Vendor asset schedules almost always band their assets. Furniture & Fixtures, Vehicles, 123 Main Street, Intangible Assets. That band means something different in every file, so DepreciationPro asks you what yours means instead of guessing.
This article covers what the question is and how to answer it. The three destinations each have their own article, linked below.
One column in, three destinations
Most fixed-asset schedules organize their rows into bands. A Fixed Assets CS “Tax Asset Detail” export groups by balance-sheet asset class. A rental client’s schedule groups by property. Another file might group by department, or by a code that means nothing outside the client’s own office.
DepreciationPro treats that column as a hint, not a fact. Rather than guess, and rather than invent a new field nobody asked for, it asks what the groups mean and routes them onto a dimension the product already understands.
Route 1: Activities. The groups are properties or lines of business. Each becomes an activity on the entity, so Form 4562 and depreciation totals break out per property.
Route 2: GL accounts. The groups are balance-sheet asset classes. Each is assigned a GL cost account, so the register ties to the trial balance.
Route 3: Source Category. The groups are informational, or you are not ready to decide. The label is stored and becomes a sortable, filterable column.
Route 3 always happens
Routes 1 and 2 are additive. Whichever you pick, the raw label is still written to Source Category and the column still appears on your grids. Route 3 is simply what you get when you stop there.
This is the one thing worth remembering. Whichever destination you choose, and even if you skip the question entirely, every asset keeps its original group label. Routing adds meaning on top of the record. It never replaces it.
Nothing about grouping blocks an import, and nothing about grouping changes a depreciation calculation.
Choosing between them
Activities | GL accounts | Source Category only | |
The groups are | Properties or business activities. “123 Main St”, “Rental — Oak Ave” | Balance-sheet asset classes. “Furniture & Fixtures”, “Vehicles” | Anything else. A department code, a vendor’s internal band |
What happens at import | Each group is matched to an existing activity by name. Missing ones are created, and every asset is assigned | You pick a GL cost account for each group. Every asset in that group is assigned it | The label is stored on each asset. Nothing else is assigned |
What it gets you | Per-activity Form 4562 and per-property depreciation tie-out | Register-to-trial-balance tie-out, and the first step toward journal entries | A sortable, filterable column for review, and a one-click path to bulk assign later |
Reach for it when | Multi-property rentals, Schedule E work, or an entity with several activities | The file’s bands mirror the client’s chart of accounts | The bands are informational, or you would rather decide once you can see the data |
One file gets one destination
If you need both dimensions, say activities from the file and GL accounts besides, route the file to one and assign the other in bulk after import. See Change a routing decision, or assign groups in bulk.