NONMONETARY ASSETS

Assets in which the right to receive a fixed or determinable amount of currency is absent. This feature distinguishes nonmonetary assets from monetary assets such as cash, bank deposits, and accounts and notes receivable, which can be converted into a fixed or determinable amount of currency. Nonmonetary assets include intangible assets such as copyrights and patents, goodwill, inventories, property, plant and equipment.

In some cases, it may not be readily apparent whether an asset is a monetary or nonmonetary one. In such cases, the determining factor is whether it represents an amount that can be settled in or converted into monetary terms in a very short time frame, in which case it is a monetary asset; if it cannot be settled in monetary terms, it is a nonmonetary asset.