Teri - At my former institution we were required to split our large subscription bill in half. Our fiscal year was from 7/1 to 6/30. We paid the subscription agent in full each year, but it was put on the books as paid in two different fiscal years, I believe. It became a nightmare when a lot of journals were cancelled in one year, or the cost of the subscriptions went up considerably. I am glad we don't hassle with it here. BTW, we didn't do anything differently in our Serials module, the bookkeeping was done in the Accounting office and the library's accounting office only.

Susan
Susan M. Mueller
Head, Technical Services and Associate Professor
University of Idaho Library
Rayburn St.
P.O. Box 442350
Moscow, ID 83844-2350

smueller@uidaho.edu
208-885-7955
208-885-6817 (fax)

-----Original Message-----
From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum [mailto:SERIALST@list.uvm.edu] On Behalf Of Teri Koch
Sent: Tuesday, August 26, 2008 6:57 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)