Accounting Office

• Asset Management System (AMS): The new Inventorial Equipment management system deployed in June 2017 that this guide was created for.
• Equipment Management System (EMS): The former Inventorial Equipment management system hosted on the IBM Mainframe.
• Equipment Inventory Modification Request (EIMR): Paper or online request document (depending on the type of the transfer) that are used to request authorization or report (when allowable) an equipment disposal or transfer. Please refer to the Dispositions & Transfers (EIMR) Section of this guide for more information on EIMR requirements.
• Inventorial Equipment: As defined within University of California (UC) Business & Finance Bulletin BUS-29: Management and Control of University Equipment (BUS-29), Inventorial Equipment is any equipment that is titled or in the custodial control of the University which is non-expendable, tangible, personal property acquired for $5,000 or more, which is freestanding, complete in itself, does not lose its identity or become a component part of another piece of equipment when put into use, and which has a normal life expectancy of more than one year. Please note some assets (such as firearms) are inventoried regardless of their associated acquisition cost.

The AMS utilizes several different asset identifiers in order to facilitate the administration of the university’s assets. This was done to give departments the flexibility to note additional identifiers for assets that are also being tracked under other asset identifiers. It was also implemented to allow the AMS to potentially track non-inventorial equipment assets in future phases of the systems implementation. The following fields are related to the asset identification:

• Inventorial Equipment (Assigned by Equipment Management): This is a system flag to determine what the inventory requirements are for an asset. If the asset is Inventorial Equipment it will be subject to all the annual inventory and biennial physical inventory verification.
• Property Number (Assigned by Equipment Management): All Inventorial Equipment is assigned a Property Number by the Office of Equipment Management. Each assigned number is unique and cannot be modified after record creation. If an Inventorial Equipment asset is between two institutions within the University system (i.e. UCSD to UCR) the asset will retain the originally assigned Property Number. This is the primary identifier for all Inventorial Equipment.
• Control Number (Assigned by AMS): This is a system assigned value that is assigned to every record created within the AMS. Each assigned number is unique and cannot be modified after record creation. The Control Number would be the primary identifier for any non-inventorial equipment added to the system that is not subject to a Property Number assignment.
• Alternate ID (Recommended Field): This is an optional free form field for Department Custodians to assign any identifier to an asset that would assist the department with asset management processes. This can be used by departments if they are maintaining their own inventory tracking system, or alternatively it can be used to reference other university assigned identifiers such as the Fleet assigned Vehicle Numbers. It is not a required field thus leaving it blank is also an acceptable option.

• Department Code (Assigned by Equipment Management): All assets records in the AMS are assigned to a Department Code based on the available codes from the UCR Financial System (UCRFS).
• Custodial Code (Assigned by AMS): In the EMS all assets were assigned a Custodial Code rather than a Department Code. These Custodial Codes were loosely tied to the University’s activity codes but the association never truly represented a one-to-one relationship. As a result it was unclear when new Custodial Codes needed to be implemented across the campus. Additionally, Equipment Custodians were required to remember various Custodial Codes to perform their duties, but these values had no usage or context outside of the EMS. In the AMS all Custodial Codes are matched one-to-one with Department Codes, so for the purposes of an Equipment Custodian Department Codes have replaced Custodial Codes. As such Equipment Custodians no longer need to memorize their assigned Custodial Codes. The field remains in the AMS for UCOP reporting purposes.
• Assigned To (Recommended Field): This is an optional field that can be used to associate assets with their primary user. The field data is populated with the names of the potential campus users from the Central Authentication Service (CAS). Please note this field is intended to denote the primary user and/or point of contract for the asset to assist with asset administration. It does not grant individuals the authorization to use an asset that they have not been previously authorized to use.

• Status Code (Assigned by Equipment Management): This field corresponds to the current state of the asset. It can have one of the three following values:
  • AI – Active Inventory: All Inventory Equipment assets upon acquisition are added to the active inventory under the “AI – Active Inventory” Status Code. The Inventory Equipment (regardless of current fair market cost or deprecation) will remain on the active inventory from the point they are acquired until their final disposition (cradle-to-grave life cycle).
  • II – Inactive Inventory: This value corresponds to Inventorial Equipment assets that have been previously disposed by the University. As such departments have no further tracking responsibilities for these assets. There is however one exception, if an asset was disposed due to loss or theft, but is later recovered, Equipment Management needs to be notified so that the record can be reactivated accordingly.
  • LV – Low Value Inventory: Currently no assets acquired after fiscal year 2004 will have a “LV – Low Value Inventory” Status Code. This Status Code was the result of decisions made by UCOP when regulation changes allowed the University to increase the inventorial threshold from $500 to $1500, then subsequently from $1500 to $5000. The increases meant that all assets previously added to the inventory that were below $5000 were no longer considered Inventorial Equipment. Instead of disposing of all the assets at once, it was decided that the assets affected would be recoded as “LV – Low Value Inventory” and allowed to fully depreciate prior to their removal from the inventory, thus resulting in a more gradual transition. These Low Value assets have no inventorial verification requirements for Equipment Custodian. Please note that Inventorial Equipment that meets the current inventorial threshold of $5000 do not depreciate off of the campus inventory.
• Description (Assigned by Equipment Management): This is assigned based on the information as best determined by Equipment Management during the assets acquisition.
• Manufacturer (Assigned by Equipment Management): This is assigned based on the information as best determined by Equipment Management during the assets acquisition. Please note that in older records the vendor name was often used instead of the manufacturer name by mistake. Please notify the Office of Equipment Management accordingly if any changes are required to this field's data.
• Model (Assigned by Equipment Management): This is assigned based on the information as best determined by Equipment Management during the assets acquisition.
• Serial No (Mandatory Field): This is a required data field for all Inventorial Equipment records. It is the department Equipment Custodian's responsibility to complete this information. Equipment Custodians should add the serial data to the AMS as soon as possible upon notification of new asset record creation.
• Condition Code (Mandatory Field): This is a federally required field which Equipment Custodians need to update annually during the inventory process. The field is the combination of two alphanumeric characters to describe the assets general condition.
  • The first character can be assigned to:
    • N (New),
    • E (Used, Reconditioned),
    • O (Used, without Reconditioning), or
    • R (Repairs Needed);
  • The second character can be assigned to:
    • 1 (Excellent),
    • 2 (Good),
    • 3 (Fair), or
    • 4 (Poor).
  • By default all newly acquired assets are set to N1 (New, Excellent).
• Usage (Mandatory Field): This is also a federally required field which Equipment Custodians need to update annually during the inventory process. It is used to report asset utilization rates with a value of 100% meaning the asset is in continual usage, while a value of 0% would mean the item is not being used currently. It is the intent that these values also be used to assist departments with understanding what assets could be sent to the Surplus Operation or repurposed within the University.

• Acquisition Code (Assigned by Equipment Management): This value corresponds to the method of acquisition of an asset. For additional information on this field please see University of California (UC) Business & Finance Bulletin BUS-29: Management and Control of University Equipment (BUS-29). All possible values for this field are denoted below for reference:
  • 30 – Purchased, Government Retains Title
  • 31 – Purchase Order
  • 32 – Fabrication
  • 33 – Purchased by Regents’ Contracts
  • 34 – Gift
  • 35 – Found
  • 36 – Intercampus Transfer
  • 37 – Borrowed from Another University Location
  • 38 – Borrowed from Non-University, Non-Government Agency
  • 39 – Borrowed from Government Agency
  • 41 – Miscellaneous
  • 42 – Government-Furnished Equipment
  • 44 – Non-Inventorial Equipment
  • 45 – Recovered
• Reference Number (Assigned by Equipment Management): This field corresponds to the best available documentation for the acquisition of an asset. In a vast majority of acquisitions it refers simply to a Purchase Order Number, however depending on the acquisition method utilized this could also point to a Gift Control Number, Fabrication Number, EIMR Number (for intercampus transfers), Storehouse Order Number, Web Recharge Number, Sponsor Award Number, Physical Plant Project Number, or other documentation.
• Accounting Date (Assigned by Equipment Management): This field corresponds to the date the asset record was created in the AMS. This date does not necessarily reflect the assets acquisition date, however since most assets are acquired through requisitions with 30 day payment terms it should be relatively close to the actual acquisition date.
• Cost (Assigned by Equipment Management): This field corresponds to the total acquisition cost of the asset. Per the Accounting Manual this cost can include:
  • Major items of equipment (less any discounts taken);
  • Accessories needed to make the equipment usable;
  • Installation, excluding cost for reassembling equipment dismantled for shipment;
  • Freight, provided the amount was included in the invoice for major items of equipment. Also, freight charges may be included as a cost element where the charges represent a significant cost factor to the acquisition of the equipment, even if the charges are billed separately from that equipment.
  • Taxes (sales, excise, use, duty); and
  • Insurance cost to cover the equipment while in transit.
  Additionally the cost can include any required software purchase for the equipment (that was acquired within the same requisition) and any future upgrades exceeding the inventorial threshold of $5000. The cost cannot include the value associated with any warranty/service agreements or repairs.
• Property Title (Assigned by Equipment Management): This field denotes if the University currently has title to an asset under its custodial control, and if so, if it is an unconditional or conditional based title. In the current implementation of the AMS this field can be assigned to the following four values:
  • Unconditional University Title: This Property Title value means that the University currently has no obligations to any external sponsor (governmental or private) on the asset in question. This implies that either the asset was fully funded by the University directly or that the involved sponsor has given the University permission to take unconditional title of the asset.
  • Conditional University Title: As most Inventorial Equipment is acquired as the result of federal grant funding, this is the most common Property Title value assigned to records in the AMS. Depending on the terms and conditions of each individual sponsoring award this could have a variety of different implications. It is important to note that although the University is deemed the title holder often a conditional university title allow the sponsoring agency to reclaim the asset at the conclusion of the award. Furthermore in many cases if we are to keep such assets at the conclusion of an award they may be subject to additional conditions at disposition and if sold may require reimbursement to the sponsoring agency.
  • Government Title: This means that the Inventorial Equipment is only in the custodial control of the University and that the title remains the federal or private agency that furnished or funded the asset. The University will have no authority to sell, scrap, cannibalize, transfer, loan, utilize off campus, or take other such actions without explicit permission from the sponsoring agency. Please note if an Inventorial Equipment asset has any portion provided from a federal award which states the asset is titled to the government, then the asset, in its entirety, is titled to the federal agency.
  • Undetermined Title: This is used in instances where either the Office of Equipment Management is pending review of the award that funded/furnished the asset or when the sponsoring award contains terms that make the title determination uncertain. This value exist essentially as a placeholder in the AMS while the Office of Equipment Management determines the appropriate title to assign to an asset. If required this determination will be made in coordination with the Office of Research and/or the sponsoring agency.
  The above Property Title values were not used in the EMS, instead in the EMS all Inventorial Equipment assets were assigned to either a “Yes” or “No” value. Yes indicated the asset had a University Title and No indicated the asset had a Government Title. In migrating from the EMS to the AMS it was decided that the fields would be translated with the Yes value being assigned to Conditional University Title, and No value being assigned to Government Title. It’s understood that several Unconditional University Title assets will be misclassified as Conditional University Title, but this was the safest methodology for the initial data migration. Overtime records will be reassigned to the Unconditional University Title as appropriate.
• Primary Original Fund Source (Assigned by Equipment Management): This field denotes the main funding source used for the acquisition of an Inventorial Equipment asset and is used primarily for UCOP reporting requirements. If an asset was funded by multiple fund sources then the funding source that provides the greatest contribution is typically noted. If an asset was acquired with a mix of sponsor funds and university funds, then the sponsor funds with the greatest contribution will be noted (even if the university provided more funding towards the assets acquisition).    
• Current Fund Sources(s) (Assigned by Equipment Management): This field is used to denote all fund sources used to acquire an Inventorial Equipment asset. Please note that this fund source data is manually managed by the Office of Equipment Management so it is likely that there will be some instances when this data is not accurate as of the current date.
• Equipment Depreciation Code (Assigned by Equipment Management): The Equipment Depreciation Codes are assigned to assets based on the “best-fit” category available within the AMS. These codes correspond to the University Useful Life Schedule that is managed by UCOP.
• Useful Life (Assigned by AMS): The Useful Life is assigned is based on the assets designated Equipment Depreciation Code (above). For a full listing of the codes and their associated useful life’s please see https://eulid.ucop.edu/.

The location fields should be updated by departments as often as is reasonably required to accurately reflect the current location of each Inventorial Equipment asset. If an auditor chooses to take a sample of a departments Inventorial Equipment, it is the expectation that all the asset records will accurately reflect the current physical room location of each asset.

• Asset Located on University Property (Mandatory Field): This is simply a True/False checkbox field that denotes if a University asset is currently located on or off the University’s Property (which in this context means property of the University of California, Riverside). If this is set to True (checked) then the asset is denoted as being on the University’s Property and the Site, Building, Floor and Room Number fields are set to be displayed on the Location section of the asset records Edit Asset Screen. If this is set to False (unchecked) these fields will not be displayed.
• Site, Building, Floor, and Room Number (Mandatory Fields for On-Campus Assets): As noted above, if an asset is located on the University’s Property the “Asset Located on University Property” checkbox needs to be set to True which will result in the Site, Building, Floor, and Room Number fields being displayed on the asset records Edit Asset Screen. These fields have an order of hierarchy and as such they need to be completed in the order they were listed in the prior sentence. The data for these fields is based on the university's Facility Management System (FMS). Occasionally there will be situations where the exact location is not available in the AMS based on the FMS data lookup, in these cases, please select the nearest location available and use the Location Description field to elaborate as necessary.
• Location Description (Mandatory Fields for Off-Campus Assets): The Location Description field serves two different purposes depending on is the asset is located on or off the University’s Property. If an asset is located on University Property this field should be used as necessary to elaborate on the location and it is not considered a mandatory field. If an asset is located off University Property this field should denote the most precise location of the asset available for all off campus assets (Typically mailing address, building, and room). For the initial transfer of data from the EMS to the AMS the Location Description field reflected the legacy CAAN and Room number data from the EMS to assist departments with repopulating the required Location data fields.

The AMS has three sections for attaching files:

• Overview Image
• Other Images
• Documents

The Overview Image is the picture that will be displayed on the Tile View of a queries Search Results. Departments are encouraged to upload Overview Images in order to facilitate the inventory verification, auditing, and reporting of equipment assets. The Other Images section can be used to attach other photos of the asset. It is recommended that photos of the assets identification markings (such as the serials, plates, VIN numbers, etc.) are added to this section. The Documents section is used for attaching any documentation that may be pertinent to keep on record (such as documents for the receiving, approval, transfer, loan, etc.). There are not currently any limitations to the number of files that can be added to the Other Image and Document fields, but discretion should be used to only attach meaningful and pertinent documents. Please note that currently attachments can only be removed by the Equipment Manager (Administrator), if an attachment needs to be removed please contact the Office of Equipment Management via email to amsfeedback@ucr.edu.

Each asset will contain a history of all submitted EIMR’s by Equipment Custodians for asset an assets disposition and transfer. Depending on the type of request that needs to be submitted there are a variety of different requirements that must be adhered to. Please see the Dispositions & Transfers (EIMR’s) Section of this guide for more information about the various EIMR processes.

The AMS contains the following EIMR Codes values:

• 21 – Sold (Not directly allowable): Equipment Custodians and their departments have no local authority to sell University property, this activity is required to be coordinated by the Office of Logistic Services (the office responsible for the University's Surplus Operation). Upon the sale of an Inventorial Asset Logistic Services will notify Equipment Management who will process the disposition of the record accordingly.
• 22 – Lost: Equipment that is lost needs to be reported to the Police Department and the Risk Management in accordance with campus policy prior to the disposal of the Inventorial Equipment asset record from the AMS. In the assets disposition we are required to note the related police report number. Additionally, if the assets were furnished or funded by a sponsored award, the University may also need to report the loss or theft to the awarding agency.
• 23 – Destroyed (Not directly allowable in all cases): Equipment that is destroyed unintentionally through events such as fires, floods, explosions, or other similar events can be reported by Equipment Custodians as destroyed. In these situations the loss of property should also be reported to the Office of Risk Management as appropriate. Please note however that non-functional assets that could be repaired and have a residual value should not be reported as destroyed. These items should remain on the inventory until their actual disposition. Other types of asset destruction such as cannibalization or scrapping are not allowable without prior approval from the Equipment Management or Logistic Services.
• 24 – Trade-In: The trade-in of existing University title Inventorial Equipment for new equipment is allowable for most University assets. Please confirm in advance that this is the case prior to initiating any trade-ins.
• 25 – Theft: Equipment that is stolen needs to be reported to the Police Department and the Risk Management in accordance with campus policy prior to the disposal of the Inventorial Equipment asset record from the AMS. In the assets disposition we are required to note the related police report number. Additionally, if the assets were furnished or funded by a sponsored award, the University may also need to report the loss or theft to the awarding agency.
• 26 – Intercampus Transfer (Not directly allowable): Intercampus transfers require additional documentation and coordination between the Office of Equipment Management at the two University locations, as a result these transfers are handled primarily outside of the system. Once the process is complete the Equipment Management (Administrator) will update the impacted Inventorial Equipment records as appropriate.
• 29 – Miscellaneous: All disposition request not covered by the above EIMR Codes will likely be classified under code "29 - Miscellaneous". In these request please note whatever information is necessary to create an auditable account of what occurred that resulted in the assets disposition.
• 86 – Low Value Fully Depreciated Between $1,500 and $4,999 (Not directly allowable): As noted above under the Status Code portion of the Equipment Fields Section this EIMR Code would not be applicable to any current Inventorial Equipment asset, it is only used to record the gradual disposition of assets that were no longer considered inventorial upon the increase of the University’s inventorial threshold.
• 90 – Interdepartmental Transfer: Interdepartmental transfers are only those transfers taking place between two university departments within UCR's accountability structure. If this is a transfer to an external entity of another University of California location please cancel the EIMR in progress and contact the Office of Equipment Management for more information.
• 91 – Transfer to Equipment Management (actually ScotSurplus run by the Logistic Services Department): ScotSurplus has been run by the Office of Logistic Services (formally Storehouse) for several years. For any information on ScotSurplus, Logistic Services, or generally facilitating the transfer of property to the ScotSurplus warehouse please reach out to the Office of Logistic Services at 827-3094. Additional information is also available at the ScotSurplus Operations website at: http://cbs.ucr.edu/storehouse/surplus.html. Please note that the Equipment Manager (Administrator) will only approve the transfer of the asset upon confirmation from ScotSurplus that the asset has been received.