Managing Funds

Fund records track the finances for the purchase of library materials and services for the linked fiscal year. You can set up funds for sources of money that are based on fiscal budgets, gifts, grants, donations, and endowments. In addition, you can set up deposit funds to track accounts where you have deposited a certain amount of money with a supplier.

To break funds down into subcategories, you can create subfunds that are linked to the “parent” fund. You can leave the parent fund at zero dollars and allocate money at the subfund level. Or, you can start with a bulk amount in the parent fund and transfer money down to the subfunds. You can clear the Display check box on the Fund workform for parent funds so they do not display in fund lists and are not used to purchase materials.

If your library has standing orders or other predictable expenses, you can expend the funds up front so you know your library has the money to cover these costs. You can restrict the use of funds to a specific purpose, and prevent money from being transferred to other funds.

The name of the linked fund (or its alternative name) is displayed on invoice and purchase order workforms, and on selection list line item, purchase order line item, and invoice line item workforms.

You can use options in the Acq Fund Droplist setup profile in Polaris Administration to affect the fund list display as follows:

• Display the full fund name, the alternative name, or both names.
• Filter the funds lists so that only the destination branch’s funds are displayed for purchase orders and invoices.
• Display all funds for all branches under the parent library in purchase orders and invoices.
• Select specific funds across branches to display in selection lists.

For more information on this profile, see Specify how funds are displayed in Acquisitions.

Important:
Be sure your funds and subfunds are set up properly before any transactions are performed. You cannot delete a fund after money has been allocated, encumbered, or expended. If there are monetary transactions using the fund, it cannot be deleted until the next fiscal year rollover. You can view the fiscal year and its fund hierarchy in the Fiscal Year Explorer. See View the fiscal year and fund hierarchy.

See also:

• Fund Transactions

• Create a fund

• Set fund encumbrance/expenditure limits

• Add donor information to a fund

• Add a subfund

• View the fund structure

• View the fiscal year and fund hierarchy

• Assign the beginning allocation for a fund

• Transfer money between funds

• Adjust fund balances manually

• View fund transactions

Fund Transactions

In Polaris Acquisitions, the following types of transactions are posted against funds:

Note:
The transactions that occur as a result of the fiscal year rollover process are not covered here. See Managing Fiscal Year Rollovers for information on this automatic process.

• Encumbrance transactions are posted against funds when you:
  • Release a purchase order and select Pay on receipt of invoice on the Payment Options dialog box.
  • Manually adjust a fund and select the option Adjust Fund Balances > Manually adjust 'Total currently encumbered.'
  • Undo payment of an invoice - the amount expended is reversed and the amount is re-encumbered.
• Expenditures/Debit transactions are posted against funds when you:
  • Release a purchase order and select Prepay on the Payment Options dialog box.

    Note:
    When you prepay, no encumbrances are posted against funds, just expenditures.

  • Release a purchase order with a fund type of Deposit Account (debit transactions).
  • Manually adjust a fund and select the option Adjust Fund Balances > Manually adjust 'Total expended.'
  • Pay an invoice line item segment, line item, or the entire invoice.

    Note:
    If a purchase order is linked to the invoice, a disencumbrance transaction is also posted.

• Disencumbrance transactions are posted against funds when you:
  • Pay a regular invoice. (If there is a linked purchase order line, then the original purchase order line amount is disencumbered, and the invoice line item amount is expended.)
  • Cancel a purchase order line item segment, a purchase order line item, or an entire purchase order.
• Unexpenditure transactions are posted against funds when you:
  • Credit a paid invoice line item segment, invoice line, or the entire invoice.
  • Cancel a prepaid purchase order line item segment, purchase order line item, or the entire purchase order.
  • Undo payment of an invoice.