## What you will learn to do: Compute depreciation expense on plant assets

In the prior section, we recorded the large-scale purchases by Spivey Company into the GL control accounts:

In addition, we would have recorded those same transactions into a subsidiary ledger or a fixed assets detail list. For convenience, let’s assume the July 1 purchase of machinery was one large machine, and that the lump sum purchase on October 1 was further allocated to the individual assets. Since we don’t have the time or room to account for all the items, we’ll call the individual assets (1) delivery van, (2) machine, (3) office furniture, and (4) computer. In reality, you would break this list down into the smallest detail that made sense for your business; usually each individual asset would get its own line. Here is an example of a fixed asset item list:

Asset Description Date Purchased Cost As of 12/31/20X1 Spivey Company 1 Land 2/1/20X1 262,800 2 Building 7/1/20X1 490,000 3 Machine 7/1/20X1 162,000 4 Land 10/1/20X1 120,000 5 Building 10/1/20X1 600,000 6 Delivery Van 10/1/20X1 45,000 7 Machine 10/1/20X1 99,500 8 Office Furniture 10/1/20X1 70,000 9 Computer 10/1/20X1 5,500 $1,854,800 The total of the three GL accounts above equal the total of the fixed asset item list, but we accountants would probably sort the list to better match the GL: Asset Description Date Purchased Cost As of 12/31/20X1 Spivey Company 1 Land 2/1/20X1 262,800 4 Land 10/1/20X1 120,000 382,800 2 Building 7/1/20X1 490,000 5 Building 10/1/20X1 600,000 1,090,000 3 Machine 7/1/20X1 162,000 6 Delivery Van 10/1/20X1 45,000 7 Machine 10/1/20X1 99,500 8 Office Furniture 10/1/20X1 70,000 9 Computer 10/1/20X1 5,500 382,000$ 1,854,800

Some companies will have more categories or different ones, for instance, breaking out vehicles, office equipment, or even computers into separate GL control accounts.

All this information is gathered and tracked and used to compute depreciation, accumulated depreciation, and eventually gain or loss on the sale of an asset. So, for step one we need to decide on a method of depreciation and apply it.

To compute the amount of depreciation expense, accountants consider four major factors:

1. Cost of the asset (covered in the prior section).
2. Proposed method of depreciation.
3. Estimated useful life of the asset.
4. Estimated salvage value of the asset. Salvage value (or scrap value or residual value) is the amount of money the company expects to recover, minus disposal costs, on the date a plant asset is scrapped, sold, or traded in.

Land won’t be depreciated because in theory it has an unlimited useful life, but all the other fixed assets will depreciate.