Deposit Account Overview
Purpose
The eResources deposit account is an important part of OCLS’s strategy to streamline work processes across the college system. The deposit account holds funds for your eResource purchases over the fiscal year.
By decreasing the number of invoices your library receives, your deposit account creates local capacity and minimizes overhead costs. And with funds on hold, OCLS can process your vendors’ invoices efficiently.
Deposit Account Payments
OCLS uses your deposit account to pay your vendor invoices for online products acquired under our eResources Management service. Any other OCLS fees must be paid by separate invoice.
You may use your deposit account for new acquisitions that were not included in your latest estimate. If your account has a deficit at year end, OCLS issues a top-up invoice.
OCLS requests that the bulk of your resources are paid with your deposit account funds. To accommodate special circumstances, you can request separate invoicing instead. Then, OCLS pays the vendor’s invoice with its own funds, and bills the college for the final total in CAD.
Deposit Account Process
In April, OCLS provides an account forecast for each college (estimate report) to determine the appropriate invoice amount.
The colleges have a month to review and approve their estimate report before OCLS issues the invoice.
OCLS issues the invoice to the college.
The college libraries deposit funds to their account.
In August, steps 1-4 repeat.
Before year-end, OCLS provides another account report to project each college’s fiscal year closing balance (balance statement). If it shows a deficit, OCLS issues a top-up invoice.
Annual Timeline
The following image shows the general deposit account timeline for the process.
To view key dates for this fiscal year, see the eResources Calendar.
Reports
OCLS prepares three types of account reports for the college libraries:
Monthly Statements: Itemized account activity and closing balance for the previous month
Estimates: Biannual forecast to determine biannual invoice amounts
Balance Statements: Year-end balance projection to determine whether a top-up invoice is necessary to avoid a deficit