Gee, I'm glad we don't have to mess with that split-year business. In the meantime, we assign our journal subscriptions to the respective academic departments. (It comes in handy for accreditation reports and reports for new program proposals, and even for matching grants.) We've done that for longer than I've been here (which is nearly 20 years).  Our numbering system is something like this:

10 = Business Interdisciplinary
11 = Accounting
12 = Management & Marketing
	Etc.

20 = Education Interdisciplinary
21 = Professional pedagogy
	Etc.

For monographs, we add an M at the end of each department's number.

I'm about to have to start assigning departments for the databases, too, and I seem to recall there was a NASIG session about that a few years ago, but I'd be eager to hear from others, too, about that part of the question.

Sarah Tusa, Associate Professor
Coordinator of Collection Development & Acquisitions
Mary & John Gray Library, Lamar University
PO Box 10021
Beaumont, TX  77710-0021

Ph:   409/880-8125
Fax: 409/880-8225
-----Original Message-----
From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum [mailto:SERIALST@list.uvm.edu] On Behalf Of Teri Koch
Sent: Tuesday, August 26, 2008 8:57 AM
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: [SERIALST] subscriptions: fiscal year vs. calendar year accounting issues

Hello,

I am writing to find out how other institutions assign costs for
journal and/or database subscriptions for accounting purposes.  Most
of our journal subscriptions are on a calendar year basis, but our
fiscal year runs June 1-May 31.  Just recently our Accounting
Department has decided to begin splitting the charges between fiscal
years.  That is, the cost for a calendar year subscription would be
assigned 5/12ths (Jan-May) to one fiscal year; and the other 7/12ths
(June-Dec) to the next fiscal year. This is going to require that we
keep two sets of books for each title/database, one for the current
fiscal year, and one the upcoming fiscal year.  This seems like a
nightmarish amount of paperwork/trouble.

How do other institutions handle subscriptions for accounting
purposes?  I suppose one alternative is to attempt to get all
subscriptions to coincide with our fiscal year.  Do others do that?

Any insights into how your institutions handle this and/or advice
would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.