3280001 - The Complete Scrapping of a Fixed Asset Still Posts to G/L Accounts Even Though the Net Book Value is Zero

You have fully depreciated an asset and want to set its status to Retired. You attempt to perform a complete scrapping, however you notice that the resulting journal entry for this complete scrapping is generating additional postings.

You would like to understand the reason for these postings, since the net book value is already zero.

SAP Business ByDesign.

1. Go to Fixed Assets work center.
2. Go to Fixed Assets view.
3. Open the relevant asset.
4. Under the General tab, see that the Net Book Value is 0,00.
5. Click Manual Posting -> Complete Scrapping.
6. Simulate the Journal Entry.

In the journal entry, you see that the system credit and debit the fixed asset's acquisition cost. Since the net book value is zero, you would like to understand these postings.

This happens due to the nature of the Complete Scrapping posting. The complete scrapping usually means that you are removing the asset from your portfolio (due to fire, accident, etc) it is no longer to be used. Hence, the posting credits the historical cost account, debits accumulated/proportional depreciation and Loss from Scrapping accounts (netbook value).

In this case, you have e.g. migrated the asset with historical costs and full depreciation. Therefore, for this asset there is a debit balance in Historical Costs account and a credit balance in the Accumulated Depreciation account. Since it is a full depreciation, the net book value is zero.

Once you do a complete scrapping, the system will Credit the Historical Cost and debit the Accumulated Depreciation account. There will be no postings to Loss from Scrapping account, since the net book value is zero.

If the asset was not fully depreciated, the remaining asset's net book value would be debited to Loss from Scrapping account as the assets are retired at the current net book value excluding revenue.

This is the expected behavior given the posting logic for depreciation and complete scrapping. You can find more details and examples in the help document Manual Postings in Fixed Assets in the section for Complete Scrapping.

You need to evaluate if the complete scrapping is the desired approach. Note that you can deactivate a fixed asset by setting the Deactivation Date under Master Data -> Life Cycle Data tab in the fixed asset's master data.

Manual Posting. Depreciation. Complete Scrapping. Fixed Asset. , KBA , SRD-FIN-FA , Fixed Assets , How To