1. Introduction to Acquisitions
V. 16

2. Session Agenda Section 0: The Acquisitions Module Section 1: Budgets
Section 2: Vendors
Section 3: Currencies
Section 4: Ordering
Section 5: Multi-orders
Section 6: Arriving (Receiving)
Section 7: Invoicing
Section 8: Claiming
Section 9: Services
Acquisitions

3. Opening the Acquisitions Module
In the Acquisitions module, you may choose one of six Navigation Trees:
Order Navigation Tree
Invoice Navigation Tree
Admin Navigation Tree
Index Navigation Tree
Serial Navigation Tree
Search Navigation Tree
Note: you may use the direct access options to access titles which have already been managed through this module (i.e. for whom orders were created).
Direct access to serial titles
Direct access
to orders and
invoices
Acquisitions

4. Select Library
To connect to an administrative library select: ALEPH/Connect to…
You may also connect by right-clicking on the Library icon on the Operations Bar:
Look at the Title (Windows) Bar to view the library (and server) you are currently connected to.
Acquisitions

5. Prerequisites for Acquisitions
A bibliographic record
(in the Cataloging module, or from within Acquisitions)
Vendors defined
Budgets defined
Currencies defined
Acquisitions

6. The Acquisitions Process
Creating/accessing a bibliographic record
Order initiation, budget encumbrance
Creation of items (automatic, optional)
Order dispatch
Creation of subscriptions (optional, for serials only)
Material arrival registration (automatic, optional)
Invoice registration and payment
Claiming
Acquisitions

7. The Process Illustrated
The Record
Vendor
Send
Invoice
Order
Line item
Line item
Line item
Encumbers
Pays
Budget/s
Arrival (or Claim)
Acquisitions

8. Acquisitions Records Order record Order record Acquisitions
Bibliographic record
One record can have many orders
An order can only have
one vendor
Order record
Order record
Order
Vendor
An order can encumber
many budgets
An order can receive
many invoices
Many invoices can
be registered from
a vendor
Budget
Invoice
A budget can pay many invoices;
An invoice can be paid by many budgets
Acquisitions

9. Acquisitions Order Types
Monographs (M) , ,
Standing orders (O)
Serials (S) ,
Acquisitions

10. Budget Management
Budgets are used for encumbering orders and paying invoices.
Budgets may be defined as annual, making them available for end-of-year services, such as automatically creating a budget for the new year, and moving last year’s encumbrances to it.
Budgets may be associated with specific sublibraries or order units, as well as to specific object codes (e.g. CDs).
The library may wish to allocate specific budget handling privileges to specific users or ordering units, due to their confidential nature.
Acquisitions

11. Creating a New Budget
In the Admin Navigation Tree, create a new budget, using the following budget codes, based on your position number in the class (ZOOLOGY1 for position 1 etc.):
ZOOLOGY …
ZOOLOGY …
Acquisitions

12. Creating a New Budget
Needed for this exercise
Acquisitions

13. Budget Form - Options Budget Code
Annual Budget (in 2.Budget Info 2 tab)
If this budget is an annual budget, the budget code should adhere to the following format: BUDGETNAME-YEAR (e.g. ZOOLOGY-2003). Also, the Annual Budget checkbox should be checked.
Valid From/To
Specify the validity of the budget, normally from the beginning to the end of the fiscal year.
Budget Status
Set to AC (Active). If NA (Non-active), this budget cannot be used.
Acquisitions

14. Budget Form - Options Max. Over/Under Encumbrance
This is the maximum amount by which the budget may be encumbered, over or under the estimated budget balance.
Max. Over/Under Expenditure
This is the maximum amount by which the budget may be expended, over or under the estimated budget balance.
Expressed as Percentage
the figures written in the above fields will be taken as a percentage of the allocation (and not as a finite amount).
Acquisitions

15. Budget Form - Options Limit to ‘Under’ Exp./Enc.
The maximum amount by which the budget may be expended/encumbered is under the budget balance by the above amounts.
Example:
If Max. Over/Under Expenditure = 100, and
Limit to ‘Under’ Exp./Enc. is checked, and
the budget balance is $1000, then
The maximum amount the library can expend is $900.
Acquisitions

16. Allocating Funds to a Budget
In the Admin Navigation Tree, select your new budget from the Budget List.
Open the 4. Transactions tab and allocate funds to this budget. Try also to transfer some amounts to/from other budgets.
Acquisitions

17. Checking Budget Transactions
From the 4. Transactions tab, you may view budget transactions, displayed chronologically, and filtered by Transaction Type:
Initial allocation (ILC)
Allocation (ALC)
Carryover from last year’s budget (CRO)
Transfer (TFR)
Encumbrance (ENC)
Invoice (INV).
Acquisitions

18. Checking Budget Balance
In the Admin Navigation Tree, select a new budget from the list of budgets. Open the 3. Balance tab to check budget balances.
Actual balance
= Total allocations – (paid + unpaid invoices)
Free balance
= Total allocations – (paid + unpaid invoices
+ encumbrances)
Acquisitions

19. Budget Balances Acquisitions Allocations/ transfers only Encumbrance
added
Invoice
registered
Invoice
paid
Acquisitions

20. Budget Hierarchy
You may wish to create a hierarchy of budgets for reporting and display purposes. It will then be possible to view the balances of ‘child’ budgets when viewing the ‘parent’ budget, both in the Acquisitions and Serials Module and in the Invoice Report (acq-10).
If you want a budget to have a parent, enter the parent’s code in the Budget Parent field of the 1. Budget Info 1 tab.
Optionally, check the Use Parent Budget for Invoice Report checkbox.
Acquisitions

21. Viewing Budgets
The Budget Filter tab in the upper pane allows retrieval of budgets by various search Navigation Trees and filters:
Browse – enter the first letter/s of the budget code
Find – enter any string in the budget code
Find Exact – enter the exact budget code
Wildcard search - B*-2003 will retrieve all budgets that start with the letter B and end with -2003
Budget Group
Filters: Sublibrary, Budget Status, Year.
View Authorized - display only budgets for which the user has at least one kind of permission.
Acquisitions

22. Budget Permissions
Budget permissions are defined per staff user regarding specific budget activities:
Allocate
Transfer
Encumber
Expend
Acquisitions

23. Object Codes
Object Codes, found in the 2. Budget Info 2 tab, may be used (optionally) to classify expenditures.
Up to 20 object code/s can be assigned
to a budget.
View the breakdown of expenditure by object codes in the Object Codes tab of the 3. Balance tab:
Acquisitions

24. Object Codes
If object codes are used, they must also be assigned to each line item of the invoice.
The system checks for a match between the line item’s object code and the assigned budget’s object code.
If there is no match between the object codes, the INV-type budget transaction will fail.
Acquisitions

25. End-of-Year Procedures
Open Annual Budgets - Opens next year’s
budgets with the Initial Allocation only (optional).
Renew Order Encumbrances - Moves encumbrances to the newly-opened budgets*.
Transfer Remaining Balance - Moves the balance (positive or negative) to the new budgets.
* Two batches: 1.) monograph, 2.) serial
Acquisitions

26. Open Annual Budgets To open annual budges for the next budget year:
Acquisitions

27. Encumbrance Renewal
To re-create encumbrances for a new budget year (optionally, with an estimated increase):
Acquisitions

28. Transfer remaining balance
Optional: transfer remaining balance (positive, or, optionally, negative) to the new budget.
Acquisitions

29. Acquisitions Statistics
Produced for a whole year, or for a specific range of dates, filtered by sublibrary, with the following columns:
Material Type
Month
Purchase Method
Acquisitions

30. Creating a New Vendor
In the Admin Navigation Tree, create a new vendor, using the following vendor codes, based on your position number in the class (ZEBRA-BOOKS1 for position 1 etc.):
ZEBRA-BOOKS1 …
… ZEBRA-BOOKS12
Acquisitions

31. Creating a New Vendor
Needed for this exercise
Acquisitions

32. Creating a New Vendor
Needed for this exercise
Acquisitions

33. Vendor Form - Options Vendor Code
A unique code. Enter vendor’s full name in Vendor Name.
Vendor Status
Set to AC (Active) or any other option from the drop-down menu. If NA (Non-active), this vendor may not be used.
Currency 1
This is the default currency for this vendor. Up to 4 may be entered. They may be switched over at invoice registration.
Acquisitions

34. Vendor Form - Options Terms Sign / Terms Percent
This is the default discount ‘terms’ offered by the vendor, and will appear in any order, and may be overridden.
Order Delivery
This is how we normally send the order to the vendor (by a single letter/ or by a list of orders). It may be overridden at the ordering Section.
Acquisitions

35. Vendor Form - Options Letter Format
The library may set various pre-defined order letter texts. Here you choose what the default one should be for orders.
Letter Send Method / List Send Method
This is the default mechanism for sending the letter or list to the vendor:
Print
EDI (Electronic Data Interchange).
Acquisitions

36. Vendor Form - Options Delivery 1 (ACQ) / Delivery Delay 1
Here you specify the default method the vendor uses to send non-serial material to the library, and the expected time (delay) it takes for it to arrive. There are 3 defaults, for various delivery methods. This is used for calculating when a claim should be sent.
Delivery 4 (SER) / Delivery Delay 4
Same as above, but for serial issues. There are 2 defaults.
Acquisitions

37. The Vendor Address
You may enter up to 5 addresses for a vendor (at least one must be defined as default in the 1. Order Address tab).
Select your vendor and click
the “Address” button, complete
the 1. Order Address tab
Acquisitions

38. The Vendor Address
From the Vendor Address form, you may also send an to the vendor.
Acquisitions

39. Vendor Sublibrary/Ordering Unit
It is possible to limit a vendor to specific sublibraries/ordering units by clicking on the 4. Ordering Units tab in the lower pane:
Acquisitions

40. Managing Currencies Currency management allows you to:
Add or remove currencies (note: you cannot remove a currency already used for an encumbrance)
Modify ratios – while keeping the ratio (exchange rate) date
Add ratios – changing also the ratio date
Delete ratios
Acquisitions

41. Checking Currencies
In the Admin Navigation Tree, check that the US Dollar (USD) is defined as the ‘Local’ currency (I.e. its exchange rate is defined as 1.00, based on table setup*).
*alephe/aleph_start : setenv local_currency
Acquisitions

42. Ordering: Search for Title
After finding the desired record in Search Navigation Tree, select it in the upper pane; it will be display in the lower pane.
Click the “Acq” button to move into Order Navigation Tree.
Once in the Order Navigation Tree, the (empty) Order List displays:
Acquisitions

43. The Order Index Acquisitions Which starting point on the chosen index
Index to use
for searching
Various filters
Results sorted by the chosen index
Acquisitions

44. Order Index Notes
The Order Index is the best tool for finding orders, due to its wide range of indexes and filters.
It can be defaulted to include an individual a user’s preferred filters and indexes (for example, the Sublibrary filter can be defaulted to his/her own sublibrary.)
You may use only one of the From Date and the To Date filters.
The Order Information and Bibliographic Information will display in the lower pane for each highlighted order.
Acquisitions

45. New & Cancelled Order Index
Accessible from the Order Index tab.
Displays only those Orders with status: NEW, LC (Library Cancelled), VC (Vendor Cancelled) and CNB (Cancelled No Budget).
Users can delete an order or a group of orders using the “Delete” or “Delete All” buttons. Deletion depends on authorization.
Acquisitions

46. Fast Cataloging
This option enables you to briefly catalog a record with minimal information. Some fields may be defined as being ‘Mandatory’ by your system librarian.
Select Menu/Orders/Catalog Order from the Main Menu Toolbar.Once you complete this form and click “OK”, the Order List for the new title displays, allowing you to create an order for this new record.
Acquisitions

47. Placing an Order Using Fast Cataloging, create a
monograph order for 2 copies of a title
of your choice, using the vendor record you have already created.
Complete the form and note any error messages (text bubble) the system displays:
Acquisitions

48. Order Type
Before a new order is added, you must choose a value in the Order Type window. There are three types:
Monograph
Serial
Standing Order.
There are slight differences between the three types in the Order Form, related to claim period definition. Optionally, you may define the order number counter on that form. Various counters may be defined by the system librarian.
Acquisitions

49. The Order Form
After you have clicked “Add” in the Order List in the upper pane, the Order Form displays:
Needed for this exercise (some fields are completed automatically).
Acquisitions

50. The Order Form Acquisitions Needed for this exercise (some
fields are completed automatically).
Acquisitions

51. Differences Between Order Types
Monograph
Standing Order
Serials
Acquisitions

52. Order Form - Options Order Number 2 / 3
Additional order numbers (not system-defined).
Status Date
Date when the Order Status has changed.
Order Date
Date when the order was sent.
Sublibrary / Order Unit
Depending on the library’s setup, one of these should be defined per order. Items created for this order will ‘belong’ to this sublibrary/order unit.
Acquisitions

53. Order Form - Options Rush
Check this box for a rush note in the order slip, and for a pop-up reminder appearing when arrival is registered.
Claim Date
This field is left zeroed when creating the order. It will be filled with the relevant date once the order has been sent.
Batch Claiming
Check this box if this order is going to take part in the automatic claiming service. Otherwise, you’ll have to claim manually if needed.
Acquisitions

54. Order Form - Options Number of Units / Unit Price
You only need to fill these two fields – the system will calculate the Total, List and Final Prices, and the Local Price automatically.
Create Item Records
This box may be checked if that was defined in the setup. You may override that default.
Save Def.
Click this button before clicking Add, so that your order parameters will be saved (locally) as defaults for your next orders (E.g. sublibrary, material type).
Acquisitions

55. The Order List
After you have clicked “Add” In the Order Form, the order should display in the Order List:
From here you may add new orders, duplicate existing ones, print copies, delete and send cancellation slips and send orders to vendors.
Acquisitions

56. The Order’s Action
In 2. General tab you may define possible order actions:
None - no action
Send Directly - the item will be sent directly to the specified patron’s address
Create Hold Request - for the specified patron (only for monograph orders, and only when an automatic item is created)
Send Mail
Acquisitions

57. Order Units The Order Unit is an acquisitions unit within the library.
It can be either a specially-defined order unit, or a normal sublibrary.
Libraries that have chosen to work with Order Units should also complete this field in the 2. General tab:
Acquisitions

58. Sending Orders to the Vendor
After the order is created, it needs to be sent to the vendor. There are three methods:
‘One of’ LE (tter) printed or ed
In a list LI (st) printed or ed
By EDI* ED (I) sent by ftp
*Electronic Data Interchange
Acquisitions

59. Sending Orders to the Vendor
When you click “Send” in the Order List, one of the following will happen:
If the Order Delivery Type is ‘LE’, the order will be printed or ed.
If it’s ‘LI’, then the order will wait until the service ‘Send list of orders to a vendor’ (acq-14) is run.
If it’s ‘ED’, the order will wait until the service ‘Send EDI orders’ (edi-11) is run.
Acquisitions

60. Sending Orders to the Vendor
You can click on the “Print/Cancel” button in the Order List to print the order details before sending it. This window also offers the option to send a cancellation slip to the vendor:
Acquisitions

61. The Order Status
The Order Status changes automatically as the order goes through various Sections.
It may also be changed manually.
Each order has the status NEW when opened and saved.
Once the “Send” button is clicked, the status may become
SV (Sent to Vendor), if the Order Delivery Method is LE, or
RSV (Ready to Send to Vendor), if the Order Delivery Method is LI or ED. Once the batch order-sending service is run, the status will change to SV.
Acquisitions

62. The Order Status
If there are budget problems, or if no budget was selected, the Status becomes DNB (Delayed, No Budget).
When the order is fully arrived and paid, the status will become CLS (Closed).
If the order is cancelled (Print/Cancel button), the status will change to LC (Library Cancelled).
Various other statuses may be applied manually:
WP (Waiting for Processing)
QSV (Query before Sending to Vendor)
VC (Vendor Cancelled).
Acquisitions

63. Encumbrance Defined
To encumber a budget is to “set aside” (allocate) the estimated price of an order.
The encumbered amount will remain part of the budget, until a Line Item (part of the General Invoice) is registered against it.
The original encumbrance (an estimation only) is likely to be different than the actual price paid for the order eventually.
Acquisitions

64. Encumbering a Budget
Now you should make sure your budget has sufficient funds in it to cover this order. If not, allocate some more (remember: we are not in the real world yet...)
Encumber your budget (ZOOLOGYx-2003) with the order amount.
There are two ways of doing it:
Fill the Encumber Budget field on tab 4 of the Order Form*, or
Open the Encumber node of the Order Navigation Tree.
* Viewable only for a new orders
Acquisitions

65. The Encumbrance Form Encumbrance = Estimated Price Local Price always
calculated
In this example:
Local Currency - NIS
Order Currency - USD
Acquisitions

66. More on Encumbering
The encumbrance only comes into effect in the budget once the order was sent.
Encumbrance-type transactions (ENC) may be viewed by opening the Encumber node on the Order Navigation Tree, and clicking the “Balance” button. Open the Transactions tab.
Encumbrance-type transactions are kept in the order’s currency, but the local currency may also display:
Local
Currency
Vendor
Currency
Acquisitions

67. The Order Log Each step of the process is recorded in the Order Log.
Access it from the Order Log node of the Orders Navigation Tree.
Transaction
Filters
Transactions
Acquisitions

68. The Order Log
The system adds pre-defined transactions automatically, however you may add manual ones.
Click “Add” to add manual transactions to the Order Log.
There are 3 manually-entered transaction types, available from the drop-down menu:
Free-text transactions (transaction type 00)
Free-text message to the vendor (type 99)
Registering the vendor’s reply (type 98)
Acquisitions

69. The Order Log
If you define an Action Date, it may be useful to produce an Order Log Report (acq-22) regularly.
Acquisitions

70. Tracking Orders There are three main methods of tracking orders:
Direct Search for a specific order by various indexes such as Order Number or ISBN
The Search Navigation Tree – keyword searching/browsing for titles.
The Order Index Navigation Tree
Acquisitions

71. Multi-ordering Scenario:
A library wishes to send multiple monograph orders based on imported publisher’s Bibliographic data.
Solution:
Import BIB data, batch create ADM and order records and create one order for all.
Acquisitions

72. Multi-ordering Workflow:
Upload a file of records received from a vendor into the database.
Run the acq-24 service with an imported file to create ADM records and monograph orders.
Open the Multi Order Index, search for multi-orders and select requested titles.
Fill in the Multi Order Form and send the order to the vendor.
Fill in the Multi Item Form (optional).
Acquisitions

73. The Multi Order Index
Access the Multi Order Index from Menu/Orders/Multi Order
Index. The Order Number 2 field is common to all these orders.
Acquisitions

74. Multi Order Forms
Multi Order Form
Multi Items Form
Acquisitions

75. Material Arrival
The system can be configured to register arrival automatically, whenever a Line Item is registered.
You may override this, in case you wish to register partial arrival, for example.
Acquisitions

76. Material Arrival
To register arrival, go to the Arrival node of the Order Navigation Tree. The Arrival List displays in the upper pane.
Register partial arrival - one item out of the two we have ordered:
Acquisitions

77. Invoicing
When a General Invoice is received from the vendor, it must first be entered in ALEPH, followed by registering its Line Items (each representing a single order).
You may start with the Invoice Search to register a new General Invoice.
Enter the Vendor code and new invoice number in the two search fields
Acquisitions

78. General Invoice Once you confirm this is a new invoice,
the General Invoice form will opened.
Complete and click “Update” to register it:
Needed for this exercise
Acquisitions

79. The General Invoice Form - Options
Explicit Ratio
Enter here a different exchange rate than the one currently stored in the system.
Net Amount
Copy here the invoice’s net amount, before additional costs.
Shipment/Overhead/Insurance Amount
Copy into these fields any additional costs listed in the invoice.
Discount Amount
Copy here any discounts listed in the invoice.
Acquisitions

80. The General Invoice Form - Options
Total Amount
The system calculates into this field the total of Net Amount + any additional Amounts (extras). Click Refresh to check that calculation.
VAT Percent / VAT Amount
Once you enter a VAT percent, the system calculates the amount.
VAT per Line Item
Check this box if you wish to enter an individual VAT rate into each Line Item.
Acquisitions

81. Adding Line Items
Once the General Invoice is registered, you next need to register the Line Items.
Open the Line Items node of the Invoice Navigation Tree, click “Add”, enter the Order Number (or search in the Order Index) and complete the Line Item form, based on your order.
The Estimated Price and the Number of Units are entered by default from the order, so you only need to copy the Net Amount from the vendor’s invoice.
You don’t need to calculate the additional (added) amounts, as they will be added, pro rata, to each of the Line Items.
Acquisitions

82. Line Items
At this Section, it is possible to review the budget/s allocated to the order, and to change it/them.
Click the “Budgets” button in the Line Item Form to view/reassign budgets. You may view all the order-related information in the 2. Order Info tab of the lower pane, divided into 5 sub-tabs:
Acquisitions

83. Accessing Invoices Invoices may be accessed in two ways:
From the Invoice search on the top bar
In the Order Navigation Tree, from the Invoice node.
Invoices can be handled when in Invoice Navigation Tree.
Acquisitions

84. Paying the Invoice
To register payment, the Payment tab in the General Invoice form has to be completed, changing the Status to ‘P’ (paid). Other intermediary statues are also available.
The payment of an invoice zeroes the encumbrance, and means that the Total Amount listed in the Line Item is taken ‘for good’ from the budget (Expended).
Acquisitions

85. Invoice payment status
Standard payment statuses are: N - not ready to be paid R - ready to be paid Y - payment authorization given P - paid
More payment statuses can be set up in a table, which also determines
the default payment status when a general invoice is created, and
which payment status will cause the invoice to ‘freeze’.
Acquisitions

86. Batch Payment Registration
If actual payment is done elsewhere, in a finance department for example, a batch service exists for reporting, and/or changing the Payment Status of a group of invoices (acq-10):
Acquisitions

87. Claiming Claiming late material can be done in one of two ways:
Running a batch process to send a number
of claims to a vendor (acq-11, -12 and -19).
Claiming individually from within a single order.
Acquisitions

88. Manual Claiming
To claim manually, open the Claims node of the Order Navigation Tree. The Claim List shows the claim history of the order. Click the “New Claim” button, and complete the Claim Expand tab:
Acquisitions

89. Registering Vendor Replies
The OrderClaimList tab in the upper pane can also display replies received from vendors, side by side with the claims.
Register the vendor correspondence (Choose between free-text and pre-defined codes from a drop-down menu).
Acquisitions

90. Serial Claiming
Claiming for serial items is performed within the Serials Application Window.
Claiming for serial orders for which no items have arrived is accomplished by running the acq-19 service (Claim report for serial orders).
Acquisitions

91. Standing Order Claiming
The basis for batch claiming of standing order (O) type orders is the Max. Arrival Days parameter on the Order Form (3. Vendor tab).
Enter here the number of days that normally pass between each shipment of a series volume, based on experience.
Acquisitions

92. Acquisitions Services
All Acquisitions-related services are offered under Menu/ Services, arranged in groups. Access to services is limited by authorization.
Acquisitions

93. Example of a Batch Service
Budget Summary (acq-16 ):
The structure of most
services is similar:
An output file and various
filters and switches.
Services may be
scheduled to run at
regular intervals by the
system librarian.
Acquisitions

94. The Budget Summary Report (Detail)
Acquisitions

95. Batch Retrieval of Records
General Retrieval Form (acq-02-01)
The following are examples of more specific reports that may be designed by your library:
Partially-filled orders (acq-02-02)
Monograph orders - status NEW (acq-02-03)
Orders with no invoice (acq-02-04)
By order status (acq-02-05)
Orders cancelled by vendor (acq-02-06)
Printing in a customized report is handled by another service...
Acquisitions

96. Printing Retrieval Results
The Print Acquisitions Records (acq-03) Service is responsible for printing the retrieved results in a tailored report:
Acquisitions