Bill a Charge Manually to a Patron Account

You can manually bill patrons for charges related to lost items, missing parts, or other fees. When you add a new charge or select an existing unbilled charge and select the Send a bill option, the charge appears in a separate section on the patron's billing notice. Charges previously billed to the patron cannot be manually billed. To bill a charge when you declare an item lost, see Declare an Item Lost.

To bill a charge manually:

Note:
You require the permission Bill a charge manually (available at the Branch level), in addition to the existing permissions, Access patron account and Modify patron account.

1. Open the Patron Status workform and go to the Account view.
2. Do one of the following depending on whether you are adding a new charge and billing for it or billing for an existing unbilled charge:
   • Add a charge to the patron's account. See Create a Charge from the Patron Account View
   • Select an existing unbilled charge on the Patron Status workform, Account view, and select , press Alt+B, or right-click and select Bill.
3. Select the Send a bill check box on the Charge dialog box.

When the Send a bill check box is selected, the dialog box expands displaying the default Added message: Your library account has been billed for this charge. This default message can be edited in WebAdmin. Or, you can edit the existing message by typing a new message in the Added message box. If you add a note from the Special Item Check-in dialog box when checking in a Claim Missing Part item, the edited text appears instead of the default text.

The Patron Status workform, Account view is updated with Pending in the Billed column

Manually billed charges are included in existing billing notices on all bill types (print, email, and text message) in a new section with a separate header. The billed charges are processed during overnight notices processing, and the notices are sent out according to the library's notification settings in Polaris Administration and the patron's preferences.

When notice processing has run, the Billed column on the patron record is updated from Pending to Billed, and the notice history is updated showing the charge was billed. If the charge is associated with a title, the title and material type displays. If the charge is not associated with a title, the reason for the charge (postage, printing, etc.) is listed instead of the title and the material type is blank.