Acquisitions is the process of acquiring or purchasing new books and other items for your library. Retrospective acquisitions follow a workflow process largely managed by the library after an item has been purchased independently and delivered to the library.


Overview of Order Workflow Status


- orders follow a workflow from the time they are created until the time they are completed or abandoned. Once completed, the information captured and recorded along the workflow for each order is stored for future reference; unless the order is deleted or the catalogue records are purged. Note: Retrospective Orders do not follow all workflow processes.



Common Retrospective workflow statuses explained:


Retrospective - an order that does not have an Open-Placed-Receiving workflow as the activity is the recording of an acquisitions that has already occurred. A retrospective order remains in this state until all information the librarian cares to supply has been entered; the order can then be completed to move the retrospective order out of the Active orders area.


Examples of retrospective orders might be:

  • a staff member purchases a book from a bookstore for their teaching requirements using their personal funds and requests the book be paid for by the library, perhaps seeking reimbursement for their purchase
  • the librarian makes a random book purchase online in a "spot" sale-discount scenario
  • any time a book is purchased without following a formal acquisitions policy


There is no concept of quantity separate from the amount of items received for a Retrospective Order, because you are not collating or planning a future order, so unlike other orders you can receive as many items of a title as you choose to declare and that amount becomes the quantity for the Retrospective Order.


There is also no concept of 'estimate' for Retrospective Orders, so cost counts are actual and apply on invoiced and received values only.


Unlike Library Managed orders which always have an auto "INF{999999}" tracking order number, or School Procurement orders that should have a suitable tracking order number, a Retrospective Orders can legitimately show any format depending on what information is supplied.


Setup


If you intend to align expenditure with budgets then prior to creating orders you should:

  1. Check your cost centres have been created.
  2. Check your budgets have been created and assigned for the current budget period.
  3. Ensure your suppliers are recorded.


Go to: Acquisitions


Active orders will display. You can filter active orders by:

  • Supplier
  • Coordinator
  • Status


Click the Order Number to open an existing order. 


Current Order Workflow Status


The order progress is displayed in the top right corner of each order and automatically updates as you make changes:

  1. $amount, e.g., $99.99 - the actual invoiced value of all line items on the order, excluding delivery charges and taxes, which have a Cost recorded and intend to add to your collection and accession. Note: If a cost is edited it must be saved before it will be included in the calculation.
  2. Order status - refer to workflow status above.


Create A New Retrospective Order


Read Advice for retrospective order.

  • - click to create a new order:
    1. Order Type - Retrospective an historical purchase that did not use a procurement system.
    2. Order Created - set a date for when the order is created.
    3. Order Number - record a suitable order number, if required.
    4. Budget - choose a default budget that resources acquired on this order are aligned to. Resources of an order can also be assigned other, differing, budgets when received by the library. Budgets are optional.
    5. Supplier - choose the supplier as required. Note: Supplier can be added later and must be registered. Only Enabled suppliers will be listed.
    6. Coordinator - choose the coordinator as required. Note: Coordinator can be added later. A coordinator helps know who to ask about an order or any items that may arrive for that order.
    7. .

The new order will display in a separate tab.

  1. Supplier - choose the supplier as required. Note: Supplier can be added later and must be registered. Only Enabled suppliers will be listed.
  2. Supplier Reference - record as required.
  3. Click More 
    1. Retroactive Acquirer - record as required. Note: The chosen acquirer must be a patron registered as a staff member.
    2. Date Placed - date of purchase.
    3. Date Created - date this order was created.
    4. .
  4. Add line items as required.


Review Active Retrospective Orders


Go to: Acquisitions

Read Advice for orders.


The newly created order is now a order and Completed:

  1. - displays all active orders in order number order, starting with the most recent order at the top. An active order is one which is currently in the Order Workflow as Open, Receiving, or Completed.
  2. or {order number} - open order to review or edit.
  3. Supplier - the supplier of this order. Note: Supplier can be added later but must be registered. Only Enabled suppliers will be listed.
  4. Click More for:
    1. Retroactive Acquirer - record as required. Note: The chosen acquirer must be a patron registered as a staff member.
    2. Date Placed - date of purchase.
    3. Date Created - date this order was created.
    4. .
  5. Add line items as required.

For each active retrospective order you can:

  1. Add new Line Items or edit or remove existing line items.
  2. Record or review Invoice details. Note: Invoice details must be recorded for expenditure details to be included in budgets.
  3. Review Received items.
  4. Add Notes:
    1. Record general notes about an order.
    2. Block and order from completion.

For each active retroactive order you can:

  1. Add new Line Items or edit or remove existing line items.
  2. Record or review Invoice details. Note: Invoice details must be recorded for expenditure details to be included in budgets.
  3. Review Received items.
  4. Add Notes:
    1. Record general notes about an order.
    2. Block and order from completion.


Accept Items


Once retrospective orders arrive they have to be moved into the receiving workflow phase:

  1. :
    1. - record invoice details if supplied and required. Note: Invoice details must be recorded prior to cataloguing each new delivery to ensure the invoice details will be available for each copy. See Step 5 below.
  2. Read Advice for orders.
  3. Adjust individual line item cost details if required.
  4. - recalculate costs as required.
  5. - create copy records for each item received:
    1. Adjust record invoice details if required. Note: Invoice number must have been recorded at Step 1 above.
    2. Scan or generate barcode/s for each copy received as required.


Cancel Orders


Cancel unwanted retrospective orders as required.


Complete Order


Retrospective orders that have been received and catalogued must be completed.

  1. - display all active orders listed by order number.
  2.  - open retrospective order.
    1. - click to mark order as completed. Note: Any line items NOT Received will be stripped from a Retrospective order when completed.