BNA Software — BNA Fixed Assets DesktopPro

From the December 2009 Review of Fixed Asset Management Systems

BNA Software offers a family of software geared toward individual and corporate income tax planning, estate planning, sales and use tax compliance, and several fixed asset management programs and utilities, including options for professional accounting practices, small and large businesses, and an asset inventory system designed for tracking mobile assets. The vendor’s core asset management systems are BNA Fixed Assets Desktop and DesktopPro, both of which offer comprehensive asset management with advanced features for depreciation, tracking and reporting, along with integration into a company’s ERP and tax compliance systems.

Included in the DesktopPro version is a utility called Construction in Progress, which enables users to track assets that are built or assembled by an entity. Pricing for BNA Fixed Assets Desktop starts at $1,760 for a single user. Pricing for BNA Fixed Assets DesktopPro with the Construction in Progress feature starts at $2,615. BNA also offers a hosted, web-based fixed asset management system that offers additional integration options and compliance tools.

NAVIGATION/EASE-OF-USE:
BNA Fixed Assets opens within a recently redesigned and very intuitive interface that offers pull-down menus across the top for accessing asset data management functions, various data views and system tools. When setting up new clients, the system offers templates and the ability to copy asset information from existing entities, while setup wizards assist with selection of asset types, depreciation methods, life spans and other asset treatment options.

Within client records, an additional button-based toolbar at the top of the screen offers quick access to the master asset list for the entity, books, reporting options, export tools, search/query lists, an asset list sorted by type, construction in progress functions, and an asset field list that lets users rearrange the position of columnar data or add up to 20 custom fields. The master asset selection list offers a sortable spreadsheet view of items, displaying type, description, acquisition date and other data. Individual asset data screens provide full detail using tabbed views that let user move between general information, transfer data, summaries, asset balance, depreciation, gain/loss and a tab that lets users attach digital documents, such as receipts, images, warrantees or other related files. Buttons for duplicating, disposing, undisposing, splitting, unsplitting and other tasks are available at the bottom of asset screens. Through-out the program, extensive right-click menu options provide additional navigation and assistance options.

MANAGEMENT FEATURES:
In addition to the wizards and guides that aid in setting up client businesses or performing infrequent tasks, BNA Fixed Assets DesktopPro offers a very strong core feature set that enables full-life tracking of all assets, including tracking and depreciation of complex or multi-part assets. The system in-cludes guidance content from BNA experts and researchers, and provides support for all depreciation methods and treatments, in-cluding recently enacted bonus depreciation and Sec. 179 rules.

DesktopPro can manage up to 10,000 assets across any number of client companies, subdivisions, cost centers or geographical locations, and gives users the ability to make global changes to asset treatments even across different companies or all entities being managed with the system. It supports bulk disposals and acquisitions, partial dispositions, splits, multiple splits, combinations, like-kind exchanges and other asset life activities.