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    Closing, Reopening, and Relinking PO Lines

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    The following sections describe actions that you can perform on PO lines from a record list of PO lines (see Searching in Alma), depending on your role, the status of the PO line, the type of PO line, and other factors. For more information about record lists, see Record Lists.

    Closing, Canceling, and Deleting PO Lines

    The table below compares the actions of closing, canceling, and deleting PO lines.
    End-of-cycle PO Lines
    Action Reason Available for Result
    Closing PO Lines To complete the PO
    • One-time PO lines waiting for invoice payment
    • Continuous PO lines recurring renewal
    		 PO line stored as closed; can be reopened
    Canceling PO Lines Error during PO line processing Active PO lines that are not
    • being evaluated or
    • waiting for invoice payment
    		 PO line stored as canceled, can be reopened
    Deleting PO Lines Clean up system
    • Canceled PO lines
    • Users with Extended roles
    		 PO line and all related material deleted from Alma

    Closing PO Lines

    Closing a PO line is used to indicate that the purchase was completed. The following types of PO lines can be closed:
    • One-time PO lines that have been sent (with at least one received or activated resource) and are waiting for invoice payment (these are usually automatically paid, set to Fully Invoiced, and/or closed by the workflow.)
    • Continuous PO lines recurring renewal (when a serial subscription must be stopped, for example).
    To close a PO line:
    In the record list of PO lines, select Close in the row actions list and select Confirm in the confirmation dialog box.
    PO_Lines_to_Review_Close1.PNG
    • When closing PO lines, inventory is not deleted. For PO lines associated with electronic resources, a task is added to the electronic activation task list with the following note: The order for this resource was closed. Please check whether deactivation is required.
    • When closing PO lines, encumbrances are released.
    • Notes and attachments can be added to a PO line even when it is closed.
    • To close a PO line with some received and some unreceived items, remove the unreceived items, change the number of items in the PO line, and then re-receive the received items.

    Canceling PO Lines

    Canceling a PO line invalidates the PO line. In certain situations, you may want to cancel a PO line.
    You can cancel any active PO line, except ones being evaluated or waiting for invoice payment. Canceled PO lines can be deleted.
    When a PO line is canceled:
    • It is not removed from Alma. You can still find a canceled PO line on the Search for PO Lines page, using the Find box at the top of the list or the facets on the left side of the page. You can edit or delete notes and attachments in canceled PO lines by selecting the relevant link beneath the PO line (see Editing PO Line Information).
    • If the PO line is a main PO line, Alma attempts to delete the PO line’s inventory. Alma does not delete the inventory if the PO line is an additional PO line or if the inventory has been received or activated. If the inventory cannot be deleted, a confirmation message indicates that if the PO line is canceled, the link between the PO line and its inventory will be lost.
    • If the PO line has an e-task associated with it, the e-task is deleted.
    • The PO line’s encumbrances are released.
    • Alma attempts to delete the item and its holdings, if the holdings is then empty. If the bibliographic record is then also itemless, the handling of the record depends on the value of the pol_handle_bib_record_without_inventory customer parameter. For more information, see Configuring Other Settings (Acquisitions).
    If a PO line is canceled, the Requests - Recalculate After Inventory Update job detaches the request from the associated inventory and potentially cancels the request (if no other items can be used for fulfilling the request). For details, see the job Requests – Recalculate after Inventory Update in Viewing Scheduled Jobs.
    To cancel a PO line:
    1. In the record list of PO lines, select Cancel in the row actions list. If you have configured a PO line cancellation restriction note, it appears. After you confirm, or if you do not have a note configured, the Cancellation Information dialog box appears.
      cancellation_information_ux.png
      Cancellation Information Dialog Box
    2. Select the Cancellation reason. To configure the available reasons, see Configuring PO Line Cancellation Reasons.
    3. In Cancellation note, enter a note for the vendor, as needed.
      The note details appear in the Notes tab on the PO Line Summary page.
    4. Select Send cancellation to vendor to send a cancellation notification to the vendor, as required.
      Cancellation is sent by email unless the vendor is configured for EDI cancellations, in which case cancellation is sent using EDI. If sent by email, the preferred address defined for the vendor is used. For information about EDI, see Electronic Data Interchange (EDI).
    5. If the pol_handle_bib_record_without_inventory customer parameter is set to MANUAL, an additional field, Handling bibliographic records without inventory, appears in the dialog box (see Configuring Other Settings (Acquisitions). In this case, you must specify what should be done with the bibliographic record if cancelling this PO line causes it to become itemless. To do so, select one of the following options from the dropdown list:
      • Do nothing – Leave the bibliographic record in the database.
      • Delete bibliographic records – Delete the bibliographic record from the database.
      • Suppress bibliographic records – Leave the bibliographic record in the database, but suppress it from publishing in discovery.
    6. Select Confirm. The PO line is canceled. If Send cancellation to vendor was selected, the cancellation instruction is sent to the vendor.
      A cancellation instruction is sent to the vendor only if the order was previously sent to the vendor. If the order is still in review, no order was sent to the vendor, and it is therefore not necessary to select Send cancellation to vendor.

    Deleting PO Lines

    You can delete a PO line only if you have the Purchasing Operator Extended role.
    Deleting a PO line removes it from Alma and deletes any transactions associated with the PO line. Deleting a main PO line also deletes inventory resources associated with the PO line; deleting an additional PO line does not delete the inventory.
    The Delete option is available for PO lines with the following statuses:
    • In Review
    • Packaging (Automatic or Manual)
    • Deferred or Canceled
    A PO line cannot be deleted if:
    • It is linked to an invoice line.
    • It is attached to a PO and has been sent to a vendor (if the PO has not been sent, the PO line can be removed from the PO and then deleted).
    • It is a main PO line and one of the PO line resources was received or activated (even if the PO line is in review)
    Once a PO line is deleted, it cannot be retrieved or reopened. If there is a chance you will want to view or reuse a PO line, consider canceling it (see Canceling PO Lines above) or closing it (see Closing PO Lines above).
    To delete a PO line:
    Select Delete in the PO line's row action list and select Confirm in the confirmation dialog box. The PO line is deleted.
    For additional information about deleting PO lines, see Deleting POs.

    Relinking and Reactivating PO Lines

    The table below compares the actions of relinking, changing bibliographic reference, and reopening PO lines.
    Relinking and Reopening PO Lines
    Action Reason Available For Not Available For Result
    Relinking PO Lines Better bibliographic record exists PO lines with the status In Review, Deferred, Ready, or one-time Closed
    • Records from the Community Zone
    • Items with two different bibliographic records
    		 PO line is linked to the better record and its items/holdings are moved under that bibliographic record
    Changing Bibliographic Reference Better description for record exists Active PO lines Canceled PO lines The PO line assumes a better, more complete description
    Reopening a Closed or Canceled PO Line To open a PO line that was closed or canceled (often by mistake) Closed or canceled PO lines All other PO lines, including deleted PO lines Status changes to In Review

    Relinking PO Lines

    You can change the bibliographic record to which a PO line is linked. Possible reasons for doing this include:
    • An EOD arrives for a single volume within a multi-volume work which is more suitable to link to than the existing link.
    • An item arrives that matches an existing bibliographic record more suitably than a new one imported at the time of the order.
    The Relink option is available for PO lines with the status In Review, Deferred, Ready (packed into a PO and ready to be sent), or Waiting for Manual Renewal, as well as for unsent one-time closed PO lines. PO lines cannot be relinked if any of the following is true:
    • The PO line is related to the Central Knowledge Base. When this occurs, the Relink option does not appear.
    • The PO line does not have an MMS ID.
    • The PO line contains items belonging to two different bibliographic records.
    For PO lines in the Sent and Closed status, the Relink option appears only when editing the PO line. In this case it will not appear in the row actions menu.
    To relink a PO line:
    1. Select Relink in the row actions list of the PO line you want to relink.
      A search results page appears with initial information taken from the PO Line (for instance, Title or ISBN, if they exist).
      relink_po_line_ux.png
    2. Modify the search as required (see Searching in Alma).
    3. Select the new resource, select Confirm in the confirmation dialog box. The PO line is linked to the new resource. Additionally, the associated holdings and items are also moved to the new bibliographic record.

    Changing a PO Line's Bibliographic Reference

    It is possible to change the bibliographic record reference of a PO line to a different bibliographic record without changing the inventory. Only the PO line description is changed.
    This functionality is useful, for example, if an order is made on a short (stub) bibliographic record. In this case, the PO line description is the description of the short bibliographic record. If the short bibliographic record gets updated with a full bibliographic record, the PO line will still have the now inaccurate old description of the title. In a case such as this, you can select Change Bib Reference to update the PO line description to the description of the new version of the record.
    • This feature is relevant only for title-based PO lines. In addition, it cannot be performed on canceled PO lines.
    • PO lines of type Electronic Collection-Subscription are treated the same as Other Services - Subscription.
    For more information concerning changing the bib reference, see the Change Bib Reference of a PO Line video (4:38 mins).
    To change the bibliographic record to which a PO line is linked without moving the inventory:
    1. Review for the purchase order lines (Acquisitions > Purchase Order Lines > Review). Select Change Bib Reference in the row actions list of the PO line for which you want to change the reference.
      Purchase Order Lines - Change Bib Reference highlighted.png
      Purchase Order Lines List
    2. Select Confirm in the confirmation dialog box.
      A search results page appears with initial information taken from the PO Line (for instance, Title or ISBN, if they exist).
      relink_po_line_ux.png
    3. Modify the search as required (see Searching in Alma).
    4. Select the new resource (select anywhere in the resource's line in the list). The PO line's reference is changed.

    Reopening a Closed or Canceled PO Line

    To reopen closed or canceled PO lines, you must have one of the following roles:
    • Purchasing Operator
    • Purchasing Manager
    PO lines that have been closed or canceled can be reopened and reused.
    Closed PO lines have completed a full acquisitions workflow (order and payment) and, on completion, have been closed. Canceled PO lines have been started but not completed.
    Closed or canceled PO lines can be reopened from the individual PO line or by using an automated process.
    To reopen a closed or canceled PO line from the PO line:
    Select Reopen in the row actions list of the PO line you want to open. If a closed or canceled PO line does not contain inventory, select Confirm in the confirmation message. When a closed PO line is reopened, the PO is removed and the PO line is updated with a status of In Review. When a canceled PO line is reopened, the original fund is removed; you must add a new fund to the PO line. The PO line is been updated with a status of In Review.
    To reopen a closed or canceled PO lines in bulk:
    Run the Update PO Lines Workflow job. For more information, see Running Manual Jobs on Defined Sets.
    For additional information about reopening a closed or canceled PO Line, see the Reopen a Closed/Canceled PO Line video (5:39 mins).