Fabricated Capital Equipment

BU Fabrications:

Unique capital equipment that is assembled at Boston University by University personnel and is typically built to meet research or testing requirements of a sponsored award is referred to as Fabricated Capital Equipment. Fabrications are composed of parts that are often manufactured on campus or purchased from multiple vendors. The final product is classified as a fabrication if the individual components the components will remain as one unit and are not intended to be used independently.

Non-BU Fabrications:

Fabrications by outside contractors are treated as an equipment purchase and are capitalized according to the University capitalization policy. 

Equipment fabricated for sale to other institutions (excluding the federal government) is not considered Boston University moveable capital equipment.

This equipment will not be added to the Asset Accounting Module, nor will it be tagged.

No Fabrication Internal Order or Property Fabrication application is necessary for these acquisitions.

 

When planning a BU fabrication:

  1. Ensure that the construction of a fabrication is allowed and formally detailed within the grant, contract, or subcontract.
  2. Contact the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) to create a child account/internal order number (IO) to be used only on purchases for this particular fabrication. Each fabrication requires its own child account, even if multiple fabrications will be constructed off of the same sponsored program.
  3. Download a Fabrication Application  and send the completed document to property@bu.edu.
  4. Property Management will assign a Fabrication number and provide the necessary information to begin purchases and assembly.

When placing orders for a BU fabrication:

  1. Once a BU Asset Tag has been assigned, purchasing may commence by utilizing the fabricated equipment child account (internal order number) provided by Sponsored Programs.
  2. Include the BU Asset Tag number on all purchase orders and inquiries.
  3. Use G/L account 571420-Fabricated Capital Equipment in purchase requisitions.
  4. Only components of the fabricated equipment can be charged to this GL. Other related costs must be charged to a standard child account.

 

Property Management oversight of BU fabrications:

  1. Property Management will periodically contact the PI and/or the custodian of the fabrication to inquire about its status. Once the Fabrication process is complete, the department must notify Property Management in a timely manner to ensure all charges for the project were charged appropriately prior to the closeout of the award.
  2. If the sum of all equipment charges meets the capitalization criteria, the fabrication will be added to the inventory of moveable capital equipment, recorded in the Asset Accounting Module, and tagged by Property Management. It is necessary to record the fabrication within the Asset Accounting Module upon completion to calculate the proper depreciation of the asset.
  3. If the sum of the equipment charges does not meet the capitalization criteria, all purchases will be transferred to their respective G/L account via a Journal Voucher (JV) upload and will be charged Facilities and Administrative (F&A) costs.