Back in 2004 I bought a Sony Laptop and the person who helps me with my taxes told me to put it into QuickBooks as a "fixed asset". Here it is 2010 and I don't even have that laptop any more, but I still have this line in my chart of accounts for "Sony Laptop" as a fixed asset that shows up on all my reports.

I can't change the original 2004 entry because it's long since been "rolled up" into a summary line and it can't be edited now.

How do I deal with this? How do I indicate this asset is long gone and shouldn't show up any more? I even tried inactivating the entry in the chart of accounts but it still shows up. Same with my Mustang loan which was paid off years ago, and I don't have that Mustang any more.

Help!

After a deal of research this is what I figured out to do.

First, I created a new Expense account and called it "Depreciation tracker". This is where the depreciation for an asset is kept track of. In balance sheets everything has to equal out in the end. If your asset loses value, something else has to gain value.

Then I created a journal entry for when that asset (the laptop) was no longer in use by me. I did this under Company - Make General Journal Entries.

For the Sony Laptop account, I gave it a *credit* of the purchase amount. This balanced out the expense of buying that item.

On the same journal entry, I matched that row with a row that went to the Depreciation Tracking account. I gave it a *debit* of the same amount.

Now my asset of "Sony Laptop" was zeroed out, and I could mark it as inactive on the chart of accounts. It no longer shows up on my balance sheets.

I want to note here that I am not an accountant, so if someone is doing this for tax reasons, they should always talk with their accountant

You had a Mustang? huh. I didn't see you as a sports car gal.

You are so cute Jilly - I *only* drove Mustangs up until a few years ago!! I owned four in a row! Including one that I had an auto shop put blue racing stripes onto I was and am a HUGE Mustang lover.

Lisa's Mustangs

How funny it is, how we perceive people and how we think of what kind of car they'd drive. I would have thought of you as a hybrid or Smartcar person, or maybe a subaru.

I am a truck/jeep kind of person.

Holy moly Lisa! The smashed up black mustang? I can't believe you survived that!