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VOLUME: I POLICIES RELATED TO ACCOUNTING ADMINISTRATION
SUBJECT: Capital Movable Asset Physical Inventories, Tagging and Location Changes
SOURCE: Financial Management Services, OMB Circular A110
DATE ISSUED: July 1992; July 2002; August 2007; Revised April 2008
POLICY NO.: I-170
RATIONALE: Physical inventories and tagging are completed to secure university capital assets, to verify location for compliance with OMB Circular A110 and to assist organizations with effective management of capital equipment.
POLICY: “A physical inventory of equipment shall be taken and the results reconciled with the equipment records at least once every two years. Any differences between quantities determined by the physical inspection and those shown in the accounting records must be investigated to determine the causes of the difference.” (Reference U.S. Office of Management and Budges: Circular A110 ) *See Note 1

Upon completion of the physical inventory process certification letters must be signed by the Fiscal Officer and sent to the University Capital Asset Office prior to June 30th of the scheduled inventory year.

All capital movable assets located in university owned or leased buildings, purchased through the university financial system, or used in university research projects is deemed to be in the custody of the university, regardless of who ultimately retains title to this equipment.

All capital movable assets must have a university yellow identifying tag affixed to it within thirty (30) days of receipt. Equipment owned by the federal government will have affixed to it a university tag and a government ownership tag.

Whenever an organization changes the location of a movable capital asset then the location must be updated in the Capital Asset Management System within 30 days of the change.

*Note 1: Uniform Requirements for Grants and Other Agreements with Institutions of Higher Education, Hospitals, and Other Non-Profit Organizations.

DEFINITIONS: Capital Assets have an acquisition value of at least $5,000 and a useful life expectancy of one year or more.

Federally owned equipment is defined as assets that are purchased bya contract and grant account and of which the federal government or agency will retain ownership upon the completion of the grant or contract.

Trakker is a handheld data collection terminal used to scan the IU tag number affixed to equipment.

PROCEDURE REFERENCE: Each organization is responsible for capital movable asset physical inventories, tagging and changing locations for those assets capitalized under their organization code in the Financial Information System. Inventory Trakkers are available for scanning inventories. The Campus Capital Asset Office will train your inventory representative on the use of the Trakkers. When the asset is scanned the last inventory date in the Capital Asset Management System will be updated. Any asset unable to be scanned must be updated manually. If the asset is moved in between inventories the organization will update the asset location in the capital asset system within 30 days of the asset being moved. Capital movable asset tags can be purchased from the University Capital Asset Office.
CROSS REFERENCE: For more detail and definition of this policy, refer to the Indiana University Capital Asset Manual, Accounting for Assets at Indiana University, URL: http://www.fms.indiana.edu/cams/Manual/cams.pdf; CSOP (CAMS Standard Operating Procedure) 1.0 Capitalization Rules; CSOP 4.0 Physical Inventories; CSOP 5.0 Tagging Movable Equpment; and, CSOP 8.0 Capitalization of Moveable Equipment distributed by the Financial Management Services department.

See Accounting Administration Policy I-150, Capitalization of Movable Equipment; Policy I-270, Ownership of University Capital Assets; OMB Circular A110 "Uniform Requirements for Grants and Other Agreements with Institutions of Higher Education, Hospitals and Other Non-Profit Organziations".

RESPONSIBLE ORGANIZATION: Financial Management Services

Comments: vpcfo@indiana.edu
Copyright 2008, The Trustees of Indiana University