QuickBooks® 2010 For Dummies®

Chapter 18. Fixed Assets and Vehicle Lists

In This Chapter

• Discovering fixed assets accounting

• Finding out about fixed assets accounting in QuickBooks

• Setting up a Fixed Asset list

• Tracking vehicle mileage

In this chapter, I cover two specialty topics of modest interest to a small handful of business owners: how the QuickBooks Fixed Asset list works and how the QuickBooks vehicle mileage-tracking tool works.

Let me say at the outset that you may not need these tools. QuickBooks users commonly think the tools do more than they really do. In some situations, though, business owners and accountants truly do find these two simple tools helpful.

But you know what? I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me start at the start.

What Is Fixed Assets Accounting?

So that you understand where the Fixed Asset list and vehicle mileage tracker fit into the scheme of things, let me begin by defining the term fixed assets and by explaining just what fixed asset accounting is.

The term fixed assets historically refers to assets that are fixed in place. For example, a factory or building set into concrete is fixed. Likewise, a 20-ton piece of machinery bolted into the floor is also fixed.

In the context of QuickBooks and its Fixed Asset list, fixed assets also include items such as furniture, equipment, and vehicles — things that aren't so "fixed" but instead are assets that last a long time – that a business, therefore, must depreciate.

Now that you know what fixed assets are — at least according to Steve Nelson — ...