Ability to change Purchase Type / Order Line Type after an item has been ordered
When ordering an item a purchase type must be selected to create a POL. It appears as Order Line Type in the POL after the item has been ordered. It would be nice to have the ability to change the Order Line Type within the POL instead of canceling an order and having to create a new one from scratch. An example would be having the ability of changing the order type Print Book - Standing Order to the order type Print Journal - Subscription within an item's POL.
-
The March 2018 Release includes the 2nd part of the planned changes. For more details see here: https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Release_Notes/010_2018/10_March_2018/Alma_March_2018_Release_Notes/01Acquisitions_-_March_2018_Enhancements#Change_PO_Line_Attributes_After_Ordering_-_Part_II
-
Markus commented
Dear Ex Libris team,
this job would solve a problem we have with data migration. However, the problem here is that the original data record can be of the type "Other Service - One-Time" or "Other Service - Continuous". And these types are currently not changeable by this job. Can it be extended in this respect? -
The February 2018 Release includes some new functionality to support this type of change as per below: A new job, enables staff users to change the purchase type of an order that is not closed or canceled to another purchase type of the same inventory type and continuity. For example, now an entire set of PO lines can be changed from Database One Time to Electronic Book One Time or from Print Book One Time to Musical Score One Time. This job will be further enhanced with additional options in future releases.
See here for more details: https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Release_Notes/010_2018/11_February_2018/Alma_February_2018_Release_Notes/01Acquisitions_-_February_2018_Enhancements#Change_PO_Line_Attributes_After_Ordering_(Part_I)
-
LI commented
We would like to change Order line type too
-
Tom Celentano commented
Have any changes been made in this area? Our library needs to change the PO Line type for some electronic titles from subscription to one time purchases since they are not going to be renewed. As of now it looks as if that is not an option but I wonder if there will be some way of making this change.
-
Rosemary Vasquez commented
If I am understanding this thread correctly this type of enhancement is already in the works? If so when can it be expected? We set up most of our Standing Orders in ALMA as as Standing Order - Monographs & I believe that they should have been set up as Standing Order - Non-Monograph. Will this type of change be possible?
-
Answer from Yoel to Naomi Maendel from University of Manitoba
Hello Naomi.
In the previous comment you ask: "Yoel, if I understand #3 below, we would be able to change POs as long as the type and continuity remain the same. So we could change Electronic Book - Subscription to Electronic Collection - Subscription."I answer: "Correct. In the proposed potential solution you would be able to change 'Electronic Book - Subscription' to 'Electronic Collection - Subscription'. This is because they are both electronic and both continuous."
-
Naomi Maendel commented
We've also wanted this enhancement ever since we migrated to Alma. It's a continuing problem for us, especially when new e-collections are added to the CKB.
The May 1 update (20171800) is an example: International Tables for Crystallography. We have it in Alma as a portfolio, but now Ex Libris has made it into a collection, with the various volumes (Volume A, A1, B, etc.) as portfolios. It's a better record, but we can't use it. Why? Because our PO type is Electronic Book - Subscription, and that means we can't attach it to the collection.
Ex Libris has been adding many more databases to the CZ lately, but they don't seem to be aware that in some cases they've changed the nature of the resource from a portfolio to a collection, and in doing so they're actually disqualifying Alma customers from using the new content if they already have a PO for the item.
Yoel, if I understand #3 below, we would be able to change POs as long as the type and continuity remain the same. So we could change Electronic Book - Subscription to Electronic Collection - Subscription. It's not the full flexibility that we'd like, but even this would offer us some options. It's very frustrating when every month we get CZ updates from Ex Libris we can't use.
Naomi Maendel
University of Manitoba -
Hi. Based on the use cases below and the "structure" of the database as well as the logical checks done by the system, we have investigated and come up with the proposed solution.
Here is what will be allowed:
1. Change the acquisition method.
a. This will be possible.
b. When it is done the user will be prompted as follows:
i. Do you want to send a cancellation letter to the vendor (because it may have already been sent and now you are doing it differently)
ii. Do you want to resend the order to the vendor (because in the previous acquisition method it may have not sent a letter)2. Change the POL owner.
a. This will be possible with the following restriction:
i. Possible to change to a POL owner which is allowed to “acquire for” the library of the related inventory.
1. This ‘acquire for’ definition is defined at ‘General Configuration > Libraries > Relationships’
ii. Possible to change to a library for which the fund of the order is “available for”
iii. If the order has an invoice then
1. If the invoice is owned by an institution then it is possible to change the POL owner library according to above restrictions
2. If the invoice is owned by a library then it will not be possible to change the POL owner
a. (In any case there should not be a situation where the invoice owner library is different than the POL owner library)3. It will be possible to change the order line type but only within the same type of inventory format and continuity.
a. It will be possible to change “Database One time” to “Electronic Book One Time”.
b. It will be possible to change “Print Book One time” to “Musical Score One Time”.
c. It will not be possible to change from “Print Book One time” to “Journal Continuous (subscription)”.
d. It will not be possible to change from “Print Book One time” to “Electronic Book One Time”. -
Hiltje de Vries commented
9 months ago we went live with ALMA. A lot of our former Aleph libraries had to be migrated but in ALMA have a 'to be deleted' description. A lot of mistakes have been made since when ordering items. Mistakes that give our Acquisitions department a lot of extra work. . Therefore we really support this suggestion
-
Shirleanne Ackerman Gahan commented
If ExL is unable to change Purchase Order Types, what about the Acquisition Method (Purchase, Approval Plan, Gift, Technical, Purchase at Vendor System, etc) ? It would be extremely helpful to be able to change the Acquisition Method after an order is sent. We would be able to keep all historical information (notes, invoicing, etc) in one record instead of closing and recreating new POLs (which increases the chance of error, clutters acquisition module searching, and wastes valuable time)
-
Kristina Edwards commented
Initially, my own preference for this functionality was based on migration but now my preference is largely for the sake of flexibility. In the case of on-going resources, we don't necessarily have the choice when a publication goes from being a subscription to a case by case basis. This is determined by the publisher. By having closing to close the PO and then open up a new PO, it reduces the flexibility that the system provides in terms of allowing institutions to truly be able to meet our needs locally.
Also, best practices include looking at historical data when making purchasing decisions, by having this information in separate places because of needing to open and close POs every time a subscription changes its method of acquisition it becomes harder to make informed decisions.
Also, I am unclear about the implications of inventory and its relation to purchase order type. I can see the purchase order type being linked to whether the operator is able to create an item during the order process but other than that I am unclear as what effect this would truly have on inventory.
I do understand the that it would not be an easy fix but given the desire for the change by customers I personally think that this would be worth the investment to ExLibris as well as allow customers an easier time of maintaining/updating their acquisitions data and handling changes to their workflows based on local staffing.
-
Andrew Grogan commented
For us at Northumbria University, the reason we require this feature was mentioned in an earlier comment by Frances Shipsey, spcifically relating to how our data was migrated:
"To correct decisions that may have been taken at the migration to Alma or older procedures which are now not the preferred way of handling orders (for example the standing orders monograph vs standing orders non-monograph situation)."
So to confirm, we want to be able to change the POL type from "Standing Orders Non-Monograph" to Standing Orders Monograph".
-
Based on the previous comments it appears that there are very specific "repeated" cases where this functionality is needed.
It does not appear to be "the need to change any POL type to another type" or “and POL value to a different value”.
As we already stated it will not be possible to make certain changes to the POL because that would cause database irregularities with types of inventories (among other issues).
However, there are specific cases which perhaps can be accommodated.Can you please come up with one unified list of these specific situations?
We will then evaluate it one by one.
We see that you did already send a comment “A few scenarios where this would be useful …” on Feb. 1 and thank you for that.
For example the one unified list might be:
- Want to change a POL of “One time electronic to one-time physical” (and in this case we can already state it will probably not be accepted for reasons previously given).
- Want to change a POL of “Physical One time” to “Physical continuous”’ (and in this case we can already state it will probably not be accepted for reasons previously given).
- We want to change the POL owner library from “Main Library” to “Humanities Library”
- We want to change POL type from “Electronic title one time” to ‘Electronic Collection one time”. -
Helen Garner commented
This would be really helpful. The current situation is too inflexible and doesn't allow us to correct occasional human errors.
-
Anonymous commented
Halleluiah!!!
-
Frances Shipsey commented
A few scenarios where this would be useful:
1. When there has been a mistake at the order stage. It is very difficult to unpick the order and invoice when we have intended to order a physical copy but accidentally ordered an electronic copy or vice versa.
2. To correct decisions that may have been taken at the migration to Alma or older procedures which are now not the preferred way of handling orders (for example the standing orders monograph vs standing orders non-monograph situation).
I also support the request for ability to change the owning library. We are about to move from two physical libraries into one this year and would like to be able to move our orderline records over to the new libary as order 'owner'. We asked about this when we migrated to Alma last year.
-
Ivy Guo commented
I agree with Hanna's idea. It is rather painful to have to close a POL and recreate just because the type has changed. Sometime it was unplanned change, such as print subscription turned out to be a standing order.
Sometime is planned change. For example, we recently made an outright purchase to a previously subscribed product. I have to close the subscription POL and recreate an one time POL. It make much sense to change the type and just be done with it. -
Rosella Layton commented
Sometimes you do not know what you are ordering or how it will be activated later down the road. All you have is the title in an email or on a form. Acquisitions people are not catalogers. We try to make an educated guess beforehand, but it is not 99% accurate. In my case, I have to consult with a cataloger who has heavy involvement with how we catalog and activate databases and e-book collections. My role is simply to get an accurate POL into the system that can be found and can be used to pay for the title when the invoice comes in. It would be nice to be able to make an adjustment to what I've input into Alma (POLs) prior to the actual payment and activation process.
-
Karen Engler commented
I agree with the requests for more flexibility in PO Lines. Another example which I just encountered today: I have an order for an electronic collection that is currently in Alma as a "Part of" acquisition method. We are now paying for this resource separately, so I need to change acq method to "Purchase at vendor system." I will need to close out the old PO line and re-create a whole new line. It would be great if I could just change the acquisition method and add a note to the existing PO line. Would that cause relational conflicts?