Inventory ‘Best Practices’
The Moody College of Communication is a self-tagging college. We have a centralized Technology Team which is responsible for tagging all computer equipment. Not every college has something like that.
Throughout this document, the Moody College of Communication’s ‘Inventory Notes’ web page will be referred to.
Here are some ‘best practices’ that would work for any department.
Break down your Inventory process into a minimum of 5 sub-tasks.
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records on *DEFINE, and completes the Annual Certification Report.
These are the things which have to be done to maintain inventory. A single person might perform all the tasks, but it is better, if possible, to separate the duties. For example, the Purchaser should not be the Receiver. That is a best practice for any department and any kind of purchasing. The Tagger should not be the Locator. However, the Receiver could be the Tagger. The Records Custodian could be the Tagger, but should not be the Locator. Separations like these provide protection to the employee. If a piece of equipment goes missing, no single person can be held responsible as more than one person has touched it during its life cycle.
Purchaser
The Purchaser is responsible for ordering all equipment. He/she should make an effort to be certain that the object code on the PO will properly designate which equipment needs to be tagged and which equipment does not need to be tagged. (See Object Code list in this document.)
The Purchaser is responsible for correcting documents with an incorrect object code so that the item will fall into the proper category (tag or not tag).
Receiver
The person receiving equipment should be different from the Purchaser. Someone other than the Purchaser should be making certain that all items are received and distributed to the proper individuals. This protects the Purchaser from accusations of ordering and then stealing items for themselves. The Receiver should sign and date all invoices/packing lists and have the person picking up the items do the same. If the Receiver is not the Tagger, then the Receiver should notify the Tagger that equipment which possibly requires an inventory tag has arrived.
Centralized receiving within a department greatly facilitates the Inventory process. If equipment is delivered to one person in the department, it is easier to be certain that all inventory tasks are properly accomplished. If equipment is delivered directly to faculty, staff or labs, it is far more difficult to control the process.
Tagger
Even if the department is not self-tagging, there should be a person responsible for making certain that all departmental equipment is properly tagged. If the department has multiple buildings and items are received in more than one place, the department might want to designate a separate Tagger for each building. At a minimum, individuals receiving equipment should know to contact the designated Tagger when an item arrives.
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which are on the controlled list. No tag.
Once an item has been received, it should immediately be tagged and all relevant information (serial number, the location where the equipment will usually be kept, MAC address, responsible individual) should be captured before it is deployed. Having the Receiver also be the Tagger facilitates this process as the Receiver can either open and tag (if self-tagging) the equipment or immediately call Inventory to have someone come and tag the equipment.
On a regular basis (once a month in the College of Communication), the Tagger should check to see what needs to be tagged in their department. The Inventory Report for Self-Tagging Departments in PointPlus and the NU1 report from *DEFINE are both very useful. (See Reports page in this document.) The NU1 report will give you information about object codes on the POs (and other documents) which might be triggering a tagging requirement on an item which does not need to be tagged. However, if you are a self-tagger and you rely solely on the NU1 report, you will not be turning in your tagging information to Inventory within 30 days. Even if you are not self-tagging, you should still be checking these reports to be certain that everything has been tagged.
Self-Taggers Process
Run the reports, print out copies of the POs, and highlight all items which need to be tagged. Compare the PO to the report and if there are items on the report which do not need to be tagged, have the Purchaser change the object codes on the documents. Keep a running list of which POs (and other documents) have already been taken care of as the same documents will often appear on the reports for a couple of months. (No record can be created in the mainframe until a PO has been paid and that sometimes takes a while.)
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Once everything on a spreadsheet has been completed, you can throw your ‘tickler’ copy away.
An Additional separation of duties is possible for the tagging duties listed above. Separating the physical act of tagging from the paperwork which must be done is a good process. There would then be a person who physically tags the equipment, collects the information and passes it to a second person, perhaps the Records Custodian. The second person would then be responsible for running the reports to make certain that all items were tagged, completing the Tagging Spreadsheet (listing the actual tagger’s EID in the UT EID column), and making certain that the *DEFINE records are properly updated and transferred.
Locator
Every year, an Inventory Certification Report must be completed. For the purposes of this report, every tagged inventory item in a department must be marked either ‘Found’ or ‘Missing’ in *DEFINE. The Locator is the person who goes out and physically finds every tagged item.
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Return the marked up Unfound list to the Records Custodian with enough time for him/her to get the data entry done before the Annual Certification Report is due to Inventory.
Records Custodian
The Records Custodian is the person listed on the GG5 screen as the Inventory Contact. This is the person who should be certified for Inventory for your department. The Records Custodian should maintain the *DEFINE records and complete the Annual Inventory Certification Report. Be sure to read the Tagger and Locator section of this document to understand how the Records Custodian must work with other staff performing inventory functions.
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As an example, the College of Communication had a laptop that had been stolen. It popped up as ‘Found’ because NETL found it on the UT network. The Records Custodian contacted one of the technology guys and he used network tools to track down the physical location of the laptop. UTPD was notified and they went and recovered the laptop.
The Records Custodian should regularly check their departmental inventory list for 90000 numbers, which are assigned numbers. Software and Art objects will receive 900000 numbers and those numbers should be left as they are. However, equipment with 900000 numbers should be brought to the attention of the tagger. The Tagger should make certain the item has a tag, the location and serial number should be updated in *DEFINE, and an email should be sent to Inventory notifying them that ‘Inventory number 923456 should actually be 833333’.
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There are other unusual situations which might occur, such as Cannibalization or Donation of equipment. Refer to Inventory Services website for instructions on how to handle those.
Object Code List
Below is a list of commonly used Object Codes, what they’re for and whether or not they flag an item as needing to be tagged.
1475 – installation of equipment. No tag.
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1866 – expensed telecommunications equipment. No tag
Reports
Point Plus Inventory Report for Self-Tagging Departments
(You do not have to be a Self-Tagging Department to use this report.)
Below are the instructions to submit this report in POINT Plus:
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The report will run overnight and you’ll have to pick it up from your department’s shelf, or you can arrange to have it sent electronically to your webspace.