Maintain fixed assets

Maintenance costs are operating expenses for the things you do to preserve the condition of your fixed assets. Unlike capital improvements, maintenance doesn't increase the value of your assets.

Each time you send a fixed asset for service, you record information such as the service date, the vendor who did the work, and the service agent's phone number. You enter maintenance information on several pages:

  • Fixed Asset Card
  • Purchase Order
  • Purchase Invoice
  • Fixed Asset G/L Journal

Indexation is used to adjust values for general price-level changes. Use the Index Fixed Assets action to recalculate maintenance costs.

Record a maintenance cost directly on a fixed asset

Every time you do maintenance for an asset, such as a service visit, you can record it on the Maintenance Registrations page.

  1. Choose the Lightbulb that opens the Tell Me feature. icon, enter Fixed Assets, and then choose the related link.
  2. Select the fixed asset that you want to record maintenance for, and then choose the Maintenance Registration action.
  3. On the Maintenance Registration page, fill in the fields as necessary. Hover over a field to read a short description.

Post maintenance costs from a fixed asset G/L journal

  1. Choose the Lightbulb that opens the Tell Me feature. icon, enter Depreciation Book List, and then choose the related link.

  2. Select the depreciation book that is assigned to the fixed asset, and then choose the Edit action.

  3. On the Depreciation Book Card page, make sure the Maintenance checkbox isn't selected so that you don't post maintenance costs to the general ledger.

  4. Choose the Lightbulb that opens the Tell Me feature. icon, enter FA G/L Journals, and then choose the related link.

  5. Create an initial journal line and fill in the fields as necessary.

  6. In the FA Posting Type field, select Maintenance.

  7. Choose the Insert FA Bal. Account action. A second journal line is created for the balancing account that is set up for maintenance posting.

    Note

    Step 7 only works if you set up the following: On the FA Posting Group Card page for the posting group of the fixed asset, the Maintenance Account field contains the general ledger debit account and the Maintenance Bal. Account field contains the general ledger account to which you want to post balancing entries for appreciation. For more information, see To set up fixed asset posting groups.

  8. Choose the Post action.

Record maintenance cost from a purchase invoice

The following steps describe how to record maintenance costs for a fixed asset from a purchase invoice. The steps are similar for purchase orders.

  1. Choose the Lightbulb that opens the Tell Me feature. icon, enter Purchase Invoice, and then choose the related link.
  2. On the General FastTab, fill in the fields as necessary. Hover over a field to read a short description.
  3. On the Lines FastTab, in the Type field, choose Fixed Asset.
  4. In the No. field, choose the asset, and then specify the quantity and cost.
  5. In the FA Posting Type field, choose Maintenance.
  6. Post the purchase invoice.

Follow up on service visits

You can print the Maintenance - Next Service report to list the assets that are scheduled for service. You can also use this report when you want to update the Next Service Date field on fixed asset cards.

  1. Choose the Lightbulb that opens the Tell Me feature. icon, enter Maintenance Next Service, and then choose the related link.
  2. Fill in the Starting Date and Ending Date fields.
  3. Choose the Print or Preview button.

Monitor maintenance costs

Business Central provides dedicated reports and statistics pages for use in analyzing fixed assets maintenance.

To learn more about the built-in reports for fixed asset maintenance, go to Fixed assets maintenance reports.

Overview of maintenance costs

You can view statistics to monitor maintenance costs.

  1. Choose the Lightbulb that opens the Tell Me feature. icon, enter Fixed Assets, and then choose the related link.
  2. Select the fixed asset you want to view maintenance costs for, and then choose the Depreciation Books action.
  3. On the FA Depreciation Books page, select the relevant fixed asset depreciation book, and then choose the Statistics action.
  4. On the Fixed Asset Statistics page, choose the Maintenance field.

Use the Maintenance Ledger Entries page to view the entries that make up the amount in the Maintenance field.

View or print maintenance costs for multiple fixed assets

In the Maintenance - Analysis report, you can select to examine maintenance based on one, two, or three maintenance codes for a specific date or period. The report can show the total for all selected assets, or a total for each asset.

  1. Choose the Lightbulb that opens the Tell Me feature. icon, enter Maintenance Analysis, and then choose the related link.
  2. Fill in the fields as necessary.
  3. Choose the Print or Preview button.

To learn more, go to Maintenance - Analysis.

View maintenance ledger entries

You can also explore maintenance costs by viewing the maintenance ledger entries.

  1. Choose the Lightbulb that opens the Tell Me feature. icon, enter Fixed Assets, and then choose the related link.
  2. Select the fixed asset that you want to view ledger entries for, and then choose the Depreciation Books action.
  3. On the FA Depreciation Books page, select the relevant fixed asset depreciation book, and then choose the Maintenance Ledger Entries action.

View or print maintenance ledger entries for multiple fixed assets

In the Maintenance - Details report, you can view or print maintenance ledger entries for one or many fixed assets.

  1. Choose the Lightbulb that opens the Tell Me feature. icon, enter Maintenance Details, and then choose the related link.
  2. Fill in the fields as necessary.
  3. Choose the Print or Preview button.

See also

Maintenance - Analysis
Fixed assets maintenance reports
Fixed Assets
Setting Up Fixed Assets
Finance
Getting Ready for Doing Business
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