Equipment

"Equipment" purchases are items which are non-expendable, stand-alone, have a normal useful life of one year or more and qualify as tangible personal property with an acquisition cost of $5,000 or more (this includes gifts and transfers of equipment at this value).  All purchases meeting this criteria,  must be tracked by the University's property and financial systems.   The online web-based Berkeley Equipment Tracking System (BETS) is used to track campus inventorial equipment.   For more information, also see the Equipment Management web pages on the Property Management website. 

When purchasing equipment, first consider using an established agreement or punchout catalog in BearBUY.  This will help secure low product pricing, offer better terms, conditions, warranties and streamline your equipment purchase.

Many types of equipment can be purchased from: 

For catalog suppliers:  Choose equipment from hosted or punchout catalog(s) and put them into a BearBUY Shopping Cart.  Assign or submit the Shopping Cart according to the unit’s selected workflow. 

For non-catalog suppliers:

There are things to take into consideration to ensure you are processing your equipment order in compliance. If your order requires any of the considerations below,  describe the details in the requisition for your Buyer to ensure the Supplier receives the necessary details.

  • Does the equipment have embedded software and/or cloud data storage?
  • Will your order contain Restricted or Hazardous Items?
  • Does your order qualify for the Research Equipment CA Partial Sales Tax Rate Exemptions?
  • Will your order involve Inventorial Equipment: Trade In, Demo / Loaner?
  • Is it a fabrication to an existing UC Berkeley asset in BETS?
  • Was the correct account, speed type code used for equipment tracking.
  • Who will retain the Equipment Title: UC, Federal, or State?
  • Does this involve an Equipment Lease / License agreement terms?
  • Will your order need an inbound or outbound logistical considerations; receiving needs (forklift, dock, lift gate) or is the shipment coming from an international country needing customs clearance, export controls, ITAR classification?
  • Will your order involve a warranty, service maintenance (on-site or remote), insurance, upgrades, support, training, installation?

How to Purchase Equipment:

  1. Use the following Form in BearBUY: “Non-Catalog Form”.
  2. When creating the Requisition, the Requisition Creator must complete all of the required BearBUY Asset Management fields and comments, including title vested, agency approval, and no like kind. For contracted suppliers that do not have catalogs, select the "contract dropdown" when selecting the Supplier to tie the contract to the cart/purchase. 

        The department should attach the following Required PO Documents to the Non-Catalog Form as directed in BearBUY:

  1. Proof of Price Reasonableness & Source Justification
  2. Statement of Work (if applicable. Usually applicable when purchasing highly specialized, fabricated equipment.) 

        Required documents from the Supplier:

  1. Insurance
  2. Supplier’s proposal/Quote

      The Buyer will use the above documentation to create an Equipment Purchase Order and dispatch it to the Supplier.

Refer to:

 Special Considerations for additional potential issues.

  • BFB-BUS-29  Management and Control of University Equipment
  • BFB-BUS-39 Loss of or Damage to Property of Individuals


Return to the Methods for Purchasing Goods and Services page