Skip to main content
Documentation
Documentation
Administrator Guide
Last Updated: 2025-11-14
Capitalize Project Assets

Capitalize Project Assets

A project asset is a container that you use to capture separate transactions from your capital projects in progress. Once you capture all applicable transactions in a project asset, you capitalize it to convert it to 1 or more business assets. You can configure Workday to automatically assign capital project transactions to project assets, reducing manual work.
When you have capital project assets with assigned transactions, you can capitalize those project assets to convert them to business assets and capitalize their associated cost. You can then perform lifecycle events, such as depreciation, on those business assets. See Concept: Asset Accounting Tasks.
Before you capitalize a project asset, consider:
  • You can't pool the assets that you create when you capitalize a project asset to create multiple business assets.
  • You can include business assets tagged with capital project transactions in composite assets, but those business assets are no longer available for further capitalization.
  1. Access the
    Capital Project Workbench
     and select
    Capitalize Project Assets
    .
  2. Complete the
    Search Criteria
     section. Workday displays a list of project assets that match your criteria.
  3. Select the project assets with uncapitalized cost that you want to capitalize.
    As you complete the task, consider:
    Option Description
    Project Asset Quantity
    You can enter the number of business assets you want to create when you capitalize the project asset. Workday creates new business assets based on the quantity that you enter, and divides the capitalized cost equally among them. You can't adjust the asset quantity after you capitalize project assets.
    This field is only available when you access the task from the
    Capital Project Workbench
    .
    Capitalization Date
    You can change the
    Capitalization Date
     to a date in the past or future for any asset that you haven’t yet capitalized. You can now set these dates on the resulting business asset to any day in the past:
    • Business acquisition.
    • Placed in service.
    Example: You acquire an asset, but don't enter it into Workday until a month later. You can back date the
    Capitalization Date
    . This enables you to have accurate acquisition and in service dates after you capitalize the project asset into a business asset.
    Acquisition Adjustment
    Select when you have a previously capitalized project asset with new uncapitalized costs that you want to mark as a post-acquisition cost adjustment.
    Enter an
    Adjustment Date
    .
    Workday divides the cost equally amongst the business assets generated from the same project asset, and uses your selections to determine where on the depreciation schedule to add the post-acquisition cost adjustment. Workday divides the cost by the remaining periods on the asset depreciation profile and the selected date. You can enter any date during the life of the asset.
    When you dispose of a business asset, you can't make cost adjustments to any other business assets that were capitalized from the same project asset.
When you submit the transaction:
  • When you capitalize a project asset, Workday initiates the
    Asset Registration Event
     business process.
    The
    Asset Assign Accounting Event
     step of the business process generates journal entries. These entries move costs out of your WIP accounts and to the business assets. This step displays in My Tasks for the asset accountant.
  • When you recapitalize a project asset, Workday initiates the
    Asset Cost Adjustment Event
     business process.
    This process:
    • Adjusts the acquisition or post-acquisition cost of the corresponding business assets.
    • Applies your decision to approve or deny a cost adjustment to all business assets generated from the same project asset.
    • Generates journal entries to move post-acquisition costs out of your WIP accounts and to the business assets.
If you capitalize a project asset, and you later need to undo the capitalization because you made a mistake, you can remove all of the business assets and move the uncapitalized cost back to the project asset. See Remove Assets.
You can also:
  • Capitalize or recapitalize additional project assets to create acquisition or post-acquisition cost adjustments to the business assets Workday created upon the initial capitalization. Workday divides the new cost equally between the business assets linked to the adjusted project asset.
  • Track the resulting assets. See Concept: Asset Tracking Tasks.
  • Perform lifecycle events for the resulting assets. See Concept: Asset Accounting Tasks.