Once capital equipment has been received, it needs to be tagged and recorded in Sunflower and tracked throughout its useful life at Stanford. When the equipment is no longer needed by its owning department, it should be disposed of following approved procedures.
Oracle Financials modules and Sunflower, working in conjunction with each other, make up the “official” property record.
Sunflower Assets
The Sunflower database is used by department property administrators (DPAs) and the Property Management Office (PMO) to create and maintain asset records for the accountability, tracking, physical inventory and disposal of property. All controlled property must be tracked in Sunflower. The definition of controlled property, which includes capital equipment, can be found at Property Management Manual, Chapter 1.1, Section 6: Controlled Property.
The following online systems, working in conjunction with each other, make up the “official” property record.
- Sunflower Database
- Grants Accounting
- Fixed Assets
For additional information, please visit the Property Management Manual, Chapter 1.1, Section 4: Official Systems of Record.
Grants Accounting
This system is used by DPAs and PMO to track fabrications while they are still a work in process.
Oracle Fixed Assets
This system is used by the Controller's Office staff to calculate and track equipment depreciation and university accounting.
All controlled property must be recorded in the Sunflower (SFA) database. All university-owned capital equipment, as well as all government and sponsor-owned equipment and material must be tagged with a Stanford Barcode Tag and entered into the SFA database within 30 days of receipt. For additional information, please visit the Property Management Manual, Chapter 3.2: Identification.
A physical inventory is performed in accordance with university policy and sponsor compliance requirements. At a minimum, the process includes a physical sighting or other approved method of verification to confirm the existence, location, department, project accountability and use status of equipment. In general, inventory results are indicators of the overall effectiveness and level of compliance with property management processes and controls. Inventory results confirm the accuracy of the property records and are used as the basis for financial, stewardship and compliance reporting.
A campus-wide inventory is performed on a biennial basis; more frequent inventory events may occur depending on the terms and conditions of the accountable sponsored project or other identified risk. For additional information, please visit the Property Management Manual, Chapter 3.4: Physical Inventory.
Disposition is the process by which property owned by or otherwise accountable to Stanford is permanently removed from active university records. When assets become excess to the needs of the university, or the sponsored project under which they were acquired, they must be declared excess and the disposition process initiated. For specific information on Excess, including property re-use, transfers or sales, refer to the Property Management Manual, Chapter 4: Excess.
