Having given this more consideration I think the following is my best bet. Comments welcome, but I am not expecting to get definitive professional advice.
I am considering to lump them all together under Assets -> Fixed Assets, with an opening balance equal to the value at the start of the financial year, taking into account the depreciation. That value is given to me by my accountant. This will mean that I can not work out the depreciation on an individual item, but my accountant does that each year to submit the accounts. I pay a professional to do that. He can tell me at the end of the year how much the sum of all items have depreciated, and I can just enter that sum once per year. He can also give me the exact amount of depreciation on every item, but I will just ignore that, and record the sum. He doesn’t normally give me the individual items - only the sum. He did give them to me this year as I asked for them, but normally he doesn’t give me a detailed breakdown. In previous years my accountant has never expected me to work out the depreciation - he does it once per year. If I was inspected by HMRC, I doubt that they are going to quibble about the fact I don’t know the depreciation of assets on a particular day. If they do, my accountant would be able to supply them. The HMRC website lists what is inspected of directors - I put a copy below. It mentions “Details of assets owned by the company” but does not actually define what details they are. Does changing the total value once/year in GnuCash under Assets -> Fixed assets seem reasonable given that is all my accountant ever gives me? Dave Accounting records You must keep accounting records that include: - all money received and spent by the company, including grants and payments from coronavirus (COVID-19) support schemes <https://www.gov.uk/guidance/reporting-coronavirus-covid-19-grants-and-support-payments> - details of assets owned by the company - debts the company owes or is owed - stock the company owns at the end of the financial year - the stocktakings you used to work out the stock figure - all goods bought and sold - who you bought and sold them to and from (unless you run a retail business) You must also keep any other financial records, information and calculations you need to prepare and file your annual accounts and Company Tax Return <https://www.gov.uk/prepare-file-annual-accounts-for-limited-company>. This includes records of: - all money spent by the company, for example receipts, petty cash books, orders and delivery notes - all money received by the company, for example invoices, contracts, sales books and till rolls - any other relevant documents, for example bank statements and correspondence -- Dr. David Kirkby, Kirkby Microwave Ltd, drkir...@kirkbymicrowave.co.uk https://www.kirkbymicrowave.co.uk/ Telephone 01621-680100./ +44 1621 680100 Registered in England & Wales, company number 08914892. Registered office: Stokes Hall Lodge, Burnham Rd, Althorne, Chelmsford, Essex, CM3 6DT, United Kingdom _______________________________________________ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user ----- Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
