The Selector Dashboard is a tool selectors can use to give them an idea of what is going on with their funds.  There are 2 main reports, the Detailed Expenditure Report which looks at Fund Expenditures, and the Active PO Lines with Current Encumbrances which looks at active encumbrances.  There are two other reports that aggregate the initial Detailed Expenditure Report by Reporting Code and by Vendor.  They are called Expenditure by Reporting Code, and Expenditure by Vendor.

Each report has access to the same prompts that allow one to choose Fiscal Years(FY22 onwards), The fund codes, Reporting Code Descriptions, Vendor Code, Date Range and Order Line type.  Each selected criteria carries over to the next report so reselecting is not necessary.  Fiscal Period Description and Fund Code are the two prompts that need some value(s) selected.  The current Fiscal Year is the default value.

The Detailed Expenditure Report looks at all the Purchase Order Lines that have been paid on for the selected fiscal year years and funds.  This is highly specific and allows the viewer to see at a granular level exactly what has been purchased on a fund and how much items cost.  Common uses a selector could use this report for include:

• Verifying what was purchased is appropriate for their fund.

• Getting a sense of what is coming in

• Identifying certain purchases have come in and been paid

This takes the Detailed expenditure report and breaks down the results by the Reporting Code from the POL.  Looking at this report provides at a glance exactly how much of one’s budgets so far has been spent on a given reporting code.  For instance one could know that $2,000 has been spent on Printed material.

This takes the Detailed expenditure report and breaks down the results by the Vendor Code from the POL.  Looking at this report provides at a glance exactly how much of one’s budgets so far has been spent on a given vendor  For instance one could know that $2,000 has been spent on YBP.

The Active PO Lines with Current Encumbrances provides a detailed look at what Purchase Order lines are attached to a fund that has not been paid on.  This is essentially money reserved to be spent when an invoice is paid.  Such data only exists in Alma.  This is not reflected in the University’s payment system of PeopleSoft.  Common uses for this report include:

• Reviewing long standing Encumbrances to free up spending.

• Looking at continuation orders that could potentially be closed.

• Confirming if an item has been paid for.

When exporting Active PO Lines as Excel Data (the preferred way of exporting from Analytics), separate lines are shown for the encumbrance and the disencumbrance. While this can be useful for some queries, selectors mainly want to know what the current encumbrance is. If a POL has an encumbrance and disencumbrance, Excel Formatted handles it properly (showing a $0 encumbrance)  Below is a helpful demonstration showing the differences between the formatted version and the data version.  

Exporting for Encumbrances

Formatted exports from Analytics will automatically size columns and wrap text when needed.  It makes a nice looking report but it could have unintended complications should further excel analysis be needed.  Here is a video highlighting the differences in exporting reports in Analytics as formatted or data versions.

Formatted versus Data Versions

By using the formatted version the negative encumbrances should be taken care of for the most part.  Any remaining are most likely the result of a foreign currency being used and a rounding error has occurred.  As always if there are any questions please contact ATT.

In the event there is a zero encumbrance on a one time order, this would mean the item has been paid but not yet received.  This could be a result of invoices being paid quicker than staff are able to receive an item.  Shelf ready approval plans that use EDI invoicing can make this quite common.  If it has been paid for a few weeks though please alert Acquisitions and it can be looked into further.

When it comes to continuous orders, Alma calculates an encumbrance on a continuous order for the current fiscal year by summing up all expenditures on the POL for the previous fiscal year.  If there is a zero encumbrance on a continuous order, this means that the predicted amount for the year has been met or exceeded.  A single dollar encumbrance on a continuous order means we have not paid an invoice for the item since going live on Alma and that is the original single dollar price used in Voyager.  This could mean we are no longer receiving issues and the POL could be closed.  Or maybe it’s a standing order and nothing legitimately has come in.