Ordering Using Inventory Express

If your library has acquired the Inventory Express product, you can search vendors' inventories to streamline the process of creating bibliographic and order records. This requires that you have set up an account and user profile with each vendor, as well as set up the links in the Inventory Express table.

Record Wizard Required

To use the Inventory Express product, you must enable the Use wizard to create new records option for your login.

To use Inventory Express:

  1. Choose Place Orders from the Function drop-down list.
  2. Click the New button on the toolbar.
  3. Depending on your New Record Templates settings, you will either be prompted to select a template or presented with the first field prompt. If you are prompted, select the desired template from the list.
    Choosing a Template

    In order to avoid duplicated effort, Innovative recommends choosing a template that begins with the ISBN prompt when using the Inventory Express product. This allows you to quickly determine whether any of your selected vendors has a record for the title you are ordering before you enter any fields.


  4. At the ISBN prompt, enter the ISBN for the title.
  5. In the Search by Inventory Express box just below the ISBN prompt, check the boxes for those vendors whose inventories you would like to search. Note that Sierra will default to your choices for the remainder of the session.
  6. Click the Go button.

A progress bar displays while the system performs the inventory search. When it is done, Sierra displays the results from the databases for each vendor you selected.

If your library has configured Duplicate Checking to check the ISBN/ISSN field of bibliographic records (see New Bib Record: Duplicate check on fields for more information), Sierra displays results from both your local database and the databases for each vendor you selected in a single, integrated display.

If there are no hits, Sierra displays the next prompt specified by the template.

  1. To view a record in the results, highlight it and click the View button. When you are finished viewing the record, click the Back to Browse button to return to the results screen.
  2. After you chose which record you want to use for ordering, highlight its entry and click the Select button. If you do not want to use any of the records in the results list, click the Continue button to continue on with entering the new record or Cancel to cancel the new record creation altogether.
  3. After selecting a bibliographic record to add to the database, Sierra takes you directly into keying the order record. Depending on your New Record Templates settings, Sierra will either prompt you to select a template or present you with the first field prompt. If you are prompted, select the desired template from the list.

    Note that the system automatically copies the vendor's list price into the order record's EPRICE fixed-length field.
    Prompting for a Vendor

    When using the Inventory Express product, Innovative recommends using an order record template that prompts you to select a vendor code. This will prevent you from inadvertently using the wrong vendor that might be specified by the order record template.

  4. Continue creating the order record.