Invoice Focus Group Meeting Minutes: April 28, 2003

Present:

Julie Kaufman [chair], Kayla Reichardt* [recorder], Suzanne Posluszny, Michelle Best and Joan Hendershot

Agenda

1. Approval of minutes from previous meeting
2. End of the (fiscal) year invoices
3. Review of statistics from the past year
4. Procedures manual discussion
5. Round Robin

Meeting was called to order

* Prior to the meeting JK requested that KR take the meeting minutes instead of SP to demonstrate the new meeting minutes’ standards established at the last Team Leaders meeting and distributed at the NBL CS Departmental meeting. SP to resume as recorder for the next Invoice Focus Group meeting.

1. Approval of minutes from previous meeting

a. Identifying booksets: another way is by the Table of contents tag in the bib record. It will list the individual volumes. Table of contents tags tend to be incomplete, previous discussion over whether or not we will have these tags updated was concluded by Rhonda Marker’s [Head of Cataloging] decision that Cataloging will not be updating this field.

b. Handling funds/records for booksets and IREY serials: as of this meeting GS has not reported back to the group with any decisions.

c. Criteria for firm order creation: minutes note this discussion but not the specific criteria we should be using. KR requested this be added to our Procedures manual discussion agenda item.

d. Invoices sent to ACQ for line creation (recurring orders): Joan has been adding the note, “Priority – Invoice Enclosed” to the shipping label of packages sent to ACQ for line creations. It was decided that we would adopt the practice NBL CSD wide. JK will contact Kati (HSSRL contact), Susan {Sciences contact) and cc: Janet Howard (supervisor) at ACQ for confirmation of this procedure and the necessity for any other notifications concerning this issue.

e. Minutes were approved, KR to send to AR for posting.

2. End of the (fiscal) year invoices

We are notified in June by Nancy Hendrickson of the Budget Office of a cutoff date to have invoices processed before the end of the fiscal year. At this time, invoices should be a rush priority to have them into the Budget Office before the cutoff date. All state funds must be spent before June 30th.

3. Review of statistics from the past year.

a. What is categorized by Misc. Problems (work of Invoice processors):

• problems with PO’s or lack of PO’s
- requires creation of firm order - lack of funds or incorrect funds being used - invoices, according to vendor statements, that have not been paid - incorrect billing/subscription periods

b. Firm orders category is strictly to track the creation of them by JK

c. Analyzation of the statistics:

• NOTE: We do not have statistics from April – June.
• ALEX has double the amount of LSM invoices
• LSM has almost equal the amount of ALEX invoice problems
• Invoice problems seem to spike in Oct, Dec and March. We do not see a clear trend other than the processing of renewal invoices in Oct/Nov so we will compare with next years statistics to try to identify any trends.
• Almost triple the amount of firm orders [per month] were created in March. JK reported that the creation of firm orders is dependent upon the availability of funds which requires negotiations between GS, selectors and Bob Sewell.
• Renewals processed and Renewal entries seem to be inconclusive. We decided to count the arrival of the renewal lists as one statistic and the actual processing of the renewal list entries as they are worked on as another statistic. A summary statement of the # of lists received per vendor and the total # of entries on the lists would also be included. The processing of renewal invoices would be included in the regular # invoices processed and # invoice entries statistics. JK will notify YL of these changes in the master statistics and the need to have YL and MT revise the individual statistics forms for HSSRL and the SCIENCES.
• # of invoice entries processed spike in Oct/Nov which is consistent with the processing of the renewal invoices. Another spike in Jan can be contributed to the holiday break in Dec when the mail backs up while the University is closed.
• It seems our peak processing rate is during August through January, however, this is only speculation since we do not have statistics for April – June.

4. Procedures manual discussion

a. JK reviewed the NBL website for Invoicing procedures. The only items posted are the Fund Transfer and Firm Order Request forms. However, she noted that we do have rough drafts of an outline and Basic Invoice procedures. KR found some procedures embedded in the 12/2/02 meeting minutes. JK will clean these up and submit them to the group within 3 days for review. After 3 days review, if no changes are made they will be submitted for posting to the website.

b. Criteria for when to create a firm order:

• Overriding philosophy should be to pay for current receipts [could be delayed publications] on the current fiscal year, so that missed payments are paid for on firm orders on special (retro) funds to have a more accurate payment history.
• Indications to be aware of: invoice date, subscription period to be paid, previous fiscal year skipped payments, previous fiscal year subscription periods paid for, checkin received dates and other invoices to be paid in the same fiscal year.
• JH noted that sometimes the vendors/publishers billing is behind schedule, which also contributes to the problem of identifying invoices for firm order creation.

5. Round Robin

a. JK reported that GS is sending fund reports to selectors for analysis.

b. SP & JH reported on procedures for publisher invoices received where payment is made to vendors. HSSRL checks for problematic payments/receipts and once verified that the subscription is in good standing, tossing the publisher invoice. SCIENCES draft a letter to the appropriate vendor with a copy of the publisher invoice for the vendor to correct. Discussion of standardizing this operation across NBL CSD was tabled until further notice.

Meeting adjourned @ 12:10pm

Decisions

• Packages sent to ACQ for line item creation will have “Priority – Invoice Enclosed” written on the shipping label.

• Modifying the renewal statistics to track the receipt and processing time of renewal lists. Renewal list entries will be kept track of as they are worked on. A summary statement will be included which tracks the # of renewal lists per vendor and total # of entries per vendor.

• Renewal invoices & entries processed will be included in the regular invoices & entries processed statistics.

Assignments

1. JK – to contact ACQ to confirm necessary notifications for invoices included with materials.
2. JK – to notify YL to update master statistics, YL & MT to modify individual invoicing statistics forms for the group members.
3. JK – to clean up outline, basic invoice procedures and 12/2/02 meeting minute’s embedded procedures and distribute to the group in 3 days time.
4. GROUP – review submitted outline and procedures for changes in 3 days time. KR – send 2/25/03 meeting minutes, approved outline & procedures to AR for posting.

Pending

• Standardized procedure for handling publisher invoices for subscriptions paid through vendors.

• Finish discussion of criteria for determining when to create a firm order.

Next meeting : May 19, 2003 @ ALEX CSD
Time: 10:30am

Next recorder: Suzanne Posluszny
Backup recorder: Michelle Best