2012 Review of BNA Fixed Assets DesktopPro
BNA Fixed Assets DesktopPro provides comprehensive rules for tax law compliance for performing depreciation calculations, and comes with preconfigured books for GAAP, federal tax, AMT, ACE and E&P. Users can also create up to 99 custom books. The system supports personal, real, Indian-personal, Indian-real, residential rental and nonresidential real property.
The system includes built-in rules for ACRS, MACRS, straight-line, sum-of-the-years’ digits and other common and historical methods, with the ability to set up as many as 200 short tax years. Users can view all of an asset’s books side-by-side on the summary tab, from where they can drill down to edit asset details, including depreciation, net book value, net Section 179, additional first year depreciation and more. Depreciation amounts are automatically calculated when data is entered.
A mass data edit feature allows users to make changes to groups or all assets at one time, including life event actions such as retirements, sales, transfers and exchanges. The system supports businesses with divisions, cost centers or geographical locations, with the ability to perform consolidations. A full-time audit trail feature can track all changes for each asset and each book across its life. The data validation engine checks purchase date, property type, life and methods to ensure compliance with GAAP and tax code, and notes potential data errors and conflicts.
Bloomberg BNA offers an optional application called BNA Asset Inventory, which has barcode scanning to simplify the physical inventory process, provide location tracking, and integrate with BNA Fixed Assets.
Reporting: 5 Stars
BNA Fixed Assets DesktopPro offers an extensive library of pre-built detail and summary reports grouped into accounting, tax, property tax and general management categories. Most reports can be customized down to individual header and footer lines and optional fields. Reports can be viewed on-screen or saved to Excel, Word, PDF, HTML and text formats. Fileable versions of forms 3468, 4255, 4562, 4626, 4797, 8824, Sch. M-1, M-3 and FASB 109 projections and mid-quarter/Sec. 179 totals can be printed from the program.
Import/Export/Integration: 5 Stars
BNA Fixed Assets DesktopPro directly integrates with BNA Asset Inventory and has a Construction-in-Progress module, and can import asset data from CSV files. The program export allows import into most financial systems and includes a custom export option. It has a GL export utility that enables transfer of data into Sage 300 ERP (formerly ACCPAC Advantage/Pro Series), Microsoft Great Plains - Dynamics, PeopleSoft, Timberline – Gold Collection, CYMA IV Accounting and other accounting systems.
Help/Support: 4.75 Stars
The system includes several wizards that help guide users in many processes, as well as a traditional search and index-based help utility. Online support options include a resource center, FAQs, white papers, system documentation and access to training options. Live phone support is included with pricing.
Summary & Pricing
Bloomberg BNA has long been a recognized expert in tax information and planning, and BNA Fixed Assets DesktopPro brings this knowledge to practice with comprehensive depreciation management capabilities that offer tracking of unlimited books per asset, excellent customization capabilities, strong reporting and a user-friendly interface. The system is best suited for managing the asset bases of enterprises or entities with complex taxation and multi-departmental needs. Pricing for BNA Fixed Assets DesktopPro starts at $2,970 (BNA Fixed Assets Web starts at $1,450).
