of specific assets within a class or all assets within a specific location. A manufacturing company may have its manufacturing facilities spread over different locations. Suppose it decides to undertake a revaluation of its plant and machinery. Selective revaluation will mean revaluing specific assets (such as the boiler, heater, central air-conditioning system) at all locations, or revaluing all items of Plant and Machinery at a particular location only. Such revaluation will lead to unrepresentative amounts being shown in the fixed asset register (FAR). In case of revaluation of specific assets of a class, while some assets will be shown at a revalued amount others will be shown at historical cost. The same will happen in case of revaluation of all assets of plant and machinery at a particular location only. It is not consistent to value and depreciate fixed assets using different bases. Therefore, selective revaluation is generally not considered best practice. Preliminary considerations Revaluation will typically require liaison between the company's Production Department, Accounts Department, Technical Department, and external appraisers. To commission the project they should set out their conclusions to the following questions: Why is the revaluation necessary? What is the most suitable method, taking into account the type of fixed assets, statutory requirements, availability of required information? Should the values arrived at by one method be crosschecked with the values derived from another method? What assets are to be revalued? What is the period within which the revaluation has to be completed? What guidelines should be laid down for the revaluation? What modifications will be required in the FAR to show revalued figures in place of historical figures? Similarly, depreciation will be computed twice. One takes into account the historical cost, and the other as per revalued figures. Upward revaluation The FASB in the U.S. does not allow upward revaluation of fixed assets to reflect fair market values although it is compulsory to account for impairment costs in fixed assets (downward revaluation of fixed assets) as per FASB Statement No. 144, Accounting for the Impairment or Disposal of Long-Lived Assets. In other countries, upward revaluation is mainly done for fixed assets such as land, and real estate whose value keeps rising from year to year. It seems the concept of upward revaluation of fixed assets such as real estate has not been widely welcomed by a majority of companies in USA on account of fear of paying