(Approved by the Senior Vice President for Finance and Facilities by authority of Administrative Order No. 9)
In accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), the state Office of Financial Management's State Administrative and Accounting Manual (SAAM), the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) guidelines, and the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-110, University policy requires that capital expenditures be treated as follows:
All land should be capitalized. This includes land use rights with indefinite lives acquired with the purchase of the underlying land, and ancillary costs.
Infrastructure, with a cost of $250,000 or greater, should be capitalized. Examples of infrastructure assets include roads, sidewalks, bridges, tunnels, drainage systems, water and sewer systems, dams, and lighting systems.
Buildings, with a cost of $250,000 or greater, should be capitalized.
Improvements other than buildings, with a cost of $250,000 or greater, should be capitalized. Examples of improvements other than buildings include fences and retaining walls.
Leasehold improvements, with a cost of $250,000 or greater, should be capitalized.
Intangible assets, with a cost of $1,000,000 or greater, should be amortized. This includes intangible assets purchased or internally developed. Examples include land use rights not acquired with the purchase of land, software, patents, and trademarks that are “identifiable” by meeting either of the following conditions:
All other capital assets with a unit cost (including ancillary costs) of $2,000 or greater, or collections with a total cost of $5,000 or greater, unless otherwise noted, should be capitalized. Recharge and cost centers may have different capitalization thresholds for internal purposes. For more information, refer to the Recharge and Cost Center Information web page.
All capital assets acquired with Certificates of Participation (COP) should be capitalized.
Expenditures should be capitalized if they:
Expenditures should not be capitalized if they:
The following examples, although not all-inclusive and subject to varying circumstances, are generally considered to be current non-capitalized expenditures:
For further information contact the Equipment Inventory Office:
October 1996; May 5, 2008; October 19, 2012.