Dispose of Equipment

Equipment is inactivated in the central inventory database for the following reasons: theft or casualty losses, sent to surplus property, authorized cannibalization, or not found during the applicable inventory cycle. Procedures for inactivating equipment are detailed below.

Theft or Casualty Loss

Equipment will be inactivated in the inventory records due to theft or casualty incidents.

Required Process:

  1. Department must:
  2. The Police Department and the Office of Risk Management investigate the incident and file insurance claims as appropriate.
  3. The Fixed Assets Office inactivates the equipment in the database after receiving the form.
  4. Fixed Assets cannot remove items from the database until the incident has been reported to and processed by the Office of Risk Management and/or University Police.
  5. ETF items meeting the threshold must be replaced.

Surplus Property

Reusable equipment and furniture is stored at the warehouse and available to be redistributed to any Mason department. Department personnel may view and acquire surplus equipment and furniture from 8:00 am – 4:00 pm Monday through Friday.

Note: Students are not authorized to obtain equipment and furniture and must be accompanied by department personnel to acquire surplus items.

Obtain Items from Surplus Property

  1. Complete the Interdepartmental Equipment Transfer Form for surplus equipment that possesses barcodes.
  2. If a barcoded item is taken out of surplus, then it will be added to the department inventory.
  3. Surplus personnel will deliver the requested items, typically within five working days unless a specific delivery date is requested.
  4. Surplus items may be put on reserve for a total of five consecutive days, after which they will be made available to other departments.

Declare Items for Surplus

The Department is responsible for submitting a Workflow instance as outlined below

For Workflow/Electronic Submissions

  1. Download Equipment Surplus Excel Form. Enter your equipment data and save the file.
  2. Log in to Banner Workflow (Please note that a VPN or hardwired connection is required to access Banner Workflow — otherwise you will receive an error). 
  3. You should be brought to your Worklist page. Click the Person “User Profile” icon on the left-hand side of the page, and then select “My Processes” from the dropdown. Once at the “My Processes” page, click “FIN_Equipment Surplus Processing.” Use the following format for the Workflow Specifics Name: ES-[Mesa login]-[Department Name]-[Date in YYMMDD] (ex. ES-GMASON-FISCAL SERVICES-210419). Please do not attach any files at this stage. Click “Start Workflow.” You will be returned to your Worklist.
  4. Wait about 30 seconds and then refresh the page. Your newly initiated Workflow instance should appear in your Worklist. Click on it and fill out the online form with your Phone #, Department, and Mesa login.
  5. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click “Attach File” on the right-hand side. On the “Attach File” Screen, click the “Browse” icon to the right of the “File to attach” field. Attach your completed Surplus Excel form and click the circular radio button beside “EquipmentSurplusForm.” Then click “Upload” at the top right of the screen. You should see a checkmark next to your attachment at the bottom of the Equipment Surplus Form page.
  6. Click “Complete.” You should receive an e-mail from the Workflow system that says “Your Equipment Surplus form has been successfully submitted.” If you receive an error message, contact assets@gmu.edu for assistance.

For quick reference, review the Equipment Surplus – Initiator Quick Reference. For detailed steps, review the Equipment Surplus – Initiator User Guide

The Surplus Property Staff will:

  1. Arrange to have all surplus equipment removed in a timely manner, typically within five business days.
  2. Process all barcodes into the surplus database and keep a file of original forms.
  3. Communicates any changes to Fixed Assets.

Surplus Auction Procedures

Surplus equipment that is stored at the warehouse may be auctioned off through GovDeals.

  • To view Mason sales from GovDeals:
  • Go to GovDeals website.
  • Click on Advanced Search.
  • Navigate to state and click on Virginia.
  • Proceed to seller’s name and click on George Mason University.
  • Bidding on surplus equipment is available to Mason employees as well as the public after registering with GovDeals.
    Note: It may take one to two business days for registration to be completed. To expedite registration, you may call the GovDeals Help Desk at 800-613-0516.
  • The majority of Mason items for auction are listed for seven consecutive days. Please visit the GovDeals website for more information.
  • All Mason surplus sales are made on a competitive bid. No individual sales are permitted.

Cannibalization

As a general rule, cannibalization is permitted for the purpose of repairing a similar damaged piece of equipment, when the damaged item is so old that spare parts would be difficult to obtain.

Required Process before cannibalizing equipment with a book value of $5,000 or more is performed:

  1. Departments must:

Equipment Not Found During Inventory

Equipment will be removed from the university inventory records if a department is unable to locate the equipment after applying a good faith effort during the annual physical inventory. Fixed Assets will inactivate the missing equipment in the TraQ database, code it as disposed with a disposal code of X-Not Found During Inventory and, if a capitalized item, treat it as a deletion for financial statement purposes. The missing equipment will no longer be reported on the inventory list distributed to the department. If the equipment is found within the current fiscal year, Fixed Assets will re-activate the item in the TraQ database. The item status of any equipment scanned during the annual inventory that has been disposed of in the database in a previous fiscal year will be updated to “ActiveD,” noting that it was previously disposed but remains on campus.

Click here for information on Equipment Not Found Procedures

Equipment Abandonment

Departments are prohibited from abandoning equipment (e.g., throwing it in the trash, leaving it in hallways, etc.). Equipment beyond repair or obsolete beyond usage must be processed as surplus.

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