Financial Accounting-Depreciation Calculation & Fixed Assets

Learn methods of depreciating capital assets from a practicing CPA.

What's Inside

Property plant and equipment, also known as plant assets, fixed assets, or depreciable assets is what we will cover.

We will discuss what property plant and equipment is and how to record property plant and equipment.

Multiple depreciation methods will be covered including the straight-line depreciation method, the double declining depreciation method, and the units of production depreciation method. We will discuss the pros and cons of each depreciation method and outline a format for structuring any deprecation problem.

While calculation depreciation expense we will also calculate accumulated depreciation and book value. It’s important to remember the context we are in when calculating depreciation, the reason for the work. Test questions often do not ask for the calculation of depreciation but for accumulated depreciation or the book value because these components take a little more time and understanding and to work out.

The straight-line method of depreciation is the easiest method to calculate and the method all other methods are derived from.

The double declining depreciation method in an accelerated method, designed to depreciate more in early years a less in later years.

The units of production depreciation method uses units produced rather than time as the driver of cost allocation.

We will discuss the difference between capital expenditures and revenue expenditures, and we will cover the disposal process of property plant and equipment.

When fixed assets are disposed of they may or may not be fully depreciated and we may or may not receive cash at the point of disposal. We will discuss the journal entries for property plant and equipment starting with the most straightforward transaction and building from there.

We will also cover changes in accounting estimates for the calculation of depreciation and how best to account for them.

Definitions and key terms related to property plant and equipment will be covered as well as a comprehensive problem.

Content Includes:

  • Recording the purchase of fixed assets
  • The straight-line method of calculating deprecation
  • The double declining balance method of calculating deprecation
  • The units of production method of calculating deprecation
  • Calculating deprecation for a part of a month or year
  • Recording capital expenditures and revenue expenditures
  • Calculating and recording changes in accounting estimates related to depreciation
  • Recording disposals of plant assets
  • Key terms and definitions related to property plant and equipment

Course Curriculum

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Robert (Bob) Steele CPA, CGMA, M.S. Tax, CPI

Through working with students from many different schools, Mr. Steele has learned best practices for helping people understand accounting fast. Learning new skills and finding the best way to share knowledge with people who can benefit from it is a passion of his.

Mr. Steele has experience working as a practicing Certified Public Accountant (CPA), an accounting and business instructor, and curriculum developer. He has enjoyed putting together quality tools to improve learning and has been teaching, making instructional resources, and building curriculum since 2009. He has been a practicing CPA since 2005. Mr. Steele is a practicing CPA, has a Certified Post-Secondary Instructor (CPI) credential, a Master of Science in taxation from Golden Gate University, a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Economics with an emphasis in accounting from The University of California Santa Barbara, and a Global Management Accounting Designation (CGMA) from The American Institute of CPA (AICPA).

Mr. Steele has also authored five books that can be found on Amazon or in audiobook format on Audible. He has developed bestselling courses in accounting topics including financial accounting and QuickBooks accounting software.

In addition to working as an accountant, teaching, and developing courses Mr. Steele has helped create an accounting website at accountinginstruction, a YouTube channel called Accounting Instruction, Help, and How Too, and has developed supplemental resources including a Facebook Page, Twitter Page, and Podcasts that can be found on I-tunes, Stitcher, or Soundcloud. Mr. Steele's teaching philosophy is to make content applicable, understandable, and accessible.

Adult learners are looking for application when they learn new skills. In other words, learners want to be able to apply skills in the real world to help their lives. Mr. Steele’s formal accounting education, practical work experience, and substantial teaching experience allow him to create a curriculum that combines traditional accounting education with practical knowledge and application. He accomplishes the goals of making accounting useful and applicable by combining theory with real-world software like Excel and QuickBooks.

Many courses teach QuickBooks data entry or Excel functions but are not providing the real value learners want. Real value is a result of learning technical skills like applications, in conjunction with specific goals, like accounting goals, including being able to interpret the performance of a business.

Mr. Steele makes knowledge understandable by breaking down complex concepts into smaller units with specific objectives and using step by step learning processes to understand each unit. Many accounting textbooks cram way too much information into a course, making it impossible to understand any unit fully. By breaking the content down into digestible chunks, we can move forward much faster.

Mr. Steele also makes use of color association in both presentations and Excel worksheets, a learning tool often overlooked in the accounting field, but one that can vastly improve the speed and comprehension of learning accounting concepts.

The material is also made understandable through the application of concepts learned. Courses will typically demonstrate the accounting concepts and then provide an Excel worksheet or practice problems to work through the concepts covered. The practice problems will be accompanied by an instructional video to work through the problem in step by step format. Excel worksheets will be preformatted, usually including an answer tab that shows the completed problem, and a practice tab where learners can complete the problem along with a step by step presentation video.

Mr. Steele makes learning accounting accessible by making use of technology and partnering with teaching platforms that have a vision of spreading knowledge.

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