2398355 - L060 - Fixed Asset Depreciation Starts After the Maintained Depreciation Start Date

A Fixed Asset has been capitalized via an acquisition transfer posting in period BBB.YYYY with Depreciation Method L060- Straight Line Method.
You maintained the Depreciation Start Date of the Fixed Asset in a period before the acquisition transfer posting, in period AAA.YYYY.
You therefore expect that the deprecation calculation will start from the depreciation start date in period AAA.YYYY.
Instead, the depreciation calculation only starts on the day of the acquisition transfer posting.

SAP Business ByDesign

1. In the Fixed Asset workcenter navigate to the Fixed Assets view.
2. Select the Fixed Asset, press Edit and select Values.
3. In the Values tab, under Valuation Values per Set of Books you can see that the Depreciation Start Date is maintained in period AAA.YYYY.
4. Now navigate to the Depreciation Overview sub-tab.
5. Here you notice that the Depreciation only starts in period BBB.YYYY, after the acquisition transfer posting.

Each depreciation method is assigned to a Period Control Method. For each Period Control Method a Period Control Key is assigned to each asset transaction. This period control key determines the (calculation) period from which a transaction, such as an acquisition or retirement, is included in the calculation of automatic depreciation.

The depreciation method L060-Straight Line Method is assigned to period control method 002.
For each transaction of period control method 002 the period control method key 01-Pro rata at period start date applies.
This means, that with this key the depreciation start or end date is always on the first day of the period in which the transaction, such as an acquisition or retirement, takes place.

Depreciation method L060 uses per day depreciation calculation  (Go to Fine Tuning > Depreciation Methods > Edit Depreciation Methods).

The following logic applies:
If a Fixed Asset is being acquired via an acquisition transfer posting the depreciation starts in the period of the acquisition posting with the calculation starting on the day of the acquisition transfer posting. Starting the depreciation calculation before the transfer date might cause double calculating the depreciation (in case there already exist depreciation posting for the transferred Fixed Asset).
Special Case:
If a Fixed Asset has been acquired via an acquisition transfer posting on the last day of the fiscal year then the depreciation calculation starts with the first day of the new fiscal year. It is then being assumed that the transfer has been deliberately posted  on the last day of the fiscal year to not interfere with previous depreciation values.

If a Fixed Asset is not being acquired through a transfer posting (for example, via goods receipt or supplier invoice to generate a new Fixed Asset) then the maintained depreciation start date overrules the acquisition date for the depreciation calculation: Even though the actual depreciation would still start in the period of the acquisition (as per period control key 01) the amount to be depreciated is being calculated based on the maintained Depreciation Start Date.

In order to consider the maintained depreciation start date for the depreciation calculation for a transferred fixed asset you need to assign a depreciation method to the Fixed Asset which is assigned to a period control method that uses period control keys which consider the first day of the Fiscal Year as the date relevant for depreciation calculation (for example, period control key 06- At the start of the year).

SAP Business ByDesign Help Resources:

• Period Control Methods and Keys, providing information on the period control keys assigned to the asset transaction depending on the respective period control method.
• Using Depreciation Methods, explaining the logic of Depreciation methods and providing information on pre-delivered Depreciation methods per country.*

*In SAP ByDesign it is currently only possible to identify the period control methods assigned to the pre-delivered depreciation methods provided for the US, see SAP ByDesign Help document Depreciation Methods - US.

L060; depreciation method; Straight Line Method , KBA , l060 , depreciation method , straight line method , SRD-FIN-FA , Fixed Assets , How To