Multiple Fixed Asset Calendars

So many of you may already be aware that GP now has the capability to handle different calendars for different fixed asset books.  For example, your corporate book could be based on your fiscal year while your tax books could be based on a calendar year.  The calendars are managed in Fixed Assets under Setup, then Calendar.  The system comes with a Default calendar that is assigned to books by default.  However, until you run depreciation, you can change the calendar associated with a book (set up new ones). Once you run depreciation, however, you will have to set up a new book if you want to change the assigned calendar.


With the multi-calendar functionality, dealing with short or long years due to a fiscal year change has become much simpler.  In the calendar setup window, you now have options for these situations:

If the selected year needs to be either short or long, simply mark the option for that year (make sure you have the correct year selected).  Then you need to specify how much depreciation you want to take in the elongated year (100% would be the norm for a 12 period year).  So, for example, if you extended the year by 6 months then you might enter 150%.  Or if you have a short year of 6 months, you would enter 50% of the full year depreciation.  Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy, right?


I also highlighted the options to build your future years based on the fiscal period setup.  You will want to do this so that they are synced to your new fiscal calendar including the prior year setup, the short/long year, and the future year setup (just make sure you have a future year setup with the normal fiscal year).


Assuming when you make these changes that you are not actually changing the depreciation to be taken in a period that has already been processed in Fixed Assets, there is no need to run a reset on the assets. 


Christina Phillips is a Microsoft Certified Trainer and Dynamics GP Certified Professional. She is a director with BKD Technologies, providing training, support, and project management services to new and existing Microsoft Dynamics customers. This blog represents her views only, not those of her employer.