How do I manage deposit accounts in Alma?
Some vendors accept money from libraries and hold it in a deposit account. When the library makes a purchase, the vendor deducts the cost from the deposit account instead of sending an invoice. It is more efficient for a library to pay one invoice to the vendor for the prepayment rather than multiple, smaller invoices for each purchase. The disadvantage to the deposit account is that the library often ends up using external tools like spreadsheets to know how much of the deposit account has already been spent, how much money remains, and which titles have been bought. You can track all of this in Alma.
The following is a hypothetical workflow for a Kanopy deposit account.
Invoice for Deposit
The library has an $8,000 budget for a PDA program, so Kanopy generates an invoice for $8,000. The library should process that invoice just like any other invoice.
The library should then allocate the same amount to a deposit fund in Alma.
Invoices for Video Purchases
In the first month of the PDA program, the triggered purchases total $1,500. The library posts an invoice for $1,500 to a deposit fund in Alma.
In the second month of the PDA program, the triggered purchases total $1,900. The library posts an invoice for $1,900 to a deposit fund in Alma.
This cycle will continue until the library runs out of money in the deposit account. At that point, they must either cancel the PDA program or deposit more money.
Fiscal Year Rollover
It is useful to maintain the deposit fund in a separate ledger from regular funds. Libraries must spend their budget during a single year; they can't carry over most funds into the next fiscal year. In contrast, you can use the deposit funds until the money runs out.
In the example above, the deposit account started with an allocation of $8,000 and ended with a balance of $4,600. In the next fiscal year, the deposit account should start with $4,600. To do this, set "Create Allocation From" to "Cash Balance" when you roll over the ledger.
