Keep an asset register

What the register is for

SARS does not let you claim a big purchase as a cost in the year you bought it. A bakkie, a compressor, a laptop or a building is written off over the years you use it — wear and tear — and the register is where Worklog does that for you. Each asset shows what it cost, what has been written off so far and what is left, and the Profit and Loss carries one Depreciation line from it instead of the whole purchase landing in one month.

• Anything under R7 000 is claimed in full in the year you buy it, so it doesn't go on the register. The Profit and Loss shows it as a cost, under Assets — small items written off in full.
• Part private use — a bakkie you also drive at weekends — is never claimable. Give the register the private percentage and it claims only the business share. The same percentage decides whether the asset is used mainly for business: its business share is more than 50%. For a building, set it by floor area.
• The write-off periods are the ones SARS commonly allows: bakkies, vans and delivery vehicles four years, cars five, machinery and tools five, computers three, phones two, furniture six, buildings and improvements twenty. Anything unusual is worth confirming with your accountant.
• Two optional questions on the form. “What'll it still be worth then?” stops your books' depreciation at that figure instead of running it down to nothing — a bakkie really will still be worth something after four years. SARS ignores it, so your wear-and-tear claim still runs on the full cost. “When did you start using it?” moves your books and your SARS claim together: both start from the day you put it to work rather than the day you paid, which matters for anything that had to be installed. Leave both alone and the register behaves exactly as it always has.
• On Turnover Tax none of this is a deduction — the Sixth Schedule taxes what comes in and allows no deductions at all — and the register says so on screen. Keep it anyway: half of ALL that an asset used mainly for business fetches is taxable turnover (nothing for one that was not), and the day you leave the regime you need the history. As a Small Business Corporation you may be able to write the same assets off much faster under s12E, which is also flagged there.

Two ways in, and only two

1. Open Asset Register, under the "Stock & Assets" tools card (or the "Stock & Assets" group on desktop).
2. Worklog found …: when you log an expense or a supplier-invoice line under an asset category — Bakkie, van or truck (purchase), Computer & software, Building or property (purchase) and so on — and it is R7 000 or more, the capture screen tells you so at the time, and it appears under To add in the register as a question. Tap It's an asset, say what kind of thing it is and any private use, and it joins the register tied to the purchase it came from. If you logged something and it is not in that list, either it cost under R7 000 or its category is not an asset category — change the category where you logged it, on the supplier invoice line or the money out.
3. Had it before your books started?: Worklog only knows the purchases you have logged, so anything you already had before your books started it never saw. Those are part of your opening balances, so they are added, corrected and removed in Opening Balances (Financials) — the register shows them, marked with their opening figures, and the link at the foot of To add, Had it before your books started? Add it in Opening Balances ›, takes you there. You are not logging a purchase or money — that is long gone; you are telling Worklog it exists so it can carry on writing off what is left.

Something in the list isn't an asset? Tap Not an asset and Worklog stops asking — the purchase stays in your books with its category. Changed your mind? Open Not assets, under the list, and tap Ask me again.

Selling, scrapping or losing an asset

1. On the asset's card tap Sold or scrapped? and say what happened: sold, scrapped, stolen or written off.
2. Enter the date and what the buyer paid including VAT. If you are VAT-registered, Worklog works out the VAT inside that price for you — change it if the buyer's invoice says otherwise. It goes on your VAT201 in fields 1A and 4A, the ones SARS keeps for capital goods you sell.
3. Choose Paid into: the bank account or cash box the money landed in.
4. Read the two cards. The navy one shows what the sale does to your tax — whether SARS takes allowances back or gives you a further deduction. The green one shows the exact income row Worklog is about to write: the amount, date, account, the category Sold a vehicle, machine or equipment, the VAT for your VAT201, and the link to this asset.
5. Tap the blue button — it reads "Confirm and record R…" with the amount, or just "Confirm" when nothing was received. The asset is marked sold and the money is recorded in the same save. Your account balance rises, Banking and Cash Flow show the money in, and it is kept out of revenue and your Tax Jar — selling a bakkie is not your trade.
6. To correct a sale later, tap Edit the sale on the asset's card. Change the price, the VAT, the date, what happened or Paid into, and tap Confirm — Worklog corrects the money in the same save, so your balance, your VAT201 and your tax stay in step. If that money is already reconciled against your bank, Worklog won't change it: if you typed it wrong, unreconcile the line in Banking first.

• You cannot log the sale of an asset from Banking → + Add or a bank-statement import. If you pick that category anywhere else, Worklog points you back to the register. That is what keeps a sale from being counted twice or recorded without its tax effect.
• A motor car (a sedan, an SUV, a minibus, a double cab bakkie — the VAT Act's definition names the double cab) that the business bought while registered for VAT is one whose VAT you could not claim, so selling it is not a taxable sale (VAT Act s8(14)(a)): Worklog adds no VAT, and SARS's VAT201 guide asks for exempt and non-supplies together in field 3, so the price goes there (shown as part of Exempt on the card). Scrapping it for scrap value is the same. An insurer's payout on such a car is not a supply at all (s8(8), third proviso), so it stays off your VAT201. A vehicle made from a purchase filed as Car or double cab takes no VAT at all.
• For a car or bakkie Worklog has no purchase for (one you had before Worklog), it asks what kind of vehicle it is. Not a motor car (a single-cab bakkie, van or truck, 3 500 kg or more, more than 16 seats, an ambulance, a hearse, or a car dealer's or car-rental business's vehicle): the sale carries VAT, in fields 1A and 4A, whenever you bought it. A motor car bought while registered for VAT: no VAT, field 3. A motor car you owned before you registered for VAT is treated the same way: the VAT Act doesn't let you claim the VAT on a motor car, whether you bought it before or after you registered, so its sale is not a taxable sale (VAT Act s8(14)(a)). Worklog adds no VAT and the price goes in field 3. Until you answer, Worklog does not record the money.
• Scrapped, stolen or written off with nothing received: the asset is marked and no money is recorded. Anything you did receive for it is recorded exactly like a sale.
• On Turnover Tax, half of everything an asset used mainly for business fetched (a business share of more than 50%) counts as turnover, and nothing counts for one that was not (Sixth Schedule, paragraph 6(a)). Worklog takes that from the register, excluding VAT. On normal tax the sale runs through the annual return as a recoupment or a further deduction.
• Sold for more than you paid? The gain is the whole price (excluding VAT) less what it cost, never cut down by the business share. For a sole proprietor or partner it counts when the asset is used mainly for business (a business share of more than 50%). A movable asset used 50% or less for business is a personal-use asset, so its gain is disregarded (Eighth Schedule, paragraph 53). A building is never a personal-use asset. For a person whose building is mainly a home (a business share of 50% or less), only the business part counts. The private part is worked on its own share of the price and the cost, because the wear and tear and the recoupment belong to the business part, and it is shown apart: it is disregarded up to R3 million for a sale from 1 March 2026 (R2 million before that) if the building was your primary residence (your main home, used mainly as a home: paragraph 44; paragraphs 45 and 49), shared between joint owners (paragraph 45(2)), and it counts too if it was not. Only one residence at a time can be your primary residence (paragraph 45(3)), so the private parts of different buildings are never added together. A building used mainly for business is not a primary residence (paragraph 44), so the whole of its gain or loss counts. For a company, close corporation or co-operative the whole gain counts whatever the private use. Worklog then shows the steps: the annual exclusion (people only, R50 000 for 2026/27, R40 000 for 2024/25 and 2025/26), the inclusion rate (40% for a person, 80% otherwise) and where it goes on your return. A person's net capital loss inside the annual exclusion is not carried forward (paragraph 7). Your other gains and losses of the year change the figure, so it is not put into your taxable income. On Turnover Tax, the gain on an asset used mainly for business is disregarded (paragraph 57A); outside it the gain or loss is the whole price less the whole cost, because no wear and tear was deductible.
• Sold a building for less than it was worth? That shortfall is not deductible against your trade. The scrapping allowance only reaches things written off over ten years or less, so on a building the loss is a capital loss instead — Worklog names the figure and hands it over.

Where it shows up

• Profit and Loss: the purchase leaves operating expenses and a Depreciation line comes in, with the number of assets behind it.
• Profit and Loss, when you sell: a line of its own, just under Operating profit — “Profit on selling assets” with a plus that adds to your profit, or “Loss on selling assets” with a minus that takes away. It is what the sale fetched against what was left of the asset in your books. What the buyer paid is kept out of revenue; only the profit or loss on letting it go reaches your bottom line.
• The annual return: wear and tear, recoupments on anything sold, and the scrapping allowance on anything that fetched less than it was worth for tax.
• The VAT201: VAT on money out filed under an asset category — a purchase, not a repair — goes in field 14, capital goods, whatever the amount. A supplier invoice's VAT is never split out as capital goods, and VAT on a car or double cab can't be claimed at all, whether you buy it or hire it (VAT Act section 17(2)(c)). A sale's VAT is output VAT.

Putting a mistake right

• Something typed wrong? Tap Fix the details on the asset's card. Changing the kind of thing it is, the private-use share or the day you started using it re-works the wear and tear in every year the asset has touched, including years you have filed on. A cost or date that came from a purchase can't be typed over here: correct the purchase, then remove the asset and confirm it again from To add.
• Recorded a sale that never happened? Tap It never went. The asset goes back on the register and its wear and tear runs again from that date, so check any year you have already filed on. If the sale's money is already reconciled against your bank, unreconcile that line in Banking first.
• Remove takes the asset and its wear and tear out of every year it touched, including years you have filed on, so it asks you to confirm. The purchase it came from goes back to To add. A sale is recorded with Sold or scrapped? instead, which keeps the history.
• Where money was recorded for a sale, It never went and Remove both ask whether it reached your bank. Tap Yes, it arrived — keep the money and it stays in your books with no category, and Worklog's own name for it changes to say “file this”. Open it in Banking and give it the right category — until you do, it counts as revenue under Uncategorised. Tap No, it never arrived and it comes out too.
• Removed something by mistake? Open Removed on the What I own tab and tap Put it back.