One of the most common processes when using Sage Fixed Assets—Depreciation is adding assets to a company. Single or small quantities of assets can be added by entering new asset information one asset at a time, using the new asset entry screen. In order to help users bring in large amounts of assets quickly and efficiently, Sage Fixed Assets— Depreciation has an easy to use Custom Import feature.
The Custom Import feature enables users to import asset information directly from a spreadsheet. The minimum requirements for an asset to be imported into Sage Fixed Assets—Depreciation are the following fields:
- Property Type
- Placed in Service Date
- Acquired Value
- Depreciation Method
- Estimated Life
The fields listed above are required, and some values that may be populated will require additional fields. For example, if the Depreciation Method field is populated with a method that takes bonus depreciation, then an additional field will need to be added to the spreadsheet that will contain the bonus depreciation percentage. And if the Depreciation Method contains a percentage, the Depreciation Percentage field will need to be added in its own separate column.
The Custom Import feature provides an option to save how fields are "mapped" to the spreadsheet. Users then can reuse the saved map file on future imports as long as the new spreadsheet is set up the exact same way as the original mapped spreadsheet.
Using a saved map file eliminates the need to map fields to columns each time a new import is necessary. Using saved map files during future imports reduces duplication of effort, improves consistency of data imported from batch to batch, and decreases the time required to prepare each import.
Not only does the Custom Import feature allow multiple assets to be imported, but it also validates the data entered on the spreadsheet. A validation report is generated at the end of the import process that lists assets with problematic data, stating what the issue with the data is. The validation report ensures that assets being imported have accurate data, and any assets with invalid data have to be corrected before they can be imported.
The Custom Import feature also has the capability of updating existing assets' general or descriptive fields. Although Sage Fixed Assets—Depreciation has the capability of replacing general fields on groups of assets, it requires the assets to be grouped or selected individually, and only one field can be modified at a time. The Custom Import feature, however, only requires the spreadsheet to contain the System Number of the assets to be modified and the fields that contain the new values. Instead of modifying each field at a time, the Custom Import allows the modification of multiple fields at the same time.
Using a saved map file eliminates the need to map fields to columns each time a new import is necessary. Using saved map files during future imports will reduce duplication of effort, improve consistency of data imported from batch to batch, and decrease the time required to prepare each import.
Not only does the Custom Import feature allow multiple assets to be imported but it also validates the data entered on the spreadsheet. A validation report will be generated at the end of the import process that will list assets with problematic data, stating what the issue with the data is. The validation report ensures that assets being imported have accurate data and any assets with invalid data will have to be corrected before it can be imported.
The Custom Import feature also has the capability of updating existing assets general or descriptive fields. Although the Sage Fixed Assets—Depreciation has the capability of replacing general fields on groups of assets, it requires the assets to be grouped or selected individually and only one field can be modified at a time. The Custom Import feature however only requires the spreadsheet to contain the System Number of the assets to be modified and the fields that contain the new values. Instead of modifying each field one at a time, the Custom Import will allow the modification of multiple fields at the same time.
The standard install of Sage Fixed Assets—Depreciation comes with an example of what a typical import spreadsheet would look like. The file is located at "C:\Program Files\Sagefas\Asset Accounting\Sample Import.xls." The import map is located at the same location with the filename "Sample.imp."
A list of importable fields and appropriate formatting can be located in the User's Guide under the section "Custom Import Helper." You can also see the following solutions for information regarding some of the more common import exceptions:
For specific questions regarding the Custom Import feature, Customer Support can be contacted by phone at 1-800-331-8514, by email: fixedassetssupport@sage.com, or through online chat at fixedassetssupport@sage.com or via online chat at http://kb.sagesoftwareonline.com/app/chat/chat_launch.
