What is Depreciation in SAP?

‘Depreciation’ is the reduction in the book value of an asset due to its use over time (‘decline in economic usefulness’) or due to legal framework for taxation reporting. The depreciation is usually calculated taking into account the economic life of the asset, expected value of the asset at the end of its economic life (junk/ scrap value), method of depreciation calculation (straight line method, declining balance, sum of year digits, double declining, etc.), and the defined percentage decline in the value of the asset every year (20%, or 15%, and so on).

The depreciation can either be planned or unplanned.

Planned depreciation is one which brings down the value of the asset after every planned period; say every month, until the asset value is fully depreciated over its life period. With this method, you will know what the value of the asset at any point of time in its active life.

On the contrary, unplanned depreciation is a sudden happening of an event or occurrence not foreseen (there could be a sudden break out of a fire damaging an asset, which forces you to depreciate fully as it is no longer useful economically) resulting in a permanent reduction of the value of the asset.

In SAP, you will come across three types of depreciation:

1. Ordinary depreciation, which is nothing but ‘planned depreciation.’
2. Special depreciation, which is over and above ‘ordinary depreciation,’ used normally for taxation purposes.
3. Unplanned depreciation, which is the result of reducing the asset value due to the sudden occurrence of certain events.