Depreciation Calculator

Depreciation Calculator builds the schedule for an asset by whichever method you need: straight line, double or 150 per cent declining balance, sum of the years' digits, or units of production. All of them spread the same depreciable amount -- cost less salvage value -- but they spread it very differently, and the schedule shows the book value at every stage.

Straight line is the simplest and the most common: the same charge every year. The declining balance methods front-load it, charging a fixed percentage of the remaining book value, which matches how most equipment actually loses value -- a van is worth far less after its first year than after its fifth. Because a declining balance never reaches zero, the charge here is capped so the book value lands exactly on the salvage value rather than drifting below it.

Units of production ties the charge to use rather than to time, which is the right basis for a machine whose life is measured in output. It needs the total units the asset will produce over its life and the units this period, and it gives a per-unit rate you can apply to any period.

This is arithmetic, not financial advice. It tells you what the numbers do; it cannot tell you whether a decision is right for your circumstances. Fees, taxes and local rules vary, so check anything that matters against the actual offer and speak to someone qualified before committing.

Everything is worked out inside your browser. Nothing you enter is uploaded, logged or stored, which matters for the financial calculators in particular: the figures you put into them are nobody else's business.

• Shows first year charge, average per year, total to depreciate, rate applied and book value at the end together, so you are not running it twice
• A results table you can read across
• Updates as you type, with no button to press and no page reload
• Copy the result in one click
• Download the detail as a .csv for a spreadsheet
• Free, no sign-up, and it runs entirely in your browser

The depreciation calculator is used by writers, developers, students, marketers and anyone else who needs the job done once without installing software. Common cases include:

• Building a depreciation schedule for the accounts
• Comparing straight line with declining balance on the same asset
• Working out the book value of equipment part-way through its life
• Estimating the charge for a machine measured in output