AWG-2 Policy: Fund structure in Alma

AWG-2 POLICY:  FUND STRUCTURE
Recommend that SUNY libraries using Alma Acquisitions develop their fund structure within the guidelines detailed below.     For information on Gifts, and related Funds, see AWG-5 Guidelines:  Gifts and Gift Receiving.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION/CONCEPTS/ALMA STRUCTURE

Alma Acquisitions requires a minimum of one ledger and one allocated fund in order to function. Ledgers generally reflect the source of the funds. You could set up separate ledgers for "regular" money, grant money, endowments, and the like. You may want or need more than one ledger:

You must create a separate ledger for a funding source if it has its own fiscal year start and end date.

Libraries may have as many allocated funds within each ledger as deemed necessary. These could be tied to (and named for) academic departments, for example, or certain locations or collections (e.g., Reserves) as well as by format (e.g., DVD) or purchase type (firm orders, subscriptions, etc.) or according to categories used by the campus payments office.  

You may want to create a group of allocated funds for an academic program, separated by order or payment type. For example, an anthropology one-time purchase fund, an anthropology standing order fund, and an anthropology subscription fund.  

Individual orders are assigned to (and billed against) one (or more) allocated fund within the same ledger.

When creating ledgers and allocated funds, you will assign each a code and a name. The code is fixed; the name is not. Do not include the year in the code. However, you may include the year in the name. So, a code might be Perkins Grant, while the name might be Perkins FY18. In subsequent years, when the ledgers and allocated funds roll over, the code will remain Perkins Grant and you will have the option to change the name (e.g. to Perkins FY19).

For ease of monitoring expenditures through a fiscal year, allocated funds can be assigned to a summary fund. A summary fund could cluster funds by purchase type, for example, making it easy to see how much money is available, across all the allocated funds in that ledger, for one-time purchases. Summary funds might instead be used to mirror categories used by the campus business office or other reporting agencies.  

Notes:

RESOURCES CONSULTED/FURTHER INFORMATION (accessed 6/2018):    

SAMPLE FUND STRUCTURES  (accessed 6/2018):