Record an asset disposal in SamBooks

When you sell or scrap a depreciable asset, SamBooks calculates the remaining depreciation, the capital gain or loss, and posts everything to the ledger with a single confirmation.

What it's for

Disposing of an asset closes its accounting life: it writes off its historical cost from the accounts, closes the depreciation reserve tied to it, and posts to the income statement the difference between what you received for it and the value it still carried on the books — its residual value. SamBooks works out that difference, the capital gain or loss, and posts it to the account you choose, together with any depreciation still due for the current year up to the disposal date.

Before you start

The asset must already be marked Disposed before you can post the outcome of the sale — it doesn't get there on its own; two separate paths lead to that state, covered in step 1. You'll also need the chart-of-accounts entries SamBooks will post the sale proceeds, the capital gain and the capital loss to: check with your accountant if you don't already have them.

Step by step

1. How an asset becomes "Disposed"

An asset moves to Disposed status in two ways:

• By creating a TD26 disposal invoice, which you issue from Invoices → New (not from the asset's own page): in the special-documents section you name the asset in the Disposed asset field. As soon as the draft is saved SamBooks marks the asset as disposed and records the disposal date and price — the invoice's taxable amount — but it does not yet post the accounting entry for the result. Issuing the invoice itself is covered in the guide on electronic invoice document types; this guide picks up from there.
• From a journal entry line that writes off the fixed-asset account (step 3): here SamBooks marks the asset disposed and posts the full result in the very same step, with nothing left to do afterwards.

2. Posting the disposal from the asset's own page

If the asset is already disposed — typically after a TD26 invoice — but the accounting entry is still missing, open Fixed assets from the menu, find the asset (the Status column shows Disposed) and click Post disposal: the button appears both as a row icon in the list and in the header of the asset's own page (/cespiti/{id}). On an asset that's still active this button isn't there — you'll see Depreciation instead, for the annual charge.

This opens the "Post disposal" dialog, with three required fields, each resolved by searching the chart of accounts:

• Disposal proceeds account — where SamBooks posts the sale amount;
• Capital gain account — used only if the result is positive;
• Capital loss account — used only if the result is negative.

Click Post to complete it. If even one account is missing, the dialog blocks with "Select all three accounts."

3. The journal-entry variant

If you'd rather start from a manual entry — say, the one recording the bank receipt — open Posting journal and create (or edit) an entry with a line that credits the fixed-asset account being disposed of. SamBooks won't let you post that line on its own: it shows a "Movement on a fixed asset" panel with a Record disposal button (the "It's a reclassification" alternative is only for a posting that isn't a real disposal).

Clicking "Record disposal" opens the "Asset disposal" dialog: search for and select the asset being sold, enter the Disposal price and the same three accounts as in step 2, the first one simply labelled more briefly — Proceeds account, Capital gain account, Capital loss account. Clicking Record disposal marks the asset disposed and, in the same step, posts the entire accounting result: you no longer need the button from step 2, and if you click it afterwards anyway SamBooks reports that the disposal has already been posted.

Partial depreciation for the year of disposal

Before working out the result, SamBooks checks whether a depreciation charge — annual or partial — has already been posted for that asset in the year of disposal. If so, it skips this step; there's no double-counting. Otherwise it posts a partial depreciation charge, prorated to the days the asset was held in that year — from 1 January, or the purchase date if later, through the disposal date — at the asset category's ordinary rate — even when the asset carries a custom rate, which this particular charge does not apply — and never exceeding the amount still to be depreciated. When this entry exists, it's posted before the disposal entry and appears separately in the Movements tab as "Partial depreciation".

How the capital gain or loss is calculated

The residual value is the asset's historical cost minus all depreciation accumulated so far, including any partial charge just described. SamBooks compares that value with the disposal price: the difference is a capital gain if the price is higher, a capital loss if it's lower.

An example: an asset has a historical cost of €10,000, with €6,000 already depreciated in prior years. In the year of disposal it accrues a further partial charge of €400: the reserve reaches €6,400 and the residual value drops to €3,600. Sell it for €4,000 and the result is a €400 capital gain; sell it for €3,000 and it's a €600 capital loss; sell it for exactly €3,600 and the operation breaks even.

The entry SamBooks posts

One journal entry captures the accounting effects of the disposal:

• Debit the asset's depreciation reserve, to close it — this line only appears if the asset has already been depreciated;
• Debit the disposal proceeds account, for the price entered;
• Debit the capital loss account, if the result is negative;
• Credit the fixed-asset account, writing off the full historical cost;
• Credit the capital gain account, if the result is positive.

Other entries join it when needed: the partial depreciation charge described above and, if a capital grant is linked to the asset, a separate entry releasing the whole remaining deferred income to the income statement.

The three possible outcomes

From the asset's own page (step 2), once confirmed SamBooks shows a different message depending on the result: "Disposal posted with a capital gain.", "Disposal posted with a capital loss." or, if the disposal price and the residual value match exactly, "Disposal posted at break-even." — in that third case neither the capital gain nor the capital loss account appears in the entry. From the journal-entry variant (step 3) the confirmation message is a generic "Disposal recorded." instead: the calculation and the entry it produces are the same either way, and you can check them in the Movements tab.

What stays visible after the disposal

The asset doesn't disappear from the list: it stays there with Disposed status. The residual value shown in the list, in the page header and in the Details tab does not go back to zero: it keeps reporting the last value worked out by depreciation, because the disposal closes the accounts in double entry and does not rewrite the asset record. The outcome of the sale is read from the journal entry, not from that field. On the asset's own page, the Movements tab lists every linked entry in chronological order — the purchase, annual depreciation charges, any partial depreciation, and the disposal itself — with date, year, amount, the rate applied, and an Open entry link that takes you straight to the corresponding journal entry, so you can check that everything ties out.

Ask Sam

You can ask Sam to post a disposal that's already marked, for example after a TD26 invoice: "post the disposal of asset CESP-118, with proceeds to the bank account and gain/loss to the extraordinary income and extraordinary expense accounts". Sam uses the same three accounts required by the "Post disposal" dialog and produces the same result. There's an equivalent for the journal-entry variant too, if you'd rather describe the whole operation in chat instead of opening the two dialogs in sequence.

If something goes wrong

• "Select all three accounts." — at least one of the three accounts is missing in the "Post disposal" dialog: SamBooks won't post the entry without knowing where to book proceeds, capital gain and capital loss.
• The "Post disposal" button isn't there — the asset is still active: it needs to reach Disposed status first, through one of the two paths in step 1.
• You already disposed of the asset from a journal-entry line, and "Post disposal" now returns an error — that's expected: that variant posts everything in a single step, so a second attempt finds the disposal already recorded.
• The asset leaves without real proceeds, for example a scrapped machine — a disposal at zero proceeds cannot be completed today: the form accepts a price of zero, but the posting then stops with a double-entry message (“every line must have EITHER a debit OR a credit with a positive amount”), because the proceeds line would be created with no amount. Agree on how to handle the case with your accountant rather than entering a token amount to get past the block.

FAQ

I sold a piece of machinery — how do I record it? First create the TD26 disposal invoice from Invoices → New, special-documents section, naming the asset in the "Disposed asset" field (the invoice itself is covered in the guide on electronic invoice document types): the asset moves to "Disposed" as soon as you save the draft. Then open its page and click "Post disposal" to record the financial result.

How do I dispose of an asset without an invoice? From the posting journal: create an entry with a credit line on the fixed-asset account, then use "Record disposal" in the panel that appears on that line.

How is the capital gain on a sale calculated? It's the difference between the disposal price and the asset's residual value — historical cost minus accumulated depreciation — at the time of the sale.

Which accounts do I need for a disposal? Always three: the disposal proceeds account, the capital gain account and the capital loss account, even though only one of the two result accounts actually gets used in the entry.

How is depreciation calculated for the year of sale? Prorated to the days the asset was held during the year of disposal, at the asset category's ordinary rate — unless the year has already been depreciated, in which case it's skipped.

I scrapped an asset with no proceeds — what do I do? The disposal flow does not close this case today: with a disposal price of zero the posting is rejected with a double-entry error, because the proceeds line would be left with no amount. All three accounts are still required. Talk it through with your accountant rather than entering a token amount.

Where do I see the disposal entry? In the Movements tab of the asset's page, on the "Disposal" row: the "Open entry" link takes you to the full journal entry.

Does the disposed asset disappear from the list? No — it stays visible with "Disposed" status. Watch the residual value shown in the list and on the page: it does not go back to zero after the sale, it keeps the last value worked out by depreciation. The outcome of the disposal is read from the journal entry.

What happens to the depreciation reserve when I sell the asset? It's closed: the disposal entry zeroes it out together with the asset's historical cost.

What's the difference between a capital gain and a capital loss on disposal? A capital gain is posted when the disposal price is higher than the residual value; a capital loss when it's lower. If the two amounts match, the operation breaks even and neither account is used.

Related

• Fixed asset register — creating, editing, deleting or cancelling an asset.
• Asset depreciation — the depreciation schedule, charges, rates and annual posting, including in batch.
• Recording a journal entry — how to create a manual entry, including one that writes off a fixed asset.
• Electronic invoice document types — detail on the TD26 asset disposal invoice.