You should expense the equipment out as an asset and the other side of the JE will be the liability account (creating the beginig balance). This is a QuickBooks Desktop tutorial on recording the purchase of a capital asset.There are two demonstrations. Consider all costs at time of acquisition or construction. When a fixed asset – such as equipment – is acquired, the bookkeeping process requires a journal entry. When you first purchase new equipment, you need to debit the specific equipment (ie, asset) account. And, credit the account you pay for the asset from.