How to import assets from another program

What is it for?

When a company starts working in fiscaldoo, the fixed assets it already had in the previous program must come in with what has already been depreciated, so that depreciation continues from where it stopped. This assistant reads a CSV or Excel file with one line per asset, checks each line and creates the records in preparation. Nothing is put into use and no journal entry is created.

Unlike the journal entry assistant, this one is not all or nothing: lines with errors are left out and the valid ones are imported.

When to use it?

• To bring in the asset register from the previous program, with the cost, the acquisition date and the accumulated depreciation up to the migration date.
• To also bring in assets that have already left (scrapped or sold), with the disposal date, so that they stay in the history.
• Do not use it to record a new asset: use Record an asset, which links the asset to the purchase invoice.
• Do not use it to correct assets that already exist: the assistant skips existing ones and does not change them.

Where to find it?

Accounting › Record › Entries › Import, and click Import assets. It opens the list of imports already done; click New to do one.

Before you start

• Your profile is Accountant or Certified Accountant / Fiscal Manager: with either of these profiles on its own, Record › Import shows the Import assets button. With Auditor, Administrative or Management on their own, the Record menu does not appear.

• The file's locations already exist in the company. With Accountant and with Certified Accountant / Fiscal Manager, Create Missing Locations does not work: validation passes, but Import refuses with “Sem acesso: You do not have permission to create “Inventory Location”. Esta área é reservada ao administrador técnico do sistema.” (no access; this area is reserved for the system's technical administrator) and nothing is created. If the locations do not exist, remove the Localização (location) column from the file and fill it in afterwards on each asset.

• The file's vendors already exist as partners. A vendor that does not exist does not block the line, but the asset comes in without a vendor, with the warning “The supplier "Fornecedor Beta, SA" was not found: the asset is imported without a supplier. Create the partner and fill the supplier on the asset.”

• The company has the asset categories the file uses (for example “Equipamento administrativo”). In a company without categories, every line gives an error: “The category "Equipamento administrativo" does not exist in the company: create it in Asset Categories or choose another.” If the file has no category column, choose a Default Category in the form.

• The file is CSV (comma or semicolon) or XLSX, with a header first line. The column headers are in Portuguese, as below. Designação (name) and Valor de aquisição (acquisition value) are required. Numbers like 1.200,00 or 1200.00; dates like 02/01/2024 or 2024-01-02. Example, with made-up data (each table row is one line of the file; save it with semicolons between columns):

  Código	Designação	Categoria	Data de aquisição	Data de entrada em funcionamento	Valor de aquisição	Valor residual	Vida útil	Depreciação acumulada	Código da taxa	Localização	Fornecedor
  INF-001	Computador portátil	Equipamento administrativo	02/01/2024	02/01/2024	1.200,00	0	4	600,00	2240	Escritório	Fornecedor Beta, SA
  MOB-001	Secretária de escritório	Equipamento administrativo	02/01/2023	02/01/2023	800,00	0	8	300,00	2430	Escritório	Fornecedor Beta, SA
  VIA-001	Carrinha de distribuição	Equipamento de transporte	03/01/2022	03/01/2022	18.000,00	2.000,00	5	12.800,00		Armazém	Fornecedor Beta, SA

  Vida útil (useful life) is in years. Código da taxa (rate code) is the DR 25/2009 code: 2240 (computers) and 2430 (furniture) are from Table II, the generic rates. Table I codes only apply to companies in the sector of each group. Depreciação acumulada (accumulated depreciation) is the previous program's at the migration date (here, at 31/12/2025, with two, three and four full years of straight-line instalments).

• The other columns the assistant recognises, all optional: Custos atribuíveis (attributable costs), Número de períodos (number of periods), Meses por período (months per period), Depreciação fiscal acumulada (accumulated tax depreciation), Vida remanescente (remaining life), Vida remanescente fiscal (remaining tax life), Moeda (currency), and those for assets that have already left: Data de abate (disposal date), Tipo de saída (type of exit: sale, scrapping or casualty) and Valor de realização (realisation value).

How to use it

1. In the asset imports list, click New. In File (CSV or XLSX), click Choose a file and choose the file. Click Validate. (If the file has locations that do not exist yet, see “Before you start”.)
2. Nothing is created at this step. The window shows the counts Lines 3, Valid 3, Errors 0, Duplicates 0 and, line by line, the status and the message. The van, which has no Código da taxa nor a category with a rate, is Valid with the warning “No tax rate (DR 25/2009) in the file nor in the category: the asset is imported without a tax table and the Model 32 cannot compare it with the maximum tax quota. Fill in the rate code on the Tax tab (or the column "Tax rate code" of the file).” A warning does not prevent the import, but deal with it (see “Expected result”). Click Import.
3. The import changes to Imported, with Created 3, and shows, per line, the asset created. The File Fingerprint is stored to recognise the same file later. A completed import is the record: it cannot be changed or deleted.
4. Open each asset, in Accounting › Record › Partners and assets › Fixed assets, and check the Cost, Depreciated so far and Net book value: for the computer, €1,200.00, €600.00 and €600.00. When it is right, click Put in use.

Expected result

• Three assets in the In preparation state, with the code, category and dates from the file (and the vendor and location, when they already existed), and the Depreciated so far field equal to the file's accumulated depreciation. No journal entry was created: the balance of the accumulated depreciation accounts comes from the opening trial balance (see Opening balances).
• On clicking Put in use, the computer became In use, with the accumulated depreciation of €600.00 stored as the starting one; there is no depreciation journal entry yet, which will be generated when depreciation is processed (see Process depreciation).
• Código da taxa: with code 2240 the computer was linked to the rate “[II-2240] Computadores” from the DR 25/2009 table. The Depreciação fiscal acumulada (accumulated tax depreciation) was not in the file and stayed at €0.00, so the asset's tax board starts from zero. Pending validation by a certified accountant: the tax rate to assign to each imported asset and the opening accumulated tax depreciation.
• The import is kept in the import log.

Assets that have already left

With the Data de abate, Tipo de saída and Valor de realização columns filled in, the asset comes in already in the Scrapped state, with the exit date from the file and the note “Left the books in the previous program (imported with the disposal date; no entry is posted here).” In the demo, a fully depreciated €900.00 computer scrapped on 30/06/2025 ended up like this. The disposal does not generate any journal entry: if the sale or scrapping has not yet been accounted for, do it as in Scrap or sell an asset. The Data de abate cannot be in the future (“The disposal date (2030-06-30) is in the future: only exits that already happened are imported.”) or before the acquisition date (“The disposal date (2019-01-01) is before the acquisition date (02/01/2020).”).

Important notes

A completed import cannot be undone

Imported assets can be deleted while they are in preparation (and before they have journal entries), but the import itself is the record and stays. Always validate first and check the counts against the previous program's register before clicking Import.

• The sample file uses Depreciação acumulada, Data de entrada em funcionamento and Código da taxa, which are the names the assistant shows in its messages. The form's help strip says “Amortização acumulada”, “Data de utilização” and “Código DR25”: in the demo, a file with these three headers was also read without errors. For tangible assets, the correct SNC term is depreciation (depreciação).
• Importing the same file again duplicates nothing: the lines are marked Duplicate and skipped.
• A location that does not exist would only be created with Create Missing Locations, which today refuses with the accounting profiles (see “Before you start”).

Common problems

“The location … does not exist”

• Symptom: all lines are Error with “The location "Escritório" does not exist: create it or tick "Create Missing Locations".”
• What to do: ask the administrator to create the locations, or remove the Localização column from the file and validate it in a new import. Create Missing Locations passes validation but refuses on import with the accounting profiles (see “Before you start”).

Lines with errors in the same file

• Symptom: in the demo, a file with 7 lines gave 5 errors and 2 valid (Lines 7, Valid 2, Errors 5): these are the first five messages in the table. The last one appears with a file without the category column:

  Line	Message
  Value “abc”	“"abc" is not a number (column Valor de aquisição): use 1234.56 or 1.234,56.” and “The acquisition value is missing.”
  Depreciation of 1,500 on an asset of 1,000	“The accumulated depreciation (1500.0) is above the depreciable value (1000.0): an asset cannot be depreciated more than 100 %.”
  Category “Mobiliário inexistente”	“The category "Mobiliário inexistente" does not exist in the company: create it in Asset Categories or choose another.”
  No name	“The asset has no name.”
  Entry into operation before acquisition	“The date of entry into operation (02/01/2024) is before the acquisition date (2025-01-02).”
  No category (and no default category)	“The row has no category: fill the column, or choose a default category in the form.”

• What to do: correct the file and validate it in a new import, or import only the valid lines and add the others later in a second file. The Errors and duplicates button shows only the lines that will not go in. On importing, only the valid lines created assets (2 created, the two without errors), and the import became Imported with Created 2.

Duplicate

• Symptom: when validating the same file again, Lines 3, Duplicates 3, and on each line: “The asset already exists (same code, or same name, date and value): it is skipped, so importing the same file twice does not duplicate it.”
• What to do: nothing, if the assets were right. If an imported asset was wrong, delete it while it is in preparation and import the corrected file.

“No tax rate (DR 25/2009)”

• Symptom: the line is Valid with this warning: with no Código da taxa in the file or in the category, the asset comes in without a tax board.
• What to do: fill in the file's Código da taxa column, or open the asset afterwards and choose the rate in the Tax board tab. Pending validation by a certified accountant: choice of the DR 25/2009 rate for each category.

Empty import list

• Symptom: in a company that has not imported anything yet, the list says “No asset imports yet. Cada ficheiro de ativos que importar aparece aqui. Carregue em Novo, escolha o ficheiro e siga os passos para carregar os ativos.” (each asset file you import appears here; click New, choose the file and follow the steps to load the assets).
• What to do: click New.