Web Client - Patron Bills

About

The Bills tab of the Patron Account provides access to all bill information and management functions.

Items Still Checked Out and Lost Materials Bills display issue

As of version 3.0, the web client does not include the familiar bright red/dark red highlighting to indicate bills for items that are still checked out/overdue and lost. This is a known issue, and a fix has been made for version 3.1.

In the meantime, be sure that your Bills list includes the Last Billing Type column, which will indicate Overdue materials and Lost Materials, and the Check In Date/Time which will indicate if the item is still checked out, and be careful when selecting bills to pay!

Current Bills

Current Bills List

Adjust the data columns to display the information your library needs to most efficiently answer bill questions and select bills for payment. PLS recommends:

• Start (this is the checkout/renewal date for the transaction)
• Total Billed
• Total Paid
• Balance Owed
• Last Billing Type - the bill reason - overdue, lost, etc.
• Barcode - links to Item Status > Detailed View, if clicked it will open over the bills screen, use the browser back arrow to return to bills
• Title - links to Catalog > OPAC View, if clicked it will open over the bills screen, use the browser back arrow to return to bills
• Location - library associated with the bill, checkout library for overdue bills, owning library for lost bills, billing library for manual bills
• Bill # - REQUIRED - this is related to a known issue with the staff client, if Bill # is not present, single bills cannot be selected

Bill Actions

Print Bills

Prints all selected bills. Uses the Bills, Current print template.

Void All Billings

Not available for staff. Voids all line item bills associated with the transaction without keeping a history of the transaction

Adjust to Zero

applies an account_adjustment "payment" to the bill, clearing the bill and closing the transaction. The adjustment does NOT appear on the cash report.

Refund

Add Billing

This feature will apply a new line item billing to an existing bill transaction. Add Billing is also available from Patron Items Out and Item Status > Circ History List.

1. Select the bill to add a billing to
2. Click Actions and select Add Billing
   
3. In the Bill Patron dialog enter Billing Type (reason), Amount billed, and a note (optional but recommended)
   • Note: the original circulation and bill information in the pop-up header
4. Click Submit
   
5. The bill list entry will update to reflect the new bill amount and Last Billing Type

This can be used to clear a negative balance owed. To clear a negative balance owed, follow the above steps to add billing and enter the positive amount of the negative balance as the bill amount.

Full Details

displays circulation details, item details, all bill line items, and payments for the billing transaction

Bills Summary

Provides an overview of all outstanding bills, including:

• Total Owed - cumulative amount currently owed for all bills, if any refunds are available they will be subtracted from this amount
• Total Billed - total amount billed, prior to partial payments or available refunds
• Total Paid - total amount paid, this includes
• Refunds Available
• Credit Available
• Session Voided

Selected Bill Details

Provides details for a selected bill

• Owed for Selected
• Billed for Selected
• Paid for Selected
• Pending Payment - this fills in when a "Payment Received" amount is entered
• Pending Change - if the Payment Received amount entered is greater than the Owed for selected, this will calculate the amount of change to be returned

Pay Bill

1. Select Bills to pay
2. Select Payment Type
3. Enter Payment Received amount
4. Optional: click Annotate to add a payment note
5. Click Apply Payment

Payment Type

• Cash
• Check - activates Check Number field
• Credit Card
• Patron Credit - not enabled
• Work - use for Passthru payments
• Forgive
• Goods

"Passthru" payments for lost or damaged materials owned by another library

The "Passthru" process requires libraries to forward money collected for payment of Lost Materials, Damaged Materials, and related processing fees to the item owning library. Historically, these payments have been recorded in Evergreen using the "Passthru" payment type - this was a PLS customization changing the "Work" payment type label to Passthru. The web client no longer supports this label change. When recording Passthru payments, use the Work payment type. If your library uses the Cash Report, Passthru payments have always been counted as and displayed as Work payments.

Best practice for Passthru payments:

1. Select ONLY the lost/damaged material bill
2. Select the Work payment type
3. Enter the amount paid
   • If the patron is paying with a check, it must be addressed to the owning library
4. Click Annotate
5. Click Apply Payment
6. In the Annotatation popup, specify that the payment is a Passthru
7. Record the transaction/item/patron details and send with the payment to the owning library

Annotate

Check this option to trigger an option to add a note about the bill/payment transaction. This is helpful for forgiven bills, partially forgiven bills, or in any case in which there is some extenuating issue. Notes appear in the bill History. Notes also print to the default bill payment receipt.

Receipt on Payment / # of Copies

Check the Receipt on Payment option to automatically print a receipt. Once checked, this remains checked until un-checked.

Printing multiple copies / "# Copies" - does not currently work, only one receipt is printed. This is a known issue which is resolved in version 3.2 (anticipated upgrade September 2019).

Example default payment receipt:

Bill Full Details

Bill Patron

Create a manual bill, for an issue that is not linked to a billable transaction.

1. Click Bill Patron
2. Select the appropriate Billing Type
3. Enter the Amount
   • Some Billing Types have associated default values; if the default is not what your library uses, update to the correct amount
   • There is a known issue in where default amounts do NOT update when switching to a different billing type with different default
4. Add a Note
5. Click Submit Bill

Billing Type

• Bookdrop Fee - $1.00
• Card Replacement Fee
• Failure to Pickup Hold Fee - $1.00
• Failure to Rewind Fee - $1.00
• ILL Request Fee - $5.00
• Legacy Bills - DO NOT USE FOR NEW BILLS
• Manual Damaged Item
• Manual Damaged Item Processing Fee - $25.00
• Misc
• Out of System Library Card Fee - $25.00
• Postage - $0.60
• Returned Check - $25

History

Transactions

This lists all Bills applied to the account during the selected time frame. The list defaults to the current year to date, for example: 2017-08-08 through 2018-08-08. Use the Start Date calendar to look for older transactions. Click "Apply" to update the list.

Payments

This lists payments made to the account during the selected time frame.

Group Fines

Group fines are indicated in the patron's summary information panel, and reflect the combined fines owed by all members of the group. This is informational only. Group Fines in excess of the $5.00 limit do NOT block group members. The only group members who would be blocked are those whose individual fines exceed $5.00.

To view Group Members' individual fine amounts, view the Group Member Details.