Sage Software — FAS 100 Asset Accounting

From the Dec. 2008 Review of Fixed Asset Systems

Sage Software offers fixed asset accounting and inventory systems for commercial, government and nonprofit entities, as well as for Canadian organizations. The FAS 100 Asset Account-ing program, reviewed here, is the vendor’s general business solution, offering comprehensive depreciation management with fully compliant IRS and GAAP rules built in. The program is available as either a networked version for organizations managing in excess of 10,000 assets on a SQL network, or as a stand-alone/small network system for entities with fewer than 10,000 assets. Other than network support and asset base size, both systems provide similar features and functions, with support for all traditional depreciation meth-ods, reporting and integration capabilities. Sage Software’s FAS 100 Asset Accounting (the mid-sized solution) starts at $2,295. Sage also offers a small business version, FAS 50 Asset Accounting, geared toward entities with fewer than 1,000 assets.

NAVIGATION/EASE-OF-USE - 5 Stars
For initial company and asset setup, the system guides users through many processes and provides customized import and export functions, in addition to the ability to copy and duplicate asset information and to make changes across groups of assets. Upon startup, users have the option of viewing an Asset Snap-shot view, which provides a graphical dashboard display of asset activity, including investment by remaining life, asset acquisition comparisons, depreciation comparisons and more. The primary interface for FAS 100 Asset Accounting is the Group View, which displays the current company or subsidiary’s main asset list in a spreadsheet format that includes columnar data fields for location, class, description, custodian, acquisition date and other options. This screen can be customized to company or user needs. Additionally, tabs enable jumping to specific tasks, such as disposals, transfers, histories, asset images and notes. Icons across the top of the screen provide access to additional features. The view can also be switched to show specific groups or filtered results.

Within the detail view of an asset, the FAS 100 Asset Account-ing screen displays descriptive information about the asset, along with all books associated with it. Each asset’s descriptions include up to 28 fields that can be completely customized to firm/company needs, while an optional Smart List Manager provides users with automatically generated selection lists for items such as class, location, accounts and other fields. This helps guarantee that data entered will conform to specific classes and other options, thus preventing errors.

FAS 100 Asset Accounting automatically performs calculations as data is entered, with the view of all books automatically updating to reflect changes. With information in as little as five data fields (property type, placed in service date, acquisition value, depreciation method, and estimated life), the system performs and displays calculations. Buttons for viewing projections, returning to the Group View or displaying an IRS table are available at the bottom of the screen. Asset life events, such as individual, group and partial disposals, are simplified, with only a few steps required.