E-Commerce with Class Point of Sale

Active Payment Manager (Class Point of Sale) manages cash, check, and credit card payments for the library and other agencies in the network. When a payment is made through Class POS (from the Polaris staff client or by credit card from PAC), the transaction is recorded in the patron’s account in Polaris.

Note:
If you are working in the Polaris staff client, you may be able to take credit card payments in Class Point of Sale, but processing takes place entirely within Class Point of Sale.

All system-defined Polaris fee reason codes (that is, codes equal to or less than 0) must be entered in the Class POS application as the “Third Party ID” for the corresponding Class POS item. Your Polaris Site Manager assists you in setting up these entries. This ensures that when a staff member selects an overdue item charge to pay in Polaris, for example, the Class POS software also identifies the reason for payment as overdue item.

Class POS software must be installed with the Polaris staff client on the workstation, but staff members do not need to start Class POS. You are prompted to log on to Class POS only once, at the first payment action in the Polaris staff client session.

You can take payments for overdue charges from the Patron Status workform - Account view or from the Check In workform. The Class POS interface automatically opens, and you can make the payment according to the library’s policies. Payments for billed and lost items must be made from the Patron Status workform - Account view.

Note:
When you pay from the Check In workform, but cancel the transaction in Class POS, the charge remains on the patron’s account but does not appear again on the Check In workform. At this point, you must pay the charge from the Patron Status workform - Account view.

Payment transactions at check-out and at check-in from the item record workform are not integrated with Class POS, so you may want to set the system-level Circulation permission Fines: pay fines at circ so that staff are not allowed to pay fines through Polaris in these situations. Instead, the staff member creates a charge during the transaction, and then pays the charge from the Patron Status workform - Account view. For example, if the Overdue Fine dialog box appears at renewal, and the patron wants to pay the fine, the staff member selects Charge Account in the Overdue Fine dialog box, then pays the charge from the Patron Status workform - Account view. If the Patron Status workform - Account view is already open, you can refresh the workform (F5) to see and pay the charge. You can also refund a credit through Class POS from the Patron Status workform - Account view. When the Refund function is selected, the Class POS application is launched to process the refund and the transaction is recorded in both Class POS and Polaris. For more information about refunding a credit Refund a credit amount.

Class POS does not handle payments from patron account credits or deposits. If your library relies on Class POS software and POS reports to reconcile the cash drawer with patron account transactions, you may want to prohibit deposit transactions in Polaris.

Important:
The effective interaction between Polaris and Class POS rests on charges, payments, and credit refunds being initiated in Polaris. It is possible to configure the Class POS interface independently of Polaris, and add options that might initiate a payment, charge, or refund from Class POS. However, Polaris interacts with Class POS as a payment manager only. For example, charges initiated and paid in Class POS can result in a credit transaction in the Polaris patron record that has no history in the Polaris database.

Polaris waive transactions are unaffected by the use of Class POS, and they are not registered or reported in Class POS.

You can accept credit card payments from the PAC through Class POS. To set up Polaris for Class POS credit card processing, you will need the following information from your Class POS representative: the URL to the Class online payment page for your site and the Class POS database identifier (Item ID) for online library fine payments.