First Look Friday: nettTracker

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If we were talking about QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT) the topic of fixed asset management would be fairly easy because every version of desktop offers some reasonable degree of fixed-asset tracking. But when we are discussing QBO and fixed assets, it's much more difficult. By comparison, let's look at Desktop before we look at Online.

In QuickBooks Desktop ‘Pro’ you can use ‘Fixed Asset Items’ which are unique in their configuration and designed to track information like the purchase status (new or used), purchase date, purchase cost, asset description, serial number, warranty expiration, and even ‘disposition’ information (sales date, price, expense) of an asset.  An accountant can track changes to this information, within the Fixed Asset Item List using a special function of the ‘Client Data Review’ feature within the Accountant’s version of QuickBooks. 

QuickBooks Desktop ‘Premier’ and ‘Enterprise’ both offer users the Fixed Asset Manager (FAM) which runs on top of QuickBooks and uses information from Fixed Asset Items (the list within QuickBooks) to perform the kind of computations that typically are performed within tax-software applications. FAM computes depreciation of fixed assets based on the standards published by the IRS. It will prepare detailed reports related to asset values and depreciation, as well as post depreciation journal entries for each asset to QuickBooks.

But now we come to QuickBooks Online (QBO) and when you search around you find that “there is no Fixed Asset List to track fixed assets in QuickBooks at this time…(per QuickBooks Online ‘Help’).” There is a ‘Fixed Assets’ type of account available within the Chart of Accounts (COA) so you could realistically set-up an individual account for every Fixed Asset (item) with a corresponding Fixed Asset Account (as a contra-account) for Depreciation of that Fixed Asset (item) but this could yield a very exhaustive Chart of Accounts.

Since QuickBooks limits the total number of Accounts in the COA to 250 for most Online versions (except QBO-Advanced) this isn’t a reliable way to track Fixed Assets. What this means is QuickBooks Online users need a different method to track Fixed Assets rather than using their Chart of Accounts on an individual fixed asset item-by-item basis. They also need a tool that can compute depreciation based on the standards published by the IRS and post depreciation journal entries for each asset back to QuickBooks Online.

Well, this past January (2020), while preparing for the first-ever version of Insightful Accountant’s QB Talks ‘App Neighborhood Watch’ which was co-hosted by ‘Kelly G.’ (aka Kelly Gonsalves, the Founder of Totally Booked in New York), I became acquainted with nettTracker, a fully-automated fixed asset manager App for QBO that was built by a QuickBooks ProAdvisor. Kelly most eloquently presented nettTracker during our February webinar and we had a lot of interest from those attending in the form of questions and requests for more information.

From a ‘First Look’ perspective, you can think of nettTracker as a ‘super-modernized cloud-version’ of the old desktop FAM for QBDT that connects to QBO via Intuit’s OAuth (like every other app) so that you never have to compute depreciation for your fixed assets in a spreadsheet or tax program, or manually post those values to QBO, ever again.  Sorry folks, for the time being, this is just for QBO, but they have told me they are working on connectivity to Xero.

Make sure to join our webinar, "Save time with nettTracker - fixed assets made easy" on October 27 at 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time. You can register here.

Let me highlight a few things about nettTracker.

First, I think it’s even easier to set-up and ‘comprehend’ than the old FAM for QBDT, if you know what I mean? That program was kind of tricky in how you had to do things just a very specific way to get everything just right. But nettTracker has not only an easy to follow step-by-step guide, but video tutorials to take you thru the process, and short videos on even some of the more complex tax issues you might encounter.

Second, since you have probably been using a spreadsheet to keep track of your fixed assets already, I sure hope you didn’t list every one of them as individual accounts in QBO and already run out of accounts, nettTracker gives you an import feature so you can get your list set-up quick and easy.

  • nettTracker provides an Excel template that can be exported into which your existing fixed asset spreadsheet data can be copied, then simply import the template back into nettTracker and your fixed assets will be incorporated into the App.  
  • The Asset Register (shown above) is your listing of fixed assets and displays details of their cost, accumulated depreciation, as well as their net value.  From here, assets can be edited, deleted, or disposed of.

Now that you have your fixed assets in nettTracker you can set the rules for automatic depreciation calculations on each asset. From then on Depreciation Journal Entries are auto-posted, you never need to worry about missing another depreciation entry again.

  • You can create Asset Groups you wish and name them just as they may appear in your Chart of Accounts or Asset Register using the nettTracker ‘Asset Group & Mapping’ feature. You can even set a default depreciation rule to apply to the entire Asset Group; however, individual assets within the group can still be assigned different depreciation rules if required.
  • nettTracker already has calculation options for common depreciation rules, but if you need to create additional depreciation rules/schedules, you can simply elect to configure a ‘new’ depreciation rule.

nettTracker also starts watching the specific accounts you have set for it to monitor, checking for transactions that appear to be new asset purchases so that they can be ‘auto-added’ to the fixed asset register.

  • While you normally add fixed-assets to nettTracker simply by creating transactions for their acquisition within QBO, there might be an occasion when you either need to provide additional details regarding a new fixed asset, or you need to add a fixed asset that you acquired via some method other than a standard purchase. In either case, nettTracker has you covered.

When you dispose of an asset, nettTracker will automatically compute the appropriate entries to make and journalize those within your QBO.

  • Simply marking an asset as ‘disposed’ in the nettTracker list of fixed assets will result in the relevant journal entries being updated to the balance sheet and the corresponding entries created on your profit & loss based upon all the relevant factors like the original cost of the asset, the amount of depreciation brought forward to date, and any computed depreciation that should be reversed in the current year.

At year-end, nettTracker provides you with a full review of your assets and depreciation and provides for manual adjustments if required. You can also export registers of the complete history of your fixed assets collectively, or individually, into Excel whenever you wish.

How much simpler do you want your life to be when it comes to QuickBooks Online and Fixed Assets? You can head over to the nettTracker website for more details, or you can click over to the Intuit App Store nettTracker landing page. Want to 'play around' with nettTracker, then they have a working demo that you can log into here (the credentials are listed on the page adjacent to the demo company access). Or better yet, you can register to attend the free webinar, ‘Save time with nettTracker - fixed assets made easy’ on October 27 at 12-noon Eastern Time to find out just how much time and effort this App can save you in not only tracking your fixed assets but in posting their value and depreciation to QuickBooks Online.

First Look Friday articles are editorial features, they are not sponsored content. While they may contain references or 'inserts' that refer to sponsored webinars or other sponsored content, the actual feature is intended as an informational resource for our readers.