Depreciation policies

A depreciation policy is a reference record that states how a class of assets should depreciate: the method, the rate or useful life, and how often the charge is taken. You write it once per asset class, for example "laptops, straight line over 3 years, monthly", and link the matching assets to it. The policy records your intended treatment. The record that actually posts depreciation is a recurring depreciation schedule, and you create that schedule yourself from the policy's terms.

Overview

A policy holds:

• What it covers — an Asset Category and a Sub Category, and optionally one specific Asset.
• How it depreciates — the Method (Straight Line or WDV), the Depreciation Rate, the Useful Life (in years) and the Frequency (Monthly or Yearly).

An asset points to its policy through the asset's own Depreciation Policy field. The policy's record page lists those assets on its Related tab.

When to use it

Use policies when you want one agreed treatment per asset class and a record of which assets follow it. They are useful for an audit trail ("every laptop follows the 3-year straight-line policy") and as the source you copy from when you set up each schedule.

You do not need a policy to post depreciation. If you depreciate only a handful of assets, you can create their schedules directly.

How xMatix handles it

A policy is stored data. No part of xMatix reads it to calculate or post anything:

• Saving a policy creates no schedule and posts no journal.
• Linking an asset to a policy does not change the asset's Depreciation Method, Net Book Value or any other field.
• Changing a policy's rate, life or method does not change existing schedules or assets.
• Recurring depreciation schedules use their own Method, Rate Per Period or Period Amount, Cost and Residual Value, never the policy's.

So the control is yours: when an asset is linked to a policy, create its schedule with matching terms and check them against the policy.

Prerequisites

• Access to the Fixed Assets app.
• The asset classes you want to cover, with an agreed method and useful life or rate for each.
• If you want to link a policy to one asset, the asset record must exist first.

Procedure

Step 1 — Find your policies

Open the Fixed Assets app and select Depreciation policies. The All depreciation policies list shows Name, Asset Category, Method, Frequency, Created By, Created Date and Modified Date. Summary cards above the list count Total Policies, Monthly Frequency Policies, Yearly Frequency Policies, SLM Policies (straight line) and WDV Policies. Use search, filters and column sort to find a policy, and select a row to open it.

Administrators also reach the list from the Setup page of the Fixed Assets app.

Step 2 — Create a policy

1. On the list, select New.
2. Choose the Asset only if this policy is for one particular asset. Leave it empty for a policy that covers a whole class.
3. Choose the Asset Category and the Sub Category.
4. Choose the Method: Straight Line or WDV (written-down value).
5. Under Depreciation Configuration, enter the Depreciation Rate for a WDV policy, the Useful Life (in years) for a straight-line policy, and choose the Frequency.
6. Save.

There is no name field on the form. On save, xMatix gives the policy a number such as DP-27102026-000001, which becomes its Name.

Step 3 — Read the record page

The header shows the policy with its Method and Depreciation Rate, and the Edit and Delete buttons. The page has two tabs:

• Related — the assets linked to this policy, with New to create an asset from here.
• Details — Basic Information (Asset Category, Sub Category, Method) and Depreciation Information (Depreciation Rate, Useful Life (in years), Frequency).

Step 4 — Link assets to the policy

Open the asset, find Depreciation Policy in the Disposal Information section of its Details tab, choose the policy and save. The asset now appears on the policy's Related tab.

Every policy appears in the picker, whatever its category. Check that the asset's category matches the policy you choose.

Step 5 — Set up the schedule from the policy

For each linked asset (or pool of assets), create a recurring depreciation schedule and copy the policy's terms across:

The schedule's Rate Per Period is a fraction for one run. A policy rate of 15 per year on a monthly schedule becomes 0.0125 (15 ÷ 12 ÷ 100). Typing 15 on the schedule writes the asset down to its residual value in one run.

Step 6 — Change a policy

Click a value on the Details tab to change it in place, or select Edit in the header to open the create form. The change applies to the policy record only. Review the schedules of the linked assets yourself and change any whose terms no longer match.

Step 7 — Delete a policy

Select Delete in the header, or select rows on the list and delete them. Deleting a policy does not stop or change any schedule. Before you delete one that assets use, link those assets to the replacement policy, so the asset records keep pointing to a policy that is in use.

Fields

The policy also has Label, Currency and a second Sub Category field. They are not on the standard forms, and the second Sub Category and Currency come with no values.

Business rules

• Numbering. On save, the Depriciation Policy Name Setting document name setting writes the Name: series DP, the date as day-month-year, and a six-digit counter, joined by hyphens. The counter restarts for each new date part, so it restarts every day.
• No required fields on the form. You can save a policy with every field empty. Fill in at least the category, method and the rate or life, or the policy says nothing.
• No validation between fields. xMatix does not check that a WDV policy has a rate or a straight-line policy has a useful life, and it does not compare the sub-category with the category.
• No automatic effect. No calculation, schedule, journal, report or background job reads a policy. Linking, changing or deleting one changes nothing else.

Example

A finance team depreciates office laptops straight line over 3 years, taking a charge every month.

1. They create a policy: Asset Category IT, Sub Category Laptop, Method Straight Line, Useful Life (in years) 3, Frequency Monthly. It saves as DP-27102026-000001.
2. A new laptop costing 90,000 with a residual value of 4,500 is registered as an asset, and its Depreciation Policy is set to that policy.
3. They create a recurring depreciation schedule for the laptop: method straight line, Frequency Monthly, Cost 90,000, Residual Value 4,500, Period Amount 2,375 ((90,000 − 4,500) ÷ 36).
4. Opening the policy, the Related tab lists the laptop, and the team can check each linked asset's schedule against the policy's 3-year term.

Training

Practice exercise

In a sandbox, create a policy with Asset Category Furniture, Sub Category Office Chair, Method WDV, Depreciation Rate 10 and Frequency Yearly. Then open an asset, set its Depreciation Policy to the new policy and save.

Expected result: the policy saves with a DP- name, the list's WDV Policies and Yearly Frequency Policies cards each go up by one, and the asset appears on the policy's Related tab. No schedule or journal has been created. As a follow-up, work out the Rate Per Period a yearly schedule for that asset needs (0.10).

Quick reference

• Fixed Assets app → Depreciation policies → New.
• A policy records intent; only a recurring depreciation schedule posts depreciation.
• The Name is a number assigned on save (DP- series).
• WDV policies need a Depreciation Rate; straight-line policies need a Useful Life.
• Type the policy's rate as a percentage (15); type the schedule's rate as a fraction per run (0.0125 monthly).
• Link assets from the asset's Depreciation Policy field; the policy's Related tab shows them.
• Changing a policy never changes a schedule — update schedules yourself.

Permissions

Depreciation policies follow the Depreciation Policy entity's access in the user's security profile. The seeded profiles Sales Executive, Sales Manager, Standard User and System Admin all have full access to the records and to the Fixed Assets app. The buttons are granted separately:

A user without a button's permission does not see that button. Policies change nothing in the ledger, but they are the reference your schedules are checked against, so give create, edit and delete rights to finance users only. See Security profiles.

Configuration

• Asset categories and sub-categories. Add, rename or deactivate values on the Asset Category and Sub Category picklists of the Depreciation Policy entity in Setup → Design Studio → Entities → Depreciation Policy. These lists belong to the policy and are separate from the category lists on the asset record.
• Methods and frequencies. The Method and Frequency picklists can be extended the same way. Since nothing reads a policy, extra values only describe intent; check that the schedule you create supports the frequency you choose.
• Show more fields. To record a currency or a free-text label, add Currency or Label to the create layout DepreciationPolicy and the record layout DepriciationPolicyView, and give Currency its values. To let users edit Asset on the record page, add it to the record layout. See Design a form layout.
• Numbering. The Depriciation Policy Name Setting document name setting controls the policy number (series DP, date format day-month-year, six digits). See Document numbering.
• List view. Change the columns or the summary cards of All depreciation policies in the entity's views.
• Navigation. Depreciation policies is in the Fixed Assets app and on its Setup page. To show it in another app, add it with Setup → Design Studio → Apps → Manage Items.
• Mobile. No mobile app includes the Fixed Assets app, so policies are web only.

Common problems

I linked an asset to a policy but no depreciation posted

Expected. A policy stores intent and posts nothing. Create a recurring depreciation schedule for the asset with the policy's terms.

I changed the policy's rate but the depreciation charge did not change

Schedules never read the policy. Open each schedule of the linked assets, select Edit and change its Rate Per Period or Period Amount to match.

The policy has no meaningful name

The Name is a number assigned on save, and there is no field to type a name. Use the category, sub-category and method columns to tell policies apart, or have an administrator add the Label field to the forms.

I cannot find the Asset I chose on the record page

The Asset field is on the create and edit form only. Select Edit in the header to see or change it.

The first WDV run wrote off the whole asset

The policy's rate was copied to the schedule as a percentage. The schedule's Rate Per Period is a fraction per run. See Step 5, and correct the schedule as described on Running depreciation.

Common questions

Does a policy create the depreciation schedule for me?

No. A policy is a reference record, and no part of xMatix generates a schedule from it or from the assets linked to it. For each asset or pool you want depreciated, create a recurring depreciation schedule yourself, copying the method and frequency and converting the rate or useful life into the schedule's Rate Per Period or Period Amount. Then post or let the schedule run as described on Running depreciation. Keeping the policy linked on the asset gives you a record to check each schedule against during period-end review.

What is the difference between the policy's Asset field and the Related tab?

The Asset field pins the policy to one asset, for a policy written for a single item. The Related tab lists every asset whose own Depreciation Policy field points to the policy, which is how a class-wide policy collects its assets. The two are independent: choosing an asset in the policy's Asset field does not set that asset's Depreciation Policy, so it does not appear on the Related tab until you link it from the asset.

Should I enter the rate as 15 or 0.15?

On the policy, enter 15: the field shows a % sign and stores the number you type, and nothing calculates with it. On the recurring depreciation schedule, the Rate Per Period is used in the calculation as a fraction for one run, so a 15% yearly rate is 0.15 on a yearly schedule and 0.0125 on a monthly one. Keeping the policy in familiar percentages and converting once, when you create the schedule, avoids the most common setup mistake.

Can I use different policies for the tax book?

Policies describe the Companies Act treatment you apply through schedules. Income-tax depreciation is worked out separately on asset blocks, which have their own block rate. See Fixed assets in xMatix.

Related topics

• Fixed assets in xMatix
• Assets
• Running depreciation
• Asset disposals
• Document numbering
• Depreciation Policy reference
• Depreciation — entity reference