Get the entry that takes a disposed asset off the books, composed from the book figures already on it.
Below the depreciation entry on the Journal Entries report, each disposal in the period gets its own card: the asset, the disposal date, the gain or loss, and the balanced legs.
What DepreciationPro puts in the entry
Four legs. Each one appears only if its amount is non-zero.
Clearing account, debited for net proceeds, which DepreciationPro computes as sale proceeds less selling expenses.
Accumulated depreciation, debited for the book accumulated depreciation through the month before disposal.
Cost account, credited for original cost.
Gain/Loss takes the difference, debited when net book value exceeds net proceeds and credited when net proceeds exceed it.
DISP-2025-09-01 · BK1 Copier — Disposed September 30, 2025 · Gain (loss) on disposal: $580.00
Account | Account Name | Description | Debit | Credit |
1900 | Disposal Clearing | Disposal — BK1 Copier | 11500.00 | 0.00 |
1510 | Accum. Depr. — Equipment | Disposal — BK1 Copier | 1080.00 | 0.00 |
1500 | Equipment | Disposal — BK1 Copier | 0.00 | 12000.00 |
7200 | Gain/Loss on Disposal | Disposal — BK1 Copier | 0.00 | 580.00 |
Totals | 12580.00 | 12580.00 |
A disposal with no proceeds drops both the clearing leg and the gain/loss leg, leaving a two-line entry that debits accumulated depreciation and credits cost.
If selling expenses exceed proceeds, the clearing leg is written as a credit rather than a negative debit, so the import file stays valid either way.
On screen the figure reads gain-positive, with losses in parentheses.
These are book figures
The gain or loss on the card is computed from book proceeds and book net book value. It is not the Form 4797 figure, and tax disposition amounts never enter these entries.
The two can differ by a lot. The example above is an asset sold for $11,500 whose book accumulated depreciation was $1,080, giving a book gain of $580. The same disposal shows an $11,500 gain on the tax side, because the asset was already fully depreciated for tax. Both are correct; they are answering different questions.
The disposal reference
References are generated as DISP-2025-09-01, then -02, and so on. They are display text, not an editable field.
The number at the end is a position in the list you are looking at, not a permanent name for that disposal. It is assigned by counting down the disposals shown in the selected period, so the same disposal can carry a different reference in a month view than in the Full year view. A disposal that is DISP-2025-12-01 on the December view may be DISP-2025-12-02 on the Full year view, because an earlier disposal takes the first slot there.
That reference is what lands in the Journal No. column of the export file. If you post from a month view one time and a Full year view the next, the same disposal reaches your ledger under two different journal numbers. Pick one view and stay with it for a given client.
Which disposals compose automatically
Sales, abandonments, and retirements. A disposal with no recorded kind is treated as a sale.
Child assets created by a partial disposition are ordinary disposed assets here and need nothing special.
Everything else is disclosed on the report rather than guessed at. See What is excluded from a journal entry, and why.
A disposal where every amount is zero
The card still renders, with its header and a $0.00 gain or loss, and a note in place of the table:
No journal entry lines — all amounts are zero.
Nothing is hidden just because it nets to nothing.