Fines Display
Throughout the system, you can view information about the fines a patron owes and has paid. For example, you can view information about a patron's outstanding fines from the patron record's Fines tab. You can also view the same information from the Current Fines and Charges screen in Express Lane and the View Your Patron Record form in the WebPAC.
Printing Outstanding Fine Information
You can use the Circulation function to print a statement documenting the outstanding fines a patron owes. For information on the elements that appear on this printed statement, see Printing Patron Fine Information.
Fines share common data elements that can appear in different contexts throughout the system. The lists below describe the data elements shared by all fines and the fields that are specific to paid fines.
All Fines
All fines have the following data elements:
- Invoice
- An ID number between 1 and 999999 generated by the system when adding the fine to the patron's record. If the fine has been reinstated, the system displays both the reinstated fine's invoice number and the previous fine's invoice number.
- Title/Description
- The TITLE field from the fined item's bibliographic record, or for charges with type Manual, the reason the fine was assessed.
- Charge Type
- The type of fine assessed. Possible charge types are:
- Lost
- A bill for an item that the patron reported as lost.
- Manual
- A charge added manually to the patron's record instead of generated automatically by the system.
- Notice
- A charge assessed for sending a printed overdue notice to a patron. The amount of this charge is specified by the circulation option Notices: Amount and ptypes for overdue notice charge.
- Overdue
- A charge assessed by the system when a patron returns an overdue item.
- Overdue Renewal
- A charge assessed when a patron renews an overdue item. Appears as "Renewed" or simply "Overdue" in some displays.
- OverdueX
- The remaining charge after a replacement bill (charge type Replacement or Lost) has been adjusted. Appears as "Adjustment" in some displays.
- Rental
- A charge for checking out a rental item.
- RentalX
- The adjusted charge assessed when a patron returns a billed rental item.
- Replacement
- A replacement bill for an item that the patron either did not return after receiving the maximum number of overdue notices defined in the loan rule or that the patron damaged (see the Mark Damaged And Add Bill option).
- Request
- A charge assessed when a patron places a request in the WebPAC. The amount of this charge is specified by the Requests: Amount to charge OPAC option.
- Charge Location
- A location code from the Branches table. For manual fines, the charge location is selected by the user when adding the charge to the patron's record. For all other charge types, the charge location is the value from the LOCATION fixed-length field in the item record.
- Date Assessed
- The date the fine was added to the patron's record (for example, the date the item was returned if the charge is an overdue fine, or the date a bill was generated if the charge is a replacement bill). For reinstated fines, this element displays the date the fine was reinstated.
- Creation Method
- The method used to create the fine. Possible creations methods are Manual (for charge types Manual and Lost), Adjustment (for adjusted fines), and Automatic (for all other fines).
- Item Charge
- A portion of the charge owed by the patron. For bills (charge type Lost or Replacement), see How Sierra Calculates the Amount to Bill for information about how the item charge is calculated. For adjustments (charge type OverdueX or RentalX), this element is blank. For all other charge types, the Item Cost element is the total amount of the charge assessed to the patron.
- Processing Fee
- A portion of the charge owed by the patron. For bills (charge type Lost or Replacement), see How Sierra Calculates the Amount to Bill for information about how the processing fee is calculated. For all other charge types, the Processing Fee element is set to 0. Note that if the General Sales Tax feature is enabled, the General Sales Tax element replaces this element.
- Billing Fee
- A portion of the charge owed by the patron. For bills (charge type Lost or Replacement), see How Sierra Calculates the Amount to Bill for information about how the billing fee is calculated. For adjustments (charge type OverdueX or RentalX), this element contains the full amount of the charge. For all other charge types, the Billing Fee element is set to '0'.
- General Sales Tax
- The amount of the General Sales Tax included in the fine, if any. This element displays when the General Sales Tax feature is enabled and for charges with type Replacement, Lost, and Manual only. Note that for bills (charge type Lost or Replacement), this element replaces the Processing Fee element of the charge.
Paid Fines Only
Paid fines contain all of the same data elements as unpaid fines, plus the following additional elements related to the payment:
- Amount Paid
- The amount paid by the patron during the selected payment. This element is blank for entries with payment status "Adjustment" or "Waive".
- Date Paid
- The date the selected fine was paid or waived.
- Login
- The login of the staff member who collected or paid the fine.
- Payment Note
- A payment note entered when the fine was paid, waived, or adjusted, if the Fine Payment Data feature is enabled.
- Payment Status
- A description of how the fine was removed from the patron's record. Possible payment statuses are:
- Full Payment
- The fine was paid in full.
- Partial Payment
- Staff collected a partial payment, then left the balance on the patron's record.
- Waive
- The fine was waived.
- Purge
- The fine was purged.
- Adjustment
- No payment was collected; the entry represents a manual adjustment.
- No Payment
- No payment was collected; the entry represents an automatic bill adjustment (charge type OverdueX or RentalX).
- Payment Type
- The payment type selected from the Payment Types table when the fine was paid or waived within the Sierra system, if the Fine Payment Data feature is enabled. If the fine was paid via Ecommerce in WebPAC or (Sierra 6.3 and later) Vega Discover, this element displays Ecommerce. No payment type is set for fines paid via any other method (for example, Fines Payment Web Service or by globally purging charges).
- Statistics Group
- The statistics group number of the login at which the fine was paid or waived.