2020-10-2 Resource Management Meeting Notes

Announcements/Updates

• No PC meeting this week; final week of strategy group
• No RM SIG Meeting, October 9
• ER&L submission form converted to Google Doc

ER&L submission open till Nov 12th

Continuation of feature discussion

https://folio-org.atlassian.net/browse/UXPROD-1129 - Ability communicate individual Purchase Order information to vendor with no integration.

(currently scheduled for R1)

https://folio-org.atlassian.net/browse/UXPROD-199 - The ability to import/export fund updates via csv file in order to bulk edit funds

UXPROD-1129

• features describes ability to communicate PO information with the vendor, when there is no automated integration
• this means either via email or mail/fax in paper form
• Sara could see herself using this for cancelling POs as well and that would be possible according to Dennis
• the user will be able to choose a contact for the selected org
• the user can select a template that needs to be created in advance
• for the messages tokens will be used; those tokens pull information from the PO the user is looking at
• there is an option to save the form to pdf
• when sending the message a log entry will be captured by the system
• when clicking on the log entry the message will be reloaded; 
• the user can resend the message; edits before resending are possible
• the resend will create a new log entry
• Bill: this functionality in current system is used for individualk orders, but more often it is used for bulk orderig
• Dennis: there is a feature for bulk ordering already
• Sara: if we have POs with multiple POLs - can the user use the template for only one POL?
• Dennis: yes, that will be possible; there will be tokens for PO as well as POL information
• templates will be created in order settings
• there is a preview function; by this users can see what their template would look like after creating it
• Sara: would a similar functionality be useeful for ERM troubleshooting as well?
• needs further discussion; maybe this is rather about email integration and email integration is already possible in other apps (e.g. circulation related apps)
• same pattern will be used for acq functionality and messaging workflow as well
• using the template is not required; the form can be filled out manually
• RM SIG has no questions and further comments at this point
• if there will be feedback later, people are welcome to let Dennis know

UXPROD-199

• functionality to export fund information as csv files, make edits and import them again
• when looking at a ledger, the export/import option will be part of the actions menu
• there will be a modal that opens and provides help
• Scott: this functionality is used every year 
• others agree; this will make live easier for users
• Scott Perry in chat: Yay. Not a feature I wanted to lose.
• Dennis: the use case does not describe adding new funds or budgets
• Bill: we will most likely not use this function for creating new budgets, but to create initial allocations for the upcoming year
• Annika: could we use this functionality for our use case (will be presented later) to create planned budgets for the next year?
• Von Scott Perry in chat: You could always create any new funds in FOLIO and then export as well.
• Dennis: migrating financial data would rather be something for data import
• Sara: would it simplify things to break out budget updating from fund updating?
• Dennis: doing that in one upload is not more complicated 
• but changing the fund information and budget information at the same time my be confusing for the system userr; it could be helpful to separate these into separate actions.
• Scott Perry in chat: I would also love something like this for POs primarily to change funds, vendors, SNAs, etc.
• we will continue this discussion at a later point

• currently in orders users can define a fund for the POL
• the user cannot select a fiscal year or any other than the current budget
• FY run from Jan to Dec in Germany
• in August plans for next FY are done
• usually libraries already have planned budgets then and money can be encumbered to these
• existing ideas on workarounds are not ideal
• Annika's idea: add a date field to the POL: "expected invoice date"
• if an expected invoice date in the next year is entered (e.g. 2021-05-15), the money will be encumbered to the budget in that FY (e.g. FY 2021)
• Dennis has a different approach (UXPROD-2713), where the FY can be selected from a drop-down menu in the POL
• in the use case the order is created early, but not paid early
• Kristin can see use cases for the expected invoice date for ongoing orders as well
• there iis a common need to project expected payments for ongoing orders
• the selection of another FY on the POL would work for a one-time order
• Scott Perry in chat: Couldn’t you leverage the rollover functionality to obtain this information? (encumber based on most recent payment) For ongoing orders
• Virginia Martin in chat: if the expected encumbrance is different from what most recent payment would be it won't work to use rollover logic
• Scott Perry in chat: The rollover allows an increase based on percentage above the most recent payment
• Virginia Martin in chat: so like, if in one fiscal year we don't pay at all or we pay twice, the rollover amount won't be correct and will have to be manually adjusted; right, i'm talking about manual adjustments that have to be done to standard rollover encumbrances we have dozens every year we have a spreadsheet to keep track of them; it would be nice to be able to manage it in FOLIO
• Scott Perry in chat: But the rollover can provide the general trend for most. I wonder if something that allows you to specify in the pol exceptional parameters?
• Virginia Martin in chat: that would be great
• Kristen. there is another use case:
  • subscription Jan-Dec
  • FY Jul-Jun
  • there could be the need to have 2 different FY on the same POL
• Annika: we have this for multi-year orders
• so the need is not only to have it for the next FY, but for as amny upcoming FY as needed
• Dennis: on the fund record the area for planned budget is already existing; so it might be possible to have more than one planned budget
• from a technical perspective this is achievable; the task is to make it intuitive in the UI
• Sara: could it be useful to have the planned budget truly a planned budget
  • have the possibility to add an amount also to the planned budget (as a plan, not a true budget) when ordering against the current budget; the encumbrance would happen actually when rolling over
  • sometimes users have orders where they know, that next year there will be no payment
• Annika: Sara's idea is an interesting one; we would not really need a "real" encumbrance
• Lucinda can you pay rears
• Dennis: this is currently not possible; there is no FY selection option
• in ACQ Small group some institutions were against having the option to select the FY; some wanted that functionality
• the invoice is paid against the FY in which it is approved
• so far there is no resolution reached; discussion is postponed till our meeting in 2 weeks from now (Oct 16th)
• this functionality is pressing; but feature freeze is happening on Oct 16th
• Dennis will pick this up with the ACQ Small Group and come up with a proposed solution to revisit in RM SIG as soon as possible