Resources

Synonym
Guide
Best Practice
Best Practices
Guidance

Use our updated Best Practices for Tracking Small and Attractive Assets today, to prevent your assets from walking away tomorrow

Most governments own a variety of assets that they track and inventory, beyond what they do for financial reporting purposes. We call them small and attractive assets here in Washington state, but across the nation, people refer to them as theft-sensitive assets, walk-away assets or controlled assets.  

A syllabus of top SAO resources and articles for school districts

Whether you're a new school official looking to learn all you can, or a seasoned veteran just interested in a refresher or two, chances are we have some resources you can use. Here's a list of linked articles, tools and checklists that have proven quite useful over the years. As always, if you have questions or need more information, contact our Center for Government Innovation at Center@sao.wa.gov

Read our updated best practices for tracking capital assets – it’ll help you for years to come

Imagine you just bought a home, but you don’t like the kitchen because it’s outdated. Since this is potentially your “forever home,” it makes sense to update the kitchen so you can enjoy it for years to come. In a similar situation, a local government keeps its capital asset records for years – sometimes decades – so why not take the time to improve them? Like the kitchen, the investment in improving your capital asset management system is worth it because you can reap the long-term benefits.

Planes, trains and travel expenses: Upgrade your government’s internal controls with our updated resource

Employees are on the road again, traveling to various in-person trainings and conferences. Given this, one cannot help but wonder about the internal control systems for processing employee reimbursements and travel claims. Are they ready to handle this activity and prevent waste, loss or abuse?

New report, resource published on managing outdated government software applications

Public services of all types depend on specialized computer systems and information technology applications. However, all too often those applications are out of date. In fact, between 40 percent and 60 percent of Washington state’s government applications should be considered “legacy applications” according to Washington Technology Solutions, the state’s centralized provider of IT services.