Setting Replacement Fee Defaults

When a patron must be charged to replace a lost, damaged, or long overdue item, Polaris can use the original price of the item or a default cost set by library policy. If the item’s original price is unknown (the Price box on the Item Record workform is blank), the default replacement cost is used. (If the item’s price was $0.00, no replacement cost is charged.) You may choose to use the default replacement cost for every item, whether the original price is known or not. In addition, you can specify a processing fee that is added to the replacement cost. You can set separate replacement costs and processing fees for each material type.

The Patron Services parameter Replacement fee options controls default cost settings. You can set the parameter at the system level, library, or branch level. When an item is manually declared lost, or is automatically declared lost when it is billed, the Replacement fee options settings for the item’s assigned branch are used. The settings for the governing branch for fine calculations are used to calculate the overdue fine, if any. See Defining Fines and Fees.