OBFS Policies and Procedures Manual
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 has moved 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). Completed and On-going!
- Phase 2 – Removal of “standalone” records below the $1,000 threshold (November 19/20, 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. Banner equipment 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.
Phase 2 – Remove “standalone”
records < $1,000
Equipment listings of item records to be disposed were sent to Unit Property Accounting Contacts and Unit Heads in October for review and confirmation of item records to be disposed. The University FABweb and Biennial Inventory applications will be unavailable for use on November 19 and 20 to accomplish the bulk disposal of these records in Banner.
For the items removed from inventory, Units must replace the Ptag with the unnumbered label identifying “Property of State of Illinois – University of Illinois”. Units are required to retag equipment by their next scheduled Biennial Inventory cycle and inventory certification date.
Unnumbered labels/stickers can be ordered from iStores by following the link https://my.fs.illinois.edu/fsportal. Click on the iStores icon on the iBuy mainpage 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". To shop in iStores UIC and UIS units will need to create a punchout catalog order as outlined on page 12 in the iBuy Training Guide. Once a punchout catalog order and cart are ready, UIC and UIS units can open the iStores icon from the iBuy mainpage to shop and order labels.
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 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: November 7, 2019