Not all Depreciation Companies are the Same

I normally recommend either BMT or Depreciator or Washington Brown and have found that one of the nice services they offer is updating the depreciation schedule for free (for smaller items) or at a reasonable charge for more items.

Had a client who purchased two items and asked the company (none of the above) if they could update the schedule to include these two new items. Nope not interested your accountant can do that.

Well yes I can but there are risks

1. You now have two schedules. One prepared by the accountant and one by the depreciation company. Very easy to miss it each year
2. Client moves on. New accountant needs to be aware there are two schedules in effect
3. Items moving into the low value pool. With a schedule easy to track. Two schedules easy to miss

Make sure your depreciation schedule providers offers additional value added services. Sometimes the extra cost is worth it longer term.

 

Yep. We have clients who come back to every tax season with the things they have added to their property over the preceding year. When a client can tell us what was added, the cost, and the date, it's easy to amend a Dep Schedule. Even now, in the quite season, we would do half a dozen updates daily.
Scott

 

One of the more difficult updates isnt adding items. That is simple enough and sure as a taxa dviser our software can handle that. The hidden trap is replacement of a item. The old item can be scrapped. But I cant change or edit a PDF file and frankly should never need to. Really bad QS reports can sometimes also run out of time after 5 or 10 years - Those QS providers are just awefula nd should be avoided. (Not depreciator, not BMT, Duotax or Washhington Brown) ....So the accountant enters the data. And when they do this it usually means depreciable assets skip going to a higher rate pool as our software does NOT do that and I see a LOT of accountants who compile groups of assets into one entry to save time...So how can you scrap the carpet ? Or one of two split a/c's ? . What a mess.

I have a view an accountant should always avoid entering a QS report into their software. It can do more harm than good. A good QS product shouldnt need it anyway. If the QS supports scrapping etc its a very valuable difference in QS reports.

Cheap QS reports are usually the ones with these issues. And cheap tax agents who may not be as property savvy. who look for shortcuts