Depreciation and loans

With a schedule on an account, large purchases (car, bicycle, washing machine, computer) can be depreciated step by step, and mortgages or loans can be amortised periodically. The schedule posts automatically to the linked account.

A purchase is not an expense

Buying a fixed asset is not an expense in your profit and loss. It’s a shift of money from your bank account to a possession. The monthly expense only appears via the depreciation schedule — spread across the asset’s useful life.

In Spendle this works as follows:

Create an asset account for the possession (for example Skoda car) with the purchase price as the opening balance on the purchase date.
Open the bank transaction for the purchase in the transactions overview.
Pick a transfer category that points to this asset account — for example Fixed asset purchase. If it doesn’t exist yet, create a category with the transfer flag enabled (transfer = on).
Add the depreciation schedule as described in the next section. It posts the depreciation amount to a Depreciation expenses category each period.

Depreciating an asset — step by step

Example: a computer worth €1,800 to be depreciated over a period down to €0 or a residual value.

Open the Balance tab and click the plus button to create a new account.
Enter a name — for example Computer.
Select the type Fixed assets.
Set the reference date to the purchase date.
Enter the reference balance — the value on the purchase date (€1,800).
Enter the target balance — the residual value at the end of the depreciation period (for example €0).
Click Save. The Schedule tab appears.
Post the purchase to this account. Give the bank transaction for the purchase a category with transfer enabled, with this account as the counter account (see A purchase is not an expense). Without that transaction, the purchase price also shows on the balance sheet for the years before the purchase.
Click Add schedule on the account.
Choose a category under which the depreciation should fall (for example Depreciation).
Fill in until the end of the depreciation period.
Check Calculate to target balance so Spendle automatically determines the amount per period.
Save.

The value of the asset now decreases each period by the calculated amount, visible in the balance chart. In the transaction overview the depreciation entries appear as (italicised) postings.

Purchase price also shows in earlier years

For dates before the reference date, Spendle calculates back from the reference balance: transactions between that date and the reference date are subtracted from the reference balance. If the purchase itself is not posted as a transaction on the asset account, the balance before the purchase date stays equal to the purchase price.

There are two ways to fix this:

Purchase paid from an account in Spendle — give the bank transaction a category with transfer enabled, with the asset account as the counter account. The balance before the purchase date then becomes €0.
Purchase not paid from an account in Spendle — set the reference date to one day before the purchase with a reference balance of €0, and add a manual transaction for the purchase price on the asset account on the purchase date.

Type: linear or annuity

When creating a schedule, choose a type:

Linear — fixed amount per period. For assets and linear loans.
Annuity — fixed total payment per period; the interest and repayment portions vary. For annuity mortgages and loans. For this type, enter an annual interest rate in % instead of a fixed amount.

Examples

Annuity mortgage

Type Annuity, annual interest rate in percent, term in years. Spendle calculates the correct interest and repayment portion per month.

Linear loan

Type Linear, fixed amount per period. The interest decreases as the loan balance falls.

Pausing or cloning a schedule

The following actions are available on an existing schedule:

Pause — the end date is set to today.
Clone — create a successor rule that continues where the old schedule ends. Useful when the amount or interest rate changes.

The schedule itself can be edited via the schedule form.