Skip to Main Content

Alma Acquisitions Resource Guide

This guide covers all aspects of the Acquisitions process, which includes setting up funds, ordering, receiving physical items, activating e-resources, and invoicing. This guide also covers Serials patterns and arrival/check-in.

Acquisitions Infrastructure

Ledgers, Funds and Vendor Records

In order to create purchase order records in Alma, you must create fund and vendor records. Creating ledgers and funds is one of the first steps in the overall acquisitions process. At least one ledger and one fund must be configured before purchasing, receiving, and invoicing can take place in Alma. However, if your institution requires multiple ledgers to group many types of funds, more ledgers can be created. 

 

Definitions

Ledger- a ledger in Alma represents a collection of funds. 

Fund- funds represent actual money in an account. Funds are attached to purchase order line encumbrances and payments. You can access funds in Alma to monitor spending, and track purchase order lines. 

Vendor record- an aggregator or publisher that sells library materials to your institution. The Alma vendor record stores vendor contact information, orders and invoices. 

 

Documentation