Free small business accounting software focuses primarily on assets. Assets can be described as valuable resources owned by a company, which were acquired at a measurable monetary cost. As an economic resource, they satisfy three requirements. First, the resource must be valuable. A resource is valuable if it is cash / convertible to cash; or it can provide future benefits to business operations. Second, the resource must be owned. Possession or control of a resource by the mother would not constitute an asset; it must be property in the legal sense of the term. Finally, the resource must be acquired at a measurable monetary cost. In cases where an asset is not acquired for cash or a promise to pay in cash, the question is how much it would have cost if it had been paid in cash for it.
Assets on the balance sheet are listed in order of liquidity (how quickly they are expected to be converted to cash) or in reverse order, that is, fixity or quotation of the least liquid (fixed) first followed by others. All assets are grouped into categories; that is, assets with similar characteristics are classified into one category. Assets included in one category are different from those in other categories. The standard classification of assets divides them into fixed assets, current assets, investments and other assets.
Fixed assets are fixed in the sense that they are acquired to be kept in business over the long term in order to produce goods and services that cannot be resold. Unlike fixed assets, current assets are short-term in nature. They refer to assets / resources, which are held in the form of cash or are expected to be realized in cash within the accounting period or normal operating cycle of the business. Investments represent the investment of funds in the securities of another company.