NoteWhen an open order is created for serials or standing orders, a Fund must be specified against which money can be committed and payments made. Expensive items may be paid for using a combination of funds using the split fund option. In addition, access to funds can be controlled by linking funds that can be used to the user’s password login.
The fund status determines how items and subscriptions payments are processed:
If set to Active, new items and subscriptions can be committed and existing orders and open orders can be paid for.
If set to Closed, outstanding items or subscriptions can be paid for but you cannot commit new items or subscriptions.
If set to Inactive, no financial transactions concerning the order/open order are allowed. The operator will be given an error message if such a Fund is given in an Item/Subscription.
Funds can either be of the type Base or Aggregate. The type will decide how the fund may be used and whether or not it can be linked to other funds.
Base funds are used for order generation, receipting and payment. They represent the lowest level of fund breakdown. Before you start using Acquisitions, you should consider the lowest level of fund breakdown required and allocate a base fund code to each of the funds at this level.
Aggregate funds allow a means of providing financial statistics for groups of related funds and can be made up of base and/or aggregate members. For example, you may decide to set-up an aggregate fund for a branch and then set-up base funds for the various departments at that site.
Note
Aggregate funds can not be used in order generation, receipt or payment. Their function is to provide financial statistics. A base fund can not contain statistics about any other fund.
An aggregate fund can contain any number of base and/or aggregate funds. These are known as member funds. The member funds may themselves contain other member funds. As there is no limit to the levels of hierarchy that may be built up in this way and no restrictions over, care should be taken to ensure that a meaningful and not overly complicated hierarchy structure is maintained.
In the following examples, £100 has been put aside for use. All monies show the allocated amounts.
In the simplest example, the aggregate fund is a simple 'roll-up' of its members' allocations. That is, it has no allocation fund of its own:
Alternatively, the aggregate fund can act as a central fund available to all member funds, which have no allocation funds of their own:
In this final option, the aggregate fund is available to all member funds, in addition to their own allocations.
The fund user profiles allow links to be established between user profiles and fund details. Talis Alto will check whether or not a user (via their user profile) is authorised to view or edit the details for a particular fund. This functionality applies to amending existing fund details and making commitments against the fund through Orders and Open Orders but not to receipting or making subsequent transactions against the order.
