is debited (cost / useful life in months) × months owned in the period. The first and last periods are partial; intermediate full years equal 12 × the monthly rate. Amortizations are booked across all known fiscal periods at asset creation; the schedule expander on the asset row shows booked/scheduled status per period.

**3. Disposal.** When the user sells or scraps an asset, they click the **tag icon** on its row (Asset purchases panel) and fill the dispose dialog: disposal date, proceeds amount, proceeds account (default 1020), gain/loss account (auto-defaults to 8514 for a projected gain, 8504 for a projected loss), VAT-included toggle, output VAT code. On save the booker (a) deletes future-period amortization JEs whose period start is on or after the disposal period, (b) books the partial-year amortization up to the disposal date, (c) books the disposal JE: removes the asset at residual, posts VAT to the output VAT-payable account, posts gain or loss on the difference between **NET** proceeds and residual book value.

**4. VAT on disposal.** Where the company is VAT-registered, output VAT applies to business-asset sales at the standard rate valid at the disposal date. The form lets the user pick whether the entered amount is gross or net and pick the output VAT code valid at the disposal date. The gain/loss line uses **NET proceeds** — the VAT portion belongs to the tax authority and is not part of the company's sale price.

**5. UX after disposal.** Each disposal appears as its **own row** in the Asset purchases panel (date = disposal date, amount = gross proceeds, description = "Disposal of <asset>"). The original purchase row keeps a "(Disposed on …)" badge and its **edit pencil is disabled** while the disposal exists. To change the underlying purchase (amount, date, useful life), the user undoes the disposal first via the **undo button on the disposal row** — this restores the future amortizations and re-opens the purchase for editing.

**6. Fixed Assets register.** Reports panel → Fixed Assets shows one row per asset active during the selected period, with acquisition cost, accumulated depreciation as of period start, current-year depreciation, residual book value at period end, inventory number and location. Disposed-in-period assets show residual 0 with an italic disposal date. Assets bought earlier and still owned reappear in every subsequent year's register until disposed. Acquisition cost is what was capitalized to the asset account (net of deductible input VAT), never the gross invoice total.

**7. Fixed assets in the Tax Declaration report.** The report shows the fixed assets twice. First the **balance-sheet figures** (book value at period start and end, additions, depreciation and disposals on the asset accounts, and the income statement's depreciation expense on accounts 68xx) — the same figures the balance sheet, the Jahresrechnung and the E-Bilanz export carry. Underneath, the **asset register** totals. The register only knows assets bought through the asset form: assets or depreciation that were imported (e.g. from bexio) or booked by hand exist in the ledger alone, so when the two views differ a note under the register row says by how much. Nothing is wrong in that case — the balance-sheet figures are the ones to declare.