RE: [IUG] Negative Encumbrances

["Seeman, Corey" <cseeman at bus dot umich dot edu>]

Bit late on this whole thread.  While I am almost always wrong when I challenge the helpdesk, it seems that the assertion that encumbrances carried forward from one fiscal year to another causes negative encumbrances might be not quite what my experience is.  
 
Theoretically, the system should be keeping track of encumbrances by encumbering and disencumbering when any changes or payments are made.  Even if you change the eprice of the item, it will cause these two actions which should keep your numbers in line.  The process in Fiscal Close Method 1 of carrying forward encumbrances should be self cleaning.  This is simply where you state that you are going to be honoring these orders even though they are arriving in a new fiscal year.  If this would continually lead to negative encumbrances, then the documentation and practice would have you re-order everything fresh at the beginning of the fiscal year.  
 
I have heard that partial payments can lead to this, but as an academic, we are mostly buying one of everything, so this is not so much of an issue.  I have used the FAQ on CSDirect for Negative Encumbrances and it has been very useful.  
 
Best -- Corey
 
Corey Seeman
Director
Kresge Business Administration Library
Ross School of Business
The University of Michigan
cseeman at umich dot edu
(734) 764-9969
(734) 717-9734 (cell)
(734) 764-3839 (fax)
 
Kresge Library Home Page: http://www.bus.umich.edu/kresgelibrary/ <http://www.bus.umich.edu/kresgelibrary/> 
My home page: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~cseeman/index.html <http://www-personal.umich.edu/~cseeman/index.html> 
 
 
 

________________________________

From: innopac-bounces at innopacusers dot org on behalf of Frances Dodd
Sent: Wed 12/20/2006 8:31 PM
To: IUG INNOPAC List
Subject: Re: [IUG] Negative Encumbrances



Hi Sue,

It is exactly how our library operates:
We use fiscal year closing method 1.  And we do
not cancel items at the end of a fiscal year; we receive and invoice them
whenever they arrive.

But we also carry over encumbrances. We are bringing the previous
encumberances forward into the new fiscal year (also per User Manual
Page # 106036 step 6).
No more negative encumbrances! :-)

Frances Dodd, Technical Services Librarian
W.A.C. Bennett Library, Simon Fraser University
8888 University Drive, Burnaby, B.C.  V5A 1S6  Canada
Email: fdodd at sfu dot ca / Tel: (604) 268-7325 / Fax: (604) 268-6579

At 01:43 PM 19/12/2006, you wrote:
>Yes, we have experienced negative encumberances both in Millennium silver
>and in the 2005 release.  We use fiscal year closing method 1.  And we do
>not cancel items at the end of a fiscal year; we receive and invoice them
>whenever they arrive.
>
>I contacted the help desk.  Acquisitions support said it is the result of
>ordering an item in a previous fiscal year and then receiving and
>invoicing it in this fiscal year.  I have looked carefully at our data,
>and in our case I find that is the usual reason for the negative
>encumberances.
>
>Since it is already occuring in this fiscal year, your best choice is to
>view the fund activity and then make an adjustment any time you receive
>and expense titles which were ordered in previous years.  But the amount
>to adjust is the estimated price, not the amount you expense.  You have to
>track this closely, or the figures will be wrong.  I generally check the
>funds toward the end of the month, and make any adjustments before
>printing the monthly reports.
>
>The help desk also suggested that when we close out our fiscal year, we
>can look at the reports and put the amount still encumbered into the new
>fiscal year encumberances column.  We are still thinking about whether we
>want to do this.  Our fiscal year runs from July 1 through June 30, so we
>have time to decide whether we will go in this direction.
>
>I would be interested in knowing if other sites are bringing the previous
>encumberances forward into the new fiscal year.  And whether this causes
>other problems...
>
>Sue Whitehead,
>Systems Librarian/Archivist
>Biola University
>sue dot whitehead at biola dot edu
>
>
>IUG INNOPAC List <innopac at innopacusers dot org> on Tuesday, December 19, 2006
>at 10:31 AM -0800 wrote:
>Hello-
>      Have any of you experienced any of your funds showing negative
>encumbrances?  If so, how did you resolve the problem?
>
>Thanks, kathleen
>
>Kathleen Olsen
>Section Supervisor
>Selection & Order Dept.
>King County Library System
>960 Newport Way NW
>Issaquah, WA  98027
>(425)369-3368
>ksolsen at kcls dot org
>FAX (425)369-3332
>www.kcls.org
>
>
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