Equipment Threshold Change

With recent changes to the State Property Control Act and related State regulations, the State of Illinois and University of Illinois threshold for inventoried equipment is moving from $500 to $1,000, effective May 20, 2019.  The only exceptions are vehicles and firearms which are inventoried regardless of cost.  The State is providing this legislative relief to reduce the volume of tracked equipment at the University and other State Agencies so they can focus on higher value equipment. 

Three Phase Implementation Plan

In order to implement the threshold change in an orderly manner, the University will use a three Phase implementation plan as follows:

• Phase 1 – New acquisitions threshold (Fiscal Year 2019 implementation – effective May 20, 2019).
• Phase 2 – Removal of “standalone” records below the $1,000 threshold (early Fiscal Year 2020 implementation)
• Phase 3 – To be fully vetted and determined– Removal of records that have depreciated below the new $1,000 threshold (requires CMS pre-approval – Fiscal Year 2020 +)

Phase 1 – New Acquisitions

Effective May 20, 2019, University units must use the new $1,000 threshold when account coding equipment purchases and when evaluating items to be added to inventory in FY19 and beyond.  Equipment related Banner account code titles have been updated for the new threshold and these ranges should be used on all purchases moving forward.  Units will continue to use the 127* and 163* range of account codes for purchasing equipment and for generating and completing equipment new acquisition records through FABweb.

 

Equipment purchase requests completed prior to the effective date will remain on the account codes and already existing PO’s will not be closed or re-issued.  For these “In-process” equipment records coded to the 127* account code range but under $1,000 (whether in FABweb or awaiting payment and record creation), University Property Accounting and Reporting (UPAR) will work with each University Unit to ensure the new threshold is followed and to ensure reclassification from the 127* account code into a 126* account code using a journal voucher.  This will remove these “In-process” equipment records below $1,000 from Banner and FABweb.

 

Phase 2 – Remove “standalone” records < $1,000

In early Fiscal year 2020, University Property Accounting and Reporting will review unit equipment lists and send each University Unit their listing of “standalone” equipment below the new $1,000 threshold to be removed from the University inventory.  Units will have time to review the listing and reply to identify any errors or adjustments.  UPAR will then remove the “standalone” records from FABweb and send correspondence to University Units with further instructions on physically retagging equipment.  This correspondence and removal of items is tentatively scheduled for the September/October 2019 timeframe. 

For the items removed from inventory, Units must replace the Ptag with the unnumbered label identifying “Property of State of Illinois – University of Illinois”. These labels stickers are ordered from iStores by following the link https://my.fs.illinois.edu/fsportal.  Click on iStores on the left of the page and type "Property" in the Quick Find box on the left of the page.  The product name is "U OF I PROPERTY STICKERS" and the SKU is "11244000".

 

Phase 3 – Remove items depreciated below $1,000

Possibly in Fiscal Year 2020 and beyond, the new State law and regulations allow the University and state agencies to request removal of items with a cost over $1,000 and have depreciated below $1,000.  The University will continue to inventory and retain all capitalized equipment records ($5,000 and above) until items are disposed consistent with the historical treatment of capitalized items.  Maintaining these capitalized records is required for financial reporting and Federal grants.

Removal of these depreciated items with initial costs of $1,000 or more from inventory requires pre-approval from CMS. The University will likely be removing additional items with costs between $1,000 and $5,000 from inventory on a periodic basis.  Although University processes are yet to be defined, Units will receive lists of items prior to requesting removal similar to the “Phase 2” removals.  CMS will be issuing additional guidance to the University and state agencies.  Additional information will be shared when University practices are finalized.

 

Data-wiping of Electronics & Equipment Disposals

University Units must continue to data-wipe all electronics and include scrap labels on wiped electronics regardless of the item’s inventory tracking status.  University Units must continue to request disposal of all University equipment through FABweb and equipment must continue to be sent to the University surplus warehouse for scrap or surplus processing regardless of the item’s inventory tracking status.

 

Unit tracked equipment

University policy 12.1.6 Affix Property Labels prohibits the use of the University Ptag labels to identify items not tracked on the University Inventory.  This is to avoid confusion on what items are actually required to be tracked.  There may be individual items or categories of items that a University Unit desires to track for internal control purposes.  For units desiring to track equipment outside of Banner, units must create labels and identifiers that differentiate any Unit tracked equipment from University tracked equipment.  To assist, University best practice suggests tracking Unit items starting with a “U” for Unit tracked; followed by your campus and org number “1641”; followed by your unit unique identifier.  For example, the unit tag for item #1 for org 641 at UIUC would be “U1641000001”.

See “Unit tracked equipment label template” under “Helpful Documents” on the right-hand side of this and other Equipment Management webpages > Equipment Management - OBFS .

Questions

For questions specific to new acquisitions and Phase 1 implementation, please contact Cheryl Dodge at cheryld@uillinois.edu or Marti Conrad at mdesjar2@uillinois.edu.  For questions about Phase 2 or Phase 3 plans or Unit tracked equipment, please contact Magdalena Jach at mj20@uillinois.edu.

 

Last Updated: May 21, 2019