When was the Last Time You Conducted an Inventory of Your School’s Technology Equipment?

From the New York State Constitution to the guidelines of the State Comptroller, school officials are responsible for the oversight and accountability of the school district’s capital assets. School districts purchase a wide variety of IT equipment, such as interactive displays, desktop computers, monitors, laptops, tablets, etc. These assets can make up a significant portion of a district’s IT asset inventory. This means that school officials are responsible for protecting these assets from loss, for keeping inventory records current, and ensuring that these assets can be easily located. To combat what has become a commonly cited problem in his audits, the State Comptroller strongly recommends that school officials conduct annual physical inventories of their IT equipment.

In an audit letter issued on July 3, 2024, the Comptroller found that the district failed to maintain complete and accurate capital asset records. The missing assets included laptops, digital cameras, computer monitors and televisions. He noted:

• For all capital assets, certain key information such as the initial cost, current value (estimated at $113,000), salvage value or the individual assigned custody of the asset was not recorded.

• A third of the capital assets with a total recorded replacement cost of approximately $47,000 did not have their location listed.

• The last physical inventory was conducted in 2017.

These findings echo the Comptroller’s report issued in 2022 which evaluated the practices of 20 school districts around the State. According to the report:

“Nineteen of 20 Districts did not conduct adequate annual inventories. Eleven Districts did not perform any physical inventories. Five Districts’ IT Directors or their staff told us they conducted physical inventories, however, they did not maintain documentation to support that an inventory was conducted, such as a report to the Board. Three Districts provided documentation that an inventory was conducted, however the documentation provided was incomplete. Specifically:

• One District did not inventory teachers’ laptops or Chromebooks,
• One District inventoried only Chromebooks, and
• One District did not inventory equipment at all District buildings or portable assets, and the results were considered unusable by the IT Department.”

Among the recommendations made by the Comptroller’s office in 2024 and 2022 was the recommendation that the school district “[c]onduct an annual physical inventory of capital assets.” Failure to do so exposes District IT assets to loss, theft or misuse. Further, when inventory records are incomplete, and assets are not properly accounted for, District officials cannot assure taxpayers that money invested in IT assets has been appropriately spent or safeguarded.

Keep this in mind when planning your next inventory of capital assets. If you have any questions concerning implementation of the Comptroller’s recommendation, please reach out to us.