Setting up a Fixed Assets List

If you choose the Lists ð Fixed Asset Item List command, QuickBooks displays the Fixed Asset Item List window. You can use this window to see a list of the fixed assets — furniture, equipment, machinery, vehicles, and so forth — that you've purchased. Or at least you can after you click the Item button, choose New from the menu, and fill in the New Item window for each fixed asset. Figure 1 shows the New Item window you use to describe each fixed asset.

Figure 1: You describe each fixed asset using the New Item window

Let me make a couple of comments about the QuickBooks Fixed Asset Item List. The Fixed Asset List doesn't really integrate with the QuickBooks general ledger. You record the purchase or disposal of fixed assets using regular old QuickBooks transactions. For example, you might record the purchase of a particular fixed asset simply by entering a check in the usual fashion. And you might record the disposal of a fixed asset by entering a general ledger journal entry.

The Fixed Assets Item List, then, just acts as a standalone list that lets you keep track of the fixed assets you purchased. Because the list is so standalone-ish, I'm not going to spend much time talking about it in the books of this reference. Let me also say that your CPA probably — no, surely — maintains a list of your fixed assets because she needs that list in order to correctly include depreciation on your tax return and in your financial statements (if you get CPA help to prepare those). For this reason, some people — including me — see the fixed asset item list as a little bit redundant.