Schools should do an asset stocktake at least annually. However, that’s in an ideal world and often you barely have time to breathe, let alone do a stocktake.
So… if you can’t get someone else to do the stocktake for you, and you haven’t performed a stocktake in however long, start with this.
First things – ancient history
Download a full list of your assets into excel. Sort each category of assets into date order and start with the oldest assets first. If you are a client school, we will provide you with these lists early in term 2.
If you know that the school replaced all the classroom furniture 6 years ago, you can safely mark for disposal all the classroom chairs and desks that were purchased say 10 years ago. Similarly, you can dispose of those Atari computers, the photocopiers from 8 years ago, the extra 4 lawnmowers you still have on the register. However, if those old photocopiers are being stored somewhere in your school, you will not be able to dispose of them. Any assets still at the school must remain in the register.
Book Values
Once that first step is done, take a deep breath and then sort what is left by book value. Chances are that the nil or very low book value items may have been disposed of, so work your way through these assets, marking for disposal the obvious assets.
Use your judgement, but don’t dispose of an asset simply because it’s old. Shelving, equipment like guillotines, for example, could well still be in the school, even if they’re 20 years old. Your own knowledge of the school will help tremendously with this, but if you’re new to the school, you may not be able to use these quick options.
One by one review
Unfortunately after the initial purge, you’ll have to go through the remaining assets. Terms 2 and 3 are the best times to do the asset stocktake. But try and get help, it can be a massive job. Consider getting each teacher to note down the number of computers in their classrooms with make, model and serial number. How many chairs and desks do they have? What other furniture? Do you have an IT person in the school? They may have lists of the equipment currently in the school.
Bite the bullet
Probably the best advice we can offer is to at least schedule in a time to start with the review of the full asset list. Hopefully you’ll find it’s not that bad and that the asset stocktake takes less time than you think.
