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 written off in full in the year you bought it; the register still keeps it so the write-off is on record.
• 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 write-off periods are the ones SARS commonly allows: vehicles four years, machinery and tools five, computers three, phones two, furniture six, buildings and improvements twenty. Anything unusual is worth confirming with your accountant.

Two ways in, and only two

1. Open Asset Register, under the "Financials" tools card (or the "Financials" group on desktop).
2. Purchases you marked as assets: 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 over R7 000, it appears here as a question. Tap it, say what kind of thing it is and any private use, and it joins the register linked to the purchase that paid for it.
3. Something I owned before Worklog: for the bakkie, tools or machines you already had when you started. Enter what it is, what it cost excluding VAT and when you bought it.

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.
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 Confirm. 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.

• You cannot log the sale of an asset from Log income, the capture grid 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.
• 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 what a business asset fetched counts as turnover; Worklog takes that from the register. On normal tax the sale runs through the annual return as a recoupment or a further deduction.
• Sold for more than you paid? The part above cost is a capital gain — a different tax, worked out on you rather than the business. Worklog shows you the number and stops there; take it to your accountant.

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.
• 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: a purchase over the threshold in an asset category is declared as capital goods, and a sale's VAT as output VAT.
• Removing an asset takes its write-off out of every year it touched, including years you have already filed on — so removal asks twice, and a sale is recorded with Sold or scrapped? instead, which keeps the history.