See every asset on a return that has a GAAP book, in one grid, without waiting on the tax engine.
Open a return and choose Book depr. It lists every asset on the return that has a GAAP book, with a totals row underneath.
The default columns are Description, Placed in Service, Method, Useful Life, Cost, Current-Year, Accumulated, and Book NBV.
Useful Life reads in years where it can
A life that divides evenly by twelve shows as years, so 60 months reads "5 yr" and 84 reads "7 yr". Anything else shows in months, so 330 months reads "330 mo".
That is worth knowing because it is how a mis-scaled import announces itself. A book life that should have been five years but arrived as five months sits in this column reading "5 mo" among the "5 yr" rows.
It shows fewer assets than the Assets tab
Only assets with a GAAP book appear here, so the count differs from the tax side whenever some assets are not on book depreciation yet. That gap is the point of the tab. It is how you find the assets still to set up.
On a return with no books at all you get an empty state headed "No book depreciation set up yet" with two buttons: Add asset, which opens the single-asset form described in the next section, and Set up book depreciation, which takes you to the return's asset list. Neither is a dead end.
Add assets from here
Add assets sits to the right of the search box and opens the same menu the Assets tab has, without the CIP entry:
Add single asset opens the same form the Assets tab uses, already switched to its GAAP Book side, so you never see a tax field you do not know.
Bulk import opens the import wizard. A book file is recognised as one; see Import assets with book columns.
Import disposals matches a disposals file to the assets already on the return.
The single-asset form asks for a description, a cost, and a placed-in-service date, then the book settings: useful life in months, salvage value, method, convention, and an optional book in-service date and accumulated depreciation for an asset adopted mid-life. Click Add asset and you are back on this tab with the new asset in the grid.
The asset's tax side is left unset rather than filled with guesses. On the Assets tab it shows Needs attention until a tax preparer assigns its MACRS class, either on the asset page, in the return's Assign MACRS classes list, or by importing a tax file whose Asset IDs match. See Add an asset by hand for the form in detail.
Narrowing it down
Search with the box above the grid, exactly as on the Assets tab. Type part of a description, an Asset ID, or a source category and the rows narrow as you type; the search shows as a chip in the strip above the grid, and the × on the box or the chip clears it.
Sort on any column by clicking its header. Click again to reverse it.
Filter by useful life or by source category. Each filter is multi-select and shows how many assets sit behind each value. A filter funnel only appears when the return has more than one distinct value in that column, so a single-life register is not cluttered with a control that would do nothing.
Add, remove, and reorder columns through Columns. Salvage, Depreciable Basis, Convention, Useful Life (months), and Source Category are the optional ones. Your choices are remembered for next time.
Source Category stays hidden unless the return's assets carry a group label from their import, in which case it shows itself. Setting it either way through Columns overrides that from then on.
The Method column filters on the same terms. Its funnel appears once the return's books carry more than one method, which a register with imported MACRS or declining-balance books usually does.
The totals follow the filter
Filter to one useful life and the totals row sums that subset rather than the whole return. Clear the filters and the totals return to the whole return, where they tie to the Book Depreciation Schedule report by construction, because both read the same figures.
Getting to an asset
Click any row and you land on that asset with its GAAP Book tab already open, not on the Tax tab you would then have to switch away from. Open the same asset from the Assets tab and it lands on Tax. You always start where you were looking.
The tab is quick on purpose
This tab does not run the tax engine. On a large return that is the difference between opening straight away and waiting on a full tax recalculation you did not ask for.