Fixed Asset Accounting

In this accounting seminar you'll learn to maximize your bottom line by discovering everything you need to know about your company’s fixed assets.Maximize your assets and protect your organization's investments with fixed asset accounting skills! In this timely seminar you will learn to maximize your bottom line by discovering everything you need to know about your company's assets: what assets you have and where they are located…how to make sure they are fully utilized…how to reap the maximum tax benefits…and how to accurately assess their current value in today's economy.

Also Available as:

• Onsite

How You Will Benefit

• Evaluate and improve the tax benefits from your fixed assets
• Identify the available options of popular F/A software systems
• Appraise the value of your assets in today’s economy
• Set up systems to get timely, accurate information

What You Will Cover

• How to meet all accounting, tax, insurance and other requirements
• Capturing fixed asset data
• Value concepts
• Establishing the fixed asset accounting record
• Taking inventories: physical, perpetual, reconciliation
• Property controls: classification. . .tags. . .responsibility accounting applied to fixed assets
• Perpetuating the property accounting system

Extended Seminar Outline

Print this page Extended Seminar Outline Seminar #1224

Learning Objectives

• Gain a New Perspective on Rules, Regulations, and Tax Codes, as Well As Insurance Requirements
• Understand Potential Tax Benefits You May Be Currently Overlooking
• Review Requirements for your F/A Manual
• Understand F/A Record Keeping, Systems, Current Packages, and Transitions from One System to Another and Identify
• Explore and Identify F/A Property Controls
• Review Latest Techniques of F/A Identification and Inventory-Taking in Context of Current Federal Laws
• Learn How to Make F/A Management a Corporate Activity
• Learn How You Can Determine F/A Utilization and Value
• Understand Method of Accounting for Accumulated F/A Maintenance Costs
• To Clearly Distinguish Between Real Personal Property
• Consider More Answers to the Question About What Should or Could Be Expensed vs. Capitalized

Introduction

• Define and Discuss Who the Stakeholders Are
• Understand the Penalty for Not Reconciling Physical Assets with Perpetual Records
• Understand How F/A Accounting Relates to Corporate Valuation

Fixed Assets in Financial Statements

• Understand GAAP
• Understand the Various Methods of Depreciation and Related Rules
• Realize That Leased Assets Must Be Accounted For

Fixed Assets on Income Tax Returns

• Understand the Tax Codes Affecting Fixed Assets
• Understand What Special Tax Situations Are
• Have a Better Chronological Perspective on Tax Legislation

Fixed Assets on Property Tax Returns

• Understand Ad Valorem Taxes
• Realize Licenses Are a New Term for Taxation
• Discover Potential Tax Savings, Previously Overlooked
• Understand How to Classify and Distinguish Between Personal and/or Real Property

Fixed Asset Records and Risk Management (Insurance)

• Understand Risk Management Concerns
• Understand the Difference Between Accounting Book Value and Replacement Costs
• Understand What Is Needed from F/A Accounting to Substantiate an Insurance Loss

Corporate Policy and the Property Accounting Manual

• Understand the Requirements of an F/A Property Manual
• Understand the Content of an F/A Property Manual
• Understand a List of All Reference Materials and Related Documentation That Went into the Preparation of This Course and That Need to Be Provided for in an F/A Property Manual

Record Keeping and Automated Reporting Systems (FAMS)

• Understand Which Data Should Be Captured and for Whom
• Understand the Variety of Possible F/A-Related Reports
• Understand Aspects of Record Keeping, System Requirements, Software Features, and Database Considerations
• Gain Insight into Vendor Concerns and Considerations
• Be Aware of the Available Software and Who Is Using It

Capturing Fixed Asset Data

• Understand and Explore F/A Property Controls
• Gain New Insights on How to Have People Become More Cooperative, Informing F/A Accounting about Adds, Deletes, and Moves
• Understand the Features and Requirements of CIP
• Understand CIP Data Reference Requirements
• Understand CIP Disposition Codes and How to Handle Indirect Costs

Property Controls

• Appreciate How to Classify Assets
• Understand What Assets Can Be Grouped or Pooled and What Assets Might Need to Be Kept Separate to Facilitate Control
• Understand the Newest Ways to Tag and Physically Control Assets
• Understand What Responsibility Accounting Means
• Answer the Question: What Should or Could Be Expensed vs. What Could or Should Be Capitalized?

Taking Inventories

• Understand the Latest Techniques of F/A Identification and Inventory in the Context of Current Federal Laws
• Understand How to Make F/A Management a Corporate Activity
• Understand How to Determine F/A Unitization and Value (i.e., Condition Codes)
• Realize That Taking an F/A Inventory Can Be Fun and Exciting (If Treated as a Scavenger Hunt)

Converting to a New F/A System

• Understand Testing Procedures and Theories
• Realize the Benefits of a Steering Committee
• Be Leery of Conversion Defaults
• Appreciate the Importance of Implementation Training

Who Should Attend

Accountants, controllers, managers of fixed assets, divisional plant managers and all executives with two years or less experience in fixed asset accounting.