Providers

Providers are vendors. You can create a provider profile that includes contact information for the provider, holdings information, invoices, and other information.

Create a provider

  1. To create a new provider, click AdministrationAcquisitions AdministrationProviders.
  2. Enter the provider name.
  3. Create a code for the provider. No limits exist on the number of characters that can be entered in this field.
  4. Select an owner from the drop-down menu. The owner indicates the organizational units whose staff can use this provider. This menu is populated with the shortnames that you created for your libraries in the organizational units tree (See Administration → Server Administration → Organizational Units).

    Note

    The rule of parental inheritance applies to this list.

  5. Select a currency from the drop-down menu. This drop-down list is populated by the list of currencies available in the currency types.
  6. A provider must be active in order for purchases to be made from that provider. To activate the provider, check the box adjacent to Active. To deactivate a vendor, uncheck the box.
  7. Add the default # of copies that are typically ordered through the provider. This number will automatically populate the line item’s Copies box on any PO’s associated with this provider. If another quantity is entered during the selection or ordering process, it will override this default. If no number is specified, the default number of copies will be zero.
  8. Select a default claim policy from the drop-down box. This list is derived from the claim policies that can be created
  9. Select an EDI default. This list is derived from the EDI accounts that can be created.
  10. Enter the provider’s email address.
  11. In the Fax Phone field, enter the provider’s fax number.
  12. In the holdings tag field, enter the tag in which the provider places holdings data.
  13. In the phone field, enter the provider’s phone number.
  14. If prepayment is required to purchase from this provider, then check the box adjacent to prepayment required.
  15. Enter the Standard Address Number (SAN) for your provider.
  16. Enter the web address for the provider’s website in the URL field.
  17. Click Save.

Add contact and holdings information to providers

After you save the provider profile, the screen reloads so that you can save additional information about the provider. You can also access this screen by clicking the hyperlinked name of the provider on the Providers screen. The tabs allow you to add a provider address and contact, attribute definitions, and holding subfields. You can also view invoices associated with the provider.

  1. Enter a Provider Address, and click Save.

    Note

    Required fields for the provider address are: Street 1, city, state, country, post code. You may have multiple valid addresses.

  2. Enter the Provider Contact, and click Save.
  3. Your vendor may include information that is specific to your organization in MARC tags. You can specify the types of information that should be entered in each MARC tag. Enter attribute definitions to correlate MARC tags with the information that they should contain in incoming vendor records. Some technical knowledge is required to enter XPath information. As an example, if you need to import the PO Name, you could set up an attribute definition by adding an XPath similar to:

    code => purchase_order
    xpath => //*[@tag="962"]/*[@code="p"]
    Is Identifier => false

    where 962 is the holdings tag and p is the subfield that contains the PO Name.

  4. You may have entered a holdings tag when you created the provider profile. You can also enter holdings subfields. Holdings subfields allow you to specify subfields within the holdings tag to which your vendor adds holdings information, such as quantity ordered, fund, and estimated price.
  5. Click invoices to access invoices associated with a provider.

Edit a provider

Edit a provider just as you would edit a currency type.

You can delete providers only if no purchase orders have been assigned to them.