How Do I use Depreciation History Snapshots?

When making reports, in addition to the Depreciation History Table, there are two extra views of depreciation history available.  These views are called ‘Depreciation History Snapshot’ and ‘Depreciation History Snapshot 2’.  These views are designed to assist in creating reports where only one depreciation history period is wanted instead of the entire depreciation history of an asset.  You can see these Snapshots in the Table list below:

 

As the word ‘Snapshot’ implies, these views return the same depreciation information as the Depreciation History, except that they return the information from only one period, only one depreciation history entry, rather than all of the entries in the Depreciation History.

So how does the report know which period to print?  The one period is determined by a date specified under the Print then the Values tab of the report generator.

Snapshot and Snapshot 2 views are exactly the same.  However, to do any math between periods, you will need two sets of values.  That is why you need both as shown in the example we will create below.

For ‘Depreciation Snapshot’ a memory variable must be created.  You can review more about memory variables in the User Manual.  Let’s create a memory variable called Deprec History Snapshot Date (DHSS Date) and make it the ‘As of Date’.  Internally we name this field MUD_ASOFD.  Here is a sample screen:

 

For ‘Depreciation History Snapshot 2’ a variable called MUD_UPTOD is created.  Here is the sample screen:

 

Now you can probably see that the value of the snapshots is that each snapshot can be based on a different period with a different start date.  Complex reports are much simpler.

For example, suppose that a company has a fiscal year ending in July, yet a report has been requested for the amount of actual depreciation accumulated for an asset for a specific calendar year. The standard ‘Year to Date’ depreciation amount cannot be used since it starts and ends on the fiscal year. Therefore  we need to subtract the total accumulated depreciation taken at the end of the calendar year from the amount taken up through the end of the prior calendar year. With Depreciation Snapshots this is relatively straightforward.

First, set the two snapshot dates. Set the end of the prior year and the end of the current year. In this example, we will use the year 2005. This is done in the Print/Values tab.

Here is a screen of the completed set of values:

 

Basically it says ‘give me the depreciation dates as of 12/21/2020 and up to 12/21/2021.’

Please note: If a date is specified outside the range of the depreciation, then nothing is printed since there is nothing in the depreciation history for that date range.

Second, specify the columns that you want to print. These are your standard Asset table columns, plus a few extra from both snapshots.

 

Notice that some of the columns show the alias DHSS (Deprec. History Snapshot) While others show the alias DHS2  (Deprec. History Snapshot 2).

Also Notice that the last column is the important column in this report. This one gives us the amount of depreciation accumulated over the chronological year. It is an expression, subtracting the first snapshot accumulated depreciation from the second.

The expression is as follows:

DHS2.AC1ACC-DHSS.AC1ACC

Where AC1ACC is the Accumulated Depreciation.

Here is a screen of how to fill in the expression.

 

A similar report might be made using the standard Depreciation History table, but it would be much more complex, require SQL grouping for one line per asset, and have several limitations in how it can access information from other tables.

Finally, the Depreciation History snapshots work only on assets that use depreciation history.