> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.alforse.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Fixed assets > Capital equipment on the books: bought, built, or capitalized from stock, then depreciated and retired. A **fixed asset** is a piece of capital equipment you capitalize and depreciate rather than expense: a press, a CNC, a forklift, or a unit you built to rent out. It's an accounting record of value over time, distinct from the work center that represents the same machine on the floor. Every asset belongs to an **asset class**, which supplies the general-ledger accounts it posts to. ## Lifecycle
**Draft** Created, not yet on the books.
**Active** Capitalized and depreciating.
**Fully Depreciated** Written down to its residual value; no longer accruing.
**Disposed** Retired, sold, or returned to stock. Off the books.
## Acquiring An asset comes onto the books four ways. Registering and buying start from a **Draft** asset you created; building and capitalizing create the asset for you. * **Register** one you already own: supply its acquisition cost and depreciation start date, and it moves to **Active**. No cash moves; the entry offsets equity, since you're recording something you already have. * **Buy** one through purchasing: a purchase-order line of type *Fixed Asset* that, when the receipt posts, debits the asset account, **adds** the cost to the asset, and flips it to **Active**. A purchase invoice with no receipt does the same. The asset page's **"Purchase"** action drafts the purchase order for you, and it is offered while the asset is Draft. * **Build** one on a job: set the job's **"Complete To"** to **"Fixed Asset Class"** and choose the class. When the job completes, each finished unit becomes its own asset priced at the WIP cost it absorbed, and the unit never enters stock. This is Make to Asset. * **Capitalize** a unit already in stock: on the item's inventory page, the storage-unit row action **"Capitalize as Fixed Asset"** moves one serialized unit out of stock at its carrying cost and creates the asset, or fills a Draft one, as **Active**. The form shows that cost before you confirm, and you choose the asset class, name and transfer date. The serial number travels with it. A unit that inventory carries at no cost cannot be capitalized: set a unit cost on the item first, or the asset would be worth nothing. NOTE **A job that builds assets has two rules** A job that completes to a fixed asset class needs a serialized item, so every finished unit maps to one numbered asset that the fleet can rent, return and capitalize. And it cannot be linked to a sales order line, because that job is a sale. Alforse refuses the job when you save it, and again at release. NOTE The purchase-receipt path activates the asset and posts its acquisition entry. Cost is added cumulatively, so an asset can accrue value across several receipts. While the General Ledger is disabled (see [Accounting](/docs/reference/accounting.md)), no acquisition journal is written, but the asset still takes its cost and its status. ## Fleet register **Accounting → Fixed Assets → Fleet** lists every asset tied to an item, whether built on a job or capitalized from stock, with a status Alforse derives from the asset rather than stores: | Status | Meaning | | - | - | | **"Available"** | On the books, in service, and free to rent | | **"Reserved"** | Named on a draft or undelivered line of a [rental agreement](/docs/reference/rental-agreements.md) | | **"On Rent"** | Delivered to a customer on an active rental agreement | | **"In Maintenance"** | Taken out of service | | **"Sold"** | Disposed by sale or scrapping, including a rental unit [treated as a sale](/docs/reference/rental-agreements.md#sales-type-leases) | | **"Returned to Stock"** | Returned to inventory | Two actions manage whether a unit is out of service without touching its accounting. **"Take Out of Service"** records a reason and date, keeps the asset depreciating, and flips the register to In Maintenance; **"Return to Service"** clears it. Both live on the asset page and in the register's row menu. A unit on rent is taken out of service from its rental agreement instead: **"Return"** it with **"Take out of service"** ticked. An Available unit's row menu also offers **"Rent"**, which starts a new rental agreement with that unit on it. A unit can also go back to stock. **"Return to Inventory"** on an Active or Fully Depreciated asset with an item puts the same serial back on the shelf at net book value, and marks the asset Disposed. The unit keeps that value. Under FIFO or LIFO costing, selling, issuing, or adjusting out that serial later relieves it at its net book value, not at the cost of the oldest stock. Return it to service first, and return it from its rental agreement if it is reserved or on rent: Alforse refuses either case. The seeded **Rental Fleet** class is the default target for these units, and **"Build for Fleet"** on the register opens a new job with that class already set as its Complete To target. Alforse screenshot**Fleet register listing assets with derived Available and In Maintenance statuses** The fleet register. Status is derived from the asset's own state, never stored. ## Depreciating Depreciation runs as a **monthly batch you trigger**. There's no background poster. You create a run for a period, Alforse pulls every Active asset and computes each charge, you review it as a draft, then post: debit depreciation expense, credit accumulated depreciation. An asset under construction is not Active, so it is skipped until it is capitalized; a fleet unit out of service is still Active, so it keeps depreciating. Alforse keeps a separate **tax** book too, including MACRS, when tax depreciation is enabled. When an asset's net book value reaches its residual, posting flips it to **Fully Depreciated**. Book depreciation follows the asset's method: straight line, declining balance, or units of production. ## Selling vs. disposing An Active or Fully Depreciated asset leaves the books two different ways: | | Sell | Dispose | | - | - | - | | Who | A sales action | An accounting action | | What happens | Drafts a **sales order** for the asset at its net book value | Posts a **write-off**: clears accumulated depreciation, removes the asset at cost | | Asset status | Unchanged (Active or Fully Depreciated) until its shipment posts, then **Disposed** | **Disposed** | | Money | Collected through the invoice, like any sale | Remaining book value booked as a loss | HEADS UP Selling and disposing are **not** two names for one thing. Selling hands the asset to the normal quote-to-cash flow at book value; the asset leaves the books when its shipment posts, and the invoice then books the gain or loss against net book value. Disposing retires it directly: disposal from the asset page is scrapping at a loss. A fleet unit has a third exit, Return to Inventory, described above. NOTE A fixed asset is **not** the same record as a work center. The machine you schedule production on and the machine you depreciate are tracked separately, but they can point at each other: an asset's **"Work Center"** field records which work center it serves, and that work center's page shows a read-only **Capital Cost** panel with its assets, their net book value, and the monthly straight-line depreciation they carry. Machine rates are still typed by hand. ## Related **Accounting** Where an asset's acquisition, depreciation, and disposal entries land. [Open](/docs/reference/accounting.md) **Jobs** The job whose Complete To target turns finished units into assets. [Open](/docs/reference/jobs.md) **Work centers** The same machine as a production resource, with the capital cost its assets carry. [Open](/docs/reference/work-centers.md) This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.