Fixed Asset Review: Capitalization Calls and Depreciation That Tie Out at Close

Purchase lines that might be assets

Every month a few dozen purchase lines need a call: capitalize or expense. The capitalization policy says what clears the threshold, which class an item belongs to and the useful life for each class. A capitalized asset needs an in-service date, and its first month is depreciated at half a month under the policy's convention. Each call is simple. The register is right only if every call, credit and policy change reaches it and stays there.

The purchase lines and the register live in Airtable, invoices and vendor credits in Box, and install dates in the IT and facilities lists in ClickUp. The depreciation worksheet is a spreadsheet in Google Drive that the staff accountant rebuilds each month. When a credit arrives after capitalization or the useful-life table is revised, the worksheet and the register drift apart, and the closeout gets recomputed from whichever one happens to be open.

Who works in the room

Ada leads by default, so a question about a purchase line or an asset that names no agent goes to Ada. The worksheet comparison belongs to Myco under the room guidelines, and any question about the worksheet routes there. Fin picks up whenever something has to leave the room: Ada mentions Fin with the line and the open question, and Fin drafts the email, or prepares the closeout files once the assistant controller has signed them.

A review month, in order

The stages run in sequence, and each one ends at a person before the register changes.

Credits, revised lives and the lines they reach

A vendor credit that arrives after capitalization is not a separate event. It lowers the cost basis of the asset it belongs to, which changes first-month and monthly depreciation, and in a close case it can drop the line below the threshold. Ada re-derives the asset from the credited cost, notes the credit on the record and leaves every other line as it was.

A revised useful-life table works the same way at a larger scale. Ada re-derives the assets in the classes whose life changed and lists them, Myco checks the worksheet against the new figures, and the controller adopts the table before any record moves. Lines flagged as policy exceptions get the same care. A waived exception removes one blocker, and the line still has to clear the threshold and the life test on its own.

What the checks catch

• A closeout total recomputed from monthly depreciation instead of summing the stored first-month figures, which are half a month
• A line marked as an approved exception that still falls below the threshold, so it stays an expense
• A capitalized asset whose cost still includes a vendor credit issued after the invoice
• A worksheet line using the old useful life for a class the v2 table changed
• A disposal left out of the closeout because it has no class file of its own

What stays with people

• Making every capitalize or expense call before the register changes
• Adopting a useful-life table and approving any reclassification, which is the controller's call
• Confirming in-service dates, which belongs to IT and facilities
• Signing each closeout file before Fin uploads it

Integrations in this workflow

Kylon is not a fixed asset system or a general ledger, and it does not replace either one. It sits across the register, the documents and the install records the team already keeps, and holds the coordination between them.

• Airtable
• Box
• ClickUp
• Gmail
• Google Drive
• Slack

• Airtable holds the purchase lines and the asset register, including the stored first-month depreciation
• Box holds invoices and vendor credits, and receives the closeout files, one per class plus disposals, in a single upload
• ClickUp holds the IT and facilities install items that set each asset's in-service date
• Gmail carries questions to requesters and vendors, such as whether a purchase was a repair or an upgrade, as drafts a person sends
• Google Drive keeps the capitalization policy, both useful-life tables and the staff accountant's worksheet
• Slack is where IT and facilities post install updates that have not reached ClickUp yet

Where to start

Pick one month and one asset class. Connect the Airtable base with the purchase lines and the register, point Ada at the Box folder where invoices land, and add a single rule to the room guidelines: the register changes only after the assistant controller approves the line in the thread.

“Most lines take a minute. The month holds up because the credit that arrived on the 28th reached the asset it belonged to.”

Set it up with your agent

Open a new Room, add your agent and paste this prompt. It connects the tools, builds the App with you and asks for your rules one step at a time, and nothing goes out until a person approves it.