The Property Management department is charged with managing the 25,000 plus personal property items acquired with both State and non-State funds, and any donations to UNT or the UNT System.
Personal property is any possession having sufficient value to warrant inclusion in the fixed assets portion of any official statement of financial condition. Personal property includes:
- Capitalized Assets - Assets with a single unit value of $5,000 or greater and an estimated useful life of more than one year.
- Controlled Assets - Assets that do not meet the capitalization threshold but must be secured and tracked due to the nature of the item. The most common classification of controlled items are firearms and computers which have a dollar threshold of $1, and data projectors, cameras, dvd players/recorders, televisions, vcrs, camcorders which have a dollar threshold of $500.00
Overview
All state employees are held accountable for property of the state. Each individual should practice safekeeping at all times. The University categorizes property as either capital or controlled assets. Capital assets are defined as any single tangible item valued at $5000 or above. Controlled assets are tangible items under $5000 and considered a high theft risk: computers (personal and handheld), cameras, video players,TVs, VCRs , weapons.
Department Chair/Director Responsibilities
Each Department Chair/Director is responsible for the assets purchased under their organization and is required to affirm the visual accounting through the Annual Inventory. Certification of the inventory is reported to the State each year along with Financial Reporting based on the results submitted by the departments. The Chair/Director may delegate authority to other individuals to assist with routine upkeep and physical accountability.
Designated Asset User
The designated asset user is appointed by the Department Chair/Director to serve as the department contact. The designated asset user, in addition to the department head, may authorize transfers between departments; authorize the disposal of items to surplus; and cosigns the annual physical inventory (with the Chair/Director). The Department Chair/Director should complete the Designated Asset User Form to inform Property Management of the appointment.
Custodian
The Custodian is the individual who sees the asset(s) on a day to day basis or is the one most likely to notice the asset missing. Custodians must be made aware of their responsibly to safeguard the assets in their care.
Electronic Controls - EIS
The university employs the Asset Module of EIS to identify the location and the custodian of each asset. Updating this data is the responsibility of the department. Asset Users must be granted security after completing Asset User Training. The location and the custodian should be updated from the time of purchase, through the life of the asset.
Maintaining Accounts
Only Chair/Directors are assigned as account holders of maintaining accounts. These are often referred to as the “N” level accounts. Acquiring deptid or projids are used to purchase the assets (Requisitions, Purchase Orders and Vouchers). All acquiring dept/projid’s roll up to maintaining accounts. Asset inventory is stored in the EIS Asset Module by maintaining accounts. Each Chair/Director’s inventory can be retrieved from the system by spreadsheet, queried by their maintaining account. Asset Users can retrieve inventory spreadsheets from EIS at any time.
Transferring an Asset between departments
- The Designated Asset User for the losing department initiates an email with Subject line:"Asset Transfer" to the Designated Asset User for the gaining department.
- The body of the email should contain the Tag #, the losing DeptID and the gaining DeptID. As long as the losing and gaining DeptID's are the same, multiple items can be transfered via one email.
- The gaining department's designated Asset User indicates "approved" in the body of the email and forwards the message to property.manager@unt.edu. The subject line should continue to read "Asset Transfer"
- A member of the Asset Management team will transfer the Asset in EIS. A copy of the email will be placed in the comments section of the Asset record. A confirmation email will be sent to the gaining and losing Designated Asset Users acknowledging the completion of the transfer.
- The gaining department designated Asset User changes the physical location and the new custodian information in EIS.
Items that are used on and off campus and move regularly between campus and off site use should be marked in the EIS Asset Module as "off site." Departmentally, other procedures may have been developed, but Property Management does not require any sort of form be filed.
Missing or Stolen Property
At any point when an asset is discovered missing, it should be reported to Property Management immediately. An investigation must be conducted and documented. If evidence of theft, the police must also be notified and a police report obtained. The Custodian of the asset must sign the investigation worksheet and the Missing Stolen form. Custodians found to be negligent may be held financially accountable. Items reported missing, with no evidence of theft (break-in for example) remain on the Department Inventory for two years allowing the department to keep looking for the asset. At the end of the 2 year period of annual inventories where the asset continues to be missing, Property Management will determine if a “write-off” of that asset is appropriate.
Asset Spot Checks
Property Management will conduct physical and or electronic spot checks of all departments throughout each year.
Surplus
Assets that have reached their useful life are disposed of through Surplus. Use the Request Surplus Pickup Form to notify Property Management.