Free depreciation calculator

Build a year-by-year depreciation schedule in seconds — straight-line, double-declining balance, sum-of-years-digits, or units of production. Enter the cost, salvage value, and useful life, pick a method, and read the book value down to salvage. No sign-up, nothing uploaded.

Straight-Line Depreciation

Spreads cost evenly across the useful life. The most common method for book reporting.

$
$
years
Depreciable base$9,000
Total depreciation$9,000
Straight-line depreciation schedule
YearDepreciationAccumulatedBook value
1$1,800$1,800$8,200
2$1,800$3,600$6,400
3$1,800$5,400$4,600
4$1,800$7,200$2,800
5$1,800$9,000$1,000

Each method answers the same question differently: how fast does an asset lose book value? Straight-line spreads the cost evenly and suits assets that wear out steadily. Declining balance and sum-of-years'-digits front-load depreciation for assets that lose most of their value early. Units of production ties the write-down to actual usage, which fits machinery measured in hours or output.

These are book-depreciation methods for internal reporting. Tax depreciation in the US follows MACRS, which uses fixed IRS percentage tables and property classes — a separate calculation. Use the MACRS depreciation calculator for the tax schedule, or the salvage value calculator to estimate the residual value this schedule writes down to.

Whichever method you use, the schedule is only as good as the asset record behind it. UNIO24 keeps cost, in-service date, useful life, and salvage on each asset and rolls the book value forward automatically, so the numbers come from your register instead of a spreadsheet. See the asset management module for how the data is captured.

Depreciation calculator — common questions

How each method works and which one to use.

  • What is salvage value?

    Salvage value (or residual value) is the estimated amount an asset is worth at the end of its useful life — what you expect to recover by selling or scrapping it. Depreciation only writes down the difference between cost and salvage, so a higher salvage value means less total depreciation.

    What counts as useful life?

    Useful life is how long you expect the asset to be productive, in years. It is an estimate based on usage and experience, not the physical lifespan. Shorter useful life means faster depreciation each year.

Want book value tracked automatically across every asset? Talk to sales

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