2026-09-19

Writing off equipment: who approves, what the act says and why the record should stay

Equipment stops being useful long before it disappears from the books. A laptop with a dead board sits in a cupboard, a projector is replaced and the old one is put on a shelf, a phone is lost on a field trip. Each of these is a small decision that somebody has to take and record. When nobody does, the register fills with things that no longer exist, and the next stocktake turns into an argument about what was ever there.

Why a written-off item should not vanish

The natural instinct is to delete a broken item from the list. Resist it. A deleted record cannot answer the question an auditor or a donor will ask: what happened to this laptop bought two years ago? A written-off item stays in the register with a status, a date, a reason and the names of the people who agreed. It disappears from the list of things you have, and remains in the history of things you had.

Four common reasons

Broken beyond repair: a repair costs more than the item is worth, or the part is no longer made.
Obsolete: it still works, but it can no longer do the job, or it cannot be updated safely.
Lost or stolen: the item cannot be found. This is the one that needs the most care: the reason should describe what was done to find it, and where a theft is suspected, the report to the police belongs with the papers.
Handed over: given to a partner, another office or a person, under a document that says so, or sold.

Who should approve

A write-off is a decision that removes value from the books, so it should not be made by the same person who looks after the item. A small organisation is served well by a short chain: the person responsible confirms the condition, and one or two others approve. Three signatures is the practical maximum: beyond that, write-offs wait for weeks and the broken things stay on the shelf.

What the act should say

the date and the number of the act;
what is being written off: name, inventory number, serial number, place;
the condition and the reason, in words a stranger can follow;
the value on the books, if your accounting keeps one;
what happens to the item: donated, transferred, sold or scrapped;
the names, positions and signatures of the people who approved.

Keep the act with the record of the item. If the item was lost, add whatever proves the search: a message, a note of the rooms checked, a report.

Write-offs that come out of a stocktake

Most write-offs are discovered, not planned: the stocktake finds three chargers and a laptop missing. The report does not change the register by itself. Each difference is a decision: found later, location corrected, registered as new, or written off with a reason. See how to run a stocktake.

Mistakes that make a write-off useless

A reason that says nothing. "Broken" tells a reader nothing. "Screen cracked after a fall on 3 March, repair quoted at more than the item is worth" can be checked.
Approval after the fact. If the item is already in the skip when the signatures are collected, the approval is a formality, and an auditor will see it.
One signature for everything. If the same person reports the loss, judges it and signs it off, the act proves nothing.
No follow-up on a loss. A lost item that is written off and never mentioned again is a risk that has been filed instead of solved. Note what changes so that it does not happen again.

What the rules require

Accounting for fixed assets and low-value items is set by your organisation's accounting policy and by the rules that apply to it. Whether an item is written off by a commission, and which form is used, depends on that. Ask your accountant which form your organisation uses, and use the same one every time.

How it looks in Depot 17

In the assets module a write-off starts as a request that goes to the people you chose as approvers, from one to three. The write-off itself records the method (donated, transferred, sold or scrapped) and the reason, and each organisation decides whether it uses a printable act with a scan of the signed copy or keeps only the method and the reason. The item stays in the register with its history. See what the assets module does.

This article is a practical summary, not legal or tax advice. The form of the write-off act and the approval procedure depend on your organisation's accounting policy.