Bills
Sierra can generate the following types of bills:
- Replacement Bills
- The system generates a replacement bill when you mark an item lost or when a patron fails to return a checked-out item. For more information, see Billing Lost or Unreturned Items.
- Adjustment Bills
- The system generates an adjustment bill (a "corrected" bill) when an item is returned after a replacement bill has been issued. For more information, see Adjusting Charges for Returned Billed Items.
- Repeated Bills
- The system can generate a follow-up bill (referred to as a "repeated bill") if the patron has not paid it within a library-defined time period. For more information, see Sending Repeated Bills.
Sierra sends bills when you prepare and send the following notice types:
- Bills (replacement bills only)
- Adjustments (adjustment bills only)
- All Bills and Fines (replacement bills and adjustments)
- Repeated Bills (repeated bills only)
For more information, see the following:
- Setup and Functionality Information
- Customizing Bills
- Sending Repeated Bills
- Default Bill
- Example Default Bill
Setup and Functionality Information
- Positioning Item Information on the Bill
- The setting of the Fines/Bills: Where to print Bill Info circulation option determines the positioning of the item information on a bill.
- Printing Single or Multiple Items per Bill
- The setting of the Fines/Bills: Number of Items per Bill circulation option determines whether Sierra prints a single item or multiple items per bill. Note that Sierra groups items together on the same notice only when the items have the same value in the LOCATION fixed-length field.
- Customizing the Text of Bill Notices
- The following settings control which entry from the Text of Circulation Notices table prints on each type of bill:
If you have not defined a notice text for a particular bill type, the system does not generate that type of bill.Type of Bill How Text is Configured Replacement bills for unreturned items Msg Bill loan rule element Replacement bills for lost items Circulation option Fines/Bills: Text # for bill for lost book Adjustment bills Msg Adjustment loan rule element - Setting a Minimum Bill Amount for Printing
- The setting of the Fines/Bills: Minimum charge for fines notice to print circulation option specifies the minimum charge required for the system to print a bill. The system does not print bills for amounts lower than this value.
- Billing and the Collection Agency Report
- If your library has acquired the Collection Agency Report product and the product is configured to prevent the system from generating bills and overdue notices for patrons placed in a Collection Agency Report, the system does not print bills nor does it print overdue notices for patrons currently in collections.
Customizing Bills
Your library can customize bills as follows:
- Default Notice—The default bill is described below. If you choose to use the default notice, you can customize the bill notice text and specify whether the Borrowed At element prints. To configure the notice form used for all default notices, see Formatting Options for Default Notices.
- Print Templates—If your library has enabled the Print Templates feature, you can use the third-party Jaspersoft Studio application to create or modify the following print templates:
- Bills (including repeated bills)
- Adjustment Notices
- All Bills and Fines Notices
Sending Repeated Bills
You can send repeated bills to patrons who haven't paid the original bill within a library-specified time period. Sierra can send repeated bills for lost or unreturned items; adjustment bills are not supported.
To enable repeated bills:
- Configure the Notices: Repeated bills circulation option.
- If your library uses Print Templates, enable a template for the Repeated Bills output type. By default, Sierra uses a template from the Bills output type.
You can use different templates for repeated bills than for the original bill. Templates for repeated bills use the Bills Notice Data Library.
- Create a notices job using the Repeated Bills notice type. See Creating Circulation Notices for more information.
Sierra sends repeated bills when the following conditions are met:
- The original bill has been sent or printed already from the Notices function.
- The patron has not paid the bill in full.
- The repeated bill is eligible based on the Notices: Repeated bills circulation option. For example:
- The repeated bill does not exceed the maximum specified by the Number (of bills) setting.
- The time specified by the Interval (in days) setting has elapsed.
Default Bill
All bills contain the following fields in the bill's header or footer:
- Library Information
- The library's mailing address. The system obtains this information from the Address element of an entry in the Branch Addresses table. The system selects the entry that corresponds to the first item on the bill.
- Date
- The date on which the bill is printed.
- Patron Information
- Patron information includes the patron name and mailing address.
- Notice Text
- Text from the Text of Circulation Notices table. For information about how Sierra determines which text to print on a notice, see Customizing the Text of Bill Notices.
- NOTE
- The total amount owed from outstanding fines and bills for the patron.
- Text of Circulation Notices Number
- The number of the Notice Text in the Text of Circulation Notices table.
Each bill also contains information about the billed item(s). Depending on the setting of the Fines/Bills: Number of Items per Bill circulation option, the system can print a single item or multiple items per bill. The information that prints about each item differs depending on the number of items per bill.
Single Item per Bill
If there is a single item present on the bill, it has the following default elements:
- Borrowed At
- The statistics group number associated with the user who checked the item out. The system obtains this information from the OUT LOC fixed-length field. This optional element must be enabled by Innovative.
- Inv #
- The invoice number.
- AUTHOR
- The author of the unreturned item.
- TITLE
- The title of the unreturned item.
- LOCATION
- The branch to which the unreturned item belongs.
- CALL NO
- The call number of the unreturned item or, if the item record is deleted before the bill is printed, the item record number.
- BARCODE
- The unreturned item's barcode.
- CHECKED OUT
- The date on which the unreturned item was checked out to the patron.
- DUE
- The due date of the unreturned item.
- RETURNED
- The date on which the item was returned. This field contains data only if this is an adjustment bill.
- ITEM CHARGE
- The item replacement charge. See Calculating the Replacement Bill for further information.
- PROCESSING FEE
- The replacement cost to cover the library's expenses in acquiring and cataloging a replacement copy. See Calculating the Replacement Bill for further information.
- BILLING FEE
- The service charge added to the replacement cost and processing fee to cover the library's cost of preparing the replacement bill. See Calculating the Replacement Bill for further information.
Multiple Items per Bill
If there is more than one item per bill, each item listing is composed of two lines containing the following elements:
- ITEM
- Information about the unreturned item, including the title, author, barcode, reason for charge (that is, either "REPLACEMENT" or "ADJUSTMENT"), and the name of the branch to which the item belongs.
- AMOUNT
- The amount being charged for the unreturned item. See Calculating the Replacement Bill for further information.
Example Default Bill
Below are examples of bills when printed as a single item per bill and when more than one item is printed per bill.
Single Item per Bill
Main Library Fri April 27 1989 2344 Sixth Street Berkeley, CA 94710 Smith, John 1734 Spruce St. #6 Berkeley, CA 94709 The following charge is now due and payable. Please make payment to the cashier's office. Inv #1304 BILLING FEE FOR AUTHOR: Espey, John Jenkins 1913- TITLE: Tales out of school LOCATION: Main Library Biography CALL NO: PS3509.S535 T3 BARCODE: 3 5002 00007 3069 CHECKED OUT: Thu Mar 2 1989 DUE: Thu Apr 6 1989 RETURNED: Fri Apr 20 1989 ITEM CHARGE $ 0.00 PROCESSING FEE $ 0.00 BILLING FEE $15.00 NOTE: Total outstanding fines and bills $ 40.85 8
Multiple Items per Bill
Main Library Fri April 27 1989 2344 Sixth Street Berkeley, CA 94710 Smith, John 1734 Spruce St. #6 Berkeley, CA 94709 The following charge is now due and payable. Please make payment to the cashier's office. ITEM AMOUNT The hunt for red October / Tom Clancy REPLACEMENT Main Adult Fiction 3 5002 000007 3069 . ..$17.95 Valhalla Rising / Clive Cussler LOST Main Adult Fiction 3 3002 000005 2222 . . . . . .$17.95 NOTE: Total outstanding fines and bills $35.90 8