Inventory ‘Best Practices’
The Moody 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 College of Communication’s ‘Inventory Notes’ web page will Moody College main Inventory 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.
The Tagger should be familiar with the unit codes and building codes for his department. Make a cheat sheet and keep it handy. (See the Moody College of Communication main Inventory Notes page.)
The Tagger is responsible for knowing what items do and do not need to be tagged. The Tagger should be familiar with the list of Controlled items and know what kinds of equipment commonly found in their department will need a tag. Again, make a cheat sheet. (See the the Moody College of Communication main Inventory Notes page.)
Here are some basic definitions with which a Tagger should be familiar (also on the College’s Moody College main Inventory Notes page).
Capitalized: anything $5,000 or more. TAG
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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 Moody 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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Keep track of items which might need to be transferred off your inventory and once those items appear on the mainframe, do a CCART. For example, there is a pot of technology equipment money in the Moody College of Communication Dean’s Office from which all departments purchase. The *DEFINE records for those items will be placed in the Dean’s Office unit code because the account is in the Dean’s Office unit code. Once the records are on the mainframe, a CCART is created to transfer the items to the proper department. Use the Unit Code column of the self-tagging spreadsheet to keep track of which items will need to be transferred.
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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Once the Inventory Certification Report is complete and has been sent to Inventory, the Records Custodian should go through the report to see if any of their inventory has been located in places that are not controlled by their department. If so, the Records Custodian should find out why those items are located in non-departmental spaces and either arrange for them to be returned to their proper place or transfer the item to the department which now has custody of the item using a CCART. Remember that just because something was ‘Found’ either by scanning or the NETL program, that doesn’t mean that your department actually has custody of it.
As an example, the Moody 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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Columns in the downloaded spreadsheet are automatically filled with any data found from POINT Plus files. Some columns are left empty and must be filled manually. Others may need to be edited manually – such as Description (since Inventory requires a specific format for descriptions), and Site/Building/Floor/Room (if the items have been moved from the delivery location listed on the PO).
NU1 Report
Go to the NV1 screen in *DEFINE
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Choose the report that has your *DEFINE login next to it and download.
Physical Inventory Cycle Report
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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.