Creating a Print Journal Subscription or Physical Subscription Order

Creating a PO Line

1. After finding, creating, or importing the bib record, click on Order from the search results list (via the ellipsis menu or by adding order to your display), or on the shopping cart icon in the Metadata Editor.
2. The PO Line Owner and Type window opens

PO Line Owner and Type

Select Purchase Order Type

Print Journal – subscription for a print serial order. This would include one-time backfile purchases of more than one item.

Physical – subscription for any other serial physical material types (CD, DVD, Microform, etc.). This would include one-time backfile purchases of more than one item.

Select PO line Owner

The PO Line (POL) Owner is the acquisition library that is placing the order, which may or may NOT be the library for whom the material is being ordered.

• • See Purchase Orders, Lines and Owners for more detail.

Assign Inventory Manually Check Box  

Alma Continuous orders automatically create a holdings record (but not an item), which is referred to as Inventory. Item records are created at the point of receipt or by the use of a prediction pattern. See Receiving a One-Time Order,  Receiving a Continuous OrderReceiving a Continuous Order: Print Journal or Physical Subscriptionand Using Prediction Patterns for more details.

During the creation of a Continuous POL, you can decide whether the creation of Inventory will be:

Automatic 

• Uncheck the Assign Inventory Manually box if you would like the attached inventory (i.e.the holding records) to be automatically created based on the Library that is the POL owner.
  For example, a POL Owner of Schlesinger Library would automatically create a holdings record for Schlesinger)
  
  
• Uncheck the Assign Inventory Manually box if you are using a POL template and want to use the holding based on the inventory saved that template.
  
  
• In either case, you can easily edit this information from the Summary tab of the order by deleting and adding inventory

Assigned Manually

• Check this box if you would like to create the attached holding record manually because it differs from the POL owner.
  For example, a POL Owner of ITS at Langdell would have to create inventory manually for one of the holding libraries (i.e. Gutman) unless using a predefined template.
  
  
• This method can also be used when creating an order for a title that already has inventory. Create the PO line, then navigate to the list of holdings to associate the POL with the holding.
  
  
• Again, you can easily edit this information from the Summary tab of the order by deleting and adding inventory

Create PO Line 

After you've upadted all the information:

1. Click on Create PO Line
2. Click on Confirm

Note: Once Confirm is selected, a POL is created even though it may be missing mandatory information. The POL number is created and the POL automatically goes In Review until the next step of the ordering process has been completed. For more information about POLs in review, see Reviewing Purchase Order Lines and Purchase Orders. For more information about the steps of the ordering process, see Standing Orders - Overview.

If a PO Line is created in error, cancel the POL at this point using the Cancel Line button on the menu bar of the PO.

Purchase Order Line Details

Summary Tab

Required fields are indicated with a red asterisk *:

Ordered Items Section

If Assign Inventory Manually box was checked on the previous screen:

• • Click on “Add location”
  • Select the Library and location from the drop-down menu under “Supported Libraries”
  • Click on “Add”
  • An Ordered items line will be created that lists Library; Location – to Edit or delete this field; click on the ellipsis,  choose Edit or Delete. Choosing Edit will open up the Metadata editor

If Assign Inventory Manually box was NOT checked:

If a template was used: continue filling out the rest of the order unless you need to edit the inventory information set up by the template.

If a template was NOT used: If you need to update the default inventory information or if you need to edit the inventory information for any reason:

• 1. From the Order Summary screen, click on the row action item icon next to the inventory information
  2. Choose Edit
  3. In the Location Information section change the permanent library and permanent location within that library as needed
  4. Click Save
  5. A message will alert you that the item will be moved to a new holding and the default holding record will be deleted
  6. Click Confirm

Note: If inventory is assigned automatically, you still might want to edit the location information as the default location setting is GEN.

Receiving note: add text intended for the Receiving operator

Routing during receiving: If selected, a confirmation message appears when receiving the PO line, stating that the order is marked for routing, and that the user may want to print the list of interested users (see Other POL tabs section below) 

Binding during Receiving: if selected, a confirmation message appears when receiving the PO line, informing the receiving operator that the order is marked for binding and must be sent for binding. See Binding (Merging) items for more details.

Vendor Information Section

Material supplier: this is the vendor. Make sure to choose the proper Vendor account record, if applicable. See the Vendors documentation for more details. 

Claiming grace period (days): A grace period (in days) after the expected receipt date, after which the PO line is sent to the claims task list; the value in this field for Continuous orders comes from the Subscription grace period field on the Vendor Account Details page; change the value in the order if desirable

Expected receipt after ordering (days) OR Expected receipt date: Enter a value in only one of these fields. If you enter a value in both fields, the Expected receipt after ordering (days) field is ignored.  If both fields are left empty, the expected receipt date defaults to the date that the PO line is sent to the vendor. These values are used to calculate the claim date. See the Claiming (One-time / Continuous) training document for more details.

• • Expected receipt after ordering (days): Value is set based on Vendor account record; change the value in the order if desired
  • Expected receipt date: select the expected receipt date from the Calendar pop-up.

Subscription interval: The receipt interval, in days, of the continuous order (such as 30 for monthly, 90 for quarterly, and so forth). This value is used to calculate the claim date, as well as the expected arrival date of predicted items. See the Claiming (One-time / Continuous) for more details.

Pricing Section

• List Price: required. Note: for situations where the intended encumbrance is for less than $1.00, you must enter a leading zero before the decimal point (e.g. 0.01).
• Net price: will populate automatically based on List price
• Discount: (if applicable)
• Quantity for pricing: required. The number of copies to be paid for on an individual PO line. The total price for the PO line equals the quantity for pricing multiplied by the list price.

Funding Section

Fund

Click on the Add Fund button and select the appropriate fund from the fund list.  See the Funds and Ledgers for more details.

The discount field will default to 100% and the amount field will default to the list price in the order.

If the fund is intended to cover 100% of the list price, there is no need to edit the discount and amount fields, click Add Fund.

While the default option is one fund with 100% allocation, you can distribute the cost of a PO line among several funds.

• 1. To add a fund to the list, select the fund, stipulate the percentage of the cost to be covered by the fund, and click Add Fund or press Enter. 
  2. The fund is displayed as a link in the Fund Name column and can be clicked to open the fund.
  3.  When the PO line is saved, an encumbrance transaction is created.
     
  4. If an amount other than 100% is allocated to funds, click Redistribute Lines to re-allocate the fund amount percentages, based on each fund’s respective amount.
  5. You can delete the fund in this section by clicking on the ellipsis and choosing Delete

PO Line Details Section

Acquisition Method:

• Purchase - order will be sent to the vendor, invoice expected (Pricing and fund information mandatory) NOTE: this is the only Acquisition method that results in a purchase order being sent to the vendor
• Purchase - Without letter - if no letter to the vendor is needed, invoice expected (Pricing and fund information mandatory) 
• Approval Plan - order will not be sent to the vendor, invoice expected (Pricing and fund information mandatory)
• Gift - order will not be sent to the vendor, no invoice expected (Pricing and fund information optional)
• Purchase at Vendor System - order will not be sent to the vendor, invoice expected (Pricing and fund information mandatory)
• Depository (for government depository items) - order will not be sent to the vendor, invoice not expected (Pricing and fund information optional)
• Exchange (i.e. received on exchange) - order will not be sent to the vendor, invoice not expected (Pricing and fund information optional)
• Technical - order will not be sent to the vendor, invoice not expected (Pricing and fund information optional)  
  • Use technical for any order that does not need to be sent to the vendor and that does not fit into the other categories . This can be used for membership payment, series standing order payment, payment of materials sent on exchange, etc.

Material type: choose from the drop down list, ex. ISSUE. Note that the material type in the POL will be the material type for new unpredicted items created by clicking "receive new items" in the Continuous Receiving List. If the material type is blank in the POL, the material type for new unpredicted items created by clicking "receive new items" in the Continuous Receiving List will be BOOK.

Invoice Status: No invoice (This field is set by default to No Invoice and should not be modified. Alma automatically updates this field as required)

Reporting code: the Object code section of the budget structure. ex: Print^Serials (7051)

Secondary Reporting code: Select Print plus online subscription when appropriate

Tertiary Reporting code: not yet in use

Rush: check if you want to rush the order of this item. The rush icon appears next to relevant items on PO line details pages.

Manual packaging: see Packaging and Sending a Purchase Order for more details

Cancellation restriction: check to display a cancellation restriction note containing a warning upon the cancellation of a PO line. (To then continue with the cancellation of the PO line, the user must click Confirm.) The Cancellation Restriction icon appears next to the relevant items on the PO line details pages.

Cancellation restriction note: The text of the warning to be displayed when canceling a PO line.

Identifier: The ISBN/ISSN of the item to be ordered. By default, this field is populated by the first identifier listed in the bibliographic/imported record’s ISBN/ISSN (020/022) field. You can select a different value.

Proposed Identifier: An identifier indicating which ISBN/ISSN of the item to order.

Vendor reference number: Most likely only populated when the order is created by the EOD process. A reference number for the PO line in Alma, as provided by the vendor. Serves as a matching point for identifying a PO line in Alma.

Note to vendor: used for any notes for the vendor. Notes entered in this field are moved to the Notes tab when the PO line is saved.

Vendor invoice number: no need to fill in manually; Appears when the PO line was uploaded from an EOD file.

Renewal Section

The Manual Renewal check box:

Automatic Renewals

Clear the Manual renewal check box if you want the PO line for the renewal processed automatically.

Subscription from date: the start date of the subscription (usually Jan. 1st of the year the subscription begins)

Subscription to date: The PO line closes when the automatic renewal job detects that the Subscription to date (if present) has passed. Not recommended for automatic renewals: leave this field blank for automatic renewals.

Renewal date (Required): For automatic renewals, this date is entered when the initial subscription is created. Thereafter, it is automatically incremented according to the value in the Renewal cycle field.

Renewal cycle (Required but only appears if the Manual renewal box is unchecked): The renewal cycle period, for example, 1 year, 2 years, etc. 

Renewal reminder period (days): not required for automatic renewals

Manual Renewals

When selected (as it is by default), the PO line for the renewal appears in the Renewals Task List (Acquisitions >> Purchase Order Lines >> Renew) when the material is due for renewal.

Further processing of this PO line must be performed manually. Clear this check box if you want the PO line for the renewal processed automatically.

Subscription from date – The start date of the subscription

Subscription to date – If no date is entered, the renewal continues in perpetuity. When a manual renewal job detects that the Subscription to date has passed, the PO line’s status becomes Waiting for manual renewal.

Renewal date (Required) – For manual renewals, this date is entered when the initial subscription is created, and then manually incremented (via the Renewals task list) at each renewal cycle.

Renewal reminder period (days) (Required) – For manual renewals, the number of days before the renewal date that the operator wants to be reminded about the renewal (that is, the number of days before the renewal date that the operator wants the renewal to be added to the task list (Acquisitions > Purchase Order Lines > Renew).

For example, if the renewal date is the 10th of May and the renewal reminder period is 5, the renewal is added to the task list on the 5th of May.). 

• • • Note: The maximum number of days that can be entered in this field is 120.

Additional Section 

This section is collapsed by default. Click on the triangle on the right side of the title bar to expand the section.

Associated PO lines: A target PO line

Per ExL documentation: The relationship in this field is a one-way relationship: this PO line is associated to the target PO line, but not the reverse. One use-case for this field is if you are ordering multi-part serials. It is recommended that you have one, main PO line (with fund information) for the subscription and an additional Technical PO line for each item that you are to receive at a different interval. You can only associate the current PO line with one target PO line. The target PO line appears in this field. Note that the Associated PO lines tab lists only the PO lines that are associated with this one (the reverse relationship), and not the PO line selected in this field.

Source type: The source from which the current PO line originated, such as Manual; Migrated, Imported, etc. For orders created via EOD (Enhanced order loader): this field will have the value: Import EOD. There will also be a clickable link to see information about the Import job details. 

Additional PO line reference: The reference code by which you want to identify the current PO line.

Other POL Tabs

• Description: created automatically but can be edited
  Alerts: lists the alerts that were generated for the PO line
  

  • NOTE: The PO line description is an entity that is created at the time of the PO line creation and is not connected to, or influenced by, the bibliographic information of the related record. This means, for example, that if a PO line is created for a title Introduction to Chemistry, the PO line description title will be Introduction to Chemistry. If, at a later point in time, the title changes to Introduction to Organic Chemistry, the PO line description title will not automatically change. If you want to have the PO line description title updated as a result of a changed bibliographic record title, you may do so using the PO line's Change Bib Reference button. See the Order maintenance  documentation for more details.
    
    

• Invoice Lines: allows you to view invoice line item associated with this POL
  
   

• Associated PO Lines: PO lines appearing in this tab were:Communications: use to start a new communication with the vendor or, if a communication already exists, you can enter details of the reply from the vendor and/or follow up on the communication with your reply to the vendor. The communication created here is sent to the vendors via email. Replies from vendors do not populate here, however; they would have to be manually copied and pasted in here. See the Claiming (One-time / Continuous) for more details.

  • Associated automatically to this PO line by Alma

  • Manually associated to the current PO line in the Associated PO line field in the Additional section of the Summary tab of the other PO line
  • NOTE:  for migrated orders, this tab would show any additional Aleph orders that were on this bib record
    
    

• Interested Users: use to manage users interested in the acquisition: somewhat akin to a routing list. Interested users are always notified about changes in the PO line. You can also select that an interested user is notified when the item is received, activated, or renewed, and/or that a hold is placed on the item for the user. See Requests 
  
  

• History: shows the the audit trail of changes performed to the PO line. These include changes in status, price, and fund distribution; it may also include some migrated order history data
  
  

• Notes: allows one to add, update, or delete notes for the PO line; it will also include the Aleph Library note field for migrated orders
  
  

• Attachments: allows one to add, update, or delete attachments associated with the PO line

Completing the POL

After entering all the pertinent and mandatory information in the POL, click on one of the following actions on the top Purchase order line details bar:

Placing the Order

To place the order, choose either:

Save and continue – The information you entered is saved and the PO line continues to the following stage of the workflow (review rules are not checked), usually to place the order via Manual or Auto-packaging. See Packaging and Sending a Purchase Order for more details.

Order now –  Enables you to process an order for a PO line, which moves the PO line to the purchasing workflow where it is normalized and validated before being packaged and sent to the vendor. See Packaging and Sending a Purchase Order for more details.

Other Actions

Save – The information you entered is saved, and the PO line remains in its current workflow stage (if you just created the PO line manually, it remains In Review). 

If you are editing PO lines from the Claims page, click Save to store the information you modified. 

Cancel line – The PO line is canceled

Defer – The PO line is deferred and appears in the Review Deferred task list until it is either reactivated or canceled

Relink – Changes the bibliographic record to which the PO line is linked. See the Relinking a PO Line to a Different Bibliographic Record for more details.

Delete – Deletes the PO line. See Closing, Cancelling, Reopening and Deleting PO Lines for more details.

Change Bib Reference – Changes the bibliographic record of the PO line

Save as template – The entered field values are saved as part of a template. See PO Line Templates for more details.

Editing the Holdings Record Acquisition Status Field

After completion of the POL, it is important to annotate the Acquisitions status field in the Holdings record to indicate that the title is On order.

1. From the POL Details screen, click on the title to view the title Record View
    
2. Click on Edit in the upper right corner
   
3. Click on the View inventory icon (or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + I)
4. Click on Edit to open the holdings record in Edit mode
5. Click on the 008 field and open the editing form using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + F
6. Change the value in byte 6 (Receipt or Acquisition status) to reflect the nature of the order
   1. 3 = On order
   2. 4 = Currently received
7. Hit Escape to close the form

8. When creating a stub bib and holdings in Alma at the point of creating a new order, such as when there is insufficient information to create an encoding level 3 record in OCLC, it is necessary to add the 908 $a p field to the holdings record to prevent Harvard's holdings from being attached in OCLC.

9. Save the holdings record
10. Release both the holdings and bib records