Alma Workflows

The New Order Process

Alma allows you to search for and track orders that have been placed in GOBI from YBP or in InterACQ from Midwest (if you need access to these platforms, email aherna19@mdc.edu). The purpose of tracking orders in Alma is to:

• Help us manage budget expenditures
• Ensure all items are received from vendors
• Pay invoices effectively
• Easily import bibliographic metadata without the need to copy-catalog or catalog items from scratch.

Invoices are only required for items that are paid with a Purchase Order. As such, since orders from Amazon are paid with a P-Card and do not come pre-cataloged or processed (shelf-ready), orders from Amazon General Collection are not tracked in Alma and should not be manually entered (There are very few disciplines that use Amazon as an exception to this rule, which follow a special workflow. Consult aherna19@mdc.edu if you have questions). Items obtained from Amazon still need to be copy-cataloged in Alma and inventory added in the same manner as all other items obtained, such as donations, that do not come from a shelf-ready vendor.

New orders from YBP and Midwest are automatically loaded into Alma every day at 8AM. For every item ordered, a Purchase Order Line (POL) with order details is created in Alma. Items that are ordered together are then packaged (meaning grouped together in Alma) automatically into a Purchase Order (PO). Think of Purchase Orders as just orders and Purchase Order Lines as items within an order placed. Just in like in Aleph, order numbers for Purchase Orders and Purchase Order Lines are randomly generated.

A preliminary bibliographic record (sometimes a very brief record) is also loaded into Alma until the item is shipped and an item record with a temporary barcode (the vendor reference number) is created. Once the item is shipped and invoiced, an updated bibliographic record is imported into Alma, replacing the old, brief record and the barcode and other item details are also automatically updated.

Items grouped together in a Purchase Order that was packaged by Alma does not necessarily mean that they will stay together or invoiced together, so searching for Purchase Orders to find materials in Alma is not very useful. Instead, this guide will focus solely on searching for specific items via their Purchase Order Lines.

You can search for order records in Alma in numerous ways as seen below.

Searching for Individual Purchase Order Lines (POL) by Number

By far, the most accurate way of searching for an item that was ordered, is to use one of the following identifiers that are unique to each item:

• Vendor Reference Number
• Barcode (which is also the same as the vendor reference number when the order has not been shipped yet)

The Vendor Reference Number for YBP is known as the YBP Order Key in GOBI, and can be found in the example below:

In Midwest, the Vendor Reference Number is known as the InterACQ Order ID, and can be found in the example below:

You may also search by ISBN (or even title and other bibliographic information), but please note that items might be ordered more than once for multiple campuses and this method does not necessarily take you to the exact POL for that item.

1. Start by logging in to Alma and selecting your campus Acquisitions Desk, if you have not done so already. For example: Miami Dade/North - North Acquisitions Department. Alma will always ask you when you first login what desk to login to. Although it is technically not necessary for you to change desks to search orders, it does affect the actions you take when receiving items and making certain changes which will be explained further along this guide, so it is good practice to switch to this desk when you are in acquisitions mode. If you need to change it, you can click on the top right icon to change your desk, as seen below.
   
    
2. Change the criteria in the persistent search bar at the top of Alma to Order Lines and select All to search in all fields of the order record.
   
    
3. Once you enter the Vendor Reference Key, Barcode, ISBN, Title, or any other keyword, the following information will be displayed:
   
    
   • I. Title Proper and ISBN - The complete title of the item, including publication information, year, and ISBN. You can click on the title to view detailed information about the item ordered from this screen
   • II. Column 1 - Includes the MMS ID (a unique number given to all items in Alma), Assigned to (the person the order is assigned to, if applicable), Type (should always be a Print Book - One Time, meaning a monograph not serialized), PO line owner (the campus that the book was shipped to), Standard number (the ISBN), PO (the automatically assigned number that the item was packaged or grouped under in Alma), and PO line (the Purchase Order Line Number that was randomly assigned to this item).
   • III. Column 2 - Includes Copies (the number of copies ordered for a specific campus), Total price (the list or net price of the item, depending on its status), Funds (the budget used to pay for the item), Vendor/Account (the company it was ordered from), Vendor reference ID (the unique YBP order key or Midwest InterACQ Order ID), and Expected delivery (the recommended date that the item is supposed to arrive by to help you track orders, but this is just as an estimate generated by the system, it is not a guaranteed date).
   • IV. Column 3 - Includes Receiving note (if one was entered when ordered or afterwards in Alma), Sent date (the date that the order was sent to the vendor), and any alerts that the order might have. Below are some of the most common alerts (not exhaustive):
     • The bib record is brief - This is normal for first time orders. This is usually automatically resolved when items are shipped and the record is updated to a full MARC record. If the item has been invoiced, shipped, and received, and the record has not been updated, please contact aherna19@mdc.edu for assistance.
     • Created from import EOD - You are likely to see this on all orders. It simply means that the order was generated automatically by Alma through an automated process instead of manually created or input by a person.
     • Items already exist in the repository - This is normal. It simply means that we already had items for this order in our catalog before the order was created, such as another library already owning a copy of the item.
     • The bib record is part of a series/book set - This is self-explanatory and for informational purposes only.
     • Mandatory information is missing or erroneous  - You are unlikely to see many of these errors, but it means that something did not work during the import process. Most likely, these are orders that were imported during implementation or as part of testing and need to be cleaned-up/fixed. Another variation of this issue is the alert At least one of the reporting codes is missing. If you encounter any of these alerts, please reach out to aherna19@mdc.edu for assistance.
     • Duplicate active orders - Unlike Items already exist in the repository, this means that there are orders that match one or more criteria that are duplicated. This is only of concern when the order matches the Vendor Reference Number, as more than one order for the same title for different campuses is possible. When this happens, you can verify the reason for this message clicking on the title of the order and then selecting the Associated PO Lines tab, as seen below:
       
       This which will show you what order it matched and the Association Type. If the association type is Same Title or other similar type, no action is needed. If the match is by a unique identifier, such as barcode or Vendor Reference Number, please contact aherna19@mdc.edu for assistance.
   • V. Physical One Time - The item information, including campus, collection code, call number, barcode, and receiving status. This is typically not fully updated until the item has been shipped and invoiced.
   • VI. Facets - This area allows you to quickly filter and narrow down results by library, alert, vendor, and much more.

Searching for Multiple Purchase Order Lines (POL) by Campus

1. Click on the Advanced Search icon as seen below. Change the search in box to Order Lines. Select Owning Library as the criteria and the Campus of your choice from the drop-down list. Click on Search.
   
    
2. Use the Facets on the right to quickly filter through the different statuses and alerts.
   
   
   Some of the most common statuses you will encounter are as follows (can apply to both POs and POLs):
   • Closed - The order has been received and is associated with an invoice.
   • In Review - The order requires manual review. Since we do not order directly from Alma, this is likely due to something that happened during the order import process that failed, where the order was missing crucial information, typically the fund code or other budgetary information, and will have to be manually fixed. Please contact aherna19@mdc.edu for assistance with this.
   • Sent - The most common status you will see, which means that the order was sent to the vendor and was successfully imported into Alma.
   • Waiting for Invoice - While this seems like a normal, logical status, it usually means something went wrong during the import of the invoice or that the vendor did not generate an invoice for the item, for some unknown reason. This status is only triggered when an item is received, but not invoice was found imported into Alma. Please contact aherna19@mdc.edu for assistance with these cases, as they will have to be manually imported.
      
3. Click on the desired Title to view the Purchase Order Line information or click on Edit to make changes.

Searching for Multiple Purchase Order Lines (POL) by Invoice

This method allows you to search for all items that were invoiced and shipped together, regardless of how they were automatically packaged in a PO by Alma.

1. Change the criteria in the persistent search bar at the top of Alma to Order Lines and select Vendor invoice number.
   
    
2. Type the Invoice number and click on search.

Assigning and Releasing Purchase Order Lines

This feature is part of the automatic workflow functions in Alma and should not be used. Tracking of orders should be done at the invoice level, campus level, or individual item level.

Only items that are In Review status can be assigned to a person. Attempting to edit a Purchase Order Line that is in this status will automatically assign it to you, as Alma is expecting for you to do something to fix the error. Avoid clicking on Review (PO line) from the menu or avoid clicking Edit on Purchase Line Orders that are in the In Review status to prevent orders from inadvertently being assigned to you.

To manually release an order that is assigned to you, simply click the Assigned to Me tab, then click on the ellipsis, and select Release assignment, as seen below.

Again, it is not normal for Purchase Order Lines to have the In Review status, as our workflow is not designed this way. This status most certainly means something is missing or incorrect and you should contact aherna19@mdc.edu for assistance.