Useful life definition including break down of areas in the definition. Analyzing the definition of key term often provides more insight about concepts. Useful life can be defined as: Length of time an asset will be productively used in the operations of a business; also called service life or limited life. Useful life is how long a fixed asset will be used or useful life is the estimated life of an asset. Useful life is used in calculating deprecation, depreciation being an estimate of cost to be allocated over the assets useful life in accordance with the accrual matching principle.
