Processing Claims
- Purchasing Operator
- Purchasing Manager
- The order is sent to the Claims Task List only after the PO Line – Claiming - Process Automation job has run. (The process must be marked as Active on the Monitor Job page – see Viewing Running Jobs).
- Claims for standing orders and digital PO lines are currently not available in Alma.
PO Lines Sent to Claims Task List According to Type
| PO Line Type | Claims |
|---|---|
| For one-time physical PO lines |
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| For continuous physical PO lines |
The fields associated with the item are (see Prediction Patterns and Updating Item-Level Information):
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| For electronic PO lines (both one-time and continuous) |
Alma calculates the claim date as described above for electronic PO lines, except that the fields Expected activation date and Expected activation after ordering (days) are used instead of Expected receipt date and Expected receipt after ordering. When the Expected activation date + Claiming grace period arrives, and the PO line (either one-time or continuous) is still not activated, the PO line is sent to Claims Task List.
Example: If the vendor is configured with Expected activation after ordering = 5 and Claiming grace period = 2, then if the electronic resource is ordered on April 20, it is expected to be activated by the end of April 27 (April 20 + 5 days + 2 days grace = April 27), and the PO line goes into the Claims Task List on April 28.
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Claims Sent by Email/EDI
A claim is sent automatically to the vendor only the first time this PO line is sent to the Claims page. If later an Operator updates the PO line's expected receipt date, and the PO line is sent to the Claims page again after the new date, another notification is not sent.
A notification is automatically sent to the vendor using email when all of the below take place:
- The vendor has a defined email addresses (see Managing Vendors)
- If the email Claims Letter is enabled (see Enabling/Disabling Letters)
- If the relevant claim parameters is set to Y (see Configuring Other Settings):
- auto_claim parameter for physical one-time PO line
- auto_claim_co for physical continuous PO line
- auto_claim_electronic for electronic PO line
For all PO line types, if EDI Claim Letters are enabled, then for vendors that use EDI and have enabled EDI claims, a notification is sent using EDI instead of email (Claims must be checked on the EDI Information tab of the vendor; see Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)).
Otherwise, a notification is not sent automatically, for both email and EDI. You can send a notification manually using email (see Communicating with Vendors).
- When a claim letter is sent for a given month, and the item is never received, if the following month's item also goes into claim, a claim letter can be sent with details for both months. To enable this option, set the claim_continuous_item_level parameter to true (see Combined Email Claim Notifications below).
Alerts Generated
- Overdue PO line – The PO line was not received/activated within the expected number of days after placing the order or by the expected receipt/activation date.
- Open claims exist for this PO line – The PO line was sent to the Claims Task List. For one-time physical PO lines (or any PO lines, for vendors that support EDI claims), an email is automatically sent to the vendor, inquiring about the late delivery of the order. Note that the automatic email is sent only once to the vendor.
Note that the PO line may leave the Claim Task List, but this alert will remain until the claim is closed.
Subsequent communication with the vendor takes place using the Communications tab on the PO Line Summary page (see Communicating with Vendors).
When claiming notification is sent to the vendor by email, and a claim is created for this PO Line, it can be handled in the PO Line and Vendor Communication tab.
- For one-time physical PO lines: <x> items were received out of <y> ordered – How many items have been received out of the total number ordered. In the Alerts tab, there is a link to the Received Items List (note that you must be within the correct department), which contains a list of all the items in the PO line.
- For continuous physical PO lines: No item was received in more than <Subscription interval> days – The number of days that have passed since an item was received. For example, if the PO Line subscription interval is 30 days, then every 30 days an item should be received, so if the PO Line does not have expected items and for more than 30 days no item was received, then the PO Line is set to claim with this alert.
- Electronic resource was not activated (for electronic PO lines) – The PO line’s electronic resource has not yet been activated. In the Alerts tab, there is a link to the Electronic Resource Activation Task List.
Updating Claim Dates
- Editing PO Line Information
- Updating Dates
- Relinking PO Lines
- Canceling PO Lines
- Activating Electronic Resources
- Closing PO Lines
In addition to the collapsible sections that appear at the bottom of the PO lines lists, a second collapsible section appears on the Claims Task List for physical PO lines. The One Time Claiming Information or Continuous Claiming Information sections list the items or holdings linking to the PO line that are claimed. For continuous PO lines, the claim is based on the prediction patterns, if they are enabled. When the PO line is in claim but no actual item is in claim, the section is called the Last Received Item section. For physical one time orders, the list displays all unreceived items linked to this PO Line. The Go to inventory link displays the item editor. For physical continuous orders, the list displays all unreceived items that are under the holdings linking to this PO line, based on the prediction pattern. In this case, if there are items, the Go to inventory link goes to the the item editor, otherwise it goes to the holdings item lists.
Watch the View Unreceived Items for Order Lines with Claims video (1:17 min).
Updating Dates
- Any claim alerts applied to the PO lines are removed.
- The PO lines no longer appear on the Claim page.
- The PO lines are removed from the Order lines with claims link in the task list (see Tasks in the Task List).
- Select whether to update dates globally or individually:
- To update the expected dates for multiple PO lines that appear on the Claim page, select the check boxes for all PO lines for which you want to update the date and select Change Expected Date.
- To update the expected dates for an individual PO line on the Claim page, select Change expected date in the row actions list (or update the date by editing the PO line – see Editing PO Line Information).
Expected Receipt Date Pop-up Window
Expected Activation Date Pop-up Window - Select a new date.
- Optionally, enter any notes in the Note area.
- Select Save. The expected date is updated and the alerts for the PO lines are removed. Additionally, the PO lines are no longer listed on the Claim page and are removed from your task list.
Combined Email Claim Notifications
When the PO Line – Claiming - Process Automation job runs, it checks if there are multiple claims from a single vendor. If there are, and the claim notification is going to be sent by email, Alma combines the notifications for all of the claims from that vendor into a single claim letter, the PO Line Aggregated Claim Letter. Both physical and electronic items can be included in a single notification of this type.
Claim notifications that are sent by EDI cannot be combined, and are always sent individually for each PO line.
The following Customer Parameters can affect the combining of claim notifications. The values of these parameters can be modified in the Mapping Table page (Configuration > Acquisitions > General > Other Settings); see Configuring Other Settings (Acquisitions).