Frequently Asked Questions

If a piece of equipment is Federal or Agency titled, it is owned by the Federal Government or the sponsoring Agency. It is not titled/owned by the University and has special restrictions. The title/ownership of equipment is usually spelled out in the award documentation.

If the equipment has a current fair market value of $5,000 or more and a life expectancy of at least one year, enter the equipment information into the OASIS system:
Status 'T'
Requisition number '000000'
Acquisition method 'GF'
You will also need to complete a Gift Transmittal Form and submit it to Gift Processing, Box 359505. This will ensure proper reporting.

Yes.  Equipment for the fellow to keep may be purchased on a fellowship budget using any one of the University's purchasing methods, as long as supporting documentation is provided (award documentation or an email from the sponsor) stating the equipment may become the personal property of the Fellow.  Please code these equipment items as 05-40 Non-inventorial Equipment.

a. Tangible assets acquired through donation, gift, purchase, loan, capital lease, or self-construction, with a life expectancy of more than one year and a total acquisition cost of $5,000 or more (total purchase price including shipping, handling, tax, etc.) should be assigned an appropriate University equipment identification tag and inventoried.
b. Equipment purchased for certain University research and development activities may qualify for a sales tax exemption allowed under RCW 82.08.02565, (Revised Code of Washington - compilation of Washington State laws in force) known as the Machinery and Equipment Tax Exemption, or M&E Exemption. Purchases must have an acquisition cost of $200 or more to be considered, along with other criteria, for an M&E exemption. Please see the University's Machinery and Equipment (M&E) Sales Tax Exemption for additional information
c. A ProCard purchase is an order placed where the payment mechanism is the University's official ProCurement Card. Purchases made via ProCard must have an acquisition cost of no more than $3,500 (total purchase price including shipping, handling, tax, etc.). At times it might be necessary to request a single transaction limit increase in order to make a ProCard purchase over $3,500. Instructions on how to request an increase can be found here.

Computer components purchased on the same requisition can be purchased as a system and coded as equipment according to total cost (CPU, monitor, mouse, key board, etc.)

Equipment associated with a grant or contract can be designated as University owned equipment, or agency owned equipment. The ownership of equipment is usually spelled out in the documentation that accompanies a negotiated grant or contract. OSP (Office of Sponsored Programs) negotiates and processes award documents. OSP will determine the appropriate ownership of equipment associated with a particular grant or contract. For questions regarding the determination of equipment ownership, OSP can be reached at: osp@u.washington.edu, or 206.543.4043

It depends on the budget. Please look at the indirect cost section of your budget profile in MyFD to find the 'Indirect Cost Actual Base' (it is the 3rd item under Indirect Cost). If you click on the title 'Indirect Cost Actual Base', it will take you to a glossary where it lists the possible codes and the descriptions. If your code does not specifically exclude equipment, then it is not exempt.

Yes, however, it is important to emphasize that they'll need to return the items upon their departure from the University.

Rarely. Only the individual pieces that are $5,000 or more are inventorial.

It depends if any money has exchanged hands.  If not (i.e. the UW is not paying anything for shipping or any sort of down payment), then nothing is necessary until a purchase requisition has been created and the items has been paid for.  There is no contractual agreement at this point.  If any sort of payment has been made related to the demo (before deciding to purchase), please contact Equipment Inventory for additional guidance.  Please note, if your department decides to purchase the item, it is important to make sure you have the appropriate receiving documentation to support receipt of the equipment.

Check award documentation to see if VAT is or is not allowable:

For any awards from NIH or other DHHS agencies (CDC, HRSA, etc.), the VAT would not be allowed because the foreign component of those awards is significant.  VAT would need to be paid from non-sponsored funds.  See sample NIH language below:

• Customs and Import Duties:  Allowable under grants to domestic organizations when performance will take place entirely within the United States, its possessions, or its territories, or when foreign involvement in the project is incidental to the overall grant-supported project.  Charges may include consular fees, customs surtaxes, value-added taxes, and other related charges.  Consular fees, customs surtaxes, value-added taxes, and other related charges are unallowable on foreign grants or the foreign component of a domestic grant.

The power point presentation may be found here.

No, leased equipment is technically not University property - we are only tracking it for the company we are leasing it from.

The University automatically classifies leases as operating where the cost of documentation, accounting and disclosure, and audit support, significantly exceeds the benefit to University stakeholders. To be considered a capital lease at the University, the total value of future minimum lease payments or fair value (whichever is less) must be significant to the University and require recognition as a long-term debt in the University's annual audited financial report (as determined by Financial Reporting) and must meet one or more of the following criteria:

• Lease term is greater than 75% of the equipment's estimated economic life;
• Lease contains an option to purchase the equipment for less than fair market value;
• Ownership of the equipment is transferred to the university at the end of the lease term; or
• Present value of the lease payments exceeds 90% of the fair market value of the equipment.

Please contact Equipment Inventory at 206-543-4663 with general questions related to leases or Financial Reporting at 206-221-7845 to determine if the lease should be classified as capital or operating.

University Depreciation - The University has a $5,000 capitalization threshold and therefore depreciates all equipment over $5,000.  The University’s fixed asset system, OASIS, calculates these “official” depreciation amounts which are used in the University’s financial statements, State reporting, and the F&A process.  These depreciation figures are recorded at a high level on an annual basis and are not posted to the individual departmental budgets.

Recharge/Cost Center Deprecation - Recharge Centers have a $5,000 threshold for cost center depreciation purposes only.  This depreciation is used for internal calculations for cost recovery and compliance.  Equipment purchases for recharge centers also follow the University’s standard equipment object coding (i.e. if the item is $5,000 or more, it needs to be coded as the proper 06-XX object code).  See below:

• Equipment $5,000 or more:  Recharge centers are not allowed to recover the full cost of capital equipment costing $5,000 or more within one fiscal year.  As a result, all capital assets purchased in a recharge center that cost $5,000 or more cannot be purchased on the recharge center’s operating budget.  These purchases are most commonly purchased on the equipment reserve budget.  Cost centers recover this cost through the cost recovery method of “cost center depreciation” account code 15-01.  This account code is only used for internal purposes. 
• Equipment less than $5,000:  All capital equipment costing less than $5,000 can be fully expensed during the year they are purchased, as it relates to recharge center costing only.  In order to recover this expense in the cost center rates, the items must be purchased on the operating budget.  The UW classification and rules relating to equipment still apply. 
   

Yes - however, there are many considerations that come in to play with these types of transfers.  Please see process guidance at External Transfer.

You schedule your transportation and pick ups through the Surplus Property Office. (The Equipment Inventory Office is responsible only for processing the forms and removing the items from your inventory.)

No, all items are to be forwarded to the Surplus Property Office for disposal.

No, as described by WAC 236-48-198, surplus property available for disposal under the provisions of RCW 43.19.1919 shall not be sold to state elected officials, officers or employees, except at public sale. Public sales are held through the Surplus Property Office.

Sole Exception: Under certain circumstances it is possible for employees to buy their old work cell phones. Please see Surplus property’s web site to see if you might qualify.

Please see 'Lost/Stolen Equipment' on the 'Disposals' page.

Please see the procedure on the 'Return to Vendor' page.

The revenue source code tells the funding source of an expenditure. If it is 01 through 60, then the expenditure was federally funded. If it's 00 or 61 through 99, then the expenditure was state funded (this includes start up funds and anything not federal/agency).

Yes, however, there are many considerations that come in to play with these types of transfers.  Please see process guidance on our External Transfers page. 

Please visit the Post Award Fiscal Compliance page for information on disposing of these assets.

If a fabricated item is to be delivered to an external entity or is not University owned, the equipment is not subject to being tagged or inventoried. Salaries, supplies, and other costs incurred in fabrications should be left in their original expenditure object code, not transferred to the 06-XX object code by JV. These costs will incur the usual indirect costs for grants and contracts. Individual parts or equipment items that fall into this category and meet the standard definition of equipment should be coded 06