What about working with your vendors to change all subscriptions to start
with a July date?  It might not work with some, which you could put into a
separate order, but I am sure it would work with many.  It would save most
of the hassle with an annual renewal that mirrored the fiscal year.

Our business office has no problem with us just paying for subscriptions to
start with January, even though the subscription will go over the fiscal
year.

Karen M. Chobot, MLS
Director, Mildred Johnson Library
North Dakota State College of Science
800 6th St. N.
Wahpeton ND 58076
701-671-2385
See the new Library blog: mjlibrary.blogspot.com
-----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.

Regards--

Teri Koch
Collection Development Librarian
Drake University
Cowles Library
2725 University Ave.
Des Moines, IA  50311

teri.koch@drake.edu  (e-mail)