Frequently Asked Questions

Historically, the UW has defined capital equipment as tangible property (other than land, buildings, improvements other than buildings, or infrastructure) with a unit cost of $2,000 or more (including ancillary costs) used to conduct UW instruction, research and public service with a useful life of more than one year.

Effective July 1, 2016, the unit cost threshold will increase to $5,000.

A webpage was created on Equipment Inventory Office’s (EIO) website for information specific to the equipment threshold change.  Visit the webpage periodically, we will continue to post information as it becomes available.    

Over 40,000 of UW’s assets fall between $2,000 and $4,999.  A full costing study of the administrative burden of maintaining a physical inventory for these 40,000 assets revealed that the cost and burden of maintaining the lower threshold is significant.  The driving force behind this change is a significant reduction in both faculty and staff administrative burden at all three campuses.  The change will also address threshold alignment issues between the UW and federal, State and local government.  Almost all government agencies use the $5,000 threshold and, at times, our lower threshold causes misunderstandings when dealing with these entities. 

The types of assets that will be included are: fabricated equipment, furniture and other tangible items of personal property that meet the definition of equipment above.

Art collections, sensitive inventories and special collections are not part of the change. 

This change will bring UW in line with the $5,000 capitalization threshold that our peer institutions have implemented.  All of our top 25 research peers now use the $5,000 threshold.

Campus partners who participated in the decision making process include the Faculty Council on Research, the Research Advisory Board, Associate Deans for Research, and the Post-Award Administrative Advisory Group.

Yes, all campuses must implement the change in the same way.