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Financial Services
Materials Management and Logistics Department

Capital Equipment/Controlled Items Section

Materials Management's and Logistics policies about capital equipment and controlled items are derived not only from Texas State policy, but from the State Comptroller's Office via the State Property Accounting Process User's Guide.

Capital Equipment is defined as all items which are valued in excess of $5,000.00. Purchases of capital equipment are restricted as follows:

  • Capital equipment should be purchased through regular Purchasing procedures. Personal expenditures and reimbursements should not be sought for this type of purchase. This is because capital equipment must be inventoried and tagged by Materials Management, in accordance with - UPSS 03.05.01 (para. 02.08).   
  • The University threshold for requiring capital equipment to be tagged has not changed from the $5,000 level and therefore, use of the P-card to make purchases of capitalized equipment, or a controlled item is not allowed. Capital/controlled items are considered restricted purchases (see Section C: III). For these purchases a purchase order must be used. -https://www.txstate.edu/procurement/howtopurchase/procurementcard.html
  • Capital equipment purchases from on-campus club accounts are prohibited. "Capital" items are those costing in excess of $5,000 each. - UPPS No. 03.01.10 (para. 04.06).

SPA Process User's Guide, defines capitalized assets as follows:

  • Capitalized Assets: Possessions that meet the above personal property criteria and that have a single unit value of $5,000 or greater and an estimated useful life of more than one year.

For capitalized items, inventory tagging must occur. The SPA Process User's Guide states:

  • All State of Texas personal property shall be permanently marked as property of the State of Texas. Marking shall be considered permanent when the marking can be removed only through considerable or intentional means.
  • Each item of personal property tracked on a unit basis must be assigned a unique property inventory number. Agencies may not replace a new piece of property with a unique property inventory number previously assigned to another piece of property, even if the previous item has been deleted from the inventory system.
  • Agencies may choose to track property using appropriate labeling methods as long as they meet guidelines established by the comptroller in consultation with the State Auditor's Office. Both "Property of the State of Texas" labels and property number labels must be placed in a highly visible position on the asset, where it is easily accessible during an inventory. Agencies must locate labels in a consistent manner, by category, in order to facilitate physical inventories.

Controlled Assets are defined as certain items valued $500.00 - $4,999.99 which must also be inventoried. Controlled items must be purchased on a Purchase Order:

  • Controlled assets are listed on Purchasing's P-card programs, Controlled Items Restricted Purchase list, and thus cannot be purchased via the P-card, or Cool System.

The SPA manual defines controlled assets as follows:

  • Controlled Assets: Assets of the state that the State Comptroller's office determines must be secured and tracked due to the nature of the items. These assets are not capitalized assets, real property, nor improvements to real property or infrastructure

Property Management inventories the following controlled assets at this time:

Link to SPA Controlled Property Listing

  • Hand Guns/Rifles (regardless of price)
  • Sound Systems and Other Audio Equipment
  • Cameras-Portable-Digital SLR
  • TVs, Video Players/ Recorder  (TV, VCR, Camcorder)
  • Desktop Computer
  • Laptops Computers
  • Data Projectors
  • iPads & Tablets
  • Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)

Equipment Transfers

When a capitalized or controlled item is either switched between

  • accounts, or
  • departments, or
  • sent to surplus,

Then a Texas State Equipment Transfer form must be completed.

For more information, see Property Management's Equipment Inventory Section page for more information.

Cannibalized Property

Cannibalization is defined as the authorized removal of components from one item of property for installation on another item of property to meet a specific requirement and to return the second item to service. - The SPA Process User's Guide

Missing or Stolen Property

Stolen Property: Any personal property missing by known theft, whether by forced removal, burglary, theft by employees, or other criminal acts. - The SPA Manual

It is imperative that a Missing or Damaged Report or Stolen Property Report be completed immediately:

Equipment Loan Request Forms

All requests for the loan of university property are made through the Office of Materials Management on appropriate loan forms available in the Office of Materials Management (see Attachments I and II). Account managers do not have authority to make any loans of equipment, except to their employees for official university use. - UPPS No. 05.01.01

Equipment on Loan Form

Non-University Function Equipment Loan Request

For more information, see Property Management's Equipment Inventory Section page for more information.