Calculators

Financial

Depreciation

Calculator Use

Use this calculator to calculate the simple straight line depreciation of assets. Create and print deprciation schedules.

Inputs

Asset Cost

the original value of your asset or the depreciable cost; the necessary amount expended to get an asset ready for its intended use

Salvage Value

the value of the asset at the end of its useful life; also known as residual value or scrap value

Useful Life

the expected time that the asset will be productive for its expected purpose

Placed in Service

select the month and enter the year the asset started being used for its intended purpose

Year

enter 1 or 4 digits; enter a four digit year to use your actual years OR enter a 1 to list years using digits 1 through the last year

Fiscal Year

The starting and ending months for your fiscal year, your tax year. For personal tax filing with the IRS, your likely fiscal year is Jan-Dec, a regular calendar year. Some companies may have fiscal years that run, for example, Sep-Aug. The US Government fiscal year is Oct-Sep.

Convention

choose Full-Month, Mid-Month, Mid-Year or Mid-Quarter Convention; if you don't know, keep it at the common Full-Month

Sample Full Depreciation Schedule

Cost: $11,000.00, Salvage: $1,000.00
Life: 5 years, Convention: Full-Month
First Year: 8 months

Straight-Line Depreciation Formula

The straight line calculation, as the name suggests, is a straight line drop in asset value.  The depreciation of an asset is spread evenly across the life.

• Depreciation in Any Period = ((Cost - Salvage) / Life)
• Partial year depreciation, when the first year has M months is taken as:
  • First year depreciation = (M / 12) * ((Cost - Salvage) / Life)
  • Last year depreciation = ((12 - M) / 12) * ((Cost - Salvage) / Life)
  • And, a life, for example, of 7 years will be depreciated across 8 years.

Straight-Line Depreciation Example

Suppose an asset for a business cost $11,000, will have a life of 5 years and a salvage value of $1,000.

• Depreciation in Any 12 month Period = (($11,000 - $1,000) / 5 years) = $10,000 / 5 years = $2,000/ year.

Microsoft® Excel® Functions Equivalent: SLN

The Excel equivalent function for Straight-Line Method is SLN(cost,salvage,life) will calculate the depreciation expense for any period.  For a more accelerated depreciation method see, for example, our Double Declining Balance Method Depreciation Calculator.

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