Bills Tab
The Bills tab lists bills associated with a specific user or item. Display Options allow you to customize the bill information display.
The bills appear in a table format.
If you select a record or group of records and right-click, a circulation menu opens. From this menu, you can perform a variety of circulation tasks. See Right-click Menus.
User
When displaying a user’s bills, the Bills tab contains the following information for each bill.
| • | Amount Billed |
| • | Amount Owed |
| • | Bill Reason |
| • | Date Billed |
| • | Item ID |
| • | Note |
| • | Payment Library |
| • | Tax |
| • | Title |
| • | Unpaid Bills |
If the bill is associated with an item, item information will display in the glossary. This information includes Title, author, call number, copy number and item ID.
If the Deletion of Items with Bills feature is enabled and an item associated with a bill has been deleted from the catalog, the item ID field and all other item-specific entries for that item will be blank.
The glossary also shows bill information such as the amount of the bill, billing date, billing reason, number of payments, date notice sent, number of notices, amount still owed, date paid, billing library, and bill note, if the bill record has one.
Display of the Note field is controlled by the Show bill note property, which you can set in the Display User Wizard Properties. However, the Note field and anything it may contain always display in bill glossaries, regardless of how you have set the Show bill note property.
If the patron has made any payments on the bill, the payment due date, payment amount, payment library, and payment type are shown for each payment. If the bill is for an overdue item, the glossary shows the date the item was checked out, date it was due, date the item was renewed (if applicable), the date the item was recalled (if applicable), date the item was returned, and circulation rule. This information is useful if the patron questions the bill.
If the amount of the bill and amount the user still owes differ, either the user made a payment on the bill, or tax has been figured on the amount billed. The tax rate is set in the Circulation Tax policy that is associated with the Bill Reason policy.
Items
When displaying bills associated with an item, the Bills tab contains the following information.
| • | Bill Reason |
| • | Fine |
| • | Number of Bills |
| • | User ID |
| • | Name |
If an individual bill is selected from the list, the following information also displays.
| • | Amount Billed |
| • | Bill Library |
| • | Circ Rule |
| • | Date Billed |
| • | Date Charged |
| • | Date Due |
| • | Date Item Returned |
| • | Date Paid |
| • | Note |
| • | Number of Bills |
| • | Number of Payments |
| • | Payment Library |
| • | Tax |
| • | Transaction Date |
The following fields are defined for the Bills tab.
Total amount billed for an item or all of a patron’s items.
Total amount owed for an item or all of a patron’s items.
This field displays the library that created the bill. This field does not display in a single library system.
This required field describes why the user is being billed. SirsiDynix Symphony only recognizes reasons defined in your library’s policies.
The Circ Rule field contains the policy name of the primary Circulation Rule policy. When reserves are charged, SirsiDynix Symphony refers to the standard circulation rule value which was defined when the reserve control record was created.
Date an item was billed to the patron.
This field displays the date on which the item was most recently charged to the current user.
This field displays the date the displayed item was due back in the library.
This field displays the date the item was actually returned to the library.
This field displays the date the last bill was paid by the patron.
Amount of money a patron owes in library fines. Examples of fines include overdue fines, processing fees, fines for damage, lost item fees, or other types of fees as defined by library policies.
This field, sometimes referred to as barcode, uniquely identifies an item. The item ID can be up to 16 characters in length.
When creating an item, a temporary or automatic item ID may be assigned by SirsiDynix Symphony which can be modified or replaced later. SirsiDynix Symphony can assign the automatic item ID by entering AUTO into the item ID or barcode field or selecting it from the list, if available.
When searching an item with alphabetic characters, you may type your search in either upper or lower case.
Note: If an item associated with a bill has been deleted from the catalog, the item ID field and all other item-specific entries for that item will be blank.
This field can contain a note associated with the bill record.
You can edit this field using the Edit bill note right-click option, if you have enabled right-click options in the Configure Context Menu Policy under the Global Configuration policy.
If you do not have right-click options enabled, you can edit the this field using the Edit Bill Note button. For more information, see Display User Wizard.
Note: Display of the Note column is controlled by the Show bill note property, which you can set in the Display User Wizard Properties. However, in bill glossaries, the Note field and anything it may contain always display, regardless of how you have set the Show bill note property.
Number of bills on an item.
This is the number of payments that a patron has made on an item. You can have up to 50 payments on one bill.
This is the library that accepted payment for the bill.
This field contains the amount of tax calculated from the Amount Billed, which is included in the Amount Owed. Tax calculation is controlled by the Circulation Tax policy specified in the bill's Bill Reason policy. For more information, see Bill Reason Wizard.
Note: Display of this column is controlled by the Show bill tax property, which you can set in the Display User wizard properties. However, in bill glossaries, the Tax field and anything it may contain always display, regardless of how you have set the Show bill tax property.
The Title field contains an item’s main title, using initial capitalization. This field is cataloged using the 245 tag. In Acquisitions, titles related to order lines may be hyperlinked to more detailed bibliographic, volume, and copy information. The information that displays is the same information that prints on the purchase order.
This field contains the date of the checkin transaction (or actual checkin date), which will reflect the date the bill was created. This information is particularly useful when checking in bookdrop items where the checkin transaction is back-dated.
This field displays the number of unpaid bills and total amount the patron owes.
When creating the user ID, you have two options. You may assign the user ID, or you may allow SirsiDynix Symphony to automatically generate one.
Typically, libraries use random numbers associated with barcodes for unique user identification. Other alphanumeric characters, such as a driver’s license number, may also be entered according to the unique numbering or naming scheme established by the library. The user ID can be up to 20 characters in length.
You may be able to enter a user ID using the User Search helper or a User Search gadget.
This field displays user’s name. The display of the user’s name is configurable. By default, the Name field displays Last Name Suffix, First Name Middle Title. If the user’s Preferred Name is selected to display instead the the user’s first name, then the Name field displays Last Name, Suffix, Preferred Name Middle Title.