0 Asset characteristics

Assets have three essential characteristics:

The probable future benefit involves a capacity, singly or in combination with other assets, in the case of profit oriented enterprises, to contribute directly or indirectly to future net cash flows, and, in the case of not-for-profit organizations, to provide services;
The entity can control access to the benefit;
The transaction or event giving rise to the entity's right to, or control of, the benefit has already occurred.
It is not necessary, in the financial accounting sense of the term, for control of assets to the benefit to be legally enforceable for a resource to be an asset, provided the entity can control its use by other means.

It is important to understand that in an accounting sense an asset is not the same as ownership. In accounting, ownership is described by the term "equity," (see the related term shareholders' equity). Assets are equal to "equity" plus "liabilities."

The accounting equation relates assets, liabilities, and owner's equity:

Assets = Liabilities + Owners' Equity
The accounting equation is the mathematical structure of the balance sheet.

Assets are usually listed on the balance sheet. It has a normal balance, or usual balance, of debit (i.e., asset account amounts appear on the left side of a ledger).

Similarly, in economics an asset is any form in which wealth can be held.

Probably the most accepted accounting definition of asset is the one used by the International Accounting Standards Board [1]. The following is a quotation from the IFRS Framework: "An asset is a resource controlled by the enterprise as a result of past events and from which future economic benefits are expected to flow to the enterprise."

Assets are formally controlled and managed within larger organizations via the use of asset tracking tools. These monitor the purchasing, upgrading, servicing, licensing, disposal etc., of both physical and non-physical assets.