MIT Libraries: Collection Services

Payment History for Serial Orders

With Aleph 18.01, there are now two ways anyone on the MIT Libraries staff can view payment history for serial orders: using the Brio Report to view the data in the Data Warehouse, and looking in the Acquisitions module of Aleph itself. Each way is described in detail below.

Brio Report for the Data Warehouse | Acquisitions Module of Aleph 18.01 | Examples | Payment History Before FY1996

Brio Report for the Data Warehouse

Even with Aleph 18.01, Brio still gives us the most complete picture of payment history, as described below.

Downloading the Query

  1. Right click on this link: Payment history by serial order number.
  2. Choose the option "Save Link Target As..."
  3. In the "Save As..." dialog box, navigate to where you want to save the file on your hard drive.
  4. Leave the "File Name" and "Save as Type" fields as they are.
  5. Click Save.

Running the Query

  1. Launch Brio 6 and open the query called "Payment_history_by_serial_order_number_040421.bqy"
  2. Click the Process button at the top center of the screen.
  3. You'll see a dialog window called "Warehse.oce" asking you for your Host User and Host Password. Host User is your Athena User Name (what you use for email), and your Host Password is a specific password you chose to use for the Data Warehouse. Enter both, and press the Enter key or click the OK box.
  4. Next you'll see a dialog window called "Limit: Library Order Number." Here is where you type the PO number for which you want the payment history. Enter the PO number in the box where the blinking cursor is (next to the green check mark), and click OK. Note that this field is case sensitive, so you must use capital letters in the PO or you won't get any results.
  5. The dialog window "Limit: Fiscal Year" will come up next. If you want to see ALL payments made on this PO since FY1996 (the earliest year for which we have data here), click the Ignore button. If you're only interested in payments from a specific fiscal year, type in the year (e.g., 2007) in the box next to the green check mark and click OK.
  6. Brio Query will now calculate your results. As it is working, your screen will say "No results set available, report has not been calculated." When it has finished, the Report will show on your screen. The table below in Interpreting Your Results shows what each of the columns mean, as well as the header and footer.
  7. To search for another PO, click the Process button and you'll get the Limit: Library Order Number window again.
  8. To quit, go to the File menu and choose Exit. When it asks if you want to save changes, say No.

Interpreting Your Results

The report is sorted first by Pay Status (so those payments still in process show at the top of the list) and then by Paid Date, in reverse chronological order. The most recent activity will be at the beginning of the report.

Field Meaning
Header

Across the top of the report, it will say "Payment History for Serial Order Number XYZ; Current Order Status: ABC." The XYZ will be whatever PO you typed into the limit box at the beginning. The Current Order Status tells you if the order is currently:

Wording on Report
Meaning
Sent to vendor
the order is active (this is the most common status you'll see)
Library Cancelled
we cancelled the order
Vendor Cancelled
the vendor cancelled the order, likely because they could no longer supply the title
Order closed
usually, this means that the title has ceased publication and we have therefore closed the order.
Vendor Code For every serial or monograph vendor used by the MIT Libraries, we have created a code in Aleph. Many of them are mnemonic (e.g., OH-S stands for Otto Harrassowitz), but some have morphed over the years into some odd combinations (e.g., NIJHOFF-S stood for Martinus Nijhoff, but when they were bought by Swets it would have been a huge workload to change all the codes. NIJHOFF-S now just means a particular account within our Swets account.) If you have questions about vendor codes, please ask someone in Serials Acquisitions.
Invoice Number Most vendors supply unique numbers to their invoices so they can quickly identify our payment. We'll use their number whenever they have provided one. In the event that they don't provide an invoice number, we'll create one. If you have questions about an invoice number, please ask someone in Serials Acquisitions.
Invoice Date The date the vendor created the invoice and billed us, as printed on the invoice itself by the vendor.
Pay Status 99% of what you'll see will say P for Paid; if you see something that says N or R, that means it's still in process in the Libraries, and will be set to P very soon.
Paid Date The date the invoice was marked "Paid" in Aleph and a check was requested from the Institute Accounts Payable Office to be sent to the vendor. Note that there is a time lag of approximately one week between the Paid Date you see on your report and the date the check was mailed to the vendor. If you're trying to make sure a vendor received payment, also allow for mail time, processing time on the vendor's end, etc. All told, it may take 2-4 weeks from Paid Date to the date the payment is processed by the vendor, longer if the payment is in a foreign currency or is simply mailed to a foreign address.
Fund Code The familiar codes such as S-DEW-ECON include the fiscal year at the end: S-DEW-ECON-2007, S-DEW-ECON-2006, etc. By the year at the end, you can tell in which fiscal year the amount was expended.
Note For every line of every invoice we pay, we try to include a note about what we are paying for (e.g., v.6 (2004), or 1996 renewal, etc.). If you have questions about the notes you see here, please ask Kim. Some of them may be cryptic, particularly with journals payments from Swets or Harrassowitz, because they have been entered by a computer program rather than a human being.
Currency Paid Whenever possible, we pay in US Dollars, and you'll see the US Dollars code USD in this column. However, when necessary we do pay in foreign currencies (e.g., EUR for Euros). If you need help interpreting a code listed here, consult the Currency Codes in Aleph table, or ask someone in Serials Acquisitions.
Amount in Currency Paid, and Amount in US Dollars

These two columns tell you the amount paid in the currency in which the invoice was paid and the equivalent in US Dollars. For example, let's say we paid an invoice in Euros (EUR). The Currency Paid column would say EUR, the Amount in Currency Paid column might say 2,100 (meaning we paid 2,100 Euros), and the Amount in US Dollars column might say $2,405.34 (meaning the equivalent in USD of 2100 Euros on the date the invoice was marked paid in Aleph). Note that the US Dollar amount is the amount we will use for budgeting purposes.

Positive amounts are debits, and negative amounts are credits. In the above example, we paid 2100 EUR to the vendor. If the Amount column had said (2,100), with parentheses around the amount, it would mean we'd received a credit of 2100 EUR from the vendor.

If the Currency Paid column says USD, the Amount in Currency Paid and Amount in US Dollars column will be exactly the same.
Footer The footer has been automatically formatted to tell you the page number, how many pages the report is, and the date on which the report was printed. Barring technical difficulties at the Data Warehouse, the data you see on your report will always be valid as of the day before the printed date.

Acquisitions Module in Aleph 18.01

The major difference between what you'll see in Brio vs Aleph ACQ 18.01, in terms of data, is that Aleph ACQ 18.01 can't quickly show you the date the invoice was paid; if you need to know the paid date, you must click several screens to get it (instructions below). We do not have the option to add the Payment Date to the initial summary Invoice display.

  1. Search for the title in the Acquisitions client.
  2. Choose the Order tab in the left hand pane (will result in a peachy/salmon-colored background for the left hand pane).
  3. With the [L] Order List root selected in the left hand pane, highlight the order record for which you'd like to see payment history in the top right pane. Note that if there is only one order, it will automatically be selected; if more than one order record is present, you'll have to choose.
  4. Select [I] Invoice node from the left hand pane.
  5. In the top right pane you will now see, in ascending chronological order by invoice date, all the invoice lines that have been paid against the PO you selected.

You can choose whatever columns of data you'd like to see in this pane by right clicking on the column heading bar and customizing the choices. The default setup, as agreed upon by MonoAcq and SerAcq staff, is probably your best option. The table below explains what data you'll find in each columns, which should give you more information should you choose to customize your display.

Column Data / Meaning

Included
in Default
Setup?
Vendor For every serial or monograph vendor used by the MIT Libraries, we have created a code in Aleph. Many of them are mnemonic (e.g., OH-S stands for Otto Harrassowitz), but some have morphed over the years into some odd combinations (e.g., NIJHOFF-S stood for Martinus Nijhoff, but when they were bought by Swets it would have been a huge workload to change all the codes. NIJHOFF-S now just means a particular account within our Swets account.) If you have questions about vendor codes, please ask someone in Serials Acquisitions. Yes
Inv No. Most vendors supply unique numbers to their invoices so they can quickly identify our payment. We'll use their number whenever they have provided one. In the event that they don't provide an invoice number, we'll create one. If you have questions about an invoice number, please ask someone in Serials Acquisitions. Yes
Curr. Currency in which the invoice was paid; a translation of currency codes is available (USD=US Dollars) Yes
Amount The amount of money spent in the currency listed above Yes
VAT amount VAT stands for Value Added Tax; used in Europe, but not at MIT No
VAT code VAT stands for Value Added Tax; used in Europe, but not at MIT No
Type Code for the kind of "invoice" document being described (e.g., PAR stands for Partial Payment is used for most serial invoices; INV is for Invoice; CRE is for Credit). A list of the types is available. Yes
Status We use this field to indicate the method of payment sent to the vendor (e.g.,CHK is for Check, VIS is Credit Card, etc.). A list of statuses (payment methods) is available. Yes
Inv. Date Invoice Date: The date the vendor created the invoice and billed us, as printed on the invoice itself by the vendor. Yes
Units Not relevant for serials invoices; monographs invoices? No
Pay St.

Payment status: 99% of what you'll see will say P for Paid; if you see something that says N or R, that means it's still in process in the Libraries, and will be set to P very soon.

 Yes
Paid Date

The date the invoice was paid cannot be displayed in this summary invoice screen. If you need to see this date, do the following:

  1. With the line item in which you are interested highlighted, choose the General Invoice button on the right.
  2. If the invoice has been marked Paid, you will receive a warning pop-up box telling you "Payment Status "P" denies you permission for any changes to this invoice;" choose OK to clear the warning. If the invoice has not yet been marked paid, you will not see this warning message; skip to the next step.
  3. You have now moved to the Invoice Tab of the Acquisitions Module (the left-hand pane of your screen will now be pale yellow).
  4. In the left hand pane, choose [G] General Invoice.
  5. Next, in the right hand pane, choose the 2. Payment Tab. The payment date is the first date listed and is labelled as such.

 

  
Euro Displays the price converted into Euros (useful for European customers, but not for those whose native currency is not EUR) No
Local Displays the price converted into US Dollars. If the invoice was paid in USD, the Amount and Local fields will be the same. If the invoice was paid in, say, British Pounds (GBP), the Amount would say the amount GBP we paid (e.g., 100) and Local would convert that 100 GBP into US Dollars using the conversion rate in Aleph for the day the invoice was paid (so it might say $190) No
Note For every line of every invoice we pay, we try to include a note about what we are paying for (e.g., v.6 (2004), or 1996 renewal, etc.). If you have questions about the notes you see here, please ask Kim. Some of them may be cryptic, particularly with journals payments from Swets or Harrassowitz, because they have been entered by a computer program rather than a human being. Yes

Examples

Here are some good examples for viewing payment history via either the Brio Report of the Aleph Acquisitions client.

PO Good example of ...
H08754 a nice, well-behaved, active journal
A02124 a nice, well-behaved, cancelled journal
RA4371 a nice, well-behaved, active serial
H07527 a prolific active serial
M02427 a monograph in parts
E35333 a very prolific monographic series (Lecture notes in computer science)
DF1073 a title paid in Euros
S24434 older payments in DKK (Danish crowns), newer payments in USD
DA4500 a closed title
E09707 a closed title, with payments and credits
S00188 a cancelled serial
D06717 the OECD blanket order: a title with many and varied payments. Use the Brio Report; Aleph will be very slow for this order because there are so many invoice lines.
D06710 the UN blanket order: the title with the most payments, hands down (the report is currently 571 pages, with 2,393 payments recorded since FY1996). Use the Brio Report; Aleph will be very slow for this order because there are so many invoice lines.

Payment History Before FY1996

Payment History for FY1992 - FY1995 for serial orders is available upon request from Kim. It is stored in a FileMaker Pro database, and can be provided as an Excel spreadsheet. Data prior to FY1992 is not available.

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Created April 20, 2004; last updated March 27, 2007 by Kim Maxwell, kmaxwell@mit.edu