Recognition of fixed assets acquired under capital lease terms

Assets acquired under capital lease terms are usually intended for long-term use by the company and are recorded as fixed assets.

1. Payment of the first installment, proforma invoice
The purchase invoice for the asset is usually preceded by an advance invoice, based on which the first installment and contract fee are paid.
Enter the advance invoice as a purchase invoice, posting the first installment amount to account 1870 Prepayments for tangible fixed assets (VAT type 22% Acquisition of fixed assets), and the contract fee under the expense account 5360 Legal expenses, contract fees.

Important When saving the invoice, do not allow the creation of a fixed asset card!
2. Purchase invoice (Capital lease agreement)
When entering the purchase invoice, use the appropriate fixed asset account (from the range 1800-1840). Enter the total amount of the fixed asset in the line (for VAT type, select 22% acquisition of fixed assets).
On the second line, choose account 1870 Prepayments for tangible fixed assets (for VAT type, select 22% Acquisition of fixed assets) and enter the amount of the first payment as a negative value.

When saving the invoice, enable the creation of the fixed asset card only for the first line, which reflects the total amount of the fixed asset. Remove the selection of account 1870 for this line. Afterward, review the depreciation accounts, depreciation rate, and make any necessary adjustments on the fixed asset card.
If there is no separate purchase invoice, the supporting document is the capital lease agreement along with the payment schedule. For more information on fixed assets, refer to the guide Recording of fixed assets.

3. Marking as paid, capital lease obligation

To record a long-term capital lease obligation, you need to create a new account by going to Settings -> Accounts and cash -> New Account/Cash register. Name it something like “Capital lease liability” and set the financial account to 2830 Long-term financial lease payables.

Make sure to set the “Show on Documents” option as inactive.

Mark the invoice as paid using the created account “Capital lease liability“.

When this payment method is used, a financial entry will be generated, reducing the account 2310 trade creditors and recording the long-term capital lease obligations in the balance sheet.

4. The short-term portion of the capital lease

To allocate the short-term portion of the capital lease liability, a financial entry must be made. The first entry should be made with the date of the capital lease agreement and the amount to be repaid in the current fiscal year should be recorded as the short-term portion.

At the end of each fiscal year, an entry must be made to transfer the long-term portion to the short-term portion until the long-term liability is fully settled.

5. Monthly invoices
For the subsequent monthly invoices, enter them as purchase invoices. For the principal amount, select Current portion of long-term financial lease liabilities account (2130), which will reduce the liability to the lessor. The interest expense is an operating cost for the period, and for this, select the expense account 6410 Interest expenses.

Useful reading:
ASBG 9 Accounting for leases
ASBG 5 Property, plant and equipment and intangible assets
All translations of the Accounting Standards Board guidelines can be found on the Ministry of Finance website.

If you have any additional questions, please write to us at support@simplbooks.ee

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