RE: [ALCTS-acqnet] reconciling ILS payments to campus payments

To those who use Sierra Acquisitions:

 

Do you use the net or retail price in funds (I understand libraries use either), and if you use the retail price, how do you account for vendor discounts in the encumbered column when determining the amount you have on order? 

 

I ask because the web management report is not only difficult for selectors to interpret, but the “bottom line” is never spot on…Every year we get closer, but I have resorted to Excel for the reconciling effort, as others have indicated. 

 

From: acqnet-request_at_lists.ala.org [mailto:acqnet-request_at_lists.ala.org] On Behalf Of Pennington, Buddy D.
Sent: Thursday, July 19, 2018 9:47 AM
To: acqnet_at_lists.ala.org
Subject: RE: [ALCTS-acqnet] reconciling ILS payments to campus payments

 

Here is what we do:

 

1.       We have a long list of specific fund codes in Sierra for acquisitions and we put our collection invoices through.

2.       The collection invoices are then entered into the campus PeopleSoft system. However, the funds are mapped to a broader set of campus codes. For example, there is just one code for library general collections and then each of our gift/endowment funds will have its own campus code.

3.       On a monthly basis, the bottom line in Sierra is reconciled with the bottom line in PeopleSoft.

 

Our process between systems is manual. We have started exploring a scripted process to automate the migration from Sierra into PeopleSoft. 

 

Buddy Pennington

Head of Library Systems & Technology (Librarian III)

Miller Nichols Library

University of Missouri--Kansas City

 

From: acqnet-request_at_lists.ala.org <acqnet-request_at_lists.ala.org> On Behalf Of Mark Hemhauser
Sent: Wednesday, July 18, 2018 7:22 PM
To: acqnet_at_lists.ala.org
Subject: [ALCTS-acqnet] reconciling ILS payments to campus payments

 

I sent this a few weeks ago, but looking at it again, it seems I used an old acqnet email address, so trying again.

 

Do people still try to balance their payments in the ILS with the payments in the campus system? 

 

Do you try to reconcile and balance your overall spending and income by fund between the two systems? 

 

When I started in serials in 1994 we would monthly compare a campus payments sheet, printed out, to the ILS payments (also printed) to confirm campus paid the invoice and the amount correctly. Later we used the campus print out to record the voucher number and payment date in the Voyager invoice record. Some places have moved to automated processes where the ILS transmits data to campus and campus passes voucher numbers back. That is more or less automatically reconciled. The dollar amounts shouldn’t go wrong, they aren’t being rekeyed. But if you don’t have that back and forth communication between systems, do you do anything to reconcile? 

 

Thanks for thoughts or practices.

Mark

 

 

Mark Hemhauser

​Head of Acquisitions, The Library

250 Moffitt Library, MC 6000

University of California, Berkeley

Berkeley, CA 94720-6000

 

510-664-4310