Generally, a depreciation forecast is only realistic when it also includes the affects of planned capital investments, in addition to capitalized assets.

The integration of the IM component with Asset Accounting (FI-AA) means that you can include planned capital investments in the simulation, along with the capitalized assets of the FI-AA component. These planned investments can be in the form of:

You need to enter the appropriate depreciation terms in order to simulate the depreciation of planned investments. You specify the depreciation terms and the planned start-up date in the master data of the planned capital investment (for orders on the Investments tab page, for WBS elements and maintenance orders under Extras).

The system uses either the budget or plan values as the APC for planned capital investments. You make this choice when you start the report. If the simulation is based on plan values, you can also enter the plan version to be used. The system determines the expected depreciation based on these entries, and on the plan or budget values.

Using percentage distribution rules, you can distribute simulated depreciation for a planned capital investment to the following:

• Cost centers
• Asset classes
• Start-up dates (for example, 50 % in the year of approval, 30 % in the first year after, 20 % in the second year after)

You can also define distribution rules with equivalence numbers or amounts (IM Customizing: Master Data ® Define Investment Profile).

When you distribute according to asset classes, you can specify different depreciation terms for each part of the distribution. However, you can also use an indicator in the investment profile to specify that the system should keep the depreciation terms and depreciation start date of the parts of the distribution uniform per asset class. This applies to orders, WBS elements, and appropriation requests. By using these indicators, you can reduce the amount of maintenance needed for changes. The system automatically makes sure that a change to the depreciation terms in one part of the distribution is also carried out for all the other parts in an asset class.

There is a danger that assets and those investments that are already completed in the fiscal year being simulated could be counted twice in the forecast, once as plan values of measures or appropriation requests, and again as part of capitalized fixed assets. In order to prevent this from happening, the system provides two options for setting the depreciation base for the simulation.

The simulation simulates fixed assets using their values as of the start of the fiscal year. The following are therefore not included in the depreciation simulation:

• All capitalizations that took place in the current fiscal year
• Retirements, transfers, and direct capitalizations that took place in the current year
• Measures that have a start-up date prior to the current year (regardless of their status), because their values should already be included as part of fixed assets
• Measures and appropriation requests that have Rejected or Replaced by measure status, because the system assumes they are no longer relevant or are represented in the system by appropriate measures

However, the simulation does include the plan values of measures and appropriation requests that have a start-up date in the current year or later, even if they have Closed or Deletion flag set status. The system bases this decision on the situation at the start of the fiscal year, since these statuses could not have been active at that time.

The current value of fixed assets is used for the simulation. This means all capitalizations made in the current fiscal year are included.

In order to prevent both plan values and capitalized values from being counted at the same time, the system reduces the planned depreciation values by the amount of the actual settlements that have already taken place.

The simulation does not include measures and appropriation requests that have Closed or Deletion flag set status. The system assumes that their values are already a part of fixed assets.

The simulation also does not include measures and appropriation requests that have Rejected or Replaced by measure status. Here the assumption is that their values are no longer needed, or they were replaced by an appropriate measure.

For more information on the determination of the depreciation base for depreciation simulation, refer to: