Fines and Bills
See Grand Rapids Public Library Training Documents for a list of all Evergreen training topics.
Contents |
Fines and Bills Overview
Evergreen assess overdue fines automatically based on the item's loan rules. Evergreen offers two ways to create bills in a patron record:
- Automatically - Once an overdue item reaches a threshhold or when staff mark an item as lost or damaged, Evergreen bills the patron for the cost of the item.
- Manually - You can manually add a bill to the patron record for lost, damaged, or missing materials.
- Full Details of a bill displays an item summary, charges, and payments on individual items.
- Add Billing allows you to add additional fees to an item.
- Void All Billings will waive all fees for that item.
- Items in red are still checked out.
Lost Items
After logging in to the staff client, to find a patron by library card number press F1 or click Search >for Patron by Barcode.
- Retrieve your Patron by scanning or typing their library card number into the green box and clicking Submit or hit Enter. Scanned library card numbers automatically include Enter. You'll see the patron's record.
- If a patron’s library card number is unavailable, press F4 or click Search >for Patrons. See Patron Search for more information.
- From within the patron record, click Items Out at the top of the record.
- Click the item the patron wishes to declare lost, click Actions for Selected Items, and click Mark Lost (By Patron). You can also right click the item and click Mark Lost (By Patron).
- Evergreen will bill the patron for the cost of the item.
If the patron finds the lost item, staff will need to Void the Billing, refund the payment, and/or assess overdue fines according to circulation policy.
Claims Returned
After logging in to the staff client, to find a patron by library card number press F1 or click Search >for Patron by Barcode.
- Retrieve your Patron by scanning or typing their library card number into the green box and clicking Submit or hit Enter. Scanned library card numbers automatically include Enter. You'll see the patron's record.
- If a patron’s library card number is unavailable, press F4 or click Search >for Patrons. See Patron Search for more information.
- From within the patron record, click Items Out at the top of the record.
- Click the item the patron wishes to claim returned, click Actions for Selected Items, and click Mark Claimed Returned. You can also right click the item and click Mark Claimed Returned.
- Evergreen prompts you to enter a claimed returned date.
Damaged Items
After logging in to the staff client, to find a patron by library card number press F1 or click Search >for Patron by Barcode.
- Retrieve your Patron by scanning or typing their library card number into the green box and clicking Submit or hit Enter. Scanned library card numbers automatically include Enter. You'll see the patron's record.
- If a patron’s library card number is unavailable, press F4 or click Search >for Patrons. See Patron Search for more information.
- If the patron is unknown, retrieve the last patron through and Item Status search.
- From within the patron record, click Items Out at the top of the record.
- Click the item the patron damaged, click Actions for Selected Items, and click Add Billing. You can also right click the item and click Add Billing.
- Evergreen asks you to add a fee and a note.
- Set the Billing Type as Damaged material.
- Enter the Amount for the damages according to circulation policy.
- Add a standard Note regarding the fee.
- Click Submit this Bill.
Last Patron
You can retrieve the last patron to check out an item two ways. After logging in to the staff client, press F5 or click Search >for copies by Barcode.
- Search your item barcode.
- Click Actions for Selected Items and Show Item Details or right click on the item and click Show Item Details.
You can also view the item in the catalog using the staff client. Press F3 or click Search >the Catalog, then, from the item record, you can link to the Item Details through Copy Info
- Click Details and then Copy Info.
Whichever way you search, an Item Details window pops up with information on holds, transits, and last circulation.
- Last Circulation displays the last patron to check out the item.
- Add Billing is useful for damaged items.
- Retrieve Last Patron is useful for finding out further information about the last patron.
Creating a Bill
After logging in to the staff client, to find a patron by library card number press F1 or click Search >for Patron by Barcode.
- Retrieve your Patron by scanning or typing their library card number into the green box and clicking Submit or hit Enter. Scanned library card numbers automatically include Enter. You'll see the patron's record.
- If a patron’s library card number is unavailable, press F4 or click Search >for Patrons. See Patron Search for more information.
- From within the patron record, click Bills at the top of the record.
- Click Bill Patron.
- Evergreen asks you to add a fee and a note.
- Transaction Type is stuck on Grocery for some reason.
- Set the Billing Type appropriately.
- Enter the Amount of the bill.
- Add a standard Note regarding the bill.
- Click Submit this Bill.
Editing a Bill
After logging in to the staff client, to find a patron by library card number press F1 or click Search >for Patron by Barcode.
- Retrieve your Patron by scanning or typing their library card number into the green box and clicking Submit or hit Enter. Scanned library card numbers automatically include Enter. You'll see the patron's record.
- If a patron’s library card number is unavailable, press F4 or click Search >for Patrons. See Patron Search for more information.
- From within the patron record, click Bills at the top of the record.
- Click Add Billing for the bill you wish to edit.
- Evergreen asks you to add a fee and a note.
- Transaction Type remains the same as the original bill.
- Set the Billing Type appropriately.
- Enter the Amount of the bill.
- Add a standard Note regarding the bill.
- Click Submit this Bill.
Add Billing looks very similar to Bill Patron with the exception of added information regarding the bill’s history. For more details on the bill’s history, click Full Details.
Paying Fines and Bills
After logging in to the staff client, to find a patron by library card number press F1 or click Search >for Patron by Barcode.
- Retrieve your Patron by scanning or typing their library card number into the green box and clicking Submit or hit Enter. Scanned library card numbers automatically include Enter. You'll see the patron's record.
- If a patron’s library card number is unavailable, press F4 or click Search >for Patrons. See Patron Search for more information.
- From within the patron record, click Bills at the top of the record.
- Select the bills the patron wishes to pay.
- Select the Payment Type: Cash, Check, Credit Card, Work, Forgive, or Goods.
- Enter Payment Received.
- Click Apply Payment.
- Check Annotate Payment if you wish to add a note regarding this payment.
- Check Auto-Print if you wish the receipt to automatically print.
- If you wish to apply partial payment to multiple specific items, it's easiest to apply each payment individually.
- Find your patron's bill and payment history under History.
Fines and Bills History
After logging in to the staff client, to find a patron by library card number press F1 or click Search >for Patron by Barcode.
- Retrieve your Patron by scanning or typing their library card number into the green box and clicking Submit or hit Enter. Scanned library card numbers automatically include Enter. You'll see the patron's record.
- If a patron’s library card number is unavailable, press F4 or click Search >for Patrons. See Patron Search for more information.
Staff will find the fines and bills history in two locations in the patron's record in the staff client.
- Under Items Out Evergreen lists Lost, Claimed Returned, Long Overdue, and Unpaid Billings, if any.
- Under Bills, History provides an overview of all bills and any payments on them. Click Full Details in either the Bill History window or the main Bills tab for a full account of a specific bill.
Patrons will find some history of their fines and bills in Fines under My Account in the public catalog
