Depreciation schedules

The Depreciation tab of Admin › Assets › Finance sets how your devices lose value. A schedule says how many years a device is useful, what it's worth at the end, and how fast it gets there. schoolOS uses it to work out each device's book value today and the year it's due for replacement, on the Assets list's value columns and in reports.

What a device needs to be valued#

A device gets a value only when it has all three:

• A Purchase Price above zero.
• A Purchase Date. The date it was deployed or added doesn't stand in for it.
• A schedule that covers it and is on.

Devices missing any of these have no book value. Fill in purchase data with an import if many are missing it.

Who can use it#

Manage depreciation (depreciation.manage) shows the tab, lists the schedules and adds, changes and deletes them. It's part of Full access to Asset settings on Admin › People › Roles. Without it, the page and its list stay closed.

The list#

Schedules are listed in the order they were created. The columns:

• Name. With its description under it, and Off when the schedule is turned off.
• Method.
• Useful life and Salvage.
• Applies to. All assets, or the device types and models it targets.
• On. A switch that turns the schedule on or off. An off schedule values no devices: they move to the next schedule that covers them, or have no book value. Turn one off, rather than deleting it, to see what its devices look like on the next schedule, or when you might want it back.
• The … menu at the end of a row has Edit, Turn off (or Turn on) and Delete.

Search schedules... matches the name, description and what it applies to. Filter narrows the list by Method or Status. Select a column heading to sort by it; Columns hides or reorders columns.

With no schedules yet, you see Create your first schedule. Under the list, Which schedule a device gets sums up the order below.

Add a schedule#

Select New schedule and fill in:

• Name. Say what it covers, like "Student Chromebooks (4 yr)".
• Method. How the value falls. See Methods.
• Useful life (yrs). How long the device is in service, in whole years. At least 1. Match it to how long you really keep devices: a Chromebook refreshed every four years should have 4, even if it would last longer.
• Salvage (%). What's left at the end, as a percentage of the purchase price, 0 to 100. With Straight line or Sum of years' digits, 0 means the device is written off entirely by the end of its useful life; 10 suits devices you sell back or trade in. Declining balance (200%) works differently at 0: see Methods.
• Description. Notes for other admins.
• On. Whether the schedule values devices. New schedules are on.
• Apply to all assets. On, the schedule covers every device. Off, pick from Device types and Models: the lists offer the types and models your assets have today, models with their manufacturer.

Preview shows a $1,000 device's book value year by year, as a chart and in figures, and updates as you change the fields.

Select Create schedule. To change a schedule, select its row, or Edit in its … menu, and select Save changes.

Which schedule a device gets#

When more than one schedule covers a device, schoolOS picks one:

1. A schedule that names the device's model.
2. Otherwise, one that names its device type.
3. Otherwise, one set to Apply to all assets.

If two schedules tie, the older one wins. So a good setup is one Apply to all assets schedule as the fallback, plus a schedule for each type or model that's kept a different length of time.

All assets, device types or models?#

| Option | Covers | Choose it when | | --- | --- | --- | | Apply to all assets | Every device no other schedule claims. | Always have one, so no device with purchase data goes unvalued. | | Device types | Every device of the types you pick, whatever the model. | A whole kind of device is kept on its own cycle, like Chromebooks or interactive panels. | | Models | Only the models you pick. | One model breaks the pattern, like a rugged Chromebook you keep a year longer than the rest. |

For example, a district with 12 schools might set up three schedules:

1. "District default (5 yr)": Straight line, 5 years, 0%, Apply to all assets.
2. "Student Chromebooks (4 yr)": Straight line, 4 years, 0%, device type Chromebook.
3. "Rugged Chromebook (5 yr)": Straight line, 5 years, 10%, the one rugged model.

A standard Chromebook gets schedule 2, the rugged model gets schedule 3 (a model beats a type), and a projector gets schedule 1.

Schedules point at the type or model itself, not its name: rename an asset type or a model and its devices stay on the schedule, which shows the new name. Merging a duplicate model moves its schedules to the model you keep.

Methods#

• Straight line. The same amount every year: (price − salvage) ÷ useful life. Easy to explain, and what most districts use.
• Declining balance (200%). Double the straight-line rate, applied to what's left each year, so value falls fastest in the first years. Once spreading what's left evenly over the remaining years takes more, it switches to that (straight line), so it reaches salvage exactly at the end of the useful life, and never goes below it. Suits devices that lose most of their value early.
• Sum of years' digits. Also faster early, but less steep than declining balance. It reaches salvage at the end of the useful life.

Which method should I choose?#

Here's a $300 Chromebook on a 4-year schedule with 0% salvage:

| Method | After 1 year | After 2 years | After 4 years | Choose it when | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Straight line | $225 | $150 | $0 | You want numbers anyone can check, or your business office already uses straight line. | | Sum of years' digits | $180 | $90 | $0 | Devices lose value early and you want them fully written off on schedule. | | Declining balance (200%) | $150 | $75 | $0 | You want the steepest early drop. |

With declining balance, the $300 Chromebook loses half of what's left in each of its first two years ($150, then $75). From year 3, half of what's left no longer beats spreading the remaining $75 evenly over the last two years, so it switches to straight line: $37.50 in year 3 and $37.50 in year 4, ending at $0.

Ask your business office which method your audited financial statements use, and match it, so the numbers in schoolOS agree with theirs.

Delete a schedule#

Open the … menu on its row, select Delete, then Delete schedule. It can't be undone. Devices it covered move to the next schedule that covers them, or lose their book value if none does.