Movable Equipment

The University’s definition of movable equipment is an article of non-expendable, tangible, personal property which stands alone, is complete in itself, does not lose its identity, has a useful life of more than one year and has a value of $5,000 or more. Movable equipment with a value of $100,000 or more is capitalized and considered a fixed asset. Equipment under 5K is considered expendable and does not fall within the University's definition of movable equipment. Common categories of movable equipment include scientific equipment, computer equipment, vehicles and furniture.

With a subset of the University’s movable equipment being purchased by federal sponsored grants, the University’s property management standards for movable equipment must meet the Federal OMB Circular A-110 Uniform Administrative Requirements for Grants and Agreements With Institutions of Higher Education uniform standards governing management and disposition of property. To meet these federal standards, a University’s movable equipment policy provides specific University policies in the areas of acquisition, custodianship, equipment use, disposition and accuracy of records.

Movable equipment records contain the following required information by the Federal property standards:

• Asset Tag number
• Description
• Manufacturer's serial number and model number
• Source (Acquisition Chart Strings(s))
• Unit acquisition cost
• Ownership (University or Federal Government)
• Acquisition Date
• Location (Building, room)
• Condition 
• Disposition data (Date of disposal, sales price)
  

Each movable equipment item has a department assigned to it which requires the department to be ultimately responsible for the implementation of these property standards. An annual physical inventory of movable equipment requires the departments to update the movable equipment items in their assigned space of the University's space database (FAMIS). The inventory results of movable equipment are  reconciled with the University's official central records. The equipment records are maintained in Peoplesoft's Asset Management database by Cost Accounting Services (Laurie Desso@uvm.edu).

Last modified March 18 2012 09:50 AM