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Manage fixed assets

Shillinq's fixed-assets (vaste activa) register holds every capitalised tangible or intangible business asset — buildings, vehicles, machinery, IT-equipment, furniture, intangibles — together with its depreciation rules and lifecycle state. Per ADR-031 the depreciation values (monthlyDepreciation, currentBookValue, commercialBookValue, fiscalBookValue) are derived on demand from the asset's acquisitionDate, acquisitionCost, usefulLifeMonths, residualValue, depreciationMethod, and the parallel commercialRate / fiscalRate — Shillinq does not materialise a DepreciationSchedule table per asset. The monthly posting run is an OpenRegister ScheduledWorkflow, not a Shillinq TimedJob.

The capability spec lives at bookkeeping-fixed-assets-depreciation; this page walks an SMB or ZZP bookkeeper through capitalising a laptop, reading its derived monthly depreciation, and disposing of it at sale.

Goal​

By the end of this story one FixedAsset is active in Shillinq: its derived monthly depreciation reads on the detail page, the parallel commercial / fiscal book values diverge under their respective rates (Wet IB / Wet VPB), and disposal emits a balanced closing JournalEntry — credits the asset account for its gross value, debits accumulated depreciation, posts any gain or loss to the configured P&L account.

Prerequisites​

  • Shillinq open and the OpenRegister back end connected (see Open Shillinq for the first time).
  • The chart of accounts set up so the asset (0220), accumulated depreciation (0225), and depreciation expense (4500) accounts exist (see Set up your chart of accounts).
  • The bookkeeping role on the Shillinq instance (a read-only auditor user can open the detail page but cannot capitalise or dispose).
  • A configured administration (the default ADM-001 ships with the install).

Step 1 — Capitalise the asset​

  1. Open Shillinq.
  2. Navigate to Bookkeeping > Fixed Assets.
  3. Click Capitalise asset (proposed → active is a two-step lifecycle by default; the operator can also create the record in proposed and approve it later).
  4. Fill in the required fields:
    • Asset number (activanummer) — e.g. FA-0001.
    • Name (naam) — Dell laptop XPS-15.
    • Asset category — it-equipment.
    • Acquisition date — 2026-01-01.
    • Acquisition cost — 2400.00 EUR.
    • Useful life (months) — 48 (4-year straight-line).
    • Residual value — 0.00.
    • Depreciation method — linear.
    • Asset account — 0220.
    • Accumulated depreciation account — 0225.
    • Depreciation expense account — 4500.
  5. Click Save.

Result: a new FixedAsset in lifecycleState: proposed, or — if you clicked Capitalise & activate — directly in active.

Step 2 — Read the derived book values​

  1. Open the detail page (Bookkeeping > Fixed Assets > FA-0001).
  2. The detail page renders the derived fields alongside the operator fields. For the worked example on 2026-07-01 (six months elapsed):
    • Monthly Depreciation — 50.00 EUR per month ((2400 − 0) / 48).
    • Current Book Value — 2100.00 EUR (2400 − 6 × 50).
    • Commercial Book Value — falls back to Current Book Value when no commercialRate is set.
    • Fiscal Book Value — same fallback when no fiscalRate is set.

Worked example — parallel Wet IB / Wet VPB streams​

If the same asset is configured with commercialRate: 0.20 (5-year commercial life under Dutch GAAP) and fiscalRate: 0.33 (3-year fiscal life under Wet IB), the detail page renders both book values, and they diverge:

  • After 12 months Commercial Book Value reads 10000 × (1 − 0.20 × 1) = 8000.00.
  • After 12 months Fiscal Book Value reads 10000 × (1 − 0.33 × 1) = 6700.00.

This is the parallel-stream behaviour every Dutch SMB needs when its fiscal book runs ahead of (or behind) its commercial book — most commonly under the Wet IB 20 % fiscal cap on certain asset classes or under MIA/Vamil accelerated depreciation.

Step 3 — Monthly depreciation runs by itself​

A monthly ScheduledWorkflow (registered as shillinq-fixed-assets-monthly-depreciation) walks every FixedAsset with lifecycleState: active and posts a balanced GLTransaction per asset — debit 4500 Depreciation expense, credit 0225 Accumulated depreciation — using the derived monthlyDepreciation field for the period. The schedule itself stays implicit; Shillinq does not materialise a per-month DepreciationSchedule table.

Operators reconfigure the cadence through the OpenRegister ScheduledWorkflow admin UI (default interval: 30 days).

Step 4 — Dispose of the asset​

When the laptop is sold (e.g. on 2030-01-01 for 200.00 EUR):

  1. Open the detail page.
  2. Click Dispose asset.
  3. Fill in:
    • Disposal date — 2030-01-01.
    • Disposal treatment — sale.
    • Disposal proceeds — 200.00.
  4. Confirm.

The lifecycle transitions active → disposed and the declarative emit-journal-entry action posts a balanced closing journal:

  • Credit 0220 Asset for 2400.00 (reverse the gross value).
  • Debit 0225 Accumulated depreciation for the accumulated depreciation balance.
  • Debit the disposal clearing account for the 200.00 proceeds.
  • Debit boekverlies vaste activa for the residual loss (or credit boekwinst vaste activa if proceeds exceed book value).

The journal lines always balance (sum of debits == sum of credits, in integer cents) — verified by the unit-tested kernel DisposalJournalEmitter.

Verify​

  • The detail page renders currentBookValue, monthlyDepreciation, commercialBookValue, fiscalBookValue.
  • The Audit Trail tab shows the lifecycle transitions (create → activate → dispose) with actor, timestamp, and before/after snapshot.
  • The closing journal shows on the General Ledger page with transactionType: disposal and sourceReference: fixed-asset:FA-0001.

Troubleshooting​

  • Monthly Depreciation reads 0.00 — depreciationMethod is set to none (intentional: no automatic posting happens). Switch to linear or degressive to activate.
  • The disposal action button is hidden — the operator is in the auditor role (read-only) or the asset is already in lifecycleState: disposed / archived.
  • Closing journal lines don't balance — should not happen; the emitter is unit-tested against the REQ-FA-006 worked examples. If it ever does, file a bug against bookkeeping-fixed-assets-depreciation with the asset's acquisitionCost, acquisitionDate, current book value, and the proceeds entered.

What's next​

  • Configure the parallel Wet IB / Wet VPB rates per asset category via the operator UI.
  • Wire the monthly ScheduledWorkflow to an n8n workflow that emails the bookkeeper a summary of the depreciation postings on each tick.
  • For investment-deduction (KIA / EIA / MIA / Vamil) eligibility see bookkeeping-investeringsaftrek — the overlay register classifies the asset against the four schemes.