Documentation containing lists of items identified as supplies or equipment can never be comprehensive or exhaustive and quickly become outdated. To resolve the need to differentiate supplies and equipment without exhaustive lists, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has proposed a set of criteria for distinguishing equipment from supply items, listed in priority order. (See exhibit E-1.) At the first "no," the item is declared to be a supply, not equipment.
An equipment item is any instrument, machine, apparatus, or set of articles that meets all of the following criteria and has an original individual cost of at least $5000 (or no less than the district's capitalization threshold, which may be higher). The Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) has recommended a capitalization threshold of no less than $5,000, but ultimately, the threshold limit is up to the school district or state:
An item should be classified as a supply if it does not meet all the stated equipment criteria.