6 Questions School Districts Must Be Able To Answer About Their Assets And Resources

Receiving a 21st century education means preparing students for a global workplace.

That preparation means technology resources and digital assets must be incorporated into the classroom and put in the hands of teachers, administrators and students. Local communities, state organizations and the federal government have already started deploying these critically needed items through programs such as Race to the Top grants, ESEA flexibility waivers and the ConnectED initiative.

The tech resources provide big opportunities for our schools, but they also create a huge challenge – how do schools keep up with all of it?

Thousands of computers.
Thousands of students.
Millions of dollars.

The task can get a little more complicated when you throw in the thousands of other assets school districts need to track – textbooks, uniforms, athletic gear, instruments, furniture, maintenance equipment, and much more.  A single district can easily end up having to keep up with hundreds of thousands or even millions of items.

Fortunately, the task doesn’t have to be arduous. An asset management system can give districts a complete picture of everything they own and allow them to manage their movements and amounts of assets. These systems feature software, barcodes and scanners to provide up-to-the-minute information and enable users to create reports, perform audits, maintain fund budgets, easily check-in and check-out items, and more.

An easy-to-use and effective asset management system can quickly provide answers for these very important questions for school districts:

Where are the assets?

Can you find each and every asset whenever needed?

At minimum, your asset management system should be able to tell you exactly where a particular asset is located. If you use a system with barcodes and scanners, you can easily record every time an asset is moved to a new physical location such as an office, classroom, library or student’s home. While Excel and accounting software can be used to record basic asset information, they are unable to provide real-time location data and are often prone to errors.

Who is using the assets?

Can you identify the party responsible for the asset?

Ideally, the user – either students or staff – moving or checking out the asset should also be noted on the record. That creates an audit trail and ensures accountability for the asset. Plus, not only will the school always know the asset location, you’ll also know who’s responsible for it.

What funds were used to purchase assets?

Can you verify that funds are being spent properly?

Grants require schools to maintain a lot of asset data on both individual assets and the funds used to purchase them. A good asset management system should be able to track all asset purchasing details: purchase order number, funding source, cost, purchase date, and depreciation method.

To help your finance department, you should also easily be able to create custom funding sources to separate all awarded amounts and always know the exact total spent and current remaining funds.

Have the assets been properly maintained?

Can you keep assets in good working order and track the total cost of ownership?

According to Deloitte, the gradual deterioration and aging of assets is the top risk associated with owning and operating assets, with nearly two-thirds (62%) of organizations citing it.

By tracking completed maintenance, you take advantage of any warranties or service agreements included with the item purchased.

This is another area where finance benefits- knowing the amount of money used to maintain and repair your assets provides historical data needed to determine future budgetary needs as well as total cost of ownership.

Does use of the assets meet regulations?

Is disposition of the asset in compliance?

Regular asset audits are simply good stewardship and can help ensure your district never loses funds or is forced to repay money due to non-compliance with funding source guidelines or other regulatory requirements.

Without an asset management system, employees need to work from printed lists and manually check off fixed assets. This can be time-consuming and error prone. However, an asset management system makes the process fast and error free with scanning mobile computers and smartphone apps that instantly verify and update information on an asset’s location, use and current condition. Simply scan barcodes and the software automatically updates the records.

How is asset disposal handled?

Are asset procedures followed for each asset’s lifecycle?

Tracking assets is a significant responsibility for any school or district. Detailed information about purchase, maintenance, and physical disposition of assets is required for state and federal grant compliance.

Asset disposal should be handled in a timely and responsible fashion. While it may seem difficult to properly dispose of a physical asset, it can be equally dangerous to have non-functioning equipment in storage or simply sitting around your school. A better solution is to assess your physical assets on a regular basis and properly and expediently dispose of obsolete equipment. After disposal, you will still have a full transactional record of the asset’s lifecycle.

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