Word template
Employee equipment agreement template
One page, signed at handover: what the person received, the condition it was in, what they are agreeing to, and a return block to complete when it comes back. The document that turns an awkward conversation at offboarding into a record.
What is an employee equipment agreement?
An employee equipment agreement is a signed record of what equipment a person has been issued and what they agree to in accepting it — care, reporting loss, and returning it when they leave. This free Word template includes the item table, condition at handover, the terms, signature blocks and a return record.
Free to use and adapt. No email, no sign-up, no watermark.
Employee equipment agreement template
Template — replace everything in [square brackets].
[COMPANY] · Owner: [ROLE] · Effective: [DATE]
Person receiving the equipment
Equipment issued
What I am agreeing to
Signatures
Return record
Name
Signature
Date
Every section
What the document covers
01Person receiving the equipment
Name, employee or contractor id, department, start date in role.
02Equipment issued
A row per item: asset tag, item, serial number, condition at handover, value. Accessories on the same row as the item they belong to.
03What I am agreeing to
Six numbered terms — ownership, care, reporting, no modification or disposal, return on leaving, and the position on unreturned equipment.
04Signatures
Recipient and issuer, both named and dated.
05Return record
Completed when the equipment comes back: date, condition on return, who received it, and whether the register was updated.
How to use it
Five steps, in order
- 01
Fill the item table at the desk
With the equipment physically present. Serial numbers copied from a purchase order are wrong often enough to matter, and the one time it matters is a police report.
- 02
Record condition honestly
'Good — scratch on lid' protects both sides. A blank condition column means every mark found later is a disagreement.
- 03
Both parties sign
The issuer signs too. An agreement the company did not sign is a form; one both signed is a mutual record.
- 04
Keep it where offboarding will look
In the person's HR record, not a shared folder. The document only works if someone finds it on the last day.
- 05
Complete the return block
The half everyone skips. Without it you know what was issued and nothing about what came back, which is the same as not knowing.
The decisions it cannot make for you
Where judgement is required
- One agreement, or one per item?
- One per person, listing everything, and re-issued when they receive something substantial later. A document per laptop buries the signal — nobody reads six forms to answer one question.
- Should it name a value?
- Yes. It sets expectations about care, and it is the number an insurer or a deduction discussion starts from. Use purchase price, not an estimate of current worth.
- Digital or paper?
- Either, as long as it is signed and findable. A scanned signature in the HR record beats a pristine paper copy in a drawer nobody opens at offboarding.
FAQ
Questions people ask about this template
What should an employee equipment agreement include?
Who received the equipment, an itemised list with serial numbers and condition, the terms they are accepting, signatures from both sides with dates, and a return record to complete when the equipment comes back.
Is an equipment agreement legally binding?
It is a contractual record, and its force depends on your jurisdiction and how it sits alongside the contract of employment. It is most useful as evidence of what was issued and what was agreed — have your own adviser review it before relying on the recovery clause.
Should contractors sign one?
Yes, and arguably it matters more: contractors are further from your HR processes and more likely to finish an engagement without an offboarding checklist running.
What if the employee refuses to sign?
Record that they were issued the equipment and declined to sign, and escalate to whoever owns the policy. An unsigned handover still needs to exist in the register — the register is the operational record; the agreement is the acknowledgement.
Do we need a new agreement every time something is issued?
Not for a replacement charger. Re-issue when something substantial changes hands — a new laptop, a phone, a tool — so the list stays a fair description of what the person holds.
When the spreadsheet stops being enough
Stackroom is the same register with the maintenance removed: scan a label to update it, and see who has what without asking. Free for unlimited users.