5 messages, 204 lines: (1)-------------------------- Date: Thu, 30 Oct 1997 07:27:28 +1000 From: Alfred Gans <alfred@ISA.COM.AU> Subject: Reply re: Periodicals Invoices and budget years On Wed, 29 Oct 1997, Peter Boll <bollp@CENTRAL.EDU> wrote: >Here is a question I have not seen addressed on this list since I've been >a subscriber. Each year around this time our library receives our annual >renewal invoice from our major periodicals vendor. The amount is usually >around $ 60,000. In past years we have simply paid the invoice on our >automated Library system, approved the invoice for payment and sent it >over to the business office to have the check cut, no problems. > >Well this year there is a problem. Now our controller and other business >office higher ups are saying that since some of these issues will not be >received until after July 1, 1998 that 1/2 of the invoice total will be >charged to the Library's 1998-99 fiscal year budget and the other 1/2 to >the current 1997-98 fiscal year budget. They will go ahead and cut the >check for the full amount right now, but when July 1, 1998 rolls around we >will start the year out with our periodicals budget in the hole for the >amount equal to 1/2 of the invoice we have just recieved (around $ 30,000) >Our fiscal year runs July 1 - June 30. > >Their reasoning is that since we will not actually be "using" or >"receiving" some of these journal issues until the next fiscal year, we >cannot pay for them with money from the current fiscal year. >Of course when we receive the renewal invoice in the Fall of 1998 1/2 will >be paid from FY 1998-99, and 1/2 from FY 99-00 (boy it's weird typing >that!) It sort of makes sense but also seems like a big bother to me. I am >also a little concerned about what this means in terms of keeping track of >how much has already been expended against the next year's budget. There >is also the issue of how our Library system (Innovative) will handle this. I >don't think it has the capability of splitting an invoice total between >fiscal years. > >The business office keeps bringing up "established accounting procedures >and standards" as their rationale. Well, they never seemed to be concerned >about these "standards" in years past and I don't think periodicals >publishers and vendors fall into the same categories as maintenance and >service contracts, their example of the proper application of these >standards. > >Does this sound familiar to anyone out there? Are these accounting >standards applied to other libraries' periodicals invoices and budgets? >Our VP of finance is interested in the response I get, so if this is not >standard operating procedure in most college libraries maybe I can win >this battle. If it is the established procedure, I guess I can live with >that too. Dear Peter, You and other librarians should fight this pedantic use of accounting standards. You need to remind your controller that he is measuring a year's expenditure.The actual work in allocating serials from one half year to the next will add absolutely no extra useful meaning to his annual figures. If he wants to allocate your serials expenditure in one year over two years, he should take the easier way by using a journal entry to estimate the amount of expenditure applicable to the second year. An estimate will be more than adequate, although I do not think that is necessary either. This falls into the same ridiculous category as trying to value a library collection by using "cost" as the measure of value. It serves no useful purpose to measure such a "value." If it is not rational to you, make your controller explain its usefulness to your organisation or outsiders. "Established accounting procedures and standards" is not an answer by itself. Perhaps you should suggest facetiously that as you are holding your serials for many years, he should allocate the expenditure over those years - perhaps he should examine their condition from year to year????? I have long forsaken my accounting expertese partly because of these silly uses of accounting standards. Make the controllers and accountants explain the usefulness of these procedures before you are forced into useless work. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Alfred Gans Telephone +61-7 3371 7500 ISA Australia Facsimile +61-7 3371 5566 PO Box 709 alfred@isa.com.au TOOWONG QLD 4066 http://www.isa.com.au AUSTRALIA +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ (2)--------------------- Date: Wed, 29 Oct 1997 20:47:12 -0500 From: Albert Henderson <70244.1532@COMPUSERVE.COM> Subject: Re: Periodicals Invoices and budget years It being the eve of Halloween, I detect the ghost of Robert Maxwell, the devilish master of creative accounting. Even from the grave he is still figuring how to divert cash flow to serve ambition while appearing to cite the rules of GAAP. The administrative costs of screwing up the system will far exceed any apparent "savings." Albert Henderson, Editor, PUBLISHING RESEARCH QUARTERLY 70244.1532@compuserve.com. (3)----------------------- Date: Thu, 30 Oct 1997 10:25:39 -0500 From: Nancy Hanks <nancy.hanks@SRU.EDU> Subject: Re: Periodicals Invoices and budget years Our fiscal year also runs July 1-June 30 and SRU is a state university. We certainly pay the entire EBSCO, UMI, and Wilson invoices as they are received. In fact, we are now taking advantage of EBSCO's prepayment option and pay based on the initial renewal list (this year with major adjustments for cancellations). We also use EBSCO's guaranteed rate program. This is all reflected on the main invoice in Sept. or Oct. and we may, at that time, owe them additional money or they may owe us a credit. If they owe us, we then use that credit to pay for bill laters (I actually allow for that in the initial payment - I WANT a credit these days!). Last year we requested a spring invoice of titles whose volume years start July-Dec because we were paid two and three years in advance for some. The renewal list we will receive in Feb. will be for titles totally received in FY 1998/99 but will be paid with FY 1997/98 funds (this invoice runs about $5,000 so it is a very small part of our total EBSCO order). Our purchasing office has not objected. They only require that we keep records that we are receiving what we paid for (i.e. maintain checkin records). Our serials budget for FY 1997/98, for EBSCO, UMI (microfilm only), Wilson (paper only), ERIC, and a few directs, is about $200,000. I cannot imagine splitting the payment between fiscal years. You are committed to paying for these titles by renewing them but budgets are not guaranteed from FY to FY. What happens if your budget is cut next fiscal year? Even when administrators are committed to supporting the library, emergencies can happen. Our pipe organ in our music building was badly damaged a few years ago when a steam pipe broke. That repair wasn't cheap! Good luck, Nancy S. Hanks Serials Librarian Phone: (412) 738-2658 Bailey Library Fax: (412) 738-2661 Slippery Rock University Email: nancy.hanks@sru.edu Slippery Rock, PA 16057 (4)----------------------------- Date: Thu, 30 Oct 1997 08:25:11 -0600 From: "Gregory D. Bull 962-5408" <GDBULL@A1.STTHOMAS.EDU> Subject: Periodicals Invoices and Budget Years We pay for our annual renewal of periodicals in July with most subscriptions beginning on January 1st. Our fiscal year runs from July 1-June 30th. The only issue that comes up with our Business Office is when the invoice is dated, i.e. it must be after July 1st so that each invoice is paid in a different fiscal year and that the subscriptions incept during that year. Subscriptions are by definition payment in advance for issues to be received later, unlike, for example, standing orders which are paid for upon receipt. It seems the important issue is when something is paid for, not necessarily when it is received, although I am not an accountant and have no particular expertise on the matter. Fortunately, the institutions I have worked for have had this understanding of subscriptions and haven't given me a problem with the annual invoice. Good Luck! Greg Bull Serials Librarian O'Shaughnessy-Frey Library University of St. Thomas 2115 Summit Avenue St. Paul, Minnesota 55105 (612) 962-5408 <GDBULL@A1.STTHOMAS.EDU> (5)---------------------------- Date: Thu, 30 Oct 1997 08:56:56 -0500 From: Jeanette Skwor <SKWORJ@GBMS01.UWGB.EDU> Subject: Re: Periodicals Invoices and budget years ***Yes, indeed, this does have the makings of a nightmare! What about the titles that are a year or two behind in publication, the ones for which we are currently in a 1995-0r-6 time warp? Are we to pay those two years hence? ***Does the controller also send around new office calendars each half-year, so as not to pay for the whole thing in the wrong fiscal year? ***Bah humbug on such accounting "wizards". Jeanette Skwor Cofrin Library UWGB Speaking absolutely, totally, for herself and signing off before she works herself into a real snit . . .
