Here is an excellent example of the administrative excess
that Max Weber described in Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft
(translated as Economy and Society). By making the
accounting system a jumble of jargon and redundancy, the
back office trolls not only keep their jobs -- they get to
put their relatives on the payroll to keep up with the
extra work.

Newt Gingrich, Al Gore, and many others cried for years
about this sort of waste. Unfortunately, no one outside
of private business has been able to stop it.

I suggest you tell your accountants to handle the figures
any way they want as long as they don't force you into
more wasted labor, such as quarterly or monthly payments.

Best wishes,

Sincerely,

Albert Henderson

-------------Forwarded Message-----------------

From:	"SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum", INTERNET:SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
To:	[unknown], INTERNET:SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU

Date:	8/26/2008  3:27 PM

RE:	Re: [SERIALST] subscriptions: fiscal year vs. calendar year accounting issues

At one university where I used to work, we were asked to do the same
kind of fy accounting though our fy began in July.  But it was just
that, an accounting maneuver.  We paid as usual in (in Sept or Oct) but
we had to turn in some paperwork that showed that in fy 99 (for example)
we paid 1/2 of the 08 cost and 1/2 of the 09 cost.  We didn't keep two
sets of books.  We just looked at our online records and figured the
cost.

And we ignored (though we probably shouldn't have) those titles whose
subscription period was Sept-Aug or some other non-calendar year basis.

It didn't affect WHAT or WHEN we paid, just some extra paperwork.

Note that this was some time ago so don't ask me the details on how we
did it.  We may have just taken the total amount paid for subscriptions
for the year and split it and not worried about a title by title basis.
We did talk with the Accountants and they approved of the method.

You need to find out exactly what they are asking for before you panic!

JoAnne Deeken
University of Tennessee Libraries
-----Original Message-----
From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum
[mailto:SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU] On Behalf Of Ginanni, Katy
Sent: Tuesday, August 26, 2008 12:39 PM
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: Re: [SERIALST] subscriptions: fiscal year vs. calendar year
accounting issues

Hi Teri,

Do you mean that your accounting department will want to pay for part of
the subscriptions in one part of the year, and another payment later?
If that's the case, you might consider asking your subscription vendor
to go with you to visit your accounting office, and try to educate them
on the realities of purchasing serials. The industry standard is that
publishers (most of them, anyway) require full payment in advance of
delivery.  Most publishers will not allow partial payment.  And if your
subscription vendor allows you to do that, that means they would
probably pay the publisher up front and then have to charge you some
sort of "carrying charge" on the balance you owe them.  So, making
partial payments would have a negative financial implication for your
accounting department/university.

I advise that you do NOT attempt getting your subscriptions to coincide
with your fiscal year.  For one thing, some publishers simply will not
allow it.  Some insist that your order begin with the first issue of a
volume.  And so many volumes begin at the start of the calendar year.
(One exception is many education-related journals and magazines, which
often begin volumes at the start of the school year, in Aug. or Sep.)

I predict that claiming missing issues would also be a problem if you
order split volumes during the year.

In short, you need to do whatever you can to get your accounting
department to make an exception for you!

Good luck!

Katy G.

Katy Ginanni
E-Access and Serials Librarian
Coates Library, Trinity University
San Antonio, TX 78212-7200
210-999-7613 ph.
210-999-8182 fax
katy.ginanni@trinity.edu
"We need magic, and bliss, and power, myth, and celebration and religion
in our lives, and music is a good way to encapsulate a lot of it."
--Jerome John Garcia, 8/1/42-8/9/95

-----Original Message-----
From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum
[mailto:SERIALST@list.uvm.edu] On Behalf Of Teri Koch
Sent: Tuesday, August 26, 2008 8:57 AM
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: [SERIALST] subscriptions: fiscal year vs. calendar year
accounting issues

Hello,

I am writing to find out how other institutions assign costs for
journal and/or database subscriptions for accounting purposes.  Most
of our journal subscriptions are on a calendar year basis, but our
fiscal year runs June 1-May 31.  Just recently our Accounting
Department has decided to begin splitting the charges between fiscal
years.  That is, the cost for a calendar year subscription would be
assigned 5/12ths (Jan-May) to one fiscal year; and the other 7/12ths
(June-Dec) to the next fiscal year. This is going to require that we
keep two sets of books for each title/database, one for the current
fiscal year, and one the upcoming fiscal year.  This seems like a
nightmarish amount of paperwork/trouble.

How do other institutions handle subscriptions for accounting
purposes?  I suppose one alternative is to attempt to get all
subscriptions to coincide with our fiscal year.  Do others do that?

Any insights into how your institutions handle this and/or advice
would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Regards--

Teri Koch
Collection Development Librarian
Drake University
Cowles Library
2725 University Ave.
Des Moines, IA  50311

teri.koch@drake.edu  (e-mail)