An equipment inventory should help people make decisions. For a small government office, a spreadsheet can be useful if it consistently answers what the item is, where it belongs, who looks after it, and which record explains its support arrangement.
Start with maintainable fields
Use a stable asset identifier, model, location, responsible team, and current status. Add purchase or warranty references when the organization can maintain them accurately. Keep credentials and sensitive configuration details in approved systems rather than placing them in a broadly shared inventory. More columns do not automatically create a better record if no one is responsible for updating them.
Tie updates to ordinary work
Choose specific moments that trigger a record change: receiving equipment, moving it, assigning it, replacing it, and retiring it. Make those updates part of the corresponding work request. During a spot check, compare a few physical items with their records and follow any mismatch back to the process. That is often more useful than trying to rebuild the entire list at once.
Practical takeaway
Choose an inventory that the support team can sustain. Consistent updates at handoff points matter more than an elaborate file that quickly falls behind.