Morning mark,

unfortunately the 100% first year write down has long gone. The normal write off for a laptop is three years straight line write down to nil residual value.

On the what you should buy front. Personal choice is Toshiba. Not always the most cutting edge machines but to date, touch wood I've never had one let me down.

Windows 7 seems to be a good operating system. Personally I've stuck with XP. We've had two machines where we had no choice but take them with vista. In both cases we reformatted the disks and installed XP instead.

Lots of horror stories about Advent and Gateway machines.

Talk soon,

Shaun.

Hi Shaun

You say in your reply to Mark that the 100% write down has gone, but would this equipment not be able to be claimed for 100% as a capital allowance using the annual investment allowance of £50,000

Or have I misunderstood what I have just read on the Business Link website

Regards

Mark

Hi Amanda.

Sounds as though you've got the same laptop as me. (Satellite M70-267?). Had it since early 2007. Truly brilliant and (touch wood) seemingly indestructible machine.

My eldest boy has a side business fixing laptops and Advent seem to keep him in business!

I use Sage Line 50. The nominal codes that I use are 0031 for the balance sheet depreciation and 8004 for the P&L depreciation. Don't know if that will help you or not?

I actually depreciate my own computers over 4 years so 25% per annum but 33% in the depreciation rate seems to be more common.

I'm sure that someone will now tell me that I'm doing this all wrong!

talk soon,

Shaun.

Thanks Shaun, I can work it out from that I am familier with SAGE so will have alook at my SAGE and transpose it onto Quickbooks.

I assume that the LAPtop when it was bought the postings are as normal,(that is what I have done), theres a account already set up in QB for Computer Fixed asset (default).

Mine is a Toshiba L350-170. I'm not that gemmed up on Laptops thats why I asked a friend. his advise was good. I would personally never buy a Advent again!!! Just bought my son a recon HP one with XP on it and that so far touch wood seems really good.

There are cheaper laptops around but I thought seen as it gets used everyday best to get a really good one saves spending out again later.

cheers
A

Hi Gerry,

I've not done it myself (as evidenced by my talking about WDAs in my initial answers) however, surely applying AIA would simply be a matter of recording the fixed asset as normal but setting the depreciation rate on the asset to 100% rather than 25% or 33%.

The idea of capitalisation is to set the asset off against the assets useful economic life. There's no deminimus value but as posted in one of my other replies just use common sense. A stapler is an asset that you will get many years use from but nobody would ever depreciate a stapler.

A £200 printer sounds a darn good one nowadays! Capitalisation of such sounds reasonable to me.

I capitalise all of my computers even though I seldom pay more than £350 for one. All software and all repairs / enhancements get expensed. for example, when I get a new computer I invariably change the video card to a set up that will support at least two monitors. The video card is expensed the second / third monitor, normally costing around £200 is capitalised as it has a life expectancy seperate to that of the computer and is not in fact part of it.

Although AIA hasn't affected me yet it does generally seem that it has taken over from WDAs.

cheers,

Shaun.

Hi Shaun,

Can I just clarify the depreciation bit please, like Gerry the guys with Vans etc the accountant has done it in the past, but I am doing my own self-assement (not big enough for an accountant). So are you saying if the laptop was say £350 you put down the who £350 on the depreciation side, I assume thats by way of a journal (on Quickbooks), sorry got a little confused by the earlier posts and had a heavy day on the PC today and brain now not working!

It will be the first year for the laptop. Also what would the journal entries be? I'm sure once you or someone else says it will all come flooding back. Like I said abit brain dead tonight!

Many thanks
A

Hi Shaun,

You answer is absolutely fine. I was thinking along those lines but its nice to have people to help and clarify the answers, so once again thanks.

I was Sage trained and took the exams about 6 years ago, but bought Quickbooks Pro as it was alot cheaper and you can have upto 99 clients' companies on there. Also a member of the family whos an FD told me about it as they use it all the time, hes not a fan of SAGE.

I have got one client who uses Sage instants and although abit rusty at first I soon got back in the swing of it. I suppose its just personal preference I am quite a fan of quickbooks, once you start using it on a daily basis its really quite good. Mind you I am sure I do not use it to its full potential.

Many thanks
Amanda

Hi Amanda,

cheers for the info on quickbooks. I'll have a look at the intuit site and see if I can get hold of a trial to try it out as at times Sage isn't as friendly with me as perhaps it should be!

Hypothetically it shouldn't matter when you record it if you're writing off a hundred percent in the first year. A niggling little voice inside says that you should go for the Jan 09 date but means that your going to have to process the full 12 month ends to get the correct figure. Applying 100% in Jan 2010 means that you only go through one month end.

Quickbooks probably does it different or maybe there's a better way of getting Sage to apply depreciation (told you I wasn't that brilliant with it!).

Have a good evening (whats left of it) and talk soon,

Shaun.



-- Edited by Shamus on Wednesday 13th of January 2010 10:56:58 PM

Hi Shaun,

You might get a copy of 2006 maybe off E-bay but Intuit wouldn't I doubt give you support on it. I have Pro 2008 and have worked on in the past Premier 2008 and I also work on at a clients an older version of the basic package I think it is Quickstart. I must say I have had no problems with the VAT and find it OK. After you have run hte VAT100 report you can print the main page off and then all the pages for the boxes concerned. Like it says in the reviews I don't think you can archive the VAT reports. I always printed all mine off and checked them anyway and then keep them for the accountant to check at yr end. Not had any compaints yet from the accountants.  Mybe Intuit don't think its as good as their previous versions?

The good thing about the VAT which I like is theres a button which says File VAT and it automatically prepares it into journals and posts it to the VAT liability a/c. You then have an option to pay it now or leave it in the suppliers list under HMRC to pay later. Thats not on line payment thats just payment in the books. I found it really easy to use.

I've not worked on Pro 2006 so can't compare, the only downside about 2008 is its not multi currency they dropped that which I think was a mistake. I personally don't need multi currency but I supposed if a company was to buy it and they did work abroard then probably its no good. I've had mine 2 years now and really like it, I expect there will be a new version out in 2010. Wait for that and see what happens. Some people on here talk of VT+
but I haven't used this.
Hope that helps,
Amanda

-- Edited by Amanda on Thursday 14th of January 2010 09:49:30 AM

Cheers Amanda,

I think that with software what's good for one person may be a nightmare for someone else.

I'm just downloading the free trial of VT Transaction+ to give it a try.

From the VT site they have links to what has been said about them on Accounting web. Once you get into the discussions it seems that Sage gets slated across the board, the jury's out on Quickbooks due to some people having issue's with the 2008 version, VT Transaction+ seems universally loved for small clients and the other contender seems to be TAS Books as the vote is that it is more suitable for budgeting and stock control than VT Transaction+.

A few other offerings like Microsoft, IRIS and PTP got thrown into the mix but generally for bookkeeping it came down to those four and the lions share of the vote was for VT.

Interested to see how VT compares to Sage.

Talk later,

Shaun.

Hi Shaun,

I will be interested to what you think of VT + as not used it and may look at downloading a trial, won't be till Feb now as got a really busy month. Thanks to kids off and snow!!!

Perhaps you should start another thread on which software do people prefer?

I don't mind Sage but not a great fan of it, I only have instants and don't like the fact that you can't go back into an invoice say if you have put the wrong amount in, once it is posted, you have to go back to maintence. I can see why they do it but sometimes its abit of a bind.

best go meant to be working!!!

cheers
A

VT is great and have been using it for around 5 years but I also use Sage as clients like it. VT is a basic tool with no frills, but I guess thats what really counts, not the look of it.

I think any system once you know and understand it can be good but it does depend on the functionality that you wish to use it for.

P

I am hating QB Pro 2008 even more than I did before.  The VAT change back to 17.5% is a nightmare.  The person who set up the system has attached at tax code called A for the 15% rate to every list item for sales invoices.  There is no way to change this globally so it means slogging through each item and editing the sales tax to 3 (god know why it is called that) for 17.5%.  Also reading the unhelpful help it appears that if you go into historical data it can recalculate the VAT, what's all that about?  Aaaagh. Why you are able to call tax codes whatever you want seems silly. Don't like anything about the VAT at all. Prefer to do my own journal, then I know what's been done rather than have the program do it.

I agree the drill down is great as is all the reporting functions.  However, the lack of a proper audit trail is a nightmare particularly as things can be deleted and then disappear into the ether with no way of back-tracking.  Voiding isn't much better because also you know something was there you don't know what.

I don't see what problems people have with Sage as it is really straightforward and, whilst it's reporting isn't as good, you can still create reports to meet your own specifications.

I've had a quick look at Solar accounts and that appears to be quite good too without the cost of Sage.

Purchasing a home or business laptop can be a much more confusing and sometimes frightening experience as most users today have some experience with a desktop computer but not as many have experience with a laptop.

Thanks
video on demand

Shamus wrote:

---

Hi Steffen,

Are you an accountant or bookkeeper? Would you like to introduce yourself? Are you selling something?... It's Friday afternoon and everyone that want's to sell something always turns up on a Friday afternoon! Don't know why that is but it just seems to have become a fact.

---

You seem suspicious of this person.
I thought it a perfectly normal post - resurrecting a thread that had been done and dusted 5 months earlier. I'm pretty sure most people's first post on this forum would have been similar.

EDIT : Don't you just hate it when they put on the "edited by" bit when all you've done is change a word about 30 seconds after first posting.

-- Edited by Peasie on Friday 18th of June 2010 01:04:24 PM

very very useful thread on the asset and 100% WDA. at the moment a client purchased a laptop from PC world which i have entered as a supplier invoice from PC word coding it into fixed asset and then paying this through the bank (even though it was paid by card on same day) dated 05.04.09.

With regards to claiming the 100% allowance, would i be right in saying that i then Cr fixed asset depreciation (fixed asset) and dbt Depreciation (expense)?