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Payments Unit

• Pay invoices for subscriptions that predate our cancellation. Pay invoices for standing orders/unitary orders that predate our cancellation if and only if we have received the material.
• Evaluate invoices that postdate our cancellation. We give vendors reasonable time in which to process our cancellations. This grace period is 1 month for domestic vendors and 1 month + 2 weeks for foreign vendors. Calculate the number of days between the cancellation date and the invoice date. Pay charges that fall within our grace period and that meet our requirements in the preceeding bullet. Delete charges that fall outside of the grace period. Deleting a charge is not dependant on whether or not SUL has returned the material. Exceptions to deletions require the written approval of a SER/ACQ manager or fund manager.

• If the vendor did not receive a cancellation request, the order is active. Process the invoice following standard payment procedures and notify the appropriate order staff so that the order can be properly cancelled and, possibly, returning the material for credit. When the amount is over $500.00, consult with the Payments manager before paying the invoice.
• If the vendor did receive a cancellation request, the order is cancelled. Process the invoice following our cancellation policy above.

• If we have not redirected the order to another vendor, re-open the order and process the invoice.
• If we have redirected the order to another vendor consult with order staff. If we have a copy of the vendor's cancellation notice, the deletion charge can be deleted. If we don't have documentation that the vendor cancelled the order, consult with the Payments manager.

Order Summary segment
The date to cancel field indicates whether SUL has cancelled the order or the order has been closed. A value of "NEVER" indicates that either the order was closed by SUL or cancelled by the vendor. A date in this field indicates that SUL cancelled the order with the vendor.

Extended Info segment
A note field with a cancellation message provides further details on why the order is inactive.
            Cancelled -- <init., date cancelled>
            Closed -- <reason> -- <init., date closed>

Line Item Info segment
(informational only -- indicative of intent, but not definative as to whether or not a cancellation was sent except for ***)
instruct or Claim field = <cancellation message>
Comment or Note field = <how order canceled, init., date of cancellation> [e.g, cancelled per email <init., date of cancellation>]
# of copies field = 0

Fund segment
funded copies field = 0
 

Holding/distribution segment
# copies field = 0

Claim segment

Pre fy2001, Serials and Gov Serials cancellations required a claim segment with an appropriate cancel code to generate a cancellation letter with the correct address. The following fields must have these values or a cancellation letter was never sent:
        claim reason = GSCANCEL or SERCANCEL
        Claim on = <date>
        # copies > 0
        date mailed = <date>
        # claims > 0

Cancel segment
This is a cancellation segment for a recurring order type:

Search/Order and post fy2000 SER/GOV SER  cancellations require a cancel segment. The following fields ust have these values or a cancellation letter was never sent:
        cancel reason = LIBRARY
        date = <date>
        # copies = 1
        date mailed = <date>

cancel reason
LIBRARY (default)-- SUL has cancelled or closed the order.
USER -- Not used by SUL.
VENDOR -- Vendor has cancelled or closed the order.

date
NEVER (default)
TODAY -- This value changes to "today's" date after being ENTERed.

# copies
Default value = 0

date mailed
NEVER (default)
TODAY -- This value changes to "today's" date after being ENTERed.

parts
Default value = <value in parts field of order> (free text field)
 

Serials Orders
Pre fy2001

• Claim segment with claim reason field = SERCANCEL or GSCANCEL and # copies field = 1
• Cancel segment with cancel reason field = LIBRARY and # copies field = 0
• Date to cancel field = <date> [i.e. not NEVER]

• Cancel segment with cancel reason field = VENDOR
• Date to cancel field = <date> [i.e. not NEVER]

• Search NOTIS Query for verification of pre Unicorn cancellations.
• Consult with order staff for documentation of cancellations not communicated by Unicorn output such as email or by telephone.

How Cancellations Work in Unicorn

• Pre fy2001, Serials used claim segments with claim reason SERCANCEL and GSCANCEL to generate cancellation letters with a Serials address.
• Search/Order (and Serials beginning in fy2001) use cancel segments with cancel reason LIBRARY to generate cancellation letters.
• In either case, the # copies field must have a value greater than 0 to print the cancellation letter.
• Both Search/Order and SerialJuly 7, 2006ndor has cancelled the order. This cancel reason does not generate a cancellation letter, therefore, it is not required that the # copies field be greater than 0 (although it should).
• The date to cancel field either automatically gets updated (cancel segment with reason LIBRARY) or is manually updated (claim segment or cancel segment with reason VENDOR).

• When and order has been cancelled by the vendor one would not expect them to continue to invoice us for materials. It is very important to determine whether or not we have re-ordered the material with another vendor.
  • If we have not redirected the order, pay if we have received the material and notify the appropriate order staff so he/she can update the order record. Since we did not actively seek to cancel the order, we can assume that we still want to receive the material.
  • If we have re-directed the order, consult with the appropriate order staff on how best to resolve the potential duplicate problem.
• When we have "cancelled" an order but a cancellation letter was never mailed, the order has not been cancelled. Process the invoice according to our standard procedures and notify the appropriate order staff so that a cancellation letter can be mailed.
• When we have cancelled an order and a cancellation letter was mailed, follow our standard cancellation payment policy. There should be no exceptions to this policy unless approved by a SER/ACQ mangager.
• If you delete a line item because the vendor had a reasonable amount of time to process our cancellation, notify the appropriate receiving unit so they have the opportunity to try to return the material to the vendor. Whether or not the material can be returned should not affect our decision to delete a charge for a cancelled order.
• When in doubt, consult with the Payments Manager.

• Issue the command EDIT ORDER
  1. change the order # by adding a "V" [i.e. vee] to the end of the order number.
  2. in the extended info segment, add this x-ref to a note field:  CLOSED -- vendor code change -- see <order #> for future order transactions -- <init.>, <date>.
  3. activate the parts field if necessary by checking the multi parts box.
  4. type "closed" in the parts field.
  5. in the fund segment change the value of the funded copies field to "0". [i.e. zero]
  6. in the holdings segment, change the value of the # copies field to "0". [i.e. zero]
  7. after the last segment of the order, add a cancel segment with these values:
     cancel reason = library
     date = TODAY
     # copies = 1
     date mailed = TODAY
  8. <ENTER>
• Issue the command DUPLICATE ORDER
  • On the first screen
    1. assign the original order # to the new order you are creating.
    2. input the current fiscal year.
    3. <ENTER>
  • On the second screen
    1. in the extended info segment, delete the x-ref and add this x-ref in the note field:  see <order #> for other payments in <fy> -- <init.>, <date>
    2. delete "closed" in the parts field
    3. in the fund segment change the value of the funded copies field to "1".
    4. in the holdings segment, change the value of the # copies field to "1".
    5. delete the cancel segment
    6. <ENTER>
  • While still in the EDIT ORDER mode
    1. change the dates in the date ready, date mailed, and/or date to claim fields to the dates in the original order, which is now "<order#><V>"
    2. <ENTER>
  • Notify order staff so they can restore any active claim segment.

Last modified: June 8, 2006