III. Invoice Payment in Aleph

Introduction

Once an item is fully accessioned, it must be paid for. It is Houghton policy to accession and pay for materials in one session. This enables materials to move most quickly through the twinned accessioning and invoicing processes, prevents unnecessary handling of materials and lessens the chance for errors.

Examine the accompanying invoice. Every invoice should contain:

the vendor’s name and address
the date the invoice was issued
the vendor’s invoice number
a list of the item(s) covered by the invoice
the amount due and the currency of the billing (typically $, £, €)
information from the curator regarding the fund(s) used to make this purchase.

If there is no invoice number, create one based on available information. For example: 2009-01-01 (date-based), or 4567890 (the final, unique digits from a very long amazon.com order number). If any other essential information is not present, please contact the curator. Please note: accessioners are not responsible for collating; curatorial staff are.

Timeliness is of the essence when paying invoices. Harvard’s policy is to pay invoices no earlier than 30 days after an invoice is issued; many vendors expect payment no later than 30 days after the invoice is issues, so we must do everything we can to ensure speedy accessioning of books and the processing of related invoices. Curators should release books and invoices within ten days of receipt. It is policy that all incoming shelves be cleared at the end of each week; invoices are dispatched to HCL Financial Services daily.

Books and printed material

When a book and invoice appear on the incoming shelf, staff should verify that the item is as described on the invoice and supporting documentation. The invoice should then be stamped with the Technical Services date stamp. It is critical, should questions arise, to know when an item came to the Mezzanine; the payment data in Aleph will indicate when the material was processed (and, later, paid). When the invoice has been stamped, write the vendor code above the date and the invoice number below it. Invoices are paid in the acquisitions module of Aleph. A unique invoice record is created for each invoice, with elements linked to the order record(s) for individual items.

Procedure for paying an invoice in Aleph:

Open the acquisitions module and enter the code for the vendor and the invoice number in the appropriate spaces in the invoice bar (top of the screen, third line down). Click on the blue right-facing arrow.
When a unique invoice number and vendor are entered, the system will supply a dialogue box confirming the desire to create an invoice payment record. Click yes to open the new invoice record.
The new invoice record template will open. Notice it is automatically populated with the vendor code and invoice number supplied. In the lower part of the screen, the vendor code, ID and address are listed.
Three fields in the template are of immediate interest, the Net Amount, Currency and Invoice Date. Key in the total amount of the invoice (including all charges) in the Net Amount field, make sure the currency is correct (the default is US dollars), and key in the invoice date (mm/dd/yyyy format). Click the Update button to the right of the Invoice Date field. The system will update the invoice record.
At the left of the screen note the General Invoice display is highlighted. To pay for individual items on an invoice, the Line Items display must be engaged. Click Line Items.
The Invoice Line Items Tab will display, blanked out. Note the three fields at the top: Line Items, Total Amount Gen. Invoice and Total Line Amount Items. The first is 0 because no line items have been entered; the second is the amount entered in the Net Amount field earlier; the third is 0.00 because no amounts associated with line items have been entered. Also note that the only active element in this screen is the Add button (at right). Click Add to enter the first line item.
A Get Order dialog box will open, asking for the order number. The order number should be written on the invoice next to the item to which it corresponds (this would have been done when creating the order record).
Enter the complete order number and click OK. The Line Item Form for this order will open.

The Line Item Form contains the previously supplied Vendor Code, Invoice Number (from the creation of the Invoice Record), as well as the Estimated Price and Currency (from the Order Record). The two fields of interest here are Net Amount and Object Code. The Net Amount should be taken from the invoice. The Object Code is determined by the type of material purchased (see table below). The codes most frequently used are 7021 for Rare Books, and 7022 for Manuscript material.

Object Code	Type of material
7020	Manuscripts & Archives Collections, GENERAL
7021	Rare Books (Special Collections)
7022	Manuscript & Archival Material (Special Collections)
7023	Serials (Special Collections)
7024	Audio-Visual Material (Special Collections)
7025	Maps (Special Collections)
7026	Graphic Materials (Special Collections)
7027	Musical Scores (Special Collections)
7028	Electronic Data (Special Collections)
7029	Digitally Reformatted Material (Special Collections)
7031	Books (non-rare; used for reference materials)

Enter the Net Amount and Object Code and click Add. The Invoice Line Items tab will be updated with the information supply.
Note the change in the three fields at the top: Line Items now shows 1 because one line items has been entered; the second is still the amount entered in the Net Amount field earlier; the third is now the amount of the line item just entered. To add a second line item, click Add again, and populate the fields (as above) with the second item on the invoice.
Again, note the changes in the Invoice Line Items Tab at the top.
Finally, this invoice may include postage charges. Postage is paid on a special non-Houghton fund line, and this makes the process slightly more complicated. The beginning of the process is the same as adding another line item (in fact, the system regards postage as simply one more line item). Click Add to begin the process. When the Get Order dialog box appears, click Ignore (since there is no order number). Enter the postage Net Amount from the invoice; then enter the Object Code 8700. Next, click the Budgets button at the right. A Budget List of Invoice box will appear.
The Budget List of Invoice box is populated with the amount indicated in the Line Item Form. The important field in this operation is Budget Code to Add. Key in the postage budget number obtained from the Technical Services Librarian, and click the elliptical box at the immediate right. A Budget List Filtered box will appear, with the appropriate budget (the postage budget) highlighted.
Click Select. The Budget List Filtered box will disappear, and the Budget Code to Add line of the Budget List of Invoice box will contain the full postage budget. Click the Add Budget button (top right). The Invoice Budget tab of Budget List of Invoice is now populated with the budget number and amount.
Click Close and the most recent Line Item Form is again shown. The budgetary work just performed is in the background, but cannot be seen. Click Add to complete the processing of the postage Line Item.
The updated Invoice Line Items tab is now shown. If the two amount fields at the top of the Invoice Line Items tab are in agreement, the acquisitions module is satisfied and the invoice has been paid. Place the completed invoice in the out-file for the Bibliographic Assistant. The Bibliographic Assistant will file electronic records and convey the invoices to the Financial Office for payment.

Manuscript material

Manuscripts follow a separate workflow from print purchases, and are accessioned by the Accessioning Archivist. Payment of manuscript purchases takes place in the Acquisitions and End-Processing Section. The procedure is described below.

Manuscript processing workflow with invoice:

Curators order and receive manuscript items and collections. Upon receipt of this material with invoice, a curator will fill out the Manuscript Acquisition web form, which collects information about the nature of the material and any instructions for processing. The data captured in this form is automatically sent to a spreadsheet maintained by the Accessioning Archivist. A&EP staff who handle invoices should have shared access to this spreadsheet; in the event of any problems, contact the Accessioning Archivist.

The curator brings the manuscript material, invoice, and any supporting documentation to the mezzanine for payment and preliminary Aleph work. Upon receipt of the material and invoice, A&EP staff will consult the appropriate entry in the Manuscript Acquisition spreadsheet. Unless otherwise indicated, a suppressed stub bibliographic record and holdings record should be created, and an invoice generated following the same process as outlined above for books. After payment of the invoice in Aleph and creation of an electronic version of the invoice for department files, the A&EP Bibliographic Assistant should route material and accompanying dealer's descriptions to the Accessioning Archivist for accessioning and continued processing.

Two exceptions to this process are as follows:

Accruals to an archival collection

Catchall items

These types of acquisitions will be noted in the acquisition spreadsheet. In these cases (usually a single autograph letter, or a screenplay for example) the creation of a new bibliographic record is not necessary. The spreadsheet entry will include the Aleph bib number to which the order information should be attached. The A&EP Assistant should add a new 541 field to the existing holdings record. If multiple 541 fields exist, the most current should be added to the top of the list. Order record creation and invoice payment continue as usual.

Electronic Invoice storage

Houghton maintains an electronic copy of each invoice with its accompanying documentation (dealer description, curator email instructions, export license, etc.). Prior to sending the paper invoices to Financial, the Bibliographic Assistant must scan them, create file names according to Houghton naming conventions, and save them to the appropriate file. Dealer descriptions may then be inserted in the books and placed on the 'to-be-cataloged' shelf; export licenses may be discarded.