An independent, not-for-profit organization, the Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB) was established in 1984. The GASB strives to improve financial accounting and reporting standards for state and local governments and public institutions.
The standards provide financial information in response to the needs of the citizenry, legislative and oversight bodies, and investors and creditors, who are the primary users of general purpose external financial reports.
GASB Statement No. 35 is an amendment of GASB Statement No. 34, which requires government entities to report infrastructure assets in their statement of net assets. Issued in November 1999, GASB Statement No. 35, Basic Financial Statements – and Management’s Discussion and Analysis – For Public College and Universities, establishes accounting and financial reporting standards for public colleges and universities within the financial reporting guidelines of GASB Statement No. 34.
In general, GASB Statement No. 35 “permits public colleges and universities, in separately issued financial statements, to use the guidance for special-purpose governments engaged only in business-type activities, engaged only in governmental activities, or engaged in both governmental and business-type activities in their separately issued reports.” Therefore, public institutions, in their separately issued reports, are required to include the following information:
The fixed asset requirements of GASB 35 state that public colleges and universities must maintain fixed asset records. These fixed asset records must be complete, accurate, and detailed.
Additionally, public colleges and universities must report all capital assets with the depreciation consideration, including infrastructure assets and historical treasures. Generally, capital assets are assets that have a useful life that extends beyond a single reporting period.
These capital assets should be recorded at their original, or historical, cost. Capital assets include buildings, equipment, land and easements, machinery, vehicles, and infrastructure, such as roads, bridges, sewers, dams, lighting systems, sidewalk systems, and tunnels.
Public colleges and universities better track and manage asset life cycles with durable bar code asset tags, such as such as Metalphoto® anodized aluminum and durable plastic bar code labels. Asset tags simplify GASB 35 compliance by facilitating seamless property identification and the tracking of the useful life of owned assets.
High quality durable Metalphoto photosensitive anodized aluminum asset tags not only last for the useful lifetime of the fixed and capital assets, but they also make it easier for public colleges and universities to report new capital asset acquisition, useful life depreciation, and disposal.
Public institutions also may choose Metalphoto anodized aluminum asset tags for assets’ useful life identification, inventory control, and more, as they can be used for tracking both fixed and moveable assets.
Metalphoto asset tags are designed and manufactured to remain readable no matter how much sunlight, heat, or physical abuse they are subjected to over the course of the institutions’ infrastructure assets’ lifetime. Metalphoto photosensitive anodized aluminum asset tags are comprised of photographically sealed barcodes and serial numbers inside anodized layers of aluminum.. These top-quality durable asset tags are capable of shedding dirt, grease, chemicals, and salt.
Tracking and reporting fixed and capital assets can be a large undertaking for public colleges and universities. In order to remain in compliance with GASB 35 and accurately report on their fixed and capital assets, these public education institutions choose Metalphoto asset tags to identify those items.
They also utilize handheld optical scanners for automatic recognition and optical digital scanning. These scanners drastically reduce the chance of human error due to manual input, and they compile asset information into databases. When public colleges and universities choose durable barcode asset tags, they realize several advantages and benefits, including…
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