The quick answer
Go to Fixed Assets > Transactions > Asset Disposal. Set Disposal Type to Sale or Write-off and enter a Disposal Date that isn't earlier than the asset's last depreciation date and falls in an open period. For a sale, pick the Customer, a Sale Item set up for selling assets, and enter a Sales Amount on the line. Add the asset in Disposal Details, click Add, then Dispose, and refresh FAM Process Status until the Asset Disposal process is Completed. The asset becomes Disposed with a net book value of 0.00, FAM posts a disposal journal, and a sale also creates a customer invoice. Use Fixed Assets > Setup > Delete Assets only for an asset record created by mistake. It removes the FAM asset record and posts no journal.
The screenshots show sample data. The company, user, customer and asset names are fictional. Use your own assets when following the steps.
Before you start
Larkspur Cabinetry Co. has four assets in its Larkspur Cabinetry Co. : Vermont subsidiary. A forklift (cost 31,200.00, 60 months from 01/01/2026) and a laptop (cost 2,160.00, 36 months) are Depreciating, with depreciation posted through 09/30/2026. The forklift is being sold to a used-equipment dealer for 28,000.00. The laptop was stolen. There are also two identical pallet jacks at 3,200.00: one bill line was generated into an asset twice, and FAM000074 is the duplicate.
You need Fixed Assets Management installed and a role that can run Asset Disposal, Delete Assets and the Proposal History search. Menus and permissions vary by role and FAM version, so test with the role that will do the work.
For a sale, set up a non-inventory item for sale or resale that's available to the asset's subsidiary. The Sale Item list isn't filtered to disposal items, so pick the right one. The invoice credits that item's income account with the sale proceeds. Also check the asset's Accounts subtab. The disposal journal removes the asset's cost and accumulated depreciation and charges the remaining book value to the Disposal Cost Account for a sale, or the Write Off Account for a write-off.
Disposal and delete do different jobs. Disposal keeps the asset record, its depreciation history and a journal as the audit trail. Delete removes the FAM asset record and posts nothing, so it's only for a record that shouldn't exist. Decide which one you need before you touch anything.
01. Review the assets on the asset list
Go to Fixed Assets > Lists > Assets. FAM000071 Forklift - Yard 2 (Shop Equipment, 31,200.00) and FAM000072 Laptop - Estimating 3 (Computer Equipment, 2,160.00) are Depreciating, quantity 1. FAM000073 and FAM000074 are both Pallet Jack - Receiving, 3,200.00 and New. FAM000074 is the duplicate.
02. Sell the forklift on Asset Sale/Disposal
Go to Fixed Assets > Transactions > Asset Disposal. The page is Asset Sale/Disposal. Set Disposal Type to Sale and Disposal Date to 10/05/2026. In Customer, select Granite Ridge Equipment Exchange, and in Sale Item, select Fixed Asset Sale.
In Disposal Details, select FAM000071 Forklift - Yard 2 in Asset ID/Name. The line shows Current Cost 31,200.00, Current Book Value 26,520.00 (nine months at 520.00 taken off), Last Depreciation Date 09/30/2026, Quantity 1 and Quantity To Dispose 1. Location comes from the asset. Enter 28,000.00 in Sales Amount and click Add.
For a full disposal, leave Quantity To Dispose at the asset's quantity. On an asset with a quantity above 1, a smaller number is a partial disposal and leaves the rest in place.
Click Dispose. NetSuite opens FAM Process Status with a new Asset Disposal process. Click Refresh until it's Completed, then click Details. In this example, stage 1/5, Dispose Assets, shows DHR and journal entries written: 1 (DHR is a depreciation history record), Invoices written: 1 and Assets disposed: 1. Stage 3/5 deleted the forklift's unposted forecast depreciation rows.
Stage names and counts depend on your FAM version and setup. Treat them as a diagnostic and check the asset and the journal.
03. Check the sold forklift, its invoice and its journal
Go to Fixed Assets > Lists > Assets and click View on FAM000071. Asset Status is Disposed and Current Net Book Value is 0.00. Cumulative Depreciation now shows 31,200.00, the amount that brings book value to zero. That isn't extra depreciation expense. On the Accounts subtab, Disposal Cost Account is Gain (Loss) on Disposal of Assets.
Click the Asset Sale/Disposal subtab. It shows Disposal Item Fixed Asset Sale, Disposal Date 10/05/2026, Disposal Type Sale, Customer Granite Ridge Equipment Exchange, Sales Amount 28,000.00 and Sales Invoice INV2087.
Click INV2087. The invoice, Open in this example, to Granite Ridge Equipment Exchange is dated 10/05/2026 with the memo Invoice for Asset Disposal, and its Total is 28,000.00. Tax or shipping on the invoice would change that total. Click Back.
Click the Depreciation History subtab, then Depreciation Histories. The nine posted 520.00 depreciation rows are still there. On 10/05/2026 FAM added a Sale row for 31,200.00 with Net Book Value 0.00, and a Depreciation row for -4,680.00 that removes the accumulated depreciation. Both have Posting Reference Journal #JE3655. The negative row isn't extra depreciation expense.
Click Journal #JE3655. It debits 1525 Accumulated Depreciation 4,680.00 and 7150 Gain (Loss) on Disposal of Assets 26,520.00, and credits 1520 Shop Equipment 31,200.00. The invoice brings in 28,000.00 against the 26,520.00 net book value, so the sale is a 1,480.00 gain.
The invoice is a separate transaction: it debits Accounts Receivable and credits the sale item's income account. The 1,480.00 gain shows in one account here only because the Fixed Asset Sale item's income account is the same Gain (Loss) on Disposal of Assets account. If your sale item posts somewhere else, the proceeds and the book value land in different accounts, and you'll need to report the two together.
04. Write off the stolen laptop
Go back to Fixed Assets > Transactions > Asset Disposal. Set Disposal Type to Write-off. Customer and Sale Item stay unavailable, and there's no Sales Amount to enter. Set Disposal Date to 10/05/2026 and select FAM000072 Laptop - Estimating 3. The line shows Current Cost 2,160.00 and Current Book Value 1,620.00. Click Add, then Dispose, and refresh FAM Process Status until the new Asset Disposal process is Completed.
View FAM000072 from the asset list. It's Disposed with a Current Net Book Value of 0.00. Its depreciation history shows a Disposal row for 2,160.00 and a Depreciation row for -540.00 on 10/05/2026, both on Journal #JE3656.
Click Journal #JE3656. It debits 1545 Accumulated Depreciation 540.00 and 7160 Asset Write-offs 1,620.00, and credits 1540 Computer Equipment 2,160.00. The whole 1,620.00 book value is a loss, because nothing came in.
05. Try to delete the duplicate pallet jack
FAM000074 is a real FAM record, but it doesn't represent a second pallet jack, so disposing of it would be wrong. A disposal would post a journal and leave a Disposed record for equipment the business never had. Delete Assets is the tool for this.
Go to Fixed Assets > Setup > Delete Assets. The page is Delete Invalid Assets. In Asset Details, select FAM000074 Pallet Jack - Receiving in Asset ID/Name. The line shows Current Cost 3,200.00, Net Book Value 3,200.00, Asset Status New, Asset Type Shop Equipment and Date Created 10/02/2026. Click Add, then Delete.
On FAM Process Status, click Refresh. The Delete Assets process finishes Completed with Errors, with Errors: 1 in the Errors column.
Click Errors: 1. Stage 1/3, Validate Assets, logged "ASSET_HAS_PROPOSAL: These assets are associated to a proposal record." for Asset: 74. FAM000074 still has the proposal it was generated from, so nothing was deleted. Completed with Errors isn't a partial success; check the error before you retry.
06. Delete the proposal, then delete the asset again
Before you delete a proposal, make sure the asset really is a duplicate and not a second unit of a multi-quantity bill line. Also check that the proposal you keep still covers the bill line. Deleting a proposal can make the bill line eligible for Asset Proposal again, so don't rerun Asset Proposal on that bill unless you want another asset.
Go to Fixed Assets > Searches > Proposal History (menus vary by role). The results page is FAM Asset List Created From Proposals: Results. FAM000073 and FAM000074 both come from Bill 09/28/2026. Click Edit on the FAM000074 row.
The FAM Asset Proposal opens with Asset FAM000074 Pallet Jack - Receiving and Source Transaction Bill 09/28/2026. Click Actions > Delete and click OK to confirm.
Back on the Proposal History results, only FAM000073's proposal remains for that bill.
Go to Fixed Assets > Setup > Delete Assets again, select FAM000074 Pallet Jack - Receiving, click Add, then Delete. Refresh FAM Process Status until the new Delete Assets process is Completed with no errors.
07. Confirm the result on the asset list
Go to Fixed Assets > Lists > Assets. FAM000074 is gone and the list has three assets. FAM000071 and FAM000072 are still listed with Asset Status Disposed and Quantity 0, so their history and journals stay available. FAM000073 Pallet Jack - Receiving is still New. Deleting the asset doesn't change the vendor bill or its posting.
Check the result
- FAM000071 and FAM000072 show Asset Status Disposed and quantity 0 on the asset list, and Current Net Book Value 0.00 on their records.
- The forklift's Asset Sale/Disposal subtab names the customer, the 28,000.00 sales amount and invoice INV2087.
- JE3655 and JE3656 remove each asset's cost and accumulated depreciation and charge the book value to the Disposal Cost Account or the Write Off Account.
- The second Delete Assets process is Completed with no errors.
- FAM000074 is no longer on the asset list, and FAM000073 is still New.
The Disposal Date can't be earlier than the asset's last depreciation date. If an asset should already have depreciation for earlier periods, check its schedule and run that depreciation before you dispose of it. A depreciation run can include other assets, so check its scope first. For the monthly run and its journal, see how to run fixed asset depreciation and check the journal.
Common questions
Should I dispose of a fixed asset or delete it in NetSuite?
Dispose of it when something actually happened to the asset: you sold it, scrapped it or lost it. Asset Disposal keeps the record, adds the disposal to its depreciation history and posts a journal. Delete Assets is only for an asset record that shouldn't exist, like a duplicate generated twice from the same bill line. It removes the record and posts nothing.
What journal entry does FAM create when an asset is sold or written off?
The journal debits Accumulated Depreciation, credits the asset account for the cost, and debits the remaining book value to the Disposal Cost Account for a sale or the Write Off Account for a write-off. In this example the forklift sale debited 4,680.00 and 26,520.00 and credited 31,200.00. The laptop write-off debited 540.00 and 1,620.00 and credited 2,160.00.
How is the gain or loss on a fixed asset sale calculated?
It's the sales amount minus the net book value on the disposal date. The forklift's book value was 26,520.00 and it sold for 28,000.00, so the gain was 1,480.00. The invoice credits the sale item's income account, so the gain only nets in one account when that account is the same as the Disposal Cost Account, as it was here.
Why does depreciation history show a negative depreciation row after a disposal?
That row removes the accumulated depreciation from the asset. It isn't extra expense. The forklift got a Sale row for its 31,200.00 cost and a -4,680.00 Depreciation row on the same journal, which brings net book value to 0.00. Unposted forecast rows are deleted, because the asset won't depreciate any more.
Where do I see the invoice created by a FAM asset sale?
Open the asset and click the Asset Sale/Disposal subtab. Sales Invoice links to it, along with the customer, sale item and sales amount. Here it was INV2087 for 28,000.00.
What does ASSET_HAS_PROPOSAL mean when deleting a FAM asset?
The asset still has the proposal record it was generated from, so Delete Assets refuses it and logs the error on FAM Process Status. Find the proposal on Fixed Assets > Searches > Proposal History, open it with Edit, use Actions > Delete, then run Delete Assets again. Check first that the asset really is a duplicate.
Can I dispose of only part of an asset?
Yes, if the asset's quantity is more than 1. Enter a smaller Quantity To Dispose on the disposal line, and the rest of the quantity stays on the asset. On a quantity-1 asset, dispose of the whole thing.
Can I backdate a disposal or undo one?
The Disposal Date can't be earlier than the asset's last depreciation date, and its posting period has to be open. This walkthrough doesn't cover reversing a disposal, so check the asset, date, customer and amount before you click Dispose. If a disposal is wrong, fix it through your normal correction process. Don't delete the disposed asset.