NetAsset - Tax Engine: Sage Cutover
Sage Fixed Assets or FAS is a common tool used by clients who are migrating to NetAsset. Sage utilizes a unique naming convention for their methods. This article is meant to help understand what those terms used mean in order to assist with the mapping and assignment of Netgain depreciation methods to assets coming from Sage.
Sage Fixed Asset (FAS) Depreciation Conventions
Sage utilizes a combination of multiple fields to calculate the end method used for depreciation. Examples are MA200 Half-Year or MF150 Mid-Quarter.
| Method Code | Meaning |
| MA | MACRS Formula + §168 Bonus Deprecation |
| MF | MACRS Formula |
| AD | ADS Formula -> Straight Line (Difference is that AD in Sage has specific MM and HY options defaulted) |
| SF | Straight Line, Full Month (standard book method) |
| SL | Straight Line, Mid Month |
§179 Bonus Depreciation
In Sage, whether an asset has 179 bonus depreciation is not indicated in the Method, but on a specific "179 Deduction" line on the asset. Make sure to factor that into the cutover as a direct mapping from the 179 field from Sage to the 179 field on the NetAsset Asset record.
§168 Bonus Depreciation
The Method used indicates if the asset is eligible to take 168 bonus depreciation but the actual percentage applied and therefore amount taken is entered on a specific "168 Allowance %" field on the asset record. this should be mapped directly to the 168% field on the NetAsset Asset record.
The Code determines the deprecation method used high level. The "Suffix" or number following the code determines the acceleration percentage. All acceleration percentage calculations flip to straight-line when that is the higher deprecation option.
| Suffix Percentage | Meaning |
| 200 | Standard MACRS 200% declining balance |
| 150 | MACRS 150% declining balance |
| 100 | Straight Line (no acceleration) |
The next factor is the depreciation convention - mid month, mid quarter, half year, etc. The convention is stored in the Sage Property code for defaulting and gets overridden for specific property codes when the mid-quarter convention test is ran. It is typically not visible on the asset record screen but can be exported.
| Convention | Meaning |
| HY | Half Year |
| MQ | Mid Quarter |
| MM | Mid Month |
| FM | Full Month |
The last piece of information used by Sage is the Asset Life/Estimated Life of Asset. This is defaulted in by the Property Type as well and is restricted based off the Method.
Allowed year options for MACRS are:
- 3, 5, 7, 10, 15, 20, 25 years for personal property
- 27.5, 31.5, 39, 40, 50 years for real property
Sage Example
You can see in the below example that these different inputs all have their own lines. For the Tax book, the asset is depreciating as Personal Property for 5 years using the MACRS 200% declining balance method with 168 bonus deprecation. No 179 bonus depreciation has been taken. The asset is taking 100% 168 bonus depreciation in the first year.
Mapping Sage Depreciation to Netgain Methods
Netgain takes a different approach to assigning depreciation methods and combines most of the Sage elements into a single assigned depreciation method.
Because tax tables for MACRS methods are explicit, they are pre-created for all common options and can be created for the uncommon options. The MACRS and Real Property (27.5 and 39 year) depreciation methods can be downloaded into your account using the tool outlined in the NetAsset - Tax Import Depreciation Method Import Tool article.
The methods in Netgain are specific to the time in service since that affects the tax table calculations, so there is a method for every month for the real property methods and half year and quarters for personal property. The NetAsset Tax Engine will auto-assign the depreciation methods for assets on an ongoing basis based on the in-service date, but mapping should be done for all assets being imported into NetAsset on implementation.
Real Property
You will need to pull the In-Service date and Estimated Life from your Sage Asset list and use that to then v-lookup which depreciation method to use.
The Netgain options are "27.5 Year January", "27.5 Year February", "27.5 Year March", etc.
The SL, Mid Month, and depreciable life are all built into the method itself.
Personal Property
Section 168 and 179 bonus depreciation are entered globally or with the worksheets in NetAsset, so that does not factor into the Netgain Depreciation Method mapping (aka we don't care about MA vs MF).
The "MACRS" methods that are downloaded out of the box are the equivalent of MA200 and MF200. The "MACRS 150%" methods are the equivalent of MA150 and MF150. You will need to use the Convention, Estimated Life, and In-Service date from the Sage assets to then map to the correct method.
Examples:
| Sage Exports | Netgain Depreciation Method |
| MA200, HY, 12/15/2026, 5yr | MACRS 5-Year Half Year |
| MF200, MQ, 12/15/2026, 5yr | MACRS 5-Year 4th Quarter |
| MF100, MM, 4/1/2026, 27.5yr | 27.5 Year April |
| MF150, HY, 12/15/2026, 5yr | MACRS 150% 5-Year Half Year |
| AD, HY, 4/1/2026, 9yr | ADS Straight Line Half Year (need to enter and verify the Useful Life is correct since this method is formula based instead of table based) |
ADS Callout
Netgain currently has limited out of the box options for ADS depreciation methods. The normal Straight Line depreciation method can be used for Full Month conventions. The ADS Straight Line Half Year depreciation method can be used for Half Year conventions.
These methods are all formula based and will rely on the Useful Life at In-Service field to determine the depreciation term. Note that Common ADS lives are 5, 6, 9, 10, 12, 15, 20, 30, 40.
Half Year ADS Note
The "Useful Life at In-Service" field will need to be entered in as the life+1 for any half year conventions since the last "half" occurs in an additional year.
The Mid Quarter convention is not currently supported out of the box. Hardcoded depreciation tables will need to be created for each quarter and useful life similar to the Mid-Quarter methods for MACRS.