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📘 Excel for Finance Course · Lesson 7 of 8

Depreciation is calculated two ways in India: for the books (usually straight-line over useful life, Companies Act) and for income tax (written-down value by block of assets). An Excel register handles both and keeps the history.

Register columns

Asset, Block, Put to use, Cost, SLM life, WDV rate, plus columns per year for depreciation and closing value.

Straight-line (book)

=ROUND([@Cost] / [@[SLM life]], 0)              ' per full year, no residual value
=SLN([@Cost], 0, [@[SLM life]])                 ' same with Excel's function
First-year months:  =DATEDIF(DATE(YEAR([@[Put to use]]), MONTH([@[Put to use]]), 1), FYEnd, "m") + 1
First-year dep:     =ROUND([@Cost] / [@[SLM life]] * Months / 12, 0)

Many companies charge from the month of use (as in the practice file); some use exact days. Follow your accounting policy.

WDV (tax style)

Year's depreciation: =ROUND(Opening WDV * Rate, 0)
Closing WDV:         =Opening WDV - Depreciation
After n full years:  =ROUND([@Cost] * (1 - [@[WDV rate]])^n, 0)

Under the Income-tax Act, assets put to use for less than 180 days in the year of acquisition generally get half the normal rate that year. The server in the practice file (January 2026) gets 40% ÷ 2.

Useful extras

• Block-wise totals with SUMIFS for the schedule in the financial statements.
• Age of each asset: =YEARFRAC([@[Put to use]], FYEnd).
• Disposals: a Sold date and Sale value column, with depreciation stopping after the sale date.

Where people go wrong

More: SLM and WDV depreciation in Excel.

Tax rates, thresholds and rules in this lesson are examples to teach the Excel method. Check current law and your adviser before using figures for filing.

Practice

Download the workbook below. Build each figure in the yellow column of the Practice sheet; the Check column turns green when it matches, and the Answers sheet has a working formula for every task.