BEN Assets Project – Mission Statement
In Penn’s decentralized environment,
Schools and Centers are responsible for property management.
The BEN Assets Project will replace and enhance existing property management tools and processes to support the Schools and
Centers in improving their operational efficiency and safeguarding University assets.
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BEN Assets Project – Mission Statement
(continued)
The new tools and processes will promote:
 Improved oversight and control over moveable equipment assets to avoid loss or unauthorized disposal
 Reduction in Trustees’ concerns about management’s ability to appropriately safeguard University assets
 Improved processing through better integration with other systems, reduction in manual processing, and greater transparency of equipment information for custodians
 Opportunities for greater indirect cost recovery from research by better linkage of research equipment with specific rooms
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What Is BEN Assets?
Penn’s implementation of Oracle’s Asset
Management module as an additional application within BEN Financials
 BEN Buys – Internet Procurement/Purchasing
 BEN Balances – General Ledger
 BEN Pays – Accounts Payable
 BEN Assets – Fixed Assets New
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Definition of Capital or Property Asset
A property asset is any item for which all three of these criteria apply:



Item has a value of $5,000 or higher
Item has a useful life of more than one year
The University retains title of the item
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BEN Assets – IP Enhancements
 BEN Buys property management form changes
 For the requisitioning process for University assets, the list of object codes that require property management information will be expanded:
 Moveable Equipment - Object Codes1830-1833
 Collectibles - Object Codes 1850-1852 NEW
 Equipment in Process - Object Code1834 NEW
 Internal Use Software - Object Code 1835 NEW
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BEN Assets – IP Enhancements cont’d
 New required field to designate an item as a
“Component” of an asset
 Example – purchase of a $2,000 lens used to construct the $10,000 microscope
 This is a required field that will default to a null value – you must enter a “Y” or “N”
 Online validation of employee information
 Custodian and Tagging Contacts will be validated against a list of all current employees
 Only faculty and staff will be eligible to be Custodians or
Tagging Contacts
 i.e. research assistants or consultants will not be in the list
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Property Management Form
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BEN Assets – IP Enhancements cont’d
 Online validation of location
 Persons requesting purchases of capital equipment must provide a valid location for housing the equipment
 Building-Floor-Room data will now be validated against the Facilities'
Space@Penn data
 BEN Requisitioner will need to know the location information as it is represented in Space@Penn
 Example
– Building Number – 0155 = Franklin Building
– Floor Number – 1 = First Floor
– Room Number – 100A = Room number
Important: BEN Requisitioners are required to enter a valid location combination (BLDG-FLR-RM) for the asset.
Requisitions cannot be completed without this information.
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Property Management Form
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IP Enhancement Support
 Need to Find a Location?
 Each School/Center will be required to designate a go-to person within their respective areas for space related questions
 School/Center Sr. BAs will be provided with an electronic copy of the floor plans for their buildings on CD
 Future maintenance of space will continue according to the current processes within Facilities
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IP Enhancement Support cont’d

 Call BEN HELPS (215) 746-4357
 Need to enter your 2 digit
School/Center code
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BEN Assets Project Timeline
 IP Integration
(Software Release 1)
 BEN Assets - Central Rollout
(Software Release 2 )
OCT/NOV-07
FEB-08
 BEN Assets Training MAR-08
 BEN Assets - School/Center Rollout
(Software Release 3) MAR/APR-08
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Questions / Comments
Please send additional questions to benassets@pobox.upenn.edu
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