Library Acquisitions

A Guide for Acquisitions and Collection-Development Staff

What the Acquisitions module does

The Acquisitions module manages the purchase of library materials from order to receipt, with GRAP-aligned budget control:

• Vendors — order from local and international suppliers (shared with the Vendor register).
• Orders & order lines — place, track and receive orders line by line.
• Budgets — allocate funds, track commitments (encumbrance) and expenditure.
• Fund codes & splits — charge an order line to a single fund or split it across several.

Placing an order

1. Go to Acquisitions → New Order.
2. Choose a vendor (from the vendor register) and a budget code.
3. Add order lines — title, ISBN, quantity, unit price. The line total and order total are calculated automatically.
4. For a split charge, add fund allocations to the line (each a fund code + amount).
5. Send the order — this marks it sent and encumbers its total against the budget (committed funds).

Receiving

On Receive, enter the quantity received per line. Lines become partial or received, and the order rolls up to received when all lines arrive.

Budgets

Each budget tracks allocated, committed (encumbered) and spent amounts; available = allocated − spent − committed. Sending an order encumbers; receiving/invoicing converts commitment to expenditure.

For Administrators

• Vendors are managed in the Vendor register (ahgVendorPlugin) and surfaced in the order form's vendor picker — no separate acquisitions vendor list to maintain.
• REST API: orders, order lines and budgets are exposed under /api/library/* (X-API-Key).
• Tables: library_order, library_order_line, library_order_line_fund, library_budget.