2025-11-21 Acquisitions Meeting notes

Dung-Lan Chen

Dwayne Swigert

Heather McMillan

Jean Pajerek

Jessica Glomb

Joe Reimers

Kathleen Norton

Kimberly Pamplin

Kimberly Wiljanen

Lauren Seney

Lisa Smith

Lucas Moder

Masayo Uchiyama

Michael Hobson

Okay Okonkwo

Owen Stephens

Peter Breternitz

Sara Colglazier

Susanne Gill

Sven Thomsen

Victoria Anderson

• Meeting Administration:

  • Next Tuesday's meeting will be canceled due to a US holiday

  • Kimberly shared a helpful video by Eliana Limas about Acquisitions apps available in Slack

  Main Discussion - Paying Invoices in Future Fiscal Years:
  Joe Reimers led an extensive discussion about handling prepaid invoices that span multiple fiscal years. Key points included:

  • Current Challenge: Libraries often prepay for multi-year agreements (e.g., 3-year database subscriptions) to get discounts, but need to track expenses across the appropriate fiscal years

  • Current Workarounds: Libraries manually create separate invoices for each fiscal year, using methods like spreadsheets or post-it notes to remember which invoices need processing when new fiscal years begin

  • Accounting Requirements: University accounting departments often require expenses to be recorded in the fiscal year when services are received, not when payment is made

  Participant Experiences:

  • Dung-Lan Chen described their process of holding invoices and creating second-party invoices when new fiscal years open

  • Ann Crowley and Sarah (scolglaz) explained how they handle prepayments by not exporting to accounting and tracking expenses annually

  • Several institutions use prepaid object codes in their general ledger systems

  Technical Considerations:
  Joe outlined potential FOLIO enhancements to support this workflow, including:

  • Allowing invoices to be charged against future fiscal years

  • Managing encumbrances across multiple years

  • Handling budget allocations for future years

  The discussion revealed this is a complex but common need in academic libraries, with various workarounds currently being used.