As colleges and universities navigate the complexities of compliance, funding, and operational efficiency, Capital Asset Management (CAM) is becoming a critical part of the conversation. While many institutions have systems in place for tracking assets, the evolving landscape in 2025 demands you go beyond just compliance to rethink your overall strategy.
From threshold changes and reporting requirements to maximizing Facilities & Administrative (F&A) recovery and optimizing inventory methods, today’s financial leaders are expected to balance control, coordination, and cost recovery while ensuring audit readiness.
Our experts at HCA Asset Management have identified several key principles that can guide higher ed institutions toward smarter, more sustainable capital asset practices.
Aligning Asset Policies with Evolving Compliance Standards
At the foundation of effective asset management is a clear, current understanding of what qualifies as a capital asset. For federal compliance, assets must have a useful life greater than one year and meet specific cost thresholds—historically $5,000. With a 2024 federal revision allowing institutions to raise that threshold to $10,000, there’s growing need to revisit internal policies.
While the change is optional, implementing it without cross-functional input can lead to inconsistencies. Teams must understand how the new threshold impacts indirect cost recovery, depreciation schedules, and reporting requirements, especially for departments handling sponsored assets.
The Role of Capital Asset Data in F&A Cost Recovery
Depreciation data plays a direct role in (F&A) rate negotiations. Asset records that align with space survey data can strengthen proposals and help institutions recover a greater portion of indirect costs. That starts with accurate equipment location data, ideally at the room level.
Property control teams should be working in sync with finance, space management, and research administration to ensure the right data flows through the right systems. Incomplete or outdated records, especially around space functionality or custodial ownership, can result in lost opportunities for reimbursement.
Strategic Approaches to Inventory and Asset Tracking
Inventory remains one of the most resource-intensive activities in the capital asset lifecycle. Institutions often choose between centralized and decentralized models. While decentralized models require fewer resources, they carry higher audit risks due to inconsistent procedures and self-certification.
Technology continues to reshape inventory control. Institutions using mobile tools, barcode scanning, RFID solutions and specialized inventory software are reducing the time spent in the field while increasing accuracy. As the cost of tracking technology has fallen significantly, higher education institutions have increasingly embraced it over relying on human oversight. RFID, in particular, offers advantages in dense environments like server rooms or research labs allowing assets to be verified without direct line of sight or physical handling.
Planning for the Entire Lifecycle and Not Just Acquisition
Asset management doesn’t end with purchase. The lifecycle includes addition, tracking, transfer, and disposal—each with its own requirements and risks. Overlooking the latter stages can lead to misreported data, unrecovered costs, or compliance violations.
Institutions must establish clear workflows to ensure assets are disposed of in line with sponsored project requirements, especially when resale is involved. Similarly, fabricated assets, donated items, or split-funded purchases each come with tracking challenges that standard systems may not capture out of the box. Developing internal flags or data structures to track these assets more intentionally can help prevent downstream issues.
Software Integration and Systems Thinking
Asset inventory software should not operate in isolation. When integrated with ERP systems, HR platforms, and space management tools, institutions gain a unified view of asset status, title and funding sources.
That visibility not only improves data accuracy but also supports proactive planning. For example, aligning HR data with asset systems can help flag custodial updates when staff leave. Syncing space systems can validate room-level usage against institutional space records, which helps to support the facility portion of an F&A proposal.
Keep Building the Foundation
There’s no one-size-fits-all solution to capital asset management, but the institutions that get it right are those that treat it as an ongoing, strategic function. They build collaboration between departments, continuously refine their processes, and use technology to fill the gaps rather than patch over them.
To explore these best practices in greater depth—including visuals, technology demos, real-world examples, and expert recommendations—watch our on-demand webinar: Optimizing Capital Assets in Higher Education.