1 Acquisitions Overview

1 ACQUISITIONS OVERVIEW

The Acquisitions/Serials module enables you to manage vendor, budget, order and invoice records.

This overview includes the following sections:

1.1 THE ACQUISITIONS/SERIALS GUI

The Acquisitions/Serials GUI has been designed with an ease of access to acquisitions functions. Vendor, budget, item, order and invoice information are interlinked and can be accessed with a minimum of cursor movement. Multiple panes containing relevant information for each function can be displayed simultaneously.

Here is an example of an Acquisitions/Serials GUI screen displaying order information:

The various screen elements in the Acquisitions/Serials GUI are explained in the following sections.

1.1.1 Toolbars

The Title Bar shows the name of the program. It also displays status messages relating to the Database selection and the Server selection:

The Menu Bar is laid out conventionally:

Place the cursor over the menu name (for example, Orders) to reveal the related menu commands.

The Serial Bar contains brief information about a selected journal's title.

To display a serial record, select a search parameter from the menu on the left. For example, Title. Type the appropriate value in the adjacent field. For example, Library service. Click

, or press Enter.

The Order Bar contains brief information about a selected record, such as selected's title.

To display an order record, select a search parameter from the menu on the left. For example, Order number. Type the appropriate number in the adjacent field, and click

, or press Enter.

The Invoice Bar allows you to retrieve or to create a General Invoice and its line items.

Enter a Vendor code or click

and select a Vendor from the Vendor List. In the adjacent field, select the appropriate invoice number or type it in. To add a new invoice for the selected vendor, type in the new general invoice number, and click

, or press Enter.

1.1.2 Panes

Navigation Pane

The navigation pane contains the following:

Main Tab
Navigation Tree

The Acquisitions/Serials module is comprised of six activities:

Order
Invoice
Administration
Order Search
Serial
Search

These activities are accessed from the Main Tab in the left pane, which consists of a row of icons that correspond to the above activities.

Clicking an icon invokes the interface associated with that icon. For example, clicking the Order icon invokes an interface for conducting Order activities.

Name
Order
Invoice
Administration
Order Search
Serial
Search

1.2 WORKING WITHOUT A MOUSE

You can advance from one pane to another by using the following shortcut keys:

Shortcuts Keys	Lets you do this:
TAB	move to the next control in the dialog box.
Ctrl+TAB	move to the previous control in the dialog box.
Ctrl+TAB	select the next pane in clockwise
Ctrl+Alt+TAB	move from the lower pane to the first control in
Ctrl+1	select the left pane
Ctrl+2	select the right upper pane.
Ctrl+3	select the right lower pane.
Ctrl+4	select the left lower pane (only in Catalog available)
Ctrl+5	move to the first control in the top toolbar.
Ctrl+6	move to the second control in the top toolbar.
Ctrl+7	move to the third control in the top toolbar.

Note that a red frame appears around the active pane.

Shortcut Keys Available in the Acquisitions/Serials GUI

The following table shows the default shortcut keys. These shortcut keys can be customized. Your can change the shortkeys assignment. In this case, the table ist not valid.

Function
Switch to Admin Tab	F6
Switch to Order Search Tab	F7
Switch to Invoice Tab	F5
Switch to Order Tab	F2
Switch to Search Tab	F9
Switch to Serial Tab	F8

The following shortcut keys are hard coded and cannot be customized:

Function
Print List - (All Lists)	F11
Date Edit and Time Edit - Reset Dates	F12
Help	F1

1.3 THE ACQUISITIONS PROCESS

The Acquisitions process includes the following steps:

Create a Bibliographic Record in the Cataloging module. This record may be updated later.
Initiate an Order by filling in the Order Form in the Acquisitions/Serials module. The order will be sent to the vendor and if you have budget control, the budget will be debited for the encumbrance.
Register the Invoice. Alephino distinguishes between a General Invoice and an Item Debit. A General Invoice includes several orders; an Item Debit is for an individual order (and is usually a line in the General Invoice). When the invoice is registered, the budgets linked to the order(s) are debited.
Register the arrival of material as partial or complete.

1.4 ORDER TYPES

The Acquisitions/Serials module handles three order types: Monograph, Serial and Standing Order.

A monograph order is for a single item, such as an individual book, or for a complete multi-volume work, such as a 20-volume encyclopedia. However, you may also place a monograph order for an individual issue of a serial publication; for example, this would apply if the issue has been lost and you wish to replace it.

A serial order is for a publication which is issued as a consecutively numbered and indefinitely continuing series. Examples include newspapers and journals. With a serial order, the number of issues to be received during the course of the subscription and the price of the subscription are both known in advance.

A standing order is usually for monographs in series (e.g., "Great Artists of the World") or for monographs of a particular subject matter. The order is usually for volumes that are due to be published in the future. A standing order is an open-ended order. It is usually not known in advance the number of volumes that will be received, nor the price of each volume.

1.5 PREREQUISITES

Before initiating any orders, you must first make sure that:

a list of currencies has been created and the exchange rates defined.
a list of vendors has been created.
a list of budgets has been created. This step is optional and is only for users who want budget control.

Go to next section (Currencies)