BNA Software — BNA Fixed Assets Desktop Pro

From the Dec. 2007 Review of Fixed Asset Systems

BNA Fixed Assets is a comprehensive asset depreciation management system designed to give professional accountants or in-house controllers the ability to organize and track large asset bases across any number of client companies and their subsidiaries. It combines multiple book capabilities, powerful calculation features and integrated expert guidance into a system that can be used by single professionals or in larger, networked offices. BNA Software offers several fixed asset management variations, including options for large organizations and hosted solutions, as well as the Fixed Assets Desktop Pro version, reviewed here, which is geared toward servicing smaller organizations as a stand-alone program. All versions of the program provide GAAP-compliant reporting, with support for all traditional depreciation methods and conventions. Pricing for the Fixed Assets Desktop system starts at $1,595. For the 2007 version, the system now includes a construction in progress function for tracking assets through assembly, construction or upgrade processes. This feature is available at no extra cost in BNA Fixed Assets DesktopPro.

Navigation/Ease-of-Use - 5 Stars
BNA’s DesktopPro has a very modern, clean and easy-to-understand interface that provides the primary work area, along with a Calculation Info tab on the right that provides information related to tasks the user is performing. Since BNA is one of the leading tax research companies, the guidance and explanations provided through this panel and other assistance devices is outstanding and comprehensive. The system also provides several tools such as wizards, templates and copy options that speed asset entry and mass edits, as well as assisting with setting up books and determining appropriate asset classes, methods, depreciable life, rate, convention and whether bonus depreciation can be applied.

After selecting a company or subsidiary’s database to work within, the program opens the asset list, a spreadsheet displaying all assets for the entity and providing sortable columns for ID, Type, Description, Acquisition Date, Comments and Status, making it easy to find items by a variety of methods. Users can save asset searches into customized query lists. The interface also provides tab-like buttons across the top of the screen for moving between the asset list and specific areas, such as books, reporting, export functions, queries, types, field customization options and Help. Additional buttons across the bottom provide asset-event and treatment options, such as creating or deleting items, editing, disposal options, splitting and transfers, as well as quick access to the audit trail feature.

Asset data-entry screens have easy-to-use forms that include customizable information fields for tracking miscellaneous data such as warranties or service information, while various tabs give access to detail screens. The Summary, Balance/Accum, and Depr Expense tabs give quick financial overviews of all books assigned to an asset, while the Documents tab enables users to easily add images, documents or virtually any other file to an asset’s records.