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Overview of Fixed Assets

What you should know as an APO or Alternate APO

At A&M-Commerce, the department head is the Accountable Property Officer (APO) for his or her department. The APO may designate an Alternate APO for their department. Both APO and Alternate APOs have many important responsibilities. You have been delegated the responsibility of keeping track of all inventoried items in your department. APOs and/or Alternate APOs must know where all inventoried assets in their department are located at all times. APOs and/or Alternate APOs must have a method for locating any inventory item whether on-site or off-site. The easiest way to do this is to update equipment locations with Property Management Services and keep sign-out logs for items that may be checked out (i.e., a laptop computer that is shared by all employees of a department). Also, APOs and Alternate APOs are responsible for ensuring that their department's assets are secured in the manner that is most likely to prevent theft, loss, damage, or misuse of property. Additional information that is necessary to perform these tasks are located in the Property Management Services manual  and the Texas A&M University System Equipment Management Manual (EMM) .

Proper paperwork must be filled out by APOs or Alternate APOs to add new items or to remove items from their department's inventory.

What must be inventoried?

Equipment

Non-consumable property that is owned or received by A&M-Commerce. The three areas of concern are capitalized, controlled and non-controlled.

Capitalized

8400-8479 CAPITALIZED Object codes specified for equipment with a unit cost of $ 5,000 or more with a useful life of at least one-year must be recorded as a capital asset in FFX.

Controlled

5775-5799 CONTROLLED In addition, A&M-Commerce is required by the state to control certain items with a unit cost more than $500 but less than $5,000.00. These items are considered to be highly susceptible to theft or misuse. These items are controlled in the FFX system, but are not recorded as a capital asset. Object codes 5775-5799 are for controlled items. Examples of controlled equipment are computers, printers, projectors, etc. Please note that firearms are always controlled regardless of cost. A specific list of these assets are provided below.

Non-Controlled

5750-5774 NON-CONTROLLED Furnishings & Equipment

FAMIS object codes 5710-5745 no longer exist.
FAMIS object codes 5750-5774 are specified for non-controlled equipment with a unit cost of $0 to $ 4,999.00.
The below category offers object codes for specific items with specific amounts.

OBJECT CODES

Policy: Asset value must be recorded at the actual cost of the asset plus all costs required when placing the asset into service, such as freight and other related professional expenditures incurred in the purchase of the item.

Object Code Help

Which types of equipment are not inventoried?

Equipment that does not meet the above-defined threshold to be inventoried is considered to be non-inventoried (N/I). In other words, if a piece of equipment is not capitalized or controlled, it is N/I.

Examples include fax machines or printers costing less than $500 and office furniture costing less than $5,000. If equipment is priced close to the threshold for inventory but does not meet it (i.e., a desk costing $1.200), you should still consider putting a "property of" tag on the item that shows that it belongs to the State of Texas. This way, at annual inventory, you will not be concerned when you can not find the inventory number on the item. This will greatly help avoid confusion in future years.

What is an inventory number?

Once property that needs to be inventoried has been received, it needs an asset number (also called an inventory number). This is a nine-digit number identifying the equipment. The number begins with 751 and is followed by six digits (751-XXXXXX). If you have questions concerning property or to obtain an asset number, you must contact Property Management.

What is the Campus Trading Post?

The A&M-Commerce Campus Trading Post is provided to maximize the use of University assets. East Texas A&M University departments may negotiate a direct transfer or internal sale of property to other A&M-Commerce departments. A campus web site listing available items has been created and will be maintained by Property Management Services. The web site will be updated weekly and items will remain posted for a two-week period.

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Need an update?

To request a change to this page or to request access to make changes yourself, email helpdesk@tamuc.edu.