Journal Entry for Depreciation

How to make a journal entry to record depreciation on an asset.

Before You Begin

You may have furniture, office equipment, vehicles, buildings, etc. that are depreciated over time. Ask your accountant how your journal entry should be made. The following is only an example.

1. You may need to add new numbers to your Chart of Accounts, such as:
   1. A contra asset (such as 1110.10 Office Equipment Depreciation).
   2. An expense (such as 5040.00 Depreciation Expense).
2. You may want to create a new General Journal Types (such as Depreciation) to record the entry.

Getting There

Click the General Journal icon on the toolbar. It doesn’t matter which vendor is displayed since journal entries are not linked to a vendor.

Note: Refer to Make Journal Entry – General Journals if you are not familiar with the Journal process.

The example below shows depreciation of both office equipment and furniture. The asset entries are entered as negative numbers because the value of each asset is going down. A single expense account (5040.00) is used for the total amount depreciated.