FAQs: Linking and Maintaining Subscription Orders

• Linking Controls to Either Orders or Vendors
• Why would a zero appear in the fiscal cycle field for vendors, orders, and funds?
• How do I link a serial control to a vendor?
• How do I link a serial control to an order?
• How do I replace a current order with one already in the Order History list?
• How do I replace a current order with a completely different order?
• How do I remove an order history?

Why would a zero appear in the fiscal cycle field for vendors, orders, and funds?

When defining fiscal cycles for vendors and funds, some libraries use two digits to represent a year, such as 99 for 1999 or 00 for 2000. Though fiscal cycles often correspond to a single year, libraries may further subdivide the cycle by quarter, such as 9901 for the first quarter. Some libraries may also use a scheme which spans years, such as 9899 for 1998-1999. To provide the greatest flexibility, Fiscal Cycle is stored as a number instead of as a date.

Libraries which use a fiscal cycle naming scheme of 00 to represent the year 2000 have discovered that this value appears as a single zero in the Fiscal Cycle text box. To a computer, the number 00 is treated the same as the number 0. The extra zero is considered superfluous and is not stored. Any two-digit number starting with a zero will be created the same way; for instance, the fiscal cycle 01 would be stored and displayed as 1.

Storing the fiscal cycle as a single zero does not affect data retrieval, but the display inconsistency can be confusing to library staff. For this reason, SirsiDynix recommends that two-digit numbers starting with zero should not be used for fiscal cycle names. Instead, the full four-digit year should be used, such as 2000. For sites which name fiscal cycles to span years, names such as 2001 are recommended to represent years such as 2000-2001.

How do I link a serial control to a vendor?

1 Use either the Modify Serial Control or Create Serial Control wizard.
2 Click the Subscription tab.
3 Verify the copies to receive, number of issues, and expiration date.
4 Confirm that the Order ID and Line Item Number text boxes are cleared, to make sure that the subscription is not already linked to an order. If the subscription is linked to an order, you must click Order History to make a modification.
5 Type a valid, current fiscal cycle.
6 Select an acquisition library from the Library policy list.
7 Type the vendor ID of the vendor to whom claims will be sent for late issues.

How do I link a serial control to an order?

1 Use either the Modify Serial Control or Create Serial Control wizard.
2 Click the Subscription tab.
3 Verify the copies to receive, number of issues, and expiration date.
4 Click the Order History Tab: Serial Control to view and modify the order history. Any orders currently associated with the subscription are listed.
5 Click Add Order.
6 Type a valid, current fiscal cycle.
7 Select an acquisition library from the Library policy list.
8 Click the Lookup Order gadget and select an order in the specified fiscal cycle.
9 Type the line number associated with the subscription title you are entering. The order line you select cannot be linked to a bibliographic record other than the one linked to the serial control record.
10 Click OK to complete the link. This order will now appear as the current order. Vendor information defaults to the information in the order. Vendor information for subscriptions linked to orders cannot be modified from serials wizards.

How do I replace a current order with one already in the Order History list?

1 Use either the Modify Serial Control or Create Serial Control wizard.
2 Click the Subscription tab.
3 Click Order History Tab: Serial Control to view and modify the order history. Any orders currently associated with the subscription are listed.
4 Select the order that you wish to be the current order.
5 Click Replace Current Order to display the order information.
6 Click OK to convert the selected order to the current order.

How do I replace a current order with a completely different order?

1 Use either the Modify Serial Control or Create Serial Control wizard.
2 Click the Subscription tab.
3 Click Order History Tab: Serial Control to view and modify the order history. Any orders currently associated with the subscription are listed.
4 Click Replace Current Order. The selected order information appears.
5 Type a valid, current fiscal cycle.
6 Select an acquisition library from the Library policy list.
7 Click the Lookup Order gadget and select the order with which you want to replace the current order.
8 Type the line number associated with the subscription title order you are replacing. The order line you select cannot be linked to a bibliographic record other than the one linked to the serial control record.
9 Click OK to replace the previous order with the information entered.

How do I remove an order history?

1 Use either the Modify Serial Control or Create Serial Control wizard.
2 Click the Subscription tab.
3 Click Order History Tab: Serial Control.
4 Click Remove Order History. All orders associated with the subscription will be removed.

The vendor associated with the removed order will continue to be associated with the subscription unless it is modified from the subscription tab.

Related topics 

Linking Controls to Either Orders or Vendors

Order History Tab: Serial Control

Subscription Tab