Word template
Company equipment policy template
Twelve sections covering how equipment is issued, what you expect of the person holding it, and what happens when something is lost, damaged or never comes back — written to be filled in and issued, not admired.
What is a company equipment policy?
A company equipment policy sets out how an organisation issues equipment, what it expects of the people holding it, and what happens when something is damaged, lost or not returned. This free template covers twelve sections including issuing, care, personal use, home working, loss and theft, returns, and data — in Word, with placeholders to fill in.
Free to use and adapt. No email, no sign-up, no watermark.
Company equipment policy template
Template — replace everything in [square brackets].
[COMPANY] · Owner: [ROLE] · Effective: [DATE]
1. Purpose
2. Scope
3. Issuing equipment
4. Looking after it
5. Personal use
Name
Signature
Date
Every section
What the document covers
011. Purpose
Why the policy exists — so expectations are written down before there is a disagreement about them.
022. Scope
Who it applies to, including contractors and temporary staff, and what counts as equipment.
033. Issuing equipment
Recorded against a named person at the point of handover, and acknowledged by them.
044. Looking after it
Reasonable care, in and out of the office. The specific behaviours, not a general appeal.
055. Personal use
What incidental personal use is permitted, and the line it must not cross.
066. Working from home and travel
Home equipment tracked identically; travelling abroad flagged in advance for cover.
077. Loss, theft and damage
Report within a stated window, crime reference for theft, and how accidents differ from carelessness.
088. Maintenance and servicing
Who owns the schedule, and the rule about lapsed inspections.
099. Returning equipment
The list produced before the last day, so offboarding is a checklist rather than an investigation.
1010. Equipment not returned
What the company may do — with a warning to take local legal advice, because pay deductions are restricted in many jurisdictions.
1111. Data and access
Company data stays on company systems; access is revoked independently of hardware return.
1212. Review
Who owns the policy and when it gets looked at again.
How to use it
Five steps, in order
- 01
Replace every bracket
Each placeholder is bold and coloured: company name, the role that owns it, the reporting window, the review period. Search for '[' before you circulate it — an unfilled bracket is what makes a policy look like a download.
- 02
Decide the reporting window honestly
24 hours is the default here. If your team works shifts or travels, 48 may be the number you will actually enforce — and a policy nobody enforces teaches people the rest is optional too.
- 03
Have it reviewed locally
Section 10 touches deductions from pay, which is restricted or prohibited in many jurisdictions. This is a drafting starting point, not legal advice.
- 04
Issue it with the acknowledgement
The signature block at the end is the point. A policy nobody signed is a document; a policy somebody signed is a record.
- 05
Pair it with the agreement
The policy sets the rules once, for everyone. The equipment agreement records what one person actually received — you want both.
The decisions it cannot make for you
Where judgement is required
- How prescriptive should it be?
- Specific enough to act on. 'Take reasonable care' is unenforceable on its own; 'do not leave equipment visible in a vehicle' is a sentence somebody can follow and you can point at afterwards.
- Charging for unreturned equipment
- The clause is drafted conservatively on purpose. In the UK, deductions need a written agreement in advance; in much of the EU and several US states they are limited or barred. Take advice before you rely on it, and never make it the only mechanism — an offboarding list that runs before the last day recovers more equipment than any clause.
- Personal use
- Silence here is a decision too, and usually the wrong one: staff use company laptops personally whether or not you mention it, and an unwritten rule cannot be enforced consistently.
FAQ
Questions people ask about this template
What should an equipment policy include?
Scope, how equipment is issued and recorded, expectations of care, rules on personal and home use, how to report loss or damage, the return process at offboarding, the position on unreturned equipment, and the data rules that sit alongside the hardware.
Can we charge employees for lost or damaged equipment?
Sometimes, and it depends entirely on jurisdiction and contract. Deductions from pay are restricted in the UK, much of the EU and several US states, and usually require written agreement in advance. Get local advice, and treat the clause as a backstop rather than a plan.
Does an equipment policy need to be signed?
It does not have to be, but an acknowledged policy is far easier to rely on. The template includes a signature block for that reason — and in practice, signing is what makes people actually read it.
How often should it be reviewed?
Annually, or when how you work changes — a shift to hybrid working, a new class of equipment, or an incident that the policy did not cover well.
Is this policy legally binding?
It is a template drafted for general use, not legal advice. Whether and how it binds depends on your jurisdiction and how it is incorporated into your contracts of employment — which is why the last step is having your own adviser read it.
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