How do I remove a fixed asset (an old vehicle that the business no longer has) from the Balance sheet?

Hi Milo123,

Making sure you take care of these sorts of situations is an essential part of bookkeeping. To determine which accounts you need to pick for your journal entry, I recommend consulting an accountant. That way, you can be sure you're picking the ones you need to correctly remove this from your balance sheet.

There are a number of accountant users in this community that may be able to give insight on this situation. QuickBooks can also help you find an accountant familiar with the program through our Find a ProAdvisor website. Simply type in your postal code, hit the Find a ProAdvisor button, and then use begin your search. There are also filtering options that can help you narrow down the results you're seeing.

Enjoy your day!

Has the truck been disposed of?  If so, was the sale of the truck, in whole or in parts, recorded as a sale against the asset?  If this is so, you would do the following with the remaining balance:

1.  If the balance in the vehicle asset account is positive (meaning you sold the asset for less than it's book value):

DR     Gain/Loss on Sale of Fixed Assets (set up as an Other Income account in your GL)

CR     Vehicles (asset account where original purchase of vehicle was recorded)

2.  If the balance in the vehicle asset account is negative (meaning you sold the asset for more than it's book value):

DR     Vehicles

CR     Gain/Loss on Sale of Fixed Assets (set up as an Other Income account in your GL)

Usually, by the time an asset has been sold or disposed of, the sale yields more than the depreciated book value of the asset so scenario number two would be the most common.  For this reason, I set up my Gain/Loss on Sale of Fixed Assets as an Other Income account.  You would have to be okay with seeing a negative number on the other income account if you had sustained a loss rather than a gain on the sale of the asset.

However, there would be nothing preventing you from setting up two accounts; 1)  Other Income acct for Gain on Sale of Fixed Assets and 2) Other Expense acct for Loss on Sale of Fixed Assets, and using them accordingly, depending on whether the sale of the asset has netted a gain or a loss.