Tagging Deliveries
Purpose
This business process guideline ensures that all capital and controlled assets on-campus and off-campus are properly identified, tagged with a unique inventory label, and recorded in the university’s assets database.
Policy
The Vice President of Business Affairs issues this process guideline in accordance with The University of Texas at El Paso’s Handbook of Operating Procedures (HOOP), section 7 Financial Services, chapter 3 University-Owned Property, and Equipment https://www.utep.edu/hoop/section-7/ch-3.html , and chapter 4 Transfer of Capital and Controlled Equipment https://www.utep.edu/hoop/section-7/ch-4.html , as applicable. For identification, control, and reporting purposes, all equipment on campus must be tagged, regardless of ownership claims. University property is State property and may be used for official purposes only. Federally-owned property is property of the United States government and must only be used for approved purposes. Outside agencies and privately-owned property belongs to the outside agency or the private entity and must be treated as agreed upon between the loaner and the university. If the title to an item does not rest with the university, the university is still responsible for the caretaking of the item and is liable for the item until it is returned to its owner.
Procedures
When purchasing an asset, vendors are instructed to ship items to the university’s preferred delivery address at the Central Receiving warehouse. The Central Receiving section provides receiving, shipping, and delivery services to all campus academic and administrative departments following their internal procedure https://www.utep.edu/purchasing-and-general-services/pgs-departments/central-receiving/Central-Rec-Procedures-1012019-002.pdf . Under special circumstances when delivery to the Central Receiving warehouse is not possible, or when the items being delivered require special treatment or care, some items may be delivered to a different address. In addition to assets purchased with university funds, this tagging guideline is also applicable to assets acquired with federal, state, or private grants; assets loaned to the university by an external public or private agency; assets transferred by a Texas agency, or by a non-Texas agency; and assets received as a donation.
Asset Tagging
Attaching property control plates or tags, or otherwise marking capital or controlled items to indicate university ownership is required by state law.
Upon notification of the arrival of a new asset, the Inventory Department will apply a unique numbered inventory tag to the asset and record it in the university’s assets database. All equipment, regardless of who has ownership over it, will be tagged with a white university barcode tag. If the equipment is federal-owned and title vests with the federal government, equipment will be additionally tagged with a green tag with the disclaimer “Property of the U.S. Government”. If the equipment cannot be tagged because of size, configuration, use, etc., the number may be etched or painted on the item. If this is not practical, a number will be assigned to the item and then entered into the inventory system as U.S. Government property. The record will contain a notation that the number is assigned and not on the item.
If the equipment received is a loan from an outside agency (public or private), the equipment will be additionally tagged with a red tag for identification and tracking purposes. For control purposes, only the white tag’s serial number is recorded in the assets database. Serial numbers on colored tags, which may or may not have a serial number, are ignored.
Some assets, like works of art, highly specialized equipment, or others where their physical dimensions or surface characteristics are not suitable for a label, will not be affixed with a tag. In these cases, a white inventory tag is still assigned to the asset, and the serial number is logged in a journal of similar nature assets. If applicable, the record must indicate the ownership status of said asset.
Responsibilities
- Assets received in Central Receiving warehouse. In this case, a warehouse representative will notify the Inventory Department of the arrival of an item that needs to be tagged before delivery to the department. Once tagged and the record added to the assets database, Central Receiving will notify the department and schedule its delivery.
- Assets received outside of Central Receiving warehouse. It is the responsibility of the person receiving the asset to notify the Inventory Department of the reception of the item within 5 working days of receipt, to coordinate the tagging of the asset, and create a record with its physical location. This notification step is especially critical when the asset is the property of the U.S Government. It is the PI and the Department’s responsibility to notify the Inventory Department and Grants Management Accounting . To request delivery of equipment to a location outside of Central Receiving, the requestor must follow Purchasing Department guidelines, including filling out the Alternate Ship-to Request form.
- Assets purchased with federal funds. It is the responsibility of Sponsored Projects to identify and inform Grants Management Accounting and the Inventory Department of any equipment where the title vests fully or conditionally with the federal government to be included in the project set-up and available via query from PeopleSoft.
Applicability
All campus colleges and departments have direct or indirect responsibility for assets and equipment in their department.
Definitions
Personal property consists of capitalized or controlled assets not classified as real property.
Capital assets are assets that have a value equal to or greater than $5,000.
Controlled assets are assets that the state has determined as high loss risk to be secured and tracked because of the nature of their possession. These assets are normally expensed, and their value is between $500 and $4,999. Controlled assets do not include capitalized assets, real property, improvements to real property, or infrastructure.
Government Furnished Property (Equipment) (GFE) means property in the possession of, or directly acquired by, the government and subsequently furnished to the contractor for the performance of a contract. All assets, including GFE, follow the capitalization threshold outlined in the State Property Accounting (SPA) Process User’s Guide.
Department Heads refer to Vice Presidents, Deans, Directors, Department Chairs, Chief Administrative Officers (CAOs), and other Administrative Officers.
The Code of Federal Regulations section CFR 200.1 contains additional definitions that may be applicable to this guideline and can be consulted in the following link: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-2/subtitle-A/chapter-II/part-200#page-top.
Responsible Party
Office of the VPBA, Comptroller’s Office, and General Accounting Department
Last Updated: March 1, 2024