Manage the fixed asset register in SamBooks

How to find, create and correct the master data of depreciable assets: the list, the two ways to create one, and the detail page's five tabs.

What it's for

The Assets section (left menu, under Accounting, page /cespiti) is the register of the company's depreciable assets: machinery, furniture, hardware, software licences, vehicles and any capital good that wears out over time, with each one's master data and its link to the journal entry that created it.

This guide covers the list and the master data: searching, creating, the form fields, the five tabs, correcting/deleting/voiding. Charges and the plan: Calculate and post asset depreciation in SamBooks; disposal or sale: Dispose of an asset.

Before you start

• You need a role with write permissions — Gestore or Amministrativo; Visualizzatore and Logistica can only view.
• Assets doesn't appear in the menu for companies on the flat-rate scheme.
• You need a fixed-asset account (CEE B.I/B.II) with the link to the accumulated-depreciation and depreciation-expense accounts configured: if missing, SamBooks says so — "set it up in Settings → Chart of accounts before recording the asset."

Step by step

1. Find an asset in the list

The page is titled "Cespiti", subtitle "Register of depreciable assets (DPR 917/86 art. 102). Filter by category, status, acquisition period or source supplier." Columns: Code · Name · Acquisition date · Original cost · Residual value · Rate · Status (Active / Disposed / Cancelled); click a row to open the detail. Sort by clicking Acquisition date (default), Name, Original cost, Residual value.

Above the table, four combinable filters: Status, Category (DM 31/12/1988), Acquisition period (date range), Source supplier (free text). No results → "No assets for these filters", suggesting you widen the date range, remove the category filter, or ask Sam to confirm an asset from a purchase invoice (see the automatic detection in step 2). The list is paginated at 10 rows; each row also carries the Edit, Depreciation and Post disposal actions (the latter only on an already-disposed asset), the same ones as the detail page. Next to the creation button there's also "Generate depreciation": the batch generator for the annual charge — depreciation guide.

2. The normal way: create the asset from the entry

Assets from new purchases are created directly from the journal entry, not from the "New asset" button — the platform itself says so in the manual creation form. The path starts from a purchase invoice line or a manual journal entry line that hits a fixed-asset account (see "When linking an asset is mandatory"): you assign the line an account like "General plant", and the system blocks posting until you link or create the asset from the dialog, where "Create new" takes cost and date from the line and only asks for a name and category. The asset is born already linked: its Origin tab shows the source document.

There's also a third, lighter way, invoice-only: lines over €516.46 not already a current cost show up on their own in the invoice's "Asset candidates" tab. "Confirm asset" opens "Confirm as fixed asset" — pick the 3 accounts and the asset is born capitalised — or "Discard" to keep it a current cost. It's the same thing you can ask Sam to do.

3. The way for pre-existing assets: "New asset"

For an asset you already own — bought before SamBooks, or not tied to an entry recorded here — use "New asset": "For importing a pre-existing asset or one not tied to a journal entry: choose category, asset account, cost and acquisition date. Assets from new purchases are created directly from the entry. The DM rate is suggested and overridable." Here you choose the asset account, and you can enter prior accumulated depreciation for an asset already partly depreciated.

For several assets together you don't need to repeat the dialog: "Open items and assets" on the data import page loads a file with the whole asset register at once.

4. Fill in the form, field by field

• Name — required; empty blocks with "Enter the name."
• Depreciation category — required, from the DM 31/12/1988 catalogue (around 150 active categories), searchable by code or name, with a standard rate as the default coefficient. The catalogue doesn't filter by industry and the search doesn't show the rate: "general plant" returns several industry-specific categories with different coefficients, and the right one is your accountant's call, not something to guess from the name.
• Custom rate (%) — optional; "New asset" already shows the chosen category's coefficient as a suggestion, so you see it before saving — unlike the dialog opened from a line, where the field only shows "from category" with no number. Careful: once saved, it no longer shows in the list or Details, which always display the category one; reopen "Edit" to find it again.
• Acquisition date — required (creation only); it sets the year of the first depreciation charge. In the dialog opened from a purchase invoice line it's pre-filled with today's date, not the document date: correct it yourself, or the first charge lands in the wrong year; from a manual journal entry line, instead, it takes the entry's posting date.
• Historical cost (€) — required, greater than zero, with no warning for very small amounts (TUIR art. 102 allows expensing the full cost under €516.46, but that's your accountant's call, not a form check). In the line dialog it isn't typed in: it comes from the line's amount.
• Asset account — required only in manual creation. Choosing it derives the accumulated-depreciation and depreciation-expense accounts, read-only in the "Derived accounts" card.
• Prior accumulated depreciation (€) — optional, manual only, for an asset already partly depreciated when entered.
• Internal code — optional, automatic if blank (CESP-118); Extended description and Notes — optional.

5. Open the detail page: the five tabs

Clicking a row (or the redirect after creation) opens /cespiti/{id}. The header shows code, name, status badge and residual value, with Edit and, by status, Depreciation or Post disposal (only on an already-disposed asset). Five tabs:

• Details — read-only master data: the same fields as the form (standard rate, not the override), plus cumulative depreciation and residual value, and — if disposed — date and price.
• Depreciation — the plan (year-by-year projection, status Posted/Planned/Suspended) and grant release, always visible: without a linked grant it shows a notice instead of the table; detail in Calculate and post asset depreciation. The button and tab are both called "Depreciation" but do different things — the button posts, the tab shows the projection.
• Movements — history with type, date, year, amount, rate and an "Open entry" link; a halved first year carries "First year (50%)".
• Origin — supplier + "Open invoice" if born from one, otherwise "Asset created manually or imported — not linked to a purchase invoice."
• AI history — the chronology of operations on the asset: every creation, edit or voiding lands here, done by hand in the UI or asked of Sam, each with its outcome and the option to roll it back.

6. Edit an asset

The Edit button opens the same dialog used for creation, in correction mode: "Correct the master data, the rate and the source entry. Financial values, accounts and acquisition date are not editable here." You can change name, category, custom rate, code, description and notes — not historical cost, accounts or date from the form. Historical cost isn't locked forever, though: it grows by linking a new purchase line with "Link existing" (below); for a wrong amount you need voiding and re-entering instead. "Source entry" also shows, with "Link purchase invoice".

7. Delete or void: the difference matters

At the bottom of the "Edit" dialog you'll find one of two actions, never both — SamBooks decides based on the asset's status:

• "Delete permanently" — only if the asset is still "empty": no depreciation, not disposed, no line references it. In practice this only covers an asset created via "New asset" with no prior depreciation and not yet linked to anything: "This asset has no accounting entries: you can delete it permanently. This cannot be undone." An asset born from an invoice line (the normal way) is never permanently deletable, not even right after creation: the line itself references it.
• "Void asset" — the action you'll meet almost always: "This asset has linked accounting entries: voiding marks it cancelled and deletes its journal entries — no opposite-sign entry is posted. Reversible from history." It moves to Cancelled: unlike a reversal, the entries are removed, not offset.

Both require an explicit confirmation ("Are you sure?" → Confirm/No).

When linking an asset is mandatory

SamBooks won't let an uncontrolled movement into a depreciable fixed-asset account (CEE B.I/B.II, excluding "under construction") post to the journal. The rules aren't the same on the two surfaces.

On the purchase invoice, the line shows the "Line on a fixed asset" badge with the "Link asset" action: the only routes are linking/creating the asset (step 2) or changing the account if it isn't really a fixed asset — there's no "It's a reclassification" or "Record disposal" here. "Confirm and post" without resolving it answers with a readable message, not a raw error:

"Movement on a fixed asset ({account} {name}): link or create an asset before recording the entry (or mark the line as a reclassification)."

(The part in parenthesis is text shared with the journal-entry engine — on the invoice there's no matching action for it.)

On the manual journal entry, the posting button stays disabled until the line is resolved — you'll see the inline notice right away: "Line {n}: movement on a fixed asset — link or create an asset (or mark as reclassification)." Three routes: "Link asset" ("Create new", cost/date from the line, or "Link existing", which adds the amount to the historical cost of an asset on file only if it's on the same account and not disposed); "Record disposal", credit side only (disposal guide); "It's a reclassification", a transfer between accounts with no asset, if it isn't really a purchase or a disposal.

Detail on the invoice path in Record a purchase invoice; on the manual entry in Record a journal entry.

Ask Sam

You can ask Sam to create or correct an asset with the same result as the form: "create an asset for the server bought today, hardware category, cost €3,500 on account 1.10.20.003", "update the custom rate of asset CESP-120 to 10%", "void asset CESP-99, I created it by mistake". The same works for the block on a line: "link this line to a new asset, equipment category". The resulting change is recorded and always visible — and reversible — from the AI history tab. For a whole asset register, the data-import file is still more practical.

If something goes wrong

• "…doesn't have the link to the accumulated-depreciation and/or depreciation-expense account" — set up the link in Settings → Chart of accounts, or choose an already-configured account (the selector only lists those).
• The form blocks saving, or "Delete permanently" is missing and only "Void asset" shows — a required field is missing, or the asset is already linked to a line or has an accounting entry (almost always the case for an asset born from an invoice) and can't be physically deleted.
• I entered a custom rate but the list shows a different number — expected: the column and detail page always show the category coefficient; reopen "Edit".
• The line won't post and asks for an asset — on the invoice, link or create the asset (or change the account); on a journal entry you can also mark "It's a reclassification" if it isn't really a purchase or a disposal.

Frequently asked questions

How do I add an asset? In most cases not from a blank form: it's born from the line of an invoice or an entry, when you link or create the asset from the dialog. For an asset you already own, use "New asset" from the list.

I bought a machine, how do I record it as an asset? Record the invoice assigning the line to an account such as "General plant": posting stays blocked until you link or create the asset from the line, with cost and date taken from the document.

What is the DM 31/12/1988 category? The ministerial catalogue of depreciation coefficients by homogeneous asset category: it determines the asset's standard rate, overridable with a custom rate.

It's asking me to link an asset when I record the invoice — what do I do? The line hits a fixed-asset account: press "Link asset" and choose whether to create a new one or link an existing one. There's no "It's a reclassification" on the invoice: if it isn't really a fixed asset, change the line's account instead.

What does "It's a reclassification" mean on the line? That, on a manual journal entry, the movement on that fixed-asset account isn't really a purchase or a disposal, just an accounting transfer: marking it lets the line post without asking for an asset. It's an option of the manual entry only, not of the purchase invoice.

Related guides

• Calculate and post asset depreciation in SamBooks — the plan and the "Generate depreciation" batch.
• Dispose of an asset: sale, capital gain and loss — selling or scrapping.
• Record a purchase invoice — where most new assets are born.
• Record a journal entry — the block on fixed-asset lines.
• Import data from your previous software — bulk import of the asset register.