Agent in a Box

Autonomous Fixed Asset Lifecycle & Depreciation Agent

finance

Autonomous Fixed Asset Lifecycle & Depreciation Agent

Problem Statement

For mid-market startups and manufacturing firms, managing the fixed asset lifecycle is a manual, error-prone process that often leads to significant "ghost assets" and "plug numbers" in the balance sheet. Currently, when a company purchases equipment, furniture, or high-end hardware, the finance team must manually extract data from invoices, determine the correct asset class (e.g., 5-year vs. 7-year property), assign a depreciation method (Straight Line, MACRS, Double Declining Balance), and track its physical location.

The specific pain point arises during the "mid-life" of an asset. Changes in business operations often lead to assets being moved, sold, or scrapped without notifying the accounting department. This results in companies paying insurance premiums and property taxes on assets they no longer own. Furthermore, manual entry into ERPs often misses bonus depreciation opportunities or fails to align book depreciation with tax depreciation, leading to massive reconciliation hurdles during year-end audits. For a company with 500+ assets, a 2% error rate in depreciation calculations or asset tracking can result in six-figure discrepancies, increased audit fees, and potential tax penalties. Existing ERP modules are often too rigid, requiring manual triggers for every disposal or impairment, which leads to data decay.

What the Agent Does/Doesn't Do

Does:

  • Automatically scans procurement systems and credit card statements to identify new capital expenditures (CapEx).
  • Classifies assets into GAAP/IFRS categories and assigns useful life based on company policy.
  • Calculates monthly depreciation schedules and flags assets nearing the end of their useful life.
  • Cross-references physical location data (from IT asset managers or warehouse logs) to detect potential "ghost assets."
  • Generates journal entries for monthly closers and prepares disposal documentation.

Doesn't:

  • Physically tag assets with RFID or barcodes (requires human intervention).
  • Make final legal decisions on asset impairment (provides recommendations only).
  • Manage intangible assets like patents or goodwill (focuses on tangible fixed assets).

Workflow

  1. CapEx Identification: The agent monitors NetSuite or QuickBooks and linked OCR tools to detect new purchases exceeding the capitalization threshold (e.g., >$2,500). This process is similar to Automated B2B Invoice Reconciliation & Dispute Agent.
    • Input: Invoice PDF, Purchase Order, GL Transaction log.
    • Output: Draft Asset Record.
  2. Classification & Schedule Generation: Using LLM-based analysis of the invoice description, the agent assigns an asset category and generates a full depreciation schedule.
    • Input: Draft Asset Record + Company Accounting Policy.
    • Output: Depreciation table (Date, Opening Balance, Depreciation Expense, Accumulated Depreciation).
  3. Cross-System Verification: The agent queries IT management tools (e.g., Kandji, Jamf) or facility logs to verify the asset is "active" and check its current location.
    • Input: Serial numbers or employee assignments.
    • Output: Verification status report.
  4. Monthly Journal Entry (JE) Staging: At month-end, the agent sums the depreciation expense across the registry and prepares a JE for review. For broader financial oversight, see the Autonomous Executive Insight & Anomaly Detection Agent.
    • Input: Current month depreciation schedules.
    • Output: CSV/API-ready Journal Entry.
  5. Disposal & Impairment Alerting: The agent flags assets that haven't been "seen" on the network or in logs for 90 days, suggesting a disposal or impairment review.
    • Input: Activity logs.
    • Output: Exception report for the Controller.

Success Metrics

  • Accuracy: 100% variance-free reconciliation between the Fixed Asset Sub-ledger and the General Ledger.
  • Efficiency: Reduction in time spent on fixed asset month-end closing from days to minutes.
  • Tax Savings: Identification of 100% of eligible Section 179 or bonus depreciation assets.
  • Audit Readiness: Zero "material weaknesses" found during external audits regarding fixed asset existence.

Tool Stack

  • NetSuite - Enterprise ERP for managing the fixed asset sub-ledger and general ledger.
  • QuickBooks Online - Accounting software for small to mid-sized business asset tracking.
  • AWS Textract - OCR and data extraction for processing asset purchase invoices.
  • Rossum - AI-powered document extraction for complex invoice layouts.
  • Make.com - Workflow orchestration engine.
  • LangChain (LangSmith) - LLM orchestration and monitoring for asset classification.
    • Pricing: Plus Plan $39/seat/month; Free tier available (Pricing) ✓ Verified 2026-01-11
  • Airtable - Shadow asset registry and collaborative database.
  • PostgreSQL - Relational database for high-volume asset logs.
    • Pricing: AWS RDS ~$0.10/vCPU-hr; Neon $0/mo free tier (Pricing) ✓ Verified 2026-02-25
    • Documentation
  • Kandji / Jamf - IT asset management for physical verification.
    • Kandji Pricing: $3.20 - $8.00 per device/month (Pricing) ✓ Verified 2026-02-25
    • Jamf Pricing: $4.00 - $12.50 per device/month (Pricing) ✓ Verified 2026-02-25
  • Slack - Communication for disposal approvals and anomaly alerts.
    • Pricing: Pro $7.25/user/mo; Business+ $12.50/user/mo (Pricing) ✓ Verified 2026-02-25
    • Documentation

Quick Integration

NetSuite Fixed Asset Creation

import requests
import uuid

# NetSuite REST API Configuration
ACCOUNT_ID = 'YOUR_NETSUITE_ACCOUNT_ID'
BASE_URL = f'https://{ACCOUNT_ID.lower().replace("_", "-")}.suitetalk.api.netsuite.com/services/rest/record/v1'

headers = {
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
    'Authorization': 'Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN',
    'X-NetSuite-Idempotency-Key': str(uuid.uuid4())
}

asset_data = {
    "custrecord_assetname": "Industrial CNC Machine - Unit 4",
    "custrecord_assetcost": 55000.00,
    "custrecord_assetpurchasedate": "2023-10-27",
    "custrecord_assetdepremethod": {"id": "1"} # e.g., Straight Line
}

def create_fixed_asset():
    url = f"{BASE_URL}/customrecord_ncfar_asset"
    response = requests.post(url, headers=headers, json=asset_data)
    return response.json()

Source: NetSuite API Reference

AWS Textract Invoice Extraction

import boto3

textract = boto3.client('textract', region_name='us-east-1')

def extract_invoice_data(file_path):
    with open(file_path, 'rb') as document:
        image_bytes = document.read()
    response = textract.analyze_expense(Document={'Bytes': image_bytes})
    for expense_doc in response['ExpenseDocuments']:
        for field in expense_doc['SummaryFields']:
            label = field.get('Type', {}).get('Text', 'Unknown')
            value = field.get('ValueDetection', {}).get('Text', 'N/A')
            if label in ['TOTAL', 'INVOICE_RECEIPT_DATE', 'VENDOR_NAME']:
                print(f"{label}: {value}")

Source: AWS Textract Docs

Real-World Examples

Paguyuban Tirta Arcamanik Endah analyzed 2 years of financial report data to determine the impact of depreciation methods on profitability variables, highlighting the critical nature of method selection. Read case study

Keywords: Fixed Asset Lifecycle, Depreciation Method, Bonus Depreciation, Depreciation Calculations, Depreciation Schedules, GAAP, IFRS, CapEx Automation, Ghost Assets.

Today's Date: 2026-02-25

Implementation Details

⏱️ Deploy Time: 45–60 minutes (n8n, intermediate)

✅ Success Checklist

  • OCR successfully extracts 'Total Amount' and 'Description' from invoice PDFs
  • LLM correctly classifies asset category (e.g., 'Computer Equipment') based on description
  • Depreciation schedule generates 60 monthly rows for a 5-year asset
  • Airtable 'Fixed Asset Registry' is updated with the new record and schedule
  • Slack notification triggers for assets exceeding the capitalization threshold
  • Journal Entry CSV is formatted correctly for ERP import

⚠️ Known Limitations

  • Does not handle mid-month convention logic automatically (defaults to full-month depreciation)
  • Requires manual mapping of GL account codes to asset categories during initial setup
  • LLM classification may require human review for ambiguous items like 'Lab Supplies' vs 'Lab Equipment'
  • Physical location verification depends on serial number consistency between invoice and IT management tools