Overdue and replacement cost bills
Customer bills are regularly sent for each branch or institution for materials that customers have not returned. The settings for sending bills are configured by your library system. For more information, see Billing process per branch/organization.
Configuration options include:
- The number of days after the return date that an item qualifies for a bill
- Inclusion/exclusion of administrative fees on the bill
- Inclusion/exclusion of overdue fines/penalty on the bill
- Form settings and layout of bill
A bill for payment of unreturned items can be created:
- At the service desk
- Manually, adding items to the invoice process to be included on the next customer bill generation
- Overdue items, automatically included on the next customer bill generation
Overdue and replacement cost bills screen
All of the materials cost bills generated in the system can be viewed via Notifications > Bills > Overdue and replacement cost bills. The screen displays a list of bills and includes the following details:
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Owner | Owning branch code |
| Customer | Customer barcode number |
| Item | Item number for the item on the bill |
| Title | Title of the item on the bill |
| Return date | Date that the item was due |
| Billing date | Date when the bill was created |
| Bill | Amount charged to the customer |
| Price | Item price |
| Status | Billing status |
Materials bills can be generated in several ways and represent a few different notification types.
Materials bill, Direct replacement cost bill, and Replacement cost bill (NBB and NRB)
Items are added to an invoice via the Item details screen. For more information, see Include in billing procedure. The notification types associated with these bills are NBB and NRB.
Replacement cost bills are printed via customer accounts and unlike other notifications are printed on the local default printer. To print customer bills, see Print customer materials.
Direct replacement costs bills are processed for lost items that are reported directly to the circulation desk. To process a direct replacement cost bill:
- Navigate to the item detail screen of the item that is lost.
- Select Status > Create replacement cost bill.
- Select the appropriate customer from the drop-down menu.
- The material cost bill screen appears. Enter the cost of the item and any fines associated.
- Click OK to apply the bill to the account. An Invoice created message appears. Click OK.
- A message appears prompting you to print invoice(s) for the customer. To print, click Yes.
Manually include items in the billing procedure (NBE)
An item can be included in the billing procedure to be printed with the next billing run. These items are immediately included in the bill file and are immediately visible in the Replacement cost bills screen. The notification type associated with the printed items is NBE. For more information, see Process.
Overdue items (NBF)
Every 24 hours, all items in the system are checked for their status and due date. If an item is overdue, Wise will prepare the item for a reminder or bill. If the item is returned before the notification is printed, the item is removed from the next aggregate run from the notifications. The notification type associated with these reminders is NBF.
Overdue and replacement cost billing process
Aggregation
When the system runs its daily check on items and statuses, overdue items are included in the bill file. Items added to the bill file are given the status Preparation at this time.
Review
Bill lines must be manually checked and processed by library staff. Processing can be done in the following ways:
- The branch selects, processes, and prints invoices for its customers
- The branch selects bills, processing and printing is handled by a central branch
- The branch does nothing. Bills are selected, processed, and printed by the central branch
Note: The lines that appear in the Replacement cost bills window depend on your system configuration. You will only see lines that are managed by the logged in branch. For more information, contact your system administrator.
Bill lines are processed in the Bills screen, via Notifications > Bills > Overdue and replacement cost bills. Double-click on a column header to change the sort order of the lines. Bills that have not yet been reviewed by a library staff member display with the status Preparation. As bill lines are reviewed, they must be changed to status Selected.
To change a bill line status:
- Select the line(s) to update the status. Use ctrl+click to select multiple lines.
- Right-click on the line and choose Select bill(s). The status of the lines is updated to Selected and the line text changes to green.
To change a status from Selected or to make changes to the bill amount:
- Double-click on the line you want to change. A details window opens.
- To change the amount to bill, enter a different amount in the Amount to bill field.
- To change the status, select a different status from the Status list.
- Selected - If the status is changed to Selected, the bill will be printed. These lines appear in green font in the list.
- Not selected - If the status is changed to Not selected, the line is not processed. For example, the customer has contacted the library and you do not want to send them a bill. These lines appear in blue in the list.
- Do not process - When Do not process is selected, the bill is not processed and is removed from the list once the window is closed. These lines appear in black in the list.
Note: When this status is selected, library staff must also check in the item and discard it from the collection
- Click OK or use the Next or Previous buttons to change another line. The line is updated.
Customers with an address block
If the address of a customer is unknown, the customer is assigned an address block. Customers with an address block display with an asterisk (*) in front of the barcode in the Customer column. Once the bill line is checked, the selected bills are processed. It is up to your library to determine how to handle these bills, as they cannot be mailed to the customer.
Process
Once lines have been checked and bills are selected, the bills are processed. Depending on how your organization handles processing and printing, this action will be performed by your branch or by the central branch.
To process selected bill lines:
- Click Process selected bills. A process window opens, indicating which invoices will be processed and printed.
Note: Processing means not only preparing for printing, but also making an entry for the items in the customer record.
-
Click OK. A confirmation message appears that the bills are ready to print.
Caution: As soon as a selected bill is processed, you can not make additional changes to the bill.
Prepare for printing and print selected bills
After bills are selected and processed, they appear in the Prepare notifications for printing screen, where they can be prepared and sent for printing via the Print notification screen.
Note: If bills are sent via email, this step is not necessary. Email messages are processed during the next run of the notamail job.