Re: Serials Accounting

["Fox, Linda J." <FoxLJ@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Norma,
 
I can understand your accounting people not wanting to get invoices monthly if
you have very many.
 
I think I need to clarify one point.  We do send our invoices weekly.  Our
situation here is somewhat unusual, I guess, in that University of Missouri has
centralized its payment activity so that all checks are cut at the system level.

 
Anyway, vouchers and invoices are sent to our campus accounting office on
Fridays.  They are input on Mondays (and Tuesdays if needed).  Checks are cut in
the wee morning hours Wednesday.  So we look at the calendar and select the
second to last Wednesday of the month, and that becomes our internal "monthly
closing" date.  (Remember to take the effects of holidays into account.  A
strategic call to Accounting about their schedule for invoice processing is a
good idea near Thanksgiving and Christmas.)  We make doubly sure that all
invoices are sent over in time to be input and the checks cut that month, and
that no more invoices, etc. are sent until the schedule indicates they will be
cut next month.  Because of the way we have set up our schedule, this is almost
always the next week.  In other words, we do not skip a week.  On the closing
Wednesday, we also make any adjustments to acquisitions funds which might be
reflected in the University's accounting system (posting interest, etc.).  As
far as the University accounting folks are concerned, we just send over invoices
every week.  
 
For example, this month our closing date is the 19th.  Invoices will be sent
over on the 22nd, and the checks cut on the 26th.  We will send the next batch
of checks over on the 28th, to be input on the 31st/1st and checks cut on the
2nd.
 
We run financial reports and fund activity reports every Wednesday, and the ones
run on the "monthly closing" day are so indicated in the heading (e.g. Jan.
closing 1-19-00).  This financial report is compared to the report we receive
from University accounting, and any discrepancies are investigated.
 
In effect, I suppose you could say that we take a snapshot of our INNOPAC at a
point that will reflect where the University system will be on the last day of
the month.
 
We continue to pay invoices, etc. on our INNOPAC system daily. 
 
Hope this helps.
 
Linda 

-----Original Message-----
From: Williams, Norma [ mailto:nwilliam@xxxxxxxxxx <mailto:nwilliam@xxxxxxxxxx>
] 
Sent: Thursday, January 13, 2000 8:16 AM
To: 'INNOPAC@xxxxxxxxxx'
Subject: RE: Serials Accounting



Shirley, 
          I tried years ago to send invoices once a month so it would be easier
to keep up with the ones they got paid during the month and the ones they did
not. I was told they preferred to get them every week and I just can't seem to
do that with two jobs. Anyway, we could try again.We do have some things that
come in and we want to send them at odd times even though it is not time for all
to go. You can decide how you want me to handle it.

                                                                         Norma 

	-----Original Message----- 
From:   Fox, Linda J. [SMTP:FoxLJ@xxxxxxxxxx] 
Sent:   Tuesday, December 21, 1999 4:58 PM 
To:     'INNOPAC@xxxxxxxxxx' <mailto:'INNOPAC@xxxxxxxxxx'>  
Cc:     Dingley, Brenda L. 
Subject:        RE: Serials Accounting 

	We have developed a work-around for this problem which you might find
useful. 
Several years ago we instituted an internal "monthly closing" for payment of 
invoices, etc.  This date usually falls during the third week of the month.  All

invoices are submitted to the University's Accounting Office for payment in time

for checks to be cut that month.  Any fund adjustments are also posted (for 
example, we credit interest on several endowed gift funds).  No more activity is

performed until after the first of the month.  Then, when we receive the monthly

report from Accounting, we compare that with the financial report run on the 
"closing" date.  We still find occasional discrepancies, but these are real 
discrepancies which need to be resolved.  We have found that this process helps 
us catch errors made early in the fiscal year (and let's face it, none of us is 
perfect) and resolve them in a timely manner instead of rushing around at the 
end of the year trying to find them all. 

	Hope this helps. 
Linda Fox 
Library Assistant, Technical Services Division 
304 Miller Nichols Library 
University of Missouri--Kansas City 
5100 Rockhill Rd. 
Kansas City, MO  64110 

	phone: (816) 235-5290 
fax: (816) 333-5584 
email: foxlj@xxxxxxxxxx 


	-----Original Message----- 
From: Catherine Foreman [ mailto:cforeman@xxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:cforeman@xxxxxxxxxx> ] 
Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 1999 2:52 PM 
To: INNOPAC@xxxxxxxxxx 
Subject: Re: Serials Accounting 


	We also used to reconcile the accounts from our system with the 
University's Finance Department records, but stopped that once we moved to 
Innopac. The reason was because the figures never matched, as you have 
found. Our previous system was GEAC, and we would enter the invoices in 
GEAC, but not authorize them until they were shown as paid by Finance. The 
authorization in GEAC would move the money from Encumbered to Spent, 
therefore the figures always matched. 
We were very disappointed to find that Innopac did not offer this, and sent 
it in as an enhancement request early on, but never saw anything come of 
it. As soon as an invoice is entered in Innopac, and the posting is done 
(we post each morning), the money is moved into Spent, but the invoice may 
not be paid by Finance for one or two weeks, or sometimes longer. 
It is important for our figures to be accurate for subscriptions, so 
eventually we resorted to not entering the invoices in Innopac until they 
were paid by Finance. Unfortunately this has it's drawbacks, as one can't 
tell by looking at the record if an invoice has been received. We don't 
enter a note in the record as it would be too time-consuming, but do keep a 
copy of the invoice in our files. 
We do enter invoices for monographs before they are sent to Finance, and 
have just resigned ourselves to the fact that the accounts don't match. 
When we do our year-end reports, we use Finance's Spent figures. 
Sorry to not have a better solution for you. I'd love to hear if anyone 
else does! 
Happy Holidays all, 
Cathy 

	At 03:07 PM 12/21/1999 -0500, you wrote: 
>Each month I go over the ledger from our finance office and check off 
>every invoice in the file. These match exactly. Then I check the amount 
>accounted for in III, and find that III shows a considerably higher amount 
>in the spent column, and I cannot account for the difference. With 800+ 
>titles being paid, it is nearly impossible to track where the discrepancy 
>begins. 
> 
>Does anyone else have a problem reconciling accounts in III? In four 
>months I am over $1881, and last fiscal year it was $3200. No single title 
>stands out as the culprit. Any suggestions? 
> 
>Betsy Fishman 
>Acquisitions Manager 
>Muhlenberg College 
>484-664-3570 
>efishman@xxxxxxxxxx 
> 
> 
*********************************************************************** 
Catherine Foreman                  phone: (905)688-5550 ext.3265 
Bibliographic Services             fax: (905)988-5490 
Acquisitions Supervisor            email: cforeman@xxxxxxxxxx 

	James A. Gibson Library             
Brock University                     
St. Catharines, ON, Canada  L2S 3A1 
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