Thomson Reuters — Fixed Assets CS

Thomson Reuters — Fixed Assets CS
800-968-8900
CS.ThomsonReuters.com

From the December 2010 Review of Fixed Asset Management Systems

 Fixed Assets CS is designed for professional accountants managing the asset depreciation functions for multiple client entities. The program, which can be used as a stand-alone system or integrated into the CS Professional Suite of tax and accounting applications, provides comprehensive depreciation, projection, inventory and reporting capabilities, with automated calculations, asset departmentalization and extensive asset life management features. The system directly integrates with Ultra Tax CS, GoSystem Tax, Write-Up CS and Accounting CS.

BASIC SYSTEM FUNCTIONS:
Fixed Assets CS offers many of the same guides and wizards found in other programs in the CS Professional Suite, helping users with tasks such as program setup, client setup, asset data import, depreciation methods and treatments, asset life events, consolidations and reporting. The initial home screen uses the traditional CS interface, with several link-based menus for accessing frequent tasks, such as recent activity, client management, reporting, templates and system notices, such as program updates. A “walk-through” PDF guide is also offered from this screen to help new users understand the basic elements of the program.

A new asset wizard helps users select appropriate method and life, with the program then automatically performing calculations on the asset’s multiple books. To work with client data, selection screens provide the ability to sort and filter by entity tax type or searching by client ID. And after a client is chosen, the interface opens into a spreadsheet view of all assets for the active company, with data information sortable by columns that include descriptions, acquisition date, tax cost/basis or other selections. Detailed asset information screens display all of an asset’s books on a single screen and offer tabs for accessing entry sheets for depreciation, disposal information, transfers, vehicle/listed, other custom data and notes, plus the ability to attach images or other electronic files to asset records.

Fixed Assets CS supports up to 20,000 clients with as many as 32,000 assets each, with the ability to create groups, divisions, locations, property types, custom methods and activities. It can be accessed by all staff users at the same time, with features preventing data overwrite. Customization options include the ability to set user preferences for data entry and field navigation, page layouts, the addition of custom links on the home page, and customizable report generation.

CORE ASSET MANAGEMENT FEATURES:
The asset management system automatically assigns default books based on type of client entity, with 1120C assignment resulting in treatments for federal tax, book, state, AMT and ACE, S-Corp and partnerships having the same, minus ACE, and government entities having tax and book. For 1040 and other entities, the system automatically creates only tax and AMT books. Users can override these treatments as desired by removing, adding or creating custom treatment options, with unlimited books per asset, all of which can be viewed side-by-side on a single screen.

Fixed Assets CS supports all common depreciation methods, with options for bonus depreciation, MACRS, ACRS, straight-line, 200/150/125 declining balance, sum-of-the-years’ digits, units of production and amortization preconfigured, or users can create up to 99 custom methods. Calculations are automatically performed as data or treatment factors are entered and can be based on IRS tables or by user-defined formulas.