Acquisitions Help
What is Acquisitions?
The Koha Acquisitions module provides a way where the library can record orders placed with vendors and manage purchase budgets.
You do not need to use Acquisitions to add items to your catalogue. If you do not want to track orders and budget expenditure, then use the "Add MARC" feature in Cataloging to add new bibliographic and item records.
How to place an order?
To place an order, the first step is to locate your Vendor (supplier). If no Vendor exists, you will need to create one. Once you have a Vendor you can place an order.
How to receive an order?
There are two ways to receive an order:
- By Supplier (Supplier Search) - search for the vendor and view all order associated with the item.
- By Order (Orders Search) - enter the title of the ordered Item in the orders search and locate the item.
What needs to be setup to use Acquisitions?
To make the most of acquisitions the following needs to be setup under System Administration
- Budgets and Funds - "Funds" are used to group "Budgets". For example a Fund may be called "General Stack", and will have a "Budget" which records the amount availalbe to spend during the period of the budget. A budget must have a start and end date.
- Exchange Rates (optional)- If making purchases in overseas currency, the exchange rate will need to be set realtive to your local currency. Remember that your local currency should be set to 1.00
NOTE: Exchanges Rates need to be updated manually.
- Vendor(s) - These are the entities where items are purchased, or donated from. Orders are placed with Vendors.
How do you handle donated items?
In Koha, doners are simply vendors who do not charge anything for items. You can either setup a catchall vendor account for all donations, or setup a new vendor account for each doner. When items are "ordered" from a vendor, simply enter 0 in the purchase price. If you wish to, you can record the actual value of the item in the "Replacement Cost" field.