If I have an asset that is depreciated monthly with a start date of 1/1/2020 with a lifetime of 48 months, why does the end date come out to be 1/1/2024 instead of 12/31/2023? If calculated monthly the last depreciation should be in December 2023, but the leap year is moving a day into the next year.

AI generated answer (using internal Slack threads):

The reason the end date comes out to be 1/1/2024 instead of 12/31/2023 is due to the way NetSuite calculates depreciation. NetSuite uses the 'month-end' convention for depreciation calculations. This means that regardless of the day of the month when the asset was acquired, the system considers the asset to have been in service for the entire month. For example, if an asset is acquired on January 1, 2020, and has a lifetime of 48 months, the system will calculate depreciation for each month until the end of December 2023. However, since the system uses the 'month-end' convention, the last depreciation entry will be made on January 1, 2024, effectively moving the end date into the next year. This is standard practice in many accounting systems, not just NetSuite. The idea is to simplify the calculation and reporting of depreciation by always using the end of the month as the reference point. ****** Disclaimer: This response was generated by an artificial intelligence assistant based on previous conversations from multiple Slack channels, and may contain inaccuracies or mistakes. ******