Purchase Requests (Analytics)
Purchase requests enable librarians using Alma and instructors or patrons using Primo or Leganto to request that a library purchase a resource. The requester, or a librarian on behalf of a requester, fills in the details of the item and then sends the request for review. A purchase request operator or manager reviews the request and can approve or reject it.
The analytics fields in this subject area relate primarily to the details of the resource requested and the status of the request.
- How many purchase requests were made in a time range?
- How many purchase requests were assigned to a user?
- How many purchase requests have a PO line?
- How many purchase requests were made per status?
Field Descriptions
Purchase Request Measures
Field | Description | Additional Information |
---|---|---|
Number of Purchase Requests | The number of purchase requests | |
Estimated Cost | The estimated cost | |
Number of Purchase Requests - Books | The number of purchase requests for books | |
Number of Purchase Requests - Electronic | The number of purchase requests for electronic material | |
Number of Purchase Requests - Electronic Books | The number of purchase requests for electronic books | |
Number of Purchase Requests - Electronic Journals | The number of purchase requests for electronic journals | |
Number of Purchase Requests - Journals | The number of purchase requests for journals | |
Number of Purchase Requests - Physical | The number of purchase requests for physical material | |
Number of Purchase Requests - Physical Books | The number of purchase requests for physical books | |
Number of Purchase Requests - Physical Journals | The number of purchase requests for physical journals | |
Number of Purchase Requests Approved | The number of purchase requests approved | |
Number of Purchase Requests In Review | The number of purchase requests in review | |
Number of Purchase Requests Rejected | The number of purchase requests rejected | |
Number of Purchase Requests With Funds | The number of purchase requests with funds | |
Number of Purchase Requests With PO Lines | The number of purchase requests with PO lines | |
Number of Purchase Requests With Reading Lists | The number of purchase requests with reading lists |
Purchase Request Details
Field | Description | Additional Information |
---|---|---|
Application | The application that created the record | |
Approved Format | The approved format of the purchase request | |
Author | The author of the purchase request | |
Citation Type | The citation type of the purchase request | |
Creation Date and Time | The creation date and time | |
Currency | The currency of the purchase request | |
ISSN / ISBN | The ISSN / ISBN of the purchase request | |
LCCN | The LCCN of the purchase request | |
Located Bibliographic Information | Indicates (Yes/No) if the purchase request has a linked bibliographic record | |
Located Bibliographic Information Flag | Indicates (1/0) if the purchase request has a linked bibliographic record | |
Modification Date and Time | The modification date and time | |
Modification Details | The modification details of the purchase request | |
Modified By Job | The job ID of the last job that updated the record | |
OCLC Number | The OCLC number of the purchase request | |
Purchase Request ID | The ID of the purchase request | |
Rejection Reason | The rejection reason of the purchase request | |
Request Status | The request status of the purchase request | Possible values:
|
Requested Format | The requested format of the purchase request | |
Requester Note | The requester note of the purchase request | |
Source Type | The source type of the purchase request | |
Title | The title of the purchase request |
Bibliographic Details
Classifications
Dewey Classifications
LC Classifications
Other Classifications
Creation Date
Field | Description | Additional Information |
---|---|---|
Creation Date | Stores the date in the format 2/29/2012 | |
Creation Start of Week | The date of the first business day of the week | |
Creation Week Number | The number of the week of the year | |
Creation Month Key | Stores the month of the date in number format such as 2 for February | This field is useful when you want to sort by month |
Creation Month | Stores the month of the date in month description format such as February | |
Creation Full Month | Stores the month and the year of the date in a display format such as Feb 12 | |
Creation Quarter | Stores the quarter of the date in a display format such as Q1 | |
Creation Year | Stores the year of the date in string format such as 2012 | |
Creation Fiscal Month Key | Stores the fiscal month of the date in number format such as 2 for February | |
Creation Fiscal Year | Stores the fiscal year of the date in string format such as 2012. | |
Creation Date Filter | Used to filter report results by date | |
Creation Year-Month | The year and the month in a format such as 2023-1 | |
Creation Date | Stores the Hierarchy column that allows the user to drill down from the year to the month to the specific loan date. Using this column provides the user with the option to view the accumulative measures in each level of the hierarchy. |
Modification Date
Field | Description | Additional Information |
---|---|---|
Modification Date | Stores the date in the format 2/29/2012 | |
Modification Start of Week | The date of the first business day of the week | |
Modification Week Number | The number of the week of the year | |
Modification Month Key | Stores the month of the date in number format such as 2 for February | This field is useful when you want to sort by month |
Modification Month | Stores the month of the date in month description format such as February | |
Modification Full Month | Stores the month and the year of the date in a display format such as Feb 12 | |
Modification Quarter | Stores the quarter of the date in a display format such as Q1 | |
Modification Year | Stores the year of the date in string format such as 2012 | |
Modification Fiscal Month Key | Stores the fiscal month of the date in number format such as 2 for February | |
Modification Fiscal Year | Stores the fiscal year of the date in string format such as 2012. | |
Modification Date Filter | Used to filter report results by date | |
Modification Year-Month | The year and the month in a format such as 2023-1 | |
Modification Date | Stores the Hierarchy column that allows the user to drill down from the year to the month to the specific loan date. Using this column provides the user with the option to view the accumulative measures in each level of the hierarchy. |
Funds
The Funds table is a dimension table that displays the details about the fund with which the transaction is associated. The primary key of the table is FUND_LEDGER_ID.
There are the following types of funds:
- Ledger
- Summary
- Allocated Fund
Funds are kept in a parent-child relationship so that each fund has a connection to its parent.
Creating Reports According to Fund Type
You can create reports according to fund type. If the procedures in this section are not implemented, the sums of all of the fund types may be added together in the transaction amount.
-
To create a report displaying funds of just one type, filter the Fund Type column according to Ledger, Allocated fund, or Summary fund:
-
To create a report showing all of the fund types, add a column that displays any unique identifier of the fund, such as Fund Ledger Code:
Basic Concepts for Funds in Alma
Allocated and Summary Funds
A fund represents money in an account. A fund can be summary or allocated.
- Summary — This fund is not used for ordering and invoicing, but provides aggregate reporting on subordinate funds. You can add other funds to this type of fund.
- Allocated —This fund contains money that has been paid out or has been reserved for an open purchase.
A Summary Fund can only be associated with an Allocated Fund. A specific Allocated Fund (i.e. Allocated Fund 101) can only be associated with only one Ledger or Summary Fund, but not both.
Fund Balance
Available Balance —The allocated balance, less (encumbrances minus disencumbrances) and less expenditures.
Cash Balance — The allocated balance less expenditures.
Allocated Balance —The total allocation, not counting any expenditures or encumbrances/disencumbrances.
Encumbered Balance — The sum of the fund's encumbrances minus disencumbrances.
Expenditure Balance — Also called expended balance, this is the sum of the fund's expenditures.
Ledger
A ledger is essentially a collection of funds. Ledgers are defined for a specific date range, such as September 1 of this year to August 31 of next year. A Ledger can be associated with a Summary or Allocated Fund.
Transactions
A transaction can be an allocation, encumbrance, disencumbrance, or expenditure. An allocation adds money to the fund, increasing its available balance. An encumbrance indicates money that is expected to be paid out, as the result of a PO line. A disencumbrance is added or increased when adding an expenditure linked to the same PO line as an encumbrance.
Managing and Configuring Funds in Alma
You can manage funds in Alma by navigating to Acquisitions > Funds and Ledgers.
You can configure fund types in Alma by navigating to Configuration > Acquisitions > Fund Types.
For more information on funds see Managing Funds and Ledgers.
The following table describes the fields in the Fund table.
Field | Description | Field Location in Alma | Additional Information | Data Type | Data Size |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Fund Area Code | The codes defined in the Fund Types table and attributed to funds, for example: Endowed, Gift, General, Grant, Income, and ResourceSharing. For more information, see Configuring Fund Types. | Does not appear in the UI. | Configured in the Code field in Configuration Menu > Acquisitions > General > Fund Types. | VARCHAR | 255 |
Fund Area Description | The description defined in the Fund Types table for the Fund Area Code (Fund Type). | Fund type in the "General" section on the Summary Details page for Funds and Ledgers. | This description comes from the configuration page as described in Fund Area Code above. | VARCHAR | 255 |
Fund Code | The fund or ledger code. | Code in the "General" section on the Summary Details page for Funds and Ledgers. |
The code is reused when you roll over the ledger to a new fiscal period. This is filled by the user after selecting Add Ledger. It is not editable once the user saves and then goes back to edit. |
VARCHAR | 255 |
Fund Currency | The default unit of currency for the ledger. | Currency in the "General" section of the Summary Details page for Funds and Ledgers. | The values are configured in the Currency Subset table (Configuration Menu > Acquisitions > General > Currency Subset). | VARCHAR | 255 |
Fund Description | The description of the fund. | Description in the "General" section on the Summary Details page for Funds and Ledgers. | VARCHAR | 4000 | |
Fund External ID | The fund ID in external/legacy systems. | External ID in the "General" section on the Summary Details page for Funds and Ledgers. | This ID is used to link to other system keys. (See also Fund ID.) | VARCHAR | 255 |
Fund Fiscal Period ID | The ID of the fiscal period to which this fund applies. | Does not appear in the UI. | Configured in the Fund And Ledger Fiscal Period table (Configuration > Acquisitions > Fund and Ledger Fiscal Period). | VARCHAR | 255 |
Fund ID | The unique ID of the fund within Alma. |
Does not appear in the UI. |
(See also Fund External ID.) | VARCHAR | 255 |
Fund Name | The fund name. | Name in the "General" section on the Summary Details page for Funds and Ledgers. | The name of the fund can be changed when it is rolled over to a new fiscal year. When working with accrual accounting (see Working With Accrual Accounting), the name of the fund in the new fiscal period should not be changed. | VARCHAR | 255 |
Fund Note | Notes that are relevant to the fund. | The Notes tab in the Summary Details page for Funds and Ledgers. | If there are multiple notes, they are concatenated. Two notes are separated by a semicolon. | VARCHAR | 4000 |
Fund Owner Code | The code of the owning institution or library (see also Fund Owner Name). | Does not appear in the UI. | VARCHAR | 50 | |
Fund Owner Name | The name of the owning institution or library. | Owned by in the "General" section on the Summary Details page for Funds and Ledgers. | A ledger can only have one owner. The ownership from a library to the institution can be changed, but the ownership from a library to another library or from the institution to a library cannot be changed. | VARCHAR | 255 |
Fund Status | Indicates if the fund is in status active, draft or inactive. It applies to Ledgers, Summary Fund and Allocated Fund. | Status in the "General" section on the Summary Details page for Funds and Ledgers. | The statuses are described below:
|
VARCHAR | 10 |
Fund Type | One of the following fund types:
|
Type in the "Funds and Ledgers" page accessed from Acquisitions > Acquisitions Infrastructure > Funds and Ledgers. | Fund types are for informational purposes only. You can configure fund types on the Fund Type code table (Configuration Menu > Acquisitions > General > Fund Types). | VARCHAR | 4000 |
Parent Fund Code |
The code of the parent fund in the Path hierarchy. | Does not appear in the UI (see Parent Fund Name). | See also Fund Code. | VARCHAR | 255 |
Parent Fund ID | The unique ID of the parent fund in the Path hierarchy, |
Does not appear in the UI (see Parent Fund Name).
|
See also Fund ID. | VARCHAR | 255 |
Parent Fund Name | The name of the parent fund in the Path hierarchy. | Funds and Ledgers > Summary > Path. | See also Fund Name. | VARCHAR | 255 |
Library Unit
Owning Library
Owning Location Code | Stores the owning library location code | VARCHAR | 50 | |
Owning Location Name | Stores the owning library location name | VARCHAR | 255 |
PO Line
PO Line Approver
PO Line Creation Date
Purchase Request Approver, Purchase Request Assigned To, Purchase Request Creator, Purchase Request Modified By, Purchase Request Requester
- Purchase Request Approver – the user that approved the purchase request
- Purchase Request Assigned To – the user to whom the purchase request is assigned
- Purchase Request Creator – the creator of the purchase request record in Alma. This can be a system creator.
- Purchase Request Modified By – the user that last modified the request record
- Purchase Request Requester – the patron who made the request for the purchase
Field | Description | Additional Information |
---|---|---|
Birth Date | The birth date | |
Campus Code | The campus code | |
Creation Date | The creation date | |
Creator | The creator | |
Expiry Date | The expiry date | |
External ID | The external ID | |
Failed Authentication | Indicates if authentication failed | |
First Name | The first name | |
Full Name | The full name | |
Gender | The gender | |
Identifier 1-2 | Identifiers 1-2 | |
Job Category | The job category | |
Job Description | The job description | |
Last Name | The last name | |
Last Activity Date | The last date that a patron made a request or borrowed or returned an item | |
User – Linked from Institution Code | The linked from institution code | |
User – Linked from Institution Name | The linked from institution name | |
Linked to Other Institution | Indicates if linked to another institution | |
User – Linked From Other Institution | Indicates if the user is linked from another institution | Possible values:
|
Locked Out Date | The locked out date | |
Middle Name | The middle name | |
Modification Date | The modification date | |
Modified By | The user that modified | |
Preferred Language | The preferred language | |
Primary Identifier | The primary identifier | |
Purge Date | The purge date | |
Resource Sharing Library | The resource sharing library | |
Resource Sharing Library Code | The resource sharing library code | |
Statistical Category 1-10 | Statistical categories 1-10 | These fields allow you to map ten statistical categories. This allows you to filter reports based on advanced user information typically stored in the statistical category fields. For more information, see Configuring Statistical Categories for Analytics. |
Status | The status | |
Status Date | The status date | |
User Group | The user group at the time the report is run. | |
User Group Code | The user group code | |
User ID | The user ID | |
User Record Type | The user record type | |
User Title | The user title | |
User Type | The user type | |
Cataloger Level | The cataloger level of the user | |
Has Role Other Than Patron | indicates if the patron has a role other than Patron | |
Has Role Other Than Patron and Instructor | Indicates if the patron has a role other than Patron and Instructor | |
Is Blocked | Indicates if the patron is blocked | |
Patron Letters Opt In | The letters for which the patron has opted in | |
Patron Letters Opt Out | The letters for which the patron has opted out |
Reading List Citations
Field | Description | Additional Information |
---|---|---|
Additional Person Name | The additional person name | |
Article End Page | The end page of the article | |
Article Number of Pages | The number of pages in the article | |
Article Start Page | The start page of the article | |
Assign to ID | The assign to ID | |
Author | The author of the article | |
Barcode | The barcode | |
Book Call Number | The call number of the book | |
Book Chapter Author | The author of the book chapter | This field is relevant only for citations created after March 2018. |
Book Chapter Editor | The editor of the book chapter | This field is relevant only for citations created after March 2018. |
Book Chapter Number | The chapter number of the book | |
Book Chapter Title | The title of the book chapter | This field is relevant only for citations created after March 2018. |
Book Edition | The edition of the book | |
Citation Alerts | The alerts of the citation | |
Citation Attribute (1-5) | The citation attributes. | For information on configuring the citation attribute fields, see Displaying Citation Attributes in Analytics Reports. |
Citation Copyright ID | The citation copyright ID | |
Citation Copyright Status | The citation copyright status | |
Citation Creation Date | The date the citation was created | |
Citation Created By | The creator of the citation | |
Citation Due Date | The due date of the citation | |
Citation Has Public Note | Indicates if the citation has a public note | |
Citation ID | The ID of the citation | |
Citation Library Internal Tags | The library internal tags of the citation | |
Citation Library Tags | The library tags of the citation | |
Citation License Type | Indicates the type of the citation license, for example: Creative commons and DCS. | |
Citation License Type Code | Indicates the code of the license type of the citation | |
Citation Locate Status | Indicates if the resource is located. | Possible values are:
|
Citation Material Type | The citation material type. | |
Citation Material Type Code | The citation material type code. | |
Citation Modification Date | The citation modification date | |
Citation Modified By | The person who modified the citation | |
Citation Order | A number indicating the place of the citation in order | |
Citation Origin | Where the citation originated. | Possible values are the following. Values such as Digital/Physical/Electronic indicate that the citation's origin is the Alma repository and the available formats of the resource:
|
Citation Public Note | The public note of the citation | |
Citation Public Tags | The public tags of the citation | |
Citation Source | The source of the citation | |
Citation Source 1-10 | The sources of the citation | |
Citation Status | The status of the citation | |
Citation Type | The citation type. | Possible values are:
|
Citation Uploaded File | The file name that was uploaded to the citation | |
CLA/DCS Link | The CLA/DCS link | |
Course End date | The course end date | |
Course ID | The course ID | |
Course Start Date | The course start date | |
Digital File Date Added | The date that the digital file was added | |
Digital File Name | The name of the digital file | |
DOI | The digital object identifier | |
ISBN | The ISBN of the book | |
ISSN | The ISSN of the journal | |
Issue | The issue of the journal | |
Journal Title | The title of the journal | |
Leganto Citation Hidden Links | Indicates if there are hidden links in the citation | Possible values:
|
Leganto Citation Library Discussion Last Update | The last day the citation was discussed | |
Library ID | The library ID | |
Locate Status | The locate status | |
MMS ID | The MMS ID | |
Note | The note | |
Number of Citations | The number of citations | |
Number of Library Discussions | The number of library discussions of the citation | |
Number of Likes | The number of likes of the citation | |
Number of Read It | The number of Read Its of the citation | |
Number of Student Comments | The number of student comments of the citation | |
OCLC Number | The OCLC number | |
Owner ID | The owner ID | |
Pages | The pages of the citation | |
Part | The part | |
Publication Date | The date of publication | |
Publication Place | The place of publication | |
Publish Citation End Date | The publish citation end date | |
Publish Citation Start Date | The publish citation start date | |
Publish Materials End Date | The publish materials end date | |
Publish Materials Start Date | The publish materials start date | |
Publish Section Visible | Indicates whether the section is hidden from students outside of the section dates | |
Publisher | The publisher | |
Reading List ID | The reading list ID | |
Representation URL | The representation URL | |
Section ID | The section ID | |
Section Library Internal Tags | The section library internal tags | |
Section Library Tags | The section library tags | |
Section Public Tags | The section public tags | |
Title | The title of the citation | |
Volume | The volume of the citation |
Rialto Request Details
Field | Description | Additional Information |
---|---|---|
Fulfilled by Rialto |
Orders that were placed with Rialto and were received/activated. |
|
Rialto Cart Origin |
The last touch point of an order before it was placed. This can indicate if it was found through search, selection plan, sent to a list, etc. |
This can be helpful if end users wants to get a feel for how their staff are finding titles. However, since it is the last touch point, it is a limited scope. |
Rialto EBA ID |
A unique identifier for an EBA plan managed in Rialto. |
This allows end users to focus on a specific EBA plan. |
Rialto Fail Code |
The code of a failed purchase. | |
Rialto License |
The license selected by the user for an electronic purchase:
|
|
Rialto List ID |
A unique identifier for user created offer lists within Rialto. |
|
Rialto Order Status |
The most recent order status sent from the Rialto order processing system. |
|
Rialto Origin ID |
The ID of the order origin if it is a list, feed, or selection plan. | |
Rialto Request Cancellation By |
The user who requested to cancel an order. |
|
Rialto SP ID |
A unique identifier for selection plans in Rialto. |
This allows end users to focus on a specific selection plan. |
Rialto Template ID |
A unique identifier for cart templates that were created in Rialto. |
|
Rialto Transaction Type |
The transaction type. | Possible values:
|
Vendor