Recall that a bundle consists of relatively dissimilar items that function together as a unit purchased from the same vendor. Dividing the total cost by the number of functioning units might not be appropriate; for example, multiple laptops or electronic tablets might jointly use a single server, but the server is much more costly than the individual laptops or tablets. Dividing the cost evenly over the various items that made up the functioning unit would cause the server to be undervalued and the laptops/tablets to be overvalued. This would not work well for insurance purposes if the server were destroyed by a lightning strike, but all the laptops/tablets were unharmed.
Because the district would have disaggregated the bundle for recording the items in the accounting system by correct UFA coding, the district would have a more accurate basis for determining the unit cost working from the accounting side rather than the purchasing side. At that disaggregated level, it would be possible for the district to divide the cost of like items by the total cost that was disaggregated to those items. So the cost of the server would be different than the cost of the laptops/tablets, but the cost of each laptop/tablet might be identical to the cost of another laptop/tablet in the same bundle.
Each laptop/tablet will have a distinct serial number even if they have the same model number. Some districts will tag the laptops/tablets by that serial number with an individual cost in the inventory and/or insurance records and will also use that unique serial number to determine which laptop/tablet was assigned to each student/individual. Other districts will record the laptops/tablets as a group of a specific number of laptops/tablets purchased in a single bundle that are the same model and purchase date while keeping the serial numbers and student assignments in a separate subsidiary record. The method used by districts would be determined locally to meet the district’s needs.