Land, Buildings and Equipment

Assets owned or leased by the University shall, so far as is practical, be effectively marked to identify them as University property. Local inventories of such assets should be maintained with the following details included:

a.  A description of the equipment;

b.  The price paid or its estimated value;

c.  Related future costs such as maintenance, annual service, part replacement, upgrades and warranties. This is to ensure that the assets can continue to be used.

d.  The location in which it is stored or used;

Assets owned or leased by the University shall not be subject to personal use without proper authorisation.

Disposal of land and buildings must only take place with the authorisation of Court advised by the Estates Committee. The Funding body consent may also be required if exchequer funds were involved in the acquisition of the asset.

University-owned vehicles may only be used by authorised drivers on official University business. Authorised driver must read and abide by the University’s vehicle policy and Vehicle and driver handbook.

Personal or private use of University vehicles is strictly forbidden and University vehicles should not be taken home by authorised drivers. Advice on insurance is available from the University Insurance Officer insurance@ed.ac.uk.

Individual Schools, Department and Research Centres are responsible for establishing adequate arrangements for the custody and control of all other assets owned by the University, whether tangible (such as stock) or intangible (such as intellectual property), including electronic data.

The Director of Finance is responsible for capital policy and guidance

The capital policy and guidance describes the different types of expenditure that may, or may not, be capitalised and gives examples.

Capital expenditure includes the acquisition, upgrading and construction of fixed assets such as buildings and equipment costing more than £50,000 which will be used for more than one year. Any other expenditure on assets is charged to revenue.

The University's detailed accounting policies on capitalisation of assets can be found within its financial statements available from the Finance website.

For accounting and reporting purposes the University must record:

a.  Research equipment costing more than £10,000;

b.  Leased equipment – equipment and vehicles leased or hired by the University for a period of one year or more;

c.  Fixed asset equipment costing more than £50,000 with a useful life of more than four years.

The capital accounting section of FIRST must be notified of capital equipment spend using the Capital Equipment Expenditure (CEE) form process. Fixed asset equipment costing less than £50,000 should be written off in the year of purchase.

All legal documentation related to building will be retained by Legal Services. Estates retains the invoices related to buildings. Invoices for equipment bought by Colleges and Support Groups is retained by Accounts Payable for seven years. All other documentation must be retained by College and Support Groups.

In order for the University to ensure that its central fixed asset register is kept up to date, Budget Holders must notify the capital accounting section of FIRST where they become aware of changes in capitalised assets (for example where any of these assets are disposed of or where their value has fallen due to damage or changes in market conditions).

The capital accounting section of FIRST maintains the central asset register for property and equipment with an initial cost in the excess of £50,000. The register is a module of eFinancials in which each individual asset has a unique record.