"I Don't Have a Laptop" -- When an Employee Denies Having Company Equipment

This is based on a real case. The names and identifying details have been changed, but the situation is one that IT departments across Europe encounter with alarming regularity.

The Scenario

A mid-sized logistics company in the Netherlands terminates an employee in their operations department. The offboarding process begins: disable accounts, revoke access badges, and collect company equipment. HR sends the standard email requesting the return of all company property.

The response comes back: “I don’t have a laptop. I never received one.”

The IT department checks their records. The “records” consist of a shared spreadsheet that was last comprehensively updated eight months ago. There is a row that shows a Dell Latitude 5540 purchased in March 2024, but the “Assigned To” column is blank. There is no check-out record. There is no signed acknowledgment form. There is no delivery receipt.

The IT manager knows the laptop was delivered to this employee. He remembers setting it up personally. But he cannot prove it. The spreadsheet says nothing. The purchase order shows the laptop was bought, but not who received it. The shipping label from the internal courier was discarded months ago.

The laptop — worth approximately 1,200 euros — is gone. And there is nothing the company can do about it.

Why This Happens More Often Than You Think

This is not an isolated incident. According to industry research, approximately 71% of employees do not return all company equipment when they leave an organization. The reasons vary: some genuinely forget, some are working remotely and returning devices is inconvenient, some take advantage of poor tracking systems, and some simply deny ever having received the equipment.

The problem is particularly acute in several common situations:

• Remote employees: Equipment is shipped to home addresses. Once it arrives, the only evidence of receipt might be a courier tracking number — which does not prove the employee accepted or kept the device.
• Involuntary terminations: When an employee is terminated rather than resigning voluntarily, the incentive to cooperate with equipment return diminishes significantly.
• Long tenure: An employee who has been with the company for five years may have received multiple devices over time. Tracking which devices are still in their possession requires historical records that many companies do not maintain.
• Department transfers: Equipment sometimes follows informal paths. A laptop assigned to one person gets handed to a colleague “temporarily” and never reassigned in any system.

The Legal Reality

When an employee denies having company property and the company cannot prove otherwise, the legal position is weak. Employment law across most EU jurisdictions places the burden of proof on the employer to demonstrate that company property was provided to the employee. Without documentation — a signed receipt, a digital check-out record, or equivalent evidence — the employer’s claim is essentially one person’s word against another’s.

Even when the company is confident that the employee has the equipment, pursuing recovery through legal channels without documentation is expensive, time-consuming, and unlikely to succeed. Legal costs frequently exceed the value of the equipment being recovered. Most companies write off the loss and move on.

The financial impact scales quickly. Consider a company with 200 employees and an annual attrition rate of 15%. That is 30 departures per year. If even a quarter of departing employees fail to return one device worth an average of 800 euros, the annual loss is 6,000 euros in hardware alone — not counting the data security implications of company devices in uncontrolled hands.

What Proper Asset Management Prevents

Every aspect of this scenario is preventable. The problem is not that employees are dishonest (though some are). The problem is that the company does not have the systems in place to document custody clearly and irrefutably. With proper IT asset management, the situation unfolds very differently:

• Every device has a documented custodian at all times. From the moment a device enters inventory to the moment it is decommissioned, there is always exactly one person responsible for it.
• Check-out records are created at assignment. When a laptop is handed to an employee, a digital record is created that includes the device identifier, the employee’s name, the date, and ideally an acknowledgment (digital signature or confirmation).
• The chain of custody is immutable. The check-out record cannot be deleted or modified after the fact. It exists in an audit trail that the employee’s denial cannot erase.
• Offboarding triggers automated checks. When HR initiates a departure, the system automatically identifies all devices assigned to that employee and generates a return checklist.
• Discrepancies are flagged immediately. If a departing employee has not returned all assigned equipment, the system alerts IT and HR before the exit process is complete.

How a Tool with Checkout Records Solves This

Let us replay the same scenario with a proper ITAM system in place.

Step 1: At Purchase

The Dell Latitude 5540 is received from the vendor and registered in the asset management system. It receives a unique asset identifier. The purchase order, vendor, cost, and warranty information are all recorded. The device status is set to “In Stock.”

Step 2: At Assignment

The IT manager assigns the laptop to the employee through the system. A check-out record is created automatically with a timestamp. The employee receives a notification (or signs a digital acknowledgment) confirming receipt. The device status changes to “Assigned” and the custodian field is updated. This event is recorded in the immutable audit trail.

Step 3: During Employment

Any incidents related to the device — repairs, software installations, hardware swaps — are linked to the asset record. If the laptop is temporarily lent to another employee, a transfer is recorded. The full history accumulates over time.

Step 4: At Termination

HR initiates the offboarding process. The ITAM system is consulted (or automatically triggers a report) showing all devices currently assigned to the departing employee. The IT department sees: “Dell Latitude 5540, Serial #XXXX, assigned on March 15, 2024, current custodian: [Employee Name].”

Step 5: When the Employee Denies

The employee claims they never had a laptop. The IT manager pulls up the asset record and shows:

• Check-out date: March 15, 2024
• Checked out by: IT Manager (name, timestamp)
• Acknowledged by: Employee (digital confirmation, timestamp)
• Incidents during custody: Two support tickets resolved in June and September 2024 (proving the employee was actively using the device)
• No check-in record exists (proving the device was never returned)

The denial collapses immediately. The documentation is clear, timestamped, and irrefutable. The company has the evidence needed to require the return of the equipment — and if necessary, to pursue recovery through legal channels with a strong evidentiary basis.

Beyond Individual Cases: The Bigger Picture

The “I don’t have a laptop” scenario is dramatic, but the underlying issue extends far beyond disputed equipment returns. Proper custody tracking solves a range of operational and compliance problems:

• Security incident response: When a vulnerability is discovered, you need to know immediately which devices are affected and who has them. If a specific laptop model has a firmware vulnerability, you can identify every affected device and its current custodian within seconds.
• NIS2 compliance: Article 21(2)(i) requires documented asset management. Custody records are a core component of the audit evidence NIS2 demands.
• Insurance claims: If a device is stolen or damaged, having documented proof of who had it and when strengthens insurance claims significantly.
• Budget planning: Accurate records of who has what allow you to forecast replacement needs, track total cost of ownership per employee, and make data-driven procurement decisions.

The cost of implementing proper asset tracking is a fraction of the cost of losing even a single device per year. The investment pays for itself almost immediately — and when the auditor or the lawyer comes knocking, you will be glad you made it.

Do not wait until the next employee walks out with a laptop and a denial. By then, the evidence you need is already gone.