We will be upgrading at some time over the Summer to Aleph V.19.
Here are some of the new enhancements Acquisitions can expect to see.
Status indicator for subscriptions:
This feature allows staff to more easily identify cancelled
subscriptions by including a status indicator (based on the
subscription “To Date” field) in displays.
New sorting options for invoices:
To better support the management of orders and invoices,
ALEPH v. 19 allows additional sorting options for invoices linked
to an order–including date range of subscription, invoice total,
and related budget number. Version 19 allows users to sort the
display of information in the Acquisitions Invoice view in
ascending or descending order and by order number, invoice
date, and invoice notes.
Warnings based on item process status changes in Acquisitions:
ALEPH v. 19 introduces warning notices that alert Acquisitions
staff to the presence of hold requests any time the item
process status changes. This supplements the hold request
notification when an ordered item arrives and helps library
staff to understand item demand and take appropriate action
if the item is delayed or cancelled.
Allow subscription checkin for issues before the year 1901:
ALEPH v. 19 now allows libraries to create check-in schedules
for serials published prior to 1901. This feature is important for
libraries with historical serials collections.
Update invoice from external finance system:
ALEPH v. 19 now supports the ability to update ALEPH
acquisitions records with data from the institution’s accounting
system (via the acq-29 batch service) for libraries that process
invoice payments externally. This service takes input from the
financial system, identifies and updates all matching records in
ALEPH, ensuring that acquisitions operators have access to the
most up-to-date invoice and payment information possible.
Automatic calculation and inclusion of VAT amounts on invoices:
Libraries will have the option to automatically calculate and
add a VAT amount to VAT-exclusive invoices, eliminating the
need to manually calculate this value and enter it into the
general Invoice. VAT-inclusive invoice functionality remains
unchanged.
View invoice date from the Order Details view invoice tab:
ALEPH v. 19 permits an operator to more easily view the date
of an invoice from the invoice tab in the Order Details view.
Add sorting option to vendor correspondence–p-print-50:
With ALEPH v. 19, library staff now have the option to sort
vendor correspondence (e.g., claims and orders) by postal/zip
code.
Batch claiming for monograph orders:
The output of the acq-12 batch service will sort claims by
vendor and produce a single print notice or e-mail message
when libraries send claims to monograph suppliers–listing all
claimed items with that vendor.
Transfer of vendor information to subscription records:
ALEPH v. 19 automatically updates serial subscription records
with new vendor information when a change is made to the
supplier on the serial order record.
Subscription field for related title:
To facilitate work with multiple titles related to a common
order (e.g., memberships), ALEPH v. 19 provides a new option
for searching by subscription record Order Number in the
dropdown list of search options on the Serials Bar in the
Acquisitions Module. Libraries enter the order number of the
“common order” in each of the subscriptions, when this new
search is executed. The common order and all related records
will be retrieved.
Improved invoice number duplicate detection:
ALEPH v. 19 now checks for duplicate invoice numbers,
regardless of case, eliminating operator entry errors.
Enhancements to Generic Vendor Records Loader (p-file-96):
Two new parameters have been added to the p-file-96
process to support match/merge of incoming and existing
records and additional note/description fields to be loaded
during the p-file-96 job.
Improved multi-order support:
Multi-order processing functionality has been enhanced to
allow operators to set group orders to the “Ready to Send to
Vendor” (RSV) status. This eliminates manual handling of each
order. ALEPH v. 19 now supports a new field on the Multi-Order
form — Order Group. When assigned to the Multi-Order form,
the Order Group identifier appears on all included orders.
Additional data in subscription defaults:
Sublibrary and collection fields can now be populated in an
item record created using the “Subscription Defaults” button,
eliminating the need to manually key in additional data.
Modifications to invoice reports (p-acq-10) to support external budget information:
University accounting offices are interested in the external
budget name to which the library’s fund corresponds rather
than the library’s internal budget or fund codes. General and
special invoice reports and the invoice summary report have
been supplemented with this external budget name.
Ability to access full vendor details from the order form:
A new “Vendor Information” tab on the order form presents
the full vendor record, providing acquisitions operators with
easy access to the data necessary to make key decisions
related to the order.