Module · Asset register

Where to find it in the app

• Use it: Finance → Asset register
• Turn it on/off: your business name (top-left) → Settings → Modules → Operations → Equipment & maintenance

Plan: Solo and Business · Module group: Operations (part of Equipment & maintenance) · Navigation: Finance → Asset register

1. Overview

Purpose. What the business owns and what it paid for it, laid out the way an accountant asks for it at the end of the year. Every asset you add under Operations → Equipment is already on it. The register adds the facts the tax office asks a business to keep for anything it will claim: the GST on the invoice, the day the asset was first used, the share of its use that is for the business, the invoice itself, and what happened when the asset was sold, scrapped or lost.

It records. It never works out depreciation or a write off. Whether an asset is written off at once, pooled or depreciated over its life, and what any of that is worth, are your registered tax agent's decisions. The register gives them the facts and says which are missing.

Customer equipment is not on it. A customer's vehicle or pool you service is their asset, not yours, so it never appears here.

2. When to use it

• Your accountant asks what you bought this year, what it cost and whether you have the invoices.
• You have sold, traded in, scrapped or lost something the business owned.
• You want the invoice for a purchase kept with the thing you bought, where you will find it in five years.

3. Required permissions

Managers have both. Staff have the first by default.

4. Navigation path

Finance → Asset register, or the Asset register button on Operations → Equipment. All assets shows everything held and everything disposed of; a financial year chip shows what was first used in that year and what was disposed of in it.

5. What you'll see

Figures. Assets held, Cost on record (GST inclusive, as you recorded it), GST recorded when the business is registered, and Missing details, which counts the costs, dates and invoices still to add. None of them is a tax figure. GST recorded is what the BAS worksheet claims for your assets: each one counts as a capital purchase by its purchase date, on its own line under Purchases (G10 on the full form), and the GST typed on it goes into 1B. Blank GST claims nothing, and the worksheet says which assets are blank.

The assets, by category. Each with its make and model, tag and serial, how and when it was acquired and from whom, the first use date if it differs from the purchase, the business use, the cost and the GST, and Invoice when one is on file. Anything missing is named under the asset in plain words.

Disposed. Assets that have gone, with the date, how, what came back and any note.

6. Turning it on

The register is part of the equipment module. Your business name (top left) → Settings → Modules, then under Operations switch on Equipment & maintenance.

7. Step-by-step tasks

7a. Record what an asset cost, including the GST

1. Operations → Equipment, open the asset, Edit.
2. Under Acquisition & warranty, fill in Cost, Purchase date and Supplier as before, then GST in the cost exactly as the invoice shows it. Leave it blank if the invoice shows none or you do not have it yet; blank means not recorded, never zero. The BAS worksheet claims this GST as a capital purchase in the quarter of the purchase date, so type it as the invoice shows it.
3. In use from: the day you first used it or set it up ready to use, if that was later than the purchase. The tax office dates a claim from this day.
4. Business use (%): your estimate of the share of use that is for the business, when it is not all of it.
5. Invoice or receipt: Attach a file. A photo or PDF is kept privately with the asset. Save.

7b. Record a disposal

1. Open the asset. In the Asset register card, Record a disposal.
2. When, How (sold, traded in, scrapped or written off, lost or stolen, given away, other), what you received if anything, and a note.
3. Record disposal. The asset moves to your "gone" status and appears under Disposed on the register with the facts. Undo the disposal puts it back.

7c. Hand it to your accountant

Finance → Asset register → CSV or Print. Both carry every column, held assets by category then disposals by date, and say that the register records only. Send them with the Profit and loss and the Bank statement export.

8. Examples

A new laptop. Cost $2,199, GST $199.91, bought 3 August, first used 5 August, 80% business use, invoice attached. The register shows all of it; the accountant decides how it is claimed.

The old van, sold. Record a disposal: 12 September, sold, $8,500 received. It leaves the equipment list and sits under Disposed with its original cost beside the proceeds, which is exactly the pair the accountant needs.

A tool bought years ago with no receipt. It stays on the register with no invoice or receipt on file beside it, so nobody is surprised in July.

9. Reports & exports

CSV and Print from the register carry: name, category, make, model, serial, tag, how acquired, purchase date, in use from, cost (inc GST), GST included, supplier, order or invoice number, business use %, invoice on file, status, disposed on, disposal, proceeds and notes. Export CSV on the Equipment screen carries the same register columns, and Import reads them back.

10. Common mistakes

• Typing GST as zero when it is unknown. Blank means not recorded. Zero means the invoice showed none.
• Recording a disposal to hide a mistake. Undo it and delete the asset instead, if it was never yours. A disposal is a record your accountant reads.
• Expecting a depreciation figure. There is none, on purpose. The rate, the method and the threshold change, and applying them is a registered tax agent's work.
• Filing the same purchase as an expense claim as well. An asset goes on the register once. Expenses feed the Profit and loss as running costs and the BAS worksheet's purchases, so a laptop in both places is counted twice. If your accountant wants it treated as an ordinary expense instead, record it under Expenses and not here.
• Recording the bank line as an expense. On the Bank statement, a line that bought equipment is matched to the asset itself: add it under Operations → Equipment with its cost first, and the line offers it under Looks like.

11. Troubleshooting

• The GST and first use fields refuse to save and name migration 487. The database has not had its new columns yet. Whoever runs your HappierBiz setup runs it once; the rest of the asset saves in the meantime.
• An asset is missing from the register. Check it is yours, not a customer's: customer equipment is never on the register.
• The invoice will not open. It was attached from another business's folder or removed from storage. Attach it again from Edit.

12. Error messages