Where is Your Money Going?

Tom Walsh

Acquisitions Assistant

Deerfield Public Library (IL)

Fund Codes

• My department tracks fund usage for different categories of physical books and AV materials.

• In the Functions list under Acquisitions, you can click on Funds, and look at the Current Funds for a list of all the fund categories in the system. Current Funds will be at the top of the folder tree on the left side of the page.

• Each of our fund categories will have a fund code – e.g., abm for Adult Book Mystery, absf for Adult Book Science Fiction, jbf for juvenile book fiction, and so on. It’s useful to have some sort of internal logic to the codes, so that people can remember what they mean.

• By clicking on the name of a fund category in the list, you can see the fund code and additional information about the fund.

• Depending on your needs, you may want to use many different fund categories, or just a few broad categories.

• Certain parts of our collection are broken down into more detail than others. For example, each Dewey range for adult nonfiction books is assigned a fund code: abn100 for Adult Book Nonfiction 100s, abn200 for Adult Book Nonfiction 200s, and so forth.

• There are several figures being tracked through each fund code:• Appropriation refers to the amount of money assigned to a given fund for a

certain time period. For example, at the beginning of the year, we would set aside $3,000 for books in abn100 (adult nonfiction 100s).

• Expenditure shows you how much money has actually been spent out of the initial appropriation. For example, at the time I took the previous screenshot, $640.24 worth of abn100 books had been received.

• Encumbrance refers to the amount of money tied up in items that have been ordered but have not yet arrived. At our library, encumbrances are generated during the ordering process, and usually end up being higher than the actual expenditures, because our order records are populated with the list prices. But the encumbrance figure at least gives us a rough idea how much money we have available for additional orders. In the previous screenshot, there was about $444.65 tied up in abn100 items. When an item has been received, the encumbrance for that item is removed.

• A couple other figures that are being tracked are the Free Balance, which is what you get when you subtract the expenditure and the encumbrance from the appropriation, and the Cash Balance, which is what you get when you just subtract the expenditure from the appropriation.

• If you look at the bottom of the Current Funds list, you will see totals for all the funds being tracked in your system.

• Several graphs/reports are visible when opening a fund code record.

• Adding a new fund code is fairly simple. When looking at the Current Funds list, click New at the top of the screen. At the minimum, you need to enter a fund name and a fund code. Once you have that, you’ll be able to assign an appropriation to it and use that fund within Sierra.

• Depending on your ordering processes, there may be some extra work to do to ensure you can use the fund with a given vendor.

• One potentially useful field in a fund code record is the Warning Percentage field; you can use that to generate a warning if you’ve spent a certain percentage of the fund.

Adding New Funds

About Subfunds

• It is possible to divide a single fund into up to seven Subfunds.

• Subfunds can only be used to split up expenditure totals; they won’t figure into appropriations or encumbrances.

• A subfund is typically tied to the Order Type field in an order record (e.g., FIRM ORDER, STANDING ORDER, etc.). You can also manually assign expenditures to a subfund. (More on that later.)

Organizing Funds Into Groups

• You can group funds into larger categories, which are organized under the Hierarchies section. For example, we could group all of the adult nonfiction funds together, all of the juvenile book funds together, and so forth.

• This makes it easier to view total appropriations, expenditures, and encumbrances for broader sections of the collection.

• To create a new group, go to the Hierarchies folder in the Funds function, and click New Grp at the top of the screen. Pick a name for the group, and press OK.

• When you have the new group open, you can add funds to the group by clicking Put.

• You can put the same fund into multiple groups, and create various different combinations of funds to analyze.

• To remove a fund from a group, open that fund through the group page, then press Delete. (Pay attention to the resulting dialog box to make sure you’re removing the right fund from the right place.)

• If you want, you can also create temporary groups by clicking Quick List or Find at the top of the page, next to the Put button. With Quick List, you can manually select funds to add together, and with Find, you can gather together funds that meet certain criteria. These groups will be put into a temp folder on the left side of the screen, and will disappear when you leave the Funds function.

Setting Appropriations and Making Fund Adjustments

• At our library, we typically set all the appropriations at the beginning of the year, when we have the budgets from the different departments of the library.

• We use Fiscal Close Method 1 to reset expenditures to zero and enter appropriations for each fund. Remaining encumbrances will be carried over into the new year, and the costs for those items will come out of the new year’s budget. We can view Old Funds and Old Hierarchies (available in the folder tree in the Funds function) to view the figures as they looked immediately prior to the fiscal close.

• You can adjust appropriations at any time by clicking the Adjustment tab next to the Current Funds list. The changes won’t go into effect until you post (but more on posting later).

• You don’t actually need to enter an appropriation to use a fund. If there is no appropriation set, expenditures and encumbrances (at times) will appear as negative numbers.

• Using the Adjustment tab is not ideal for correcting expenditure totals; more on that later.

Using the Fund Codes: Day-to-Day Ordering and Receiving, in Brief

• The Deerfield Public Library gets most of its physical books and AV materials from Baker and Taylor and Midwest Tape.

• As soon as we order materials from those vendors, our system is populated with order records and initial bib records for those titles. Each order record contains a field for a fund code, which a selector would have entered somewhere into the order form on the vendor’s website. The list prices for those items will be added to the encumbrance totals the next time I post.

• Shortly before the items arrive at our building, we will receive electronic invoice files, which are imported into Sierra (via the Import Invoices function in Acquisitions.) These electronic invoices will show the actual prices for each item, and each line is associated with a specific fund code and order record.

• When the new items arrive, I use the Receive function in Acquisitions to create item records and enter a received date into Sierra.

• If we have everything we were supposed to get, I can process the electronic invoice, and then post it. When that happens, the expenditure totals and encumbrance totals for the relevant funds will be updated.

Posting

• Posting is the process through which expenditure totals and encumbrance totals are actually updated in Sierra.

• You can post a single electronic invoice, or multiple invoices at once. The posting process also takes into account any recent orders, which will create new encumbrances.

• When you are ready to post your invoices, select Pay an Invoice from the function list (in Acquisitions), and select Post All. You can review the invoices that will be posted by clicking on the relevant session. (Depending on your workflow, you may have multiple sessions in use.)

• You will be prompted to make a printout of various reports, although you don’t have to literally print anything. You can have the reports emailed to you.

• Depending on what you have ready to post, you will get between 2 and 4 reports via the posting process. These reports will show exactly what will be coming out of each relevant fund.

• After posting, you should see updated numbers in the Current Funds list, and in fund groups and individual fund records. Typically, expenditure totals would go up. Encumbrances for received items are removed due to a change in the order status field that results from posting. You may also gain new encumbrances from new orders that you have made.

ENCUMBRANCE  REGISTER     05-28-15 05-28-15            PONUM          Fund    Vendor           Amt. Encumbered 65681  10627042         abn600    btanf              $19.95 65682  10627054         abn600    btanf              $14.95 65683  10627066         abn600    btanf              $19.95 65684  10627078         abn600    btanf              $20.00 65685  1062708x         abn600    btanf              $24.99 65686  10627091         abn600    btanf              $22.99 65687  10627108         abn600    btanf              $29.99 65688  1062711x         abn600    btanf              $28.00 65689  10627121         abn600    btanf              $27.50 65690  10627133         abn600    btanf              $26.00 65691  10627145         abn600    btanf              $30.00 65692  10627157         abn600    btanf              $26.99 65693  10627169         abn600    btanf              $18.95 65694  10627170         abn600    btanf              $22.95 65695  10627182         abn600    btanf              $27.00 65696  10627194         abn600    btanf              $27.95 65697  10627200         abn600    btanf              $27.95 65698  10627212         abn600    btanf              $35.00 65699  10627224         abn600    btanf              $27.95 65700  10627236         abn600    btanf              $26.00        TOTAL OF NEW ENCUMBRANCES:             $505.06

46 recs in session 1

              INVOICE REGISTER               05-28-15 05-28-15

INVOICE # 92872899,    INVOICE DATE: 05-27-2015,   VOUCHER: 7936 ****VENDOR: Midwest Tape CUS=60015   P.O.#          ITEM AMT   SHIP  SERVICE        TOTAL    ENCUMB10624533            $15.99                                     $15.99   -$19.99       FUND jdf   1              001 copies10624697            $15.99                                     $15.99   -$19.99       FUND jdf   1              001 copies    SUB TOTAL       $31.98                                     $31.98INVOICE TOTAL       $31.98               VOUCHER      7936    ******

              $31.98 Operating

INVOICE # 92872897,    INVOICE DATE: 05-27-2015,   VOUCHER: 7937 ****VENDOR: Midwest Tape CUS=60015   P.O.#          ITEM AMT   SHIP  SERVICE       TOTAL    ENCUMB10608850            $17.59                                     $17.59   -$21.99       FUND jdf   1              001 copies10608886            $26.39                                     $26.39   -$32.99       FUND jdf   1              001 copies10608953            $11.99                                     $11.99   -$14.99       FUND jdf   1              001 copies    SUB TOTAL       $55.97                                     $55.97INVOICE TOTAL       $55.97               VOUCHER      7937    ******

              $55.97 Operating

……

               INVOICE REGISTER               05-21-15 05-21-15 INVOICE # 2030646871,    INVOICE DATE: 05-14-2015,   VOUCHER: 7906 ****VENDOR: Baker & Taylor Books CUS=L510347   P.O.#          ITEM AMT   SHIP  SERVICE         TOTAL    ENCUMB1058061x            $20.78           $0.10                     $20.88   -$25.98       FUND jbf   1              002 copies 1058075x            $16.92           $0.08                     $17.00   -$29.97       FUND jbf   1              003 copies 10606634            $10.14           $0.05                     $10.19   -$17.95       FUND jbn   1              001 copies 10614217            $21.68           $0.11                     $21.79   -$27.10       FUND jbn   1              001 copies 10614230            $21.68           $0.11                     $21.79   -$27.10       FUND jbn   1              001 copies 10615805            $10.16           $0.05                     $10.21   -$17.99       FUND jbf   1              001 copies 10617401            $10.39           $0.05                     $10.44   -$12.99       FUND jbn   1              001 copies 1062126x             $9.58           $0.05                      $9.63   -$16.95       FUND jbf   1              001 copies 10621271            $11.99           $0.06                     $12.05   -$15.99       FUND jbf   1              001 copies 10621593            $11.99           $0.06                     $12.05   -$15.99       FUND jbf   1              001 copies 10621556             $9.60           $0.05                      $9.65   -$16.99       FUND jbf   1              001 copies 

……              

INVOICE SUMMARY                            05-28-15 05-28-15 7924                                   Amazon.com        $387.11 7925                                   Amazon.com        $240.69 7926                                 Midwest Tape        $160.93 7927                                 Midwest Tape         $79.98 7928                                 Midwest Tape         $76.78

 7929                         Baker & Taylor Books        $217.27 7930                 Baker & Taylor Continuations         $45.97

 7931                                 Midwest Tape         $54.16 7932                                 Midwest Tape         $19.99 7933                                 Midwest Tape          $7.99 7934                                 Midwest Tape         $42.99 7935                                 Midwest Tape         $29.99 7936                                 Midwest Tape         $31.98 7937                                 Midwest Tape         $55.97

                            TOTAL of all invoices:      $1,451.80

  POSTING REGISTER Vouchers 7924-7937,   05-28-15 05-28-15                      APPRO         EXPEND    ENCUMBRANCES      NEW

ENCUM  Totals before    $253,700.00     $86,800.39     $32,853.79

Last encumbrance previously posted is: 65680 Last voucher previously posted is: 7923        FUND     APPRO      EXPEND  ENCUMBRANCES  NEW

ENCUM          am             $0.00         $54.16        -$64.96          $0.00          tbf            $0.00        $217.27       -$379.74          $0.00          game           $0.00        $627.80          $0.00          $0.00          jdf            $0.00        $256.87       -$329.87          $0.00          adf            $0.00        $219.74       -$270.94          $0.00          adbf           $0.00         $29.99        -$34.99          $0.00         abn300          $0.00         $35.35          $0.00          $0.00         abn600          $0.00          $0.00          $0.00        $505.06         abn900          $0.00         $10.62          $0.00          $0.00   Total posted          $0.00      $1,451.80       -$575.44        $505.06   Totals after    $253,700.00     $88,252.19     $32,278.35Last Encumbrance #:     65700

Last Voucher #:          7937

Fund Activity Report

• Periodically, you’ll need to clear out Sierra’s payment file, or you’ll be prevented from posting any new transactions. Clearing the payment file is something you would do as part of a Fund Activity Report.

• You can generate a Fund Activity Report from the Activity tab next to the Current Funds list. Follow the prompts, and you will generate a report that is somewhat similar to what you’d get from the posting reports, but more detailed in certain ways.

• You will be asked to print the Fund Activity Report, but again, you can simply have it emailed to you.

• Make sure that the report confirms that nothing is out of balance. If something is out of balance, then there was a malfunction somewhere, and you may need to call Innovative.

• When you’re done, you can clear out the payment history file.

• You can preview the Fund Activity Report portion for an individual fund by going into a fund record page and clicking the Activity tab there.

A Brief Word on Vendor Records

• You can use Sierra to store information on a number of vendors and assign codes for each vendor (or each account with a vendor). An example vendor code would be btjuv, which is what we use for our Baker and Taylor juvenile books account.

• You can browse the different vendors and add new vendor codes by using the Vendors function in Acquisitions.

• To create a new record, click New at the top of the page. You will at least need to enter a vendor name and a vendor code. Depending on how you use the code, you may need to fill out additional fields.

• You should fill out the first line of the address field, even if you don’t otherwise need to store address data, because that line will be used in the Invoice Summary posting report.

Browsing Invoices

• If you use the Browse Invoices function in Acquisitions and enter a vendor code, you can see a list of all the posted invoices associated with that vendor code, as well as processed invoices that have not been posted.

• The list will be organized by invoice number. The top of the screen will give you a preview of what is in the invoice, but if you click on the invoice, you will see more detail.

• Most of the invoices we have visible in Browse Invoices are based on the electronic files sent by the vendors. These invoices will show you the invoice number, the invoice date, the vendor code, the relevant order record numbers, the titles of the items, the quantity of each item, and the final price of each item with an associated fund code.

• There are also fields for shipping/service charges, if necessary. (If there are multiple fund codes in an invoice, Sierra will take a proportional slice of the shipping/service charges out of each fund. This is visible in the posting reports.)

Creating Your Own Invoices

• Most of our fund-tracking procedures depend on the electronic invoices we receive from our main vendors, and the order records that are generated when we order from those vendors. However, we don’t receive every single item from those vendors, so there are situations when we need to account for fund usage in other ways.

• Rather than directly editing the expenditure totals, you can build an invoice from scratch, and then post that invoice to have a record of your fund usage.

• You can use an X-record Invoice to account for payments when you don’t have an existing order record. You can also create order records to go with your items and build an invoice off those order records.

X-Record Invoices

• To create an x-record invoice, go to Pay an Invoice. Open a session (you can use an existing session, or start a new one), then select New Invoice.

• The first time you use a session, you will see a dialog box giving you a few options. If any option will be useful, you can check the relevant box; otherwise, you can just click through.

• You will then be presented with a blank invoice. You will need to enter an invoice number and invoice date. If you have some sort of paper or PDF invoice that came with the item(s), you can use the information there. If you don’t have a real invoice number or invoice date, then you can just follow your own internal system for recording such transactions.

• In the first line underneath Record #, you can simply type “x”. You can enter some additional alphanumeric characters after the x, but the x is sufficient.

X-Record Invoices, Continued

• After you’ve typed in an x, click on any of the greyed-out fields to the right of the x, and you will be prompted to fill in some additional information.

• At this point, you will be asked to choose the fund code being used, the subfund (if you use subfunds), the amount of payment, and the vendor code. You can also enter a note to go with that line item.

• The note is helpful for identifying what item or items the x-record actually refers to, although you only have 35 alphanumeric characters to work with.

• If you need to record payments from multiple funds, you can enter multiple line items beginning with x, and select a fund code and amount of payment for each line.

• When you’re almost done, click on View Invoice in the upper right corner. At this point, you can enter shipping/service costs, if necessary. (Again, Sierra will distribute the shipping/service costs proportionally in the case of multiple funds. If you don’t want the shipping/service cost to be associated with a specific item, you can use a y as the record number, instead of x.)

• If everything looks good, you can click Finish, and you will have an invoice that is ready to be posted.

Using X-Record Invoices to Make Corrections and Adjustments

• You can use x-record invoices to make corrections and adjustments to expenditures that have already been recorded in the system. For example, if something should have come out of a different fund, or if the cost ended up being covered by a donation, you can use an x-record invoice to keep your numbers accurate.

• You would generally follow the same process as in the previous example, but whenever you are trying to reduce the expenditure total for a specific fund, remember to enter the expenditure as a negative number. When you post the invoice, the previous expenditure will be wiped out.

• If you’re using an x-invoice to record an adjustment, I’d recommend using an invoice number that references the past invoice that necessitated an adjustment. For example, if I had to reverse a recorded expenditure that was included in invoice 92763131, I would name the x-record invoice “92763131adjustment”. If you use the same vendor code, that will keep the invoices together in Browse Invoices, and you’ll have a clear record of what happened.

Building an Invoice From Order Records

• It may be the case where you have order records prepared for certain items, but do not receive electronic invoice files from vendors. In that case, you can build your own invoice using those order records.

• Instead of putting the letter x in the Record # column, type the order number associated with that record.

• If it is a valid order record, you will be asked how many copies to pay for. The fund code and vendor code will be pulled from the order record.

• The estimated price will also be pulled from the order record, but you can edit these figures directly within the invoice if the actual final price was something different.

• As with x-record invoices, you can enter shipping/service charges if necessary, and when you’re ready, you can finish the invoice, and post it.

• Encumbrances should be removed automatically once things are posted, due to a change in the order status within each order record.

Blanket P.O.

• You can use Blanket P.O. numbers as a shortcut when building an invoice from order records.

• You can insert a Blanket P.O. number into an order record (using the Insert tool at the top of the page). If you use the same number in several records, you can enter that number in the designated Blanket P.O. field of the invoice (to the right of the vendor field), and all the relevant order records will be retrieved after pressing enter.

• You will be asked whether you want to process those order records. Again, you can adjust the expenditure, and the amount of copies being paid. Fund codes and vendor codes will be pulled from the order records.

• If you hit process, you will return to the invoice in process, and you can complete anything you still need to complete. When you’re ready, you can post, and the funds will be accounted for.