Tagging a school's laptops and furniture as assets

What a school should record for each laptop, projector and desk in its fixed-asset register, which purchases belong on it, and how to add them in Achekam.

By Achekam · 11 October 2026 · 5 min read · For Education businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya

A school buys a trolley of laptops for the Grade 7 classes, ceiling projectors for the new block and a hall full of stackable chairs. Two years later the auditor asks to see a sample: this laptop, that projector. The bursar knows the purchase is in the books somewhere, as one large invoice. Nobody knows which laptop is which, which classroom has the projector, or whether the three laptops that went home with teachers during exams ever came back.

A fixed-asset register solves that, but only if it records the right things from the day the item arrives. This article sets out what a school should capture for each asset, which purchases belong on the register, and how the accounting side works in Achekam.

Start with a unique number on every asset

AccountingTools defines a fixed asset register as a detailed listing of every fixed asset a business has acquired or built. The word that matters for a school is "every". A register that lists "30 laptops" as one line cannot tell you which one is missing.

So the first field is a unique identification number, physically attached to the item: a printed tag, an engraved code or a barcode label. Practical points:

• tag each item on the day it is delivered, before it reaches a classroom;
• put the tag where it will not wear off but can be read without turning furniture over;
• never reuse a tag number, even after an item is scrapped;
• for a set, such as a class set of laptops, tag each unit, not the trolley.

Location and the person responsible

AccountingTools lists the information a fixed asset register typically holds: asset name, unique identification number, cost, location, responsible manager or department, asset class, useful life, salvage value, accumulated impairment, current carrying amount, accumulated depreciation and depreciation method. It adds that a register may also hold operational information such as insurance, condition and usage level.

For a school, location and responsibility do most of the work in a physical count:

When a laptop is issued to a teacher, the responsible person becomes that teacher, and the change is recorded. When a projector moves rooms, the location changes on the register, not just on the wall.

AccountingTools' guide to the fixed asset register explains each of these fields and how the register supports depreciation and audits.

Cost, useful life and depreciation method

AccountingTools explains that the register is the source for depreciation calculations, because it records each asset's purchase date, cost and depreciation method. Get those three right and depreciation follows.

On cost, Investopedia explains that the cost of an asset for depreciation includes its purchase price and any expenses to get it ready for use, such as shipping, installation and setup. For a school, that means:

• the delivery charge for a container of desks belongs in their cost;
• the electrician's bill for mounting ceiling projectors belongs in the projectors' cost;
• the technician's time to set up and image a batch of laptops belongs in the laptops' cost, if the school pays for it as part of getting them ready.

Useful life is the school's own estimate of how long the item will be used. Laptops in a busy computer lab and solid timber desks in a staffroom will not last the same number of years. Agree the useful life for each class of asset with your accountant and apply it consistently.

Which purchases go on the register, and which are expensed

Not every purchase is worth tagging and depreciating. Investopedia notes that most businesses set a minimum amount below which purchases are expensed immediately rather than depreciated. Its examples are in US dollars: a threshold of $500 for a small business, or $5,000 or $10,000 for larger corporations. They illustrate the idea rather than set a rule for a school in rand, naira or shillings.

Set your own threshold with your accountant and write it down. Two practical points help a school:

• Group purchases. A single chair may fall below the threshold, but a hall's worth of chairs bought together may be significant. Decide in your policy whether such sets are capitalised as a group.
• Attractive items. Some items below the threshold are easy to carry away, such as tablets or calculators. You may expense them but still tag and count them, as a control rather than an accounting entry.

Adding assets in Achekam

In Achekam, a fixed-asset register lets a business add assets at cost, depreciate them monthly by straight line or reducing balance with a journal each month, and dispose of them with the profit or loss posted. Two limits apply: tax wear-and-tear is not worked out, and the register is not part of the Business Essentials plan.

Each business also has its own double-entry ledger with a standard chart of accounts created when the books first open, and accounts can be added, renamed or switched off. Before adding the first assets, set up asset accounts that match how the school thinks about them, for example computer equipment, furniture and fittings, and laboratory equipment, so the balance sheet groups them sensibly.

Use the register for the accounting side: cost, method, the monthly depreciation journal and disposal. Keep the physical details, such as tag number, room, responsible person and condition, in the school's tagging list, and quote the tag number in both so that each line in the books can be matched to an item on a shelf.

When a laptop is stolen or scrapped, dispose of it in the register so the profit or loss is posted and the asset stops depreciating. A register that still carries items the school no longer has overstates its assets, which reconciling the fixed asset register explains how to catch. For the line between capitalising and expensing equipment, see capitalising laptops and servers.

Before the next delivery arrives, print a batch of tags and agree who will attach them and record each item on the day it comes in.

General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.