Capital Assets

The Capital Asset Accounting Office works with campus and system departments in the administration of all capitalized asset accounting which includes accounting for equipment assets, CIP assets, plant assets, and other agency vested assets.

State regulations require that campus departments perform an annual physical verification of all equipment assets in the asset management database.  This is essential for continued Federal, State, and private donor funding of operations and research projects.

The following items will help new equipment asset representatives become familiar with the acquisition, use, upkeep, tracking, and disposition of capitalized assets:

Definitions

Account Number – The seven-digit general ledger code representing a functional program/unit used to record, classify, and report.

Acquisition Cost of Non-Expendable Personal Property – The net invoice unit price of equipment, including the cost of modifications, attachments, accessories, or auxiliary apparatus necessary to make the property usable for the purpose for which it is acquired.  Other charges, such as the cost for installation, transportation, taxes, duty, or protective in-transit insurance, shall be included in the unit acquisition cost in accordance with University accounting practices.

Asset Edit – A Kuali Financial System (KFS) e-Doc used to update the asset description, manufacturer, model number, serial number, asset representative, or location.

Asset Number – A system-generated number assigned to an asset record when it is created in KFS.

Asset Representative – The individual responsible for maintaining continuous accurate records, periodically reporting location and condition, coordinating the annual physical inventory, insuring appropriate property usage, safekeeping, and maintenance of all property.  The principal investigator who is responsible for initiating and conducting research, training, or public service projects, is normally the asset representative for an extramurally funded award.   

Asset Retirement – A KFS e-Doc used to relieve custodial responsibility for an asset that is sold, lost, obsolete, damaged beyond economic repair, etc.

Asset Tag – The unique UH control number assigned and affixed to the asset, when possible, for identifying an item or property which is supported by record of cost, location, asset representative, etc.

Asset Transfer – A KFS e-doc used to assign custodial responsibility of an asset to another account.

Capital Asset – Includes either movable or non-movable assets that benefit more than a single fiscal period.  Typical examples of non-movable assets are land, land improvements, infrastructure, buildings, and building improvements.  Movable capital assets include equipment.

Capitalization Threshold – The minimum unit value at which an item is defined as equipment and added to the fixed asset records (UH currently utilizes a capitalization threshold of $5,000).

Component – A part of a system or fabrication.  System components may be auxiliary or accessory items.

Controlled Property – Tangible, non-expendable personal property less than $5,000 per unit which is not capitalized and meets either of the following criteria:

  • Any firearms/weapons;
  • Property which is Federal or agency owned under the provisions of an extramural award and is accountable to the University.

Custodial Department – The department or unit of the University having physical control of property (i.e., using department or sponsoring department for contract or grant).

Donated Equipment – Any property given, bequeathed, or granted to the UH by a public or private organization or by an individual for an expressed purpose and for other restricted or unrestricted purposes.

Equipment – Any tangible, non-expendable personal property that is capitalized and meets the criteria set forth in AP 8.550, Capitalization.

Excess Property – Property which is no longer required by a department, but not necessarily excess to the University’s system-wide needs and is subject to screening, transfer, or retirement action.

Fabricated Equipment – Equipment that has been constructed or assembled into one identifiable unit.  The cost assigned to the unit is the total of its component parts, materials, consumable supplies and applicable labor.

Found Property – Property discovered by the custodial department which does not appear on the inventory records. In reporting such property, estimated value must meet the capitalization criteria set forth in APM AP 8.550, Capitalization.

Impairment – A significant, unexpected decline in the service utility of a capital asset.  Service utility is the usable capacity that a capital asset was expected to provide at its acquisition.

Inventorial Property – Tangible, non-expendable personal property which meets the capitalization criteria of AP 8.550, Capitalization and controlled property.

Leased Property – Property acquired by the UH under a lease or rental agreement with a vendor.

Loaned Property – Property which is either borrowed by the University from an external agency or from one University department to another; or loaned by the University to an external agency or individual that is approved by the department head with mandatory notification to the Capital Asset Accounting Office.

Materials/Supplies – All personal property including consumables not classified as equipment or controlled property.

Non-Capital Asset – An asset that does not meet the criteria for a capital asset or controlled property.

Non-Inventorial Personal Property – Property that is expendable or consumable.

Off Campus Location – Used to designate the physical location of the property when no specific location code has been assigned.  It includes name, address, city, state, postal code, country name, and off-campus keeper. 

Ownership – Designated by the alphabetical suffix assigned to the last position in the moveable and non-moveable asset object code as follows:

  • “A” – Owned by another agency;
  • “F” – Owned by the Federal government;
  • “G” – Owned by the University and funded by the Federal government;
  • “U” – Owned by the University.

Personal Property – Property of any kind except real property (i.e., land, land improvements, infrastructure, buildings).  It may be tangible (having physical existence) or intangible (having no physical existence) such as patents, inventions, and copyrights.

Personally-Owned Property – Property in which title vests with an individual and for which the UH assumes no responsibility for its loss, repair, or maintenance.

Property Administrator – Capital Asset Accounting Office is responsible for the management and control of all capital assets and controlled property records in which the title is vested with the University, the Federal government, or other agencies.

Salvage – Property that, because of its worn, damaged, deteriorated, or incomplete condition, has no reasonable prospect of sale or use as serviceable property without major repairs or alterations, but which has some value in excess of its scrap value.

Scrap – Property that has no reasonable prospect of sale except for the recovery value of its basic materials content.

Sold Property – Surplus University-owned property sold to an external entity.

Subsequent Acquisition – Costs incurred subsequent to the initial acquisition or fabrication of an equipment item that extends the life or increases the production capacity and has a unit acquisition cost of $1,000 or more.  Subsequent acquisitions that are greater than or equal to $5,000 will be assigned its own asset tag.

Surplus Property – Any property that no longer has any value to the University or to the State.

Traded-In Property – Surplus University-owned property which has been traded-in for the purchase of new property.

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