Setting Patron Accounting Options

Certain Patron Services parameters control what options are available for handling financial transactions in patron accounts:

Credit for overpayment - Controls whether staff members can accept an overpayment on charges and place a credit on the patron’s account. The charges are paid, and the credit can then be carried on the account or refunded to the patron.
Distributed waives - Controls whether a specified waived amount can be deducted from every charge on the patron’s account. If a particular charge is greater than or equal to the waived amount, the specified waived amount is deducted from the charge. If a charge is less than the specified waived amount, no action is taken.
Account transaction deletion - Controls how long finished transactions are listed in the patron’s transaction summary. A deposit or charge transaction is considered finished when the outstanding amount is 0. Your settings for this parameter apply to all patrons registered at the branch. This setting also determines how long some patron account data from deleted patron records is saved for certain financial reports. See Retaining Financial Information for Deleted Patron Records.

These parameters can be set at the system, library, or branch level. At the system level, you can also set Polaris to waive fines automatically at check-out or renewal. You may want to waive fines automatically at check-out for items that are overdue on one patron’s account, but “recovered” when the item is being checked out to another patron. At renewal, you can set Polaris to waive the fine on an overdue item if the same patron is renewing the item.

Waive All Option in the Patron Status Workform - Account View

By default, the Waive All icon and shortcut key are available for use in the Patron Status workform - Account view. When the permissioned staff member clicks the icon, all of the patron’s fines are waived.

You can choose to make the Waive All icon and shortcut key unavailable for use. In Polaris Administration, set the Patron Services parameter Waive All displays to No. The parameter is available at the system, library, and branch levels. The system uses the setting of the workstation’s logged-on branch.

This setting makes the icon and shortcut key unavailable and prevents staff members from accidentally waiving all fines with a single click.

Note:
The Waive All displays parameter setting affects only the Waive All icon display and shortcut key function. It does not affect a staff member’s permission to waive fines.