You may be asked to provide a custody code when obtaining inventorial equipment types in UCLA’s purchasing system or while transferring your equipment inventory in the Asset Management System (AMS) to another custody code.
What is Inventorial Equipment?
Items in the custody of UCLA that meet the criteria below are considered inventorial equipment:
- Have an acquisition cost of $5,000 or greater,
- Are not disposable or consumable,
- Stand alone,
- Have a useful life of at least one year, and
- Qualify as tangible personal property (can be appraised for value).
Inventorial Equipment & Custody Codes
Departments that purchase or acquire inventorial equipment should:
- Generate a custody code if one does not already exist for their department
- Use their custody code(s) when:
• Purchasing new inventorial equipment
• Updating equipment in AMS
More information about inventorial equipment can be found on the Equipment Management website.
When acquiring inventorial equipment and recording it in AMS, a custody code is required. These codes assist both the department and UCLA Financial Management and Reporting in tracking purchases and managing inventorial equipment during audits.
Generally, there is one custody code per department. However, if the department has a high volume of inventorial equipment or multiple custodians, they may choose to request multiple custody codes to organize their inventory more effectively.
UCLA departments are required to perform a bi-annual physical inventory of their inventorial equipment using a custody code report. UCLA Equipment Management may perform additional inventorial audits. Learn more on the How to Perform an Equipment Inventory web page.
You can locate your department’s code(s) by accessing the Department Custody Code Inventory file.
You may need to create a new custody code if:
1. Your department does not have a preexisting custody code and you are acquiring inventorial equipment for the first time.
2. You need an additional custody code to organize your department’s inventorial equipment.
To request a new custody code, please contact mhailemariam@finance.ucla.edu. We’ll reach out within ten business days.
