Importance of Re-Inventory

Your school district had an inventory done by ACS Pro last spring. Well done! Pat yourself on the back. Now, the question arises whether that inventory should be a one time thing. All assets are accounted for, so there’s no need to do it again, right?

Wrong. There are many reasons why routine re-inventory is a good idea: 

• School district personnel are not trained on how to properly account for disposals. In an ideal scenario, a school district would have all their disposals routed through a single department. The reality is that custodial staff, teachers and other school personnel routinely dispose of assets when they are considered broken or useless, many times without notifying the business office. This happens all the time. Without a re-inventory, the school district may go years without realizing what assets have been disposed of in this manner. If an asset is above the capitalization threshold, the problem is even greater. Assets no longer owned by the school district may still be accounted for during the audit! When we do a re-inventory, we present the business office with an up-to-date inventory list and associated reports, ensuring that you have the latest, most accurate information on hand.

• Schools don’t have the right personnel to do inventory.  When districts assign seasonal workers to do this type of work, the end work does not take account room/location changes, correct descriptions, model, serial numbers, useful life, etc. We have the experienced personnel and office programs to do this properly.

• Inventories serve as a theft deterrent. When an outside company comes in to inventory the equipment, people become aware that a professional entity is keeping a close eye on asset retention.

• When districts go several years without a physical inventory, many newly purchased assets go unreported. Again, in an ideal situation, all purchases go through one central department. But the reality is that many times school personnel purchase assets about which they don’t bother to notify the business office.

• Without a re-inventory, there are many room and building changes that go unaccounted for through the years. This is especially the case with districts that have a lot of locations. Teachers move rooms, new equipment is purchased and the older equipment it replaces go to other rooms or buildings. Over time, without a physical re-inventory, it’s difficult to know where a lot of the equipment has been moved to. If an auditor, or a school employee, needs to do some spot checking, they’ll have a really difficult time finding a lot of the equipment.

• With multiple inventories, there’s greater accuracy. We know that if you do an inventory once, there will be assets missed because they were taken home (laptops, iPads), they were being used offsite (mowers, tractors), or they were in repair, among other reasons. More inventories increase the possibility of capturing most assets.

• Because school personnel changes often, it is a good idea to have a solid fixed asset inventory in place. Over the years we have noticed that when a tenured school person leaves, their replacement doesn’t always know nearly as much.  Having a current inventory maintains cohesiveness on things such buildings, outside property, acquisition years, etc.

• Insurance values get stagnant without a current inventory. You can only trend values for so many years.

• Auditor costs are kept down because they have to do less work if they know a reputable company is routinely doing an inventory for the district. When you have a district that goes several years without an comprehensive, organized, cohesive inventory, auditors are going to spend more time finalizing their yearly audits.

 And these are just a few!

In summation, routine inventories every year or every other year will help you maintain an updated view on your fixed assets. Sounds like you’ve decided to have ACS Pro back for another year. Once again, pat yourself on the back.