Billing Structure Wizard
Whenever SirsiDynix Symphony performs automatic billing, the base fee used to calculate the bill comes from a Billing Structure policy. Automatic billing may be activated for the following items and activities.
| • | Overdue items |
| • | Recalled overdue items |
| • | Placing a hold |
| • | Charging an item |
Billing Structure policies determine what fines, if any, are associated with a circulation transaction. A Billing Structure policy is an attribute of the Circulation Rule policy, which in turn is an attribute of the Map policy. With any circulation transaction, the Map policy is examined to determine which Circulation Rule should be used for this combination of User Profile, Item Type, and Library policies. Once the Circulation Rule that governs the transaction has been identified, the Billing Structure in the Circulation Rule is examined to determine if any fines or fees are involved.
All of the fees in a Billing Structure appear in dollars and cents. Any fee can be set to zero. That is, there would be no bill automatically produced for that category (for instance, an overdue fee of zero would cause no fine for an overdue item).
Some libraries prefer to suspend a user’s privilege for overdue items rather than bill the user. Privilege suspension periods can be defined in Billing Structure policies.
From List Policies window, you can create, display, modify, copy, or remove the Billing Structure policies. Click Close to exit the wizard.
Attributes
The Billing Structure wizard includes the following attributes.
| • | Name |
| • | Description |
| • | Maximum Fee |
| • | Flat Overdue Fee Structure |
| • | Graduated Overdue Fee Structure |
| • | User Suspended For |
| • | Suspension Unit |
| • | Maximum Suspension Amount |
| • | Recall Fee |
| • | Recall Type |
| • | Hold Fulfillment Fee |
| • | Fee for Checking Out an Item |
This attribute uniquely identifies a specific Billing Structure policy. This name is ten characters or less, and may not include spaces or punctuation, except for dash (-), underscore (_), and dollar sign ($). Additionally, the pipe character (|) may not be used.
This attribute provides more information about the policy and its use by the library. The description may be up to 60 characters in length. Although the Description attribute may contain spaces and punctuation, the pipe character (|) cannot be used.
General
This fee indicates the highest amount that may be billed for an overdue/recalled item. If the overdue or recall fine for a particular item exceeds this maximum, then only the amount of the maximum fee will be billed.
You also have the option to use the Price of a given item as its maximum fee. Select one of the following options to configure the maximum fee:
| • | Use maximum fee as maximum fee amount—When this option is selected, SirsiDynix Symphony uses the money amount specified in this Billing Structure policy's Maximum Fee field as the maximum fee for every item affected by this Billing Structure policy. This option is selected by default. |
| • | Use higher value between item price and maximum fee as maximum fee amount—When this option is selected, SirsiDynix Symphony uses whichever money amount is higher between the item's price and the money value in this Billing Structure policy's Maximum Fee field as the maximum fee for the item. For example, if an item's price is $10.00 and the Maximum Fee value is $5.00, and this option is selected in the applicable Billing Structure policy, SirsiDynix Symphony would use the $10.00 amount as the maximum fee for an overdue bill. |
| • | Use lower value between item price and maximum fee as maximum fee amount—When this option is selected, SirsiDynix Symphony uses whichever money amount is lower between the item's price and the money value in this Billing Structure policy's Maximum Fee field as the maximum fee for the item. For example, if an item's price is $5.00 and the Maximum Fee value is $10.00, and this option is selected in the applicable Billing Structure policy, SirsiDynix Symphony would use the $5.00 amount as the maximum fee for an overdue bill. |
However, if either the item's price or the Maximum Fee values are 0, SirsiDynix Symphony uses the nonzero value if there is no Default Price policy associated with the item's Item Type policy; if there is a Default Price policy associated with the item's Item Type, SirsiDynix Symphony checks the policy's Default Price value and compares it to the nonzero value between the item's price or the Maximum Fee value. For example, if the item price is $0.00 and the Maximum Fee is $10.00, the maximum overdue bill amount would be $10.00 (assuming no Default Price policy for the item's Item Type exists). If a Default Price policy for the item's Item Type policy does exist, and the policy's Default Price is greater than $0.00 and less than $10.00, the maximum fee for the item would be the Default Price policy's money amount.
| • | Use item price as maximum fee amount—When this option is selected, SirsiDynix Symphony uses the money amount specified in the item's Price field as the maximum fee for each item affected by this Billing Structure policy. The Maximum Fee value of the Billing Structure policy is ignored. For example, if the item's price is $0.00, SirsiDynix Symphony uses the Default Price amount in the associated Default Price policy as the maximum value of the overdue bill. If there is no Default Price policy associated with the item's Item Type policy, then an item with a price of $0.00 would result in an overdue bill with no maximum value. |
Note: For the Use higher value and Use lower value options, if the item's price is 0 or if the associated Default Price policy's "Use default price" attribute is enabled, SirsiDynix Symphony uses the value in the Default Price policy's "Default Price" field in place of the item's price when comparing against the Billing Structure policy's "Maximum Fee" amount.
Important: If, after following the selected rule to determine a final Maximum Fee, the resulting Maximum Fee is 0, then fines for that item can accrue indefinitely with no maximum.
Overdue Checkouts
The Billing Structure policies can be used to suspend a user’s privilege or assess fees and fines. Depending on which radio button you click, different attributes of the Billing Structure policy appear.
Clicking the Bill radio button displays the following attributes.
If you click the Flat Overdue Fee Structure radio button, you can define a fixed overdue fee rule by typing a monetary amount in the Accrue box. Fees can be accrued in either Hourly, Daily, Monthly, or Weekly increments; select one.
Example A library wants to define a fixed overdue fee rule where the patron is fined $0.10 per day. Only one overdue fee rule is created with an Overdue Fee field value of $0.10, an Accrue Fine field value of Daily, the Limited field disabled, and a Period Count field value of zero. If a patron has an item three days overdue, the overdue fee will be $0.30.
Graduated Overdue Fee Structure
If you click the Graduated Overdue Fee Structure radio button, you can define a graduated overdue fee rule. Type a monetary amount in the Accrue box. Select an accrual increment of Hourly, Daily, Monthly, or Weekly. Select the Number of Periods At This Rate radio button, then type a number. Click the Insert Row After helper. Type a monetary amount, then click the Use This Rate Until Maximum Fee Is Reached radio button. The order of graduated overdue fee rules is important. Use the Insert Row Before, Insert Row After, or Delete Row helpers to organize graduated overdue fee rules.
For example, a library wants to define graduated overdue fee rules where the patron is fined $1.00 per week for the first two weeks, then $0.50 per day thereafter. The first rule contains an accrue value of $1.00 with an accrual increment of Weekly, the Number of Periods At This Rate radio button is selected, and the number of periods is 2. The second rule contains an accrue value of $0.50, an accrual increment of Daily, and the Use This Rate Until Maximum Fee Is Reached radio button is selected.
It is possible to define an overdue fee of $0.00 for a limited period. You may wish to do this in order to provide a “no fine” period at the beginning of an overdue period.
Note: This is not the same as a grace period, because at the end of the grace period, the grace period days are included in the accrual of the overdue fee; additionally, grace periods skip the days that the library is closed.
However, if the graduated overdue fee is defined as $0.00 per day for the first three days, and then $0.10 per day thereafter, the first three days are never fined. In addition, days the library is closed are skipped when a graduated overdue fee is set to $0.00 for the first three days.
Clicking the Privilege Suspend radio button displays the following attributes.
This attribute is used to calculate how long a user’s privilege is suspended. Use the Minimum/Maximum gadget to select the quantity of suspension units.
A user’s privilege can be suspended in daily, monthly, or weekly increments. Click one. The number of units is defined in the User Suspended For attribute.
This attribute defines the Maximum Suspension amount of time a user can be suspended for a single item. This indicates the largest suspension period that may be accrued for an overdue item. If the suspension period for an overdue item exceeds the maximum, then the Maximum Suspension will be used. Type a maximum number, or use the Minimum/Maximum gadget to select a number.
If a user’s Maximum Suspension (which is defined in the User Profile policy) is less than the Maximum Suspension defined in the Billing Structure, the suspension will be reduced to the maximum defined in the user’s profile.
For example, the Maximum Suspension for overdue books is 30 days. ADULT and JUVENILE users will have their privileges suspended for up to 30 days for overdue books, since the ADULT and JUVENILE user profiles have a Maximum Suspension of 30 days. However, the Maximum Suspension for LIBSTAFF users is 14 days. If a LIBSTAFF user has overdue books, her privilege can be suspended for only up to 14 days, rather than the 30 days defined in the Billing Structure.
A Billing Structure cannot be used to bill for overdue item type in some instances and suspend for the same item type in other instances. However, a user may be automatically billed for some overdue item types, yet suspended for different overdue item types. For instance, a JUVENILE user could be billed for overdue books, but suspended for overdue videos. This is configured in the circulation map. For more information, go to FAQs: Suspending a User’s Loan Privileges.
Overdue Recall Billing
Recall fees accrue from the end of the recall grace period. If no recall grace period is defined, the recall fees accrue from the date the item was recalled. Recall fees may or may not be in addition to overdue fees, depending on whether the item is overdue when returned. Type a recall fee amount. How often the recall fee is applied depends on the Recall Type attribute.
Note: Graduated overdue fee rules are not supported for recall fees.
The Recall Type attribute specifies how often the recall fee is applied to recalled items. Click Hourly, Daily, Monthly, or Weekly; however, the Monthly or Weekly recall types are rarely used.
Transaction Fee Billing
This fee is the bill amount when an item is charged to a user who has requested a hold for the item. A hold fulfillment fee might be appropriate to cover the handling and postage involved in notifying the user that the held item is now available and waiting at the library. Type a hold fulfillment fee amount.
If a user should be billed on a per charge basis, the Charge Fee attribute is the bill amount when an item is charged. For instance, if the user is not a member of the core service group of the library, the Billing Structure in that user’s profile might show a charge fee of one dollar. The user is billed one dollar when an item is checked out. Type a charge fee amount.
Related topics
Circulation Configuration Wizards