Equipment Tagging and Inventory
Any purchase that meet the criteria of equipment (including IT Equipment) will be tagged by the Property Office staff, or by arrangement with a department.
Exceptions to Equipment Tagging and Inventory
- Equipment items that are attached to a building or structure are considered fixed equipment and are no longer movable. As such, these items are treated as fixtures, or building/land improvement that do not require tagging or tracking (Inventory). Examples include window air conditioning, water heaters, ceiling projectors, large wall or ceiling mounted TVs, antennas, fume hoods, dishwashers, security cameras, internal components like motors, IT switches, etc...
- Equipment too small, sensitive, or impractical to tag. These are often found in research and high-tech areas.
Equipment Inventory
All tagged equipment is recorded in the Asset Management system. Inventory observations may be conducted by Property Office staff or by department equipment coordinators. Select departments with highly centralized IT functions will be responsible for tagging, recording and tracking their computers. Highly centralized functions include; purchasing, central receiving, loading application software, maintaining equipment, and maintaining an equipment tracking database.
Equipment Acquisition
Departments order equipment items as allowed in their budgets. When an item is ordered, a Purchase Order is generated with a specified equipment account code assigned to it. A list of Equipment account codes are available at
http://www.umass.edu/controller/sites/default/files/Expenditure_Classification_Handbook.pdf
The account code identifies the purchase as equipment. The same equipment account code should be used for costs related to shipping, setup, in-transit insurance and any other related parts or component units.
Department heads, or authorized staff, have overall responsibility to approve equipment purchases and to verify that items ordered have been received.
Before an item is recorded in the Asset Management system, Property Office staff go out to departments to view each item, and tag equipment with a barcode. The process of determining when items are tagged is based on incoming volume and item location. Tagging items is a perpetual process with timing dependent on item location and department contact person’s availability. Due to the size of the Amherst campus and the diverse needs and use of each department, the campus does not mandate use of the central receiving department. Self-tagging departments report equipment details to Property Management.
Donated Equipment
All equipment donations “Gifts in Kind” are recorded by the Development Office and reported annual to the Controller’s Office for possible tagging and tracking. Items that meet the campus criteria will be capitalized and booked into the Asset Management system.
