Alma
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29 results found
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Alma Withdrawal Option
Our library needs the Withdraw function in Alma. We request a Deposit when we lend particularly valuable items. After the reader returns the book, the Deposit should be refunded. And this option is not available in Alma. There is a Pay option, but there is no Withdraw/Refund function, and we would like to be able to settle all financial matters in Alma (and not use external fiscal programs / cash registers).
157 votes -
Fines and Fees report Excel output is dumb
Okay, in what universe does having the Fines and Fees report output the money amounts as text make any sense?
It just adds extra steps if you want to work with it - first convert that text back into numbers, then format it as currency.
It should be exported that way to begin with.
153 votes -
Bulk waiving by date
Currently we are unable to do bulk waives within set dates, for example - 01/04/2020 - 02/09/2020. We need to run bulk waives on fines accrued during lockdown periods.
119 votes -
Limit fine/fee payment to specific library
One of our satellite libraries would like restrict payment of fines/fees for their materials to them -- we have separate accounting and budgets.
65 votes -
Optimisation of reminders and overdue letters (anti-phishing)
The reminders and reminder letters sent to patrons currently often end up in upstream spam filters of the mail providers. If this is not the case, we regularly receive feedback that they considered some of the automated notifications to be spam or phishing mails.
On the one hand, we would like to be able to optimise the automated notifications so that they are less automatically classified as spam according to today's standards. Ideally, Alma would already take common standards into account. On the other hand, we would like to see the possibility to personalise the notifications more and, for example,…
57 votes -
The Lost item process fee (aka Lost item fine) should be automatically removed when an item is found.
The Lost item process fee (aka Lost item fine) should be refunded when an item is found. Currently, only the Lost Item Replacement Fee is refunded. This requires staff intervention, having to manually waive the fine. This is not always caught when books are returned through the drop slot, for example. It causes confusion for both patrons and staff when a fine remains on a patron's account for an item that has been found.
56 votes -
Make the amount of a user account's TOTAL outstanding fees a feature in the Fines/Fees Notification Profiles
Presently, the amount-for-user-limit in the Fines/Fees Notification Profiles targets only those accounts with fees of the selected trigger fee type(s) that are all - BY THEMSELVES - in a certain range, let's say between 1 and 25 Euros. We want to be able to select fees of a certain fee type and a certain creation period to trigger a notification, but ONLY, if the TOTAL SUM of outstanding fees amounts to a certain sum. Thus, we could decide to send letters to heavily indebted accounts and e-mails to accounts that owe not much.
A second, immensely helpful improvement of the…
47 votes -
Allow Bulk Fine Waiving via a set of Fine Fee IDs
By state law we are not supposed to carry fines over 5 years old in our system. Currently dates do not enter into the Bulk Fine Waiving process in Alma. I need to waive fines that are older than a particular date.
I can generate a list of Fine Fee IDs matching my criteria to waive. I need to be able to bulk waive fines in a particular set of Fine Fee IDs. I have over 7000 needing to be waived already!
Thanks for your consideration.
45 votes -
Ability to View Fines/Fees Transactions History from Fines/Fees Section of Patron Account
Currently the Fines/Fees tab of a patron's account shows current or historical fines and fees, and the user has to click on each individual fine to see whether it was paid, waived, etc. It would be helpful to have a Fines/Fees Transactions History in the patron account, where a user could easily view the history of all payments and waives performed on the account by date.
32 votes -
Fines and Fees - Overdue fines for item not to exceed cost of overdue item
The maximum fine parameter in Alma only offers a choice between no maximum fine or a specific dollar amount that applies to everything. Would like an additional parameter to limit overdue fines for an item from exceeding cost of overdue item.
31 votes -
Add Note Option for Fines/Fees
We have several short-loan items that our patrons check out, and these items often generate small fines that are difficult to track whether or not a fine is legitimate, or if there may have been operator error.
For example, we circulate study rooms where a student may check out the room key, and a box of white board markers or a television remote. If the student returns the room key and white board markers on time, but not the remote, it's difficult to tell if that's valid.
Solution: Rather than emailing all staff that may need to interact with that…
27 votes -
Online payment - Transaction ID optional
Actually, when choosing Online as payment method, the transaction ID is mandatory. We would like it to be optional, for our staff to be able to validate a payment without having to fill out this ID when on the circulation desk.
27 votes -
Allow Fines API to return closed fees in the /users/<userID>/fees/<feeID> endpoint
Something I have noticed is that the fines API has strange behavior when it comes to returning data. /users/<userID>/fees will return only fines for a certain status supplied in the query params, which defaults to active. This makes sense and is fine, but what doesn't make sense is that /users/<userID>/fees/<feeID> doesn't return closed (paid) fees. It returns this error message
{
"errorsExist": true,
"errorList": {
"error": [
{
"errorCode": "401873",
"errorMessage": "Request failed: API does not support closed fees.",
"trackingId": "E01-1412050816-2AZKJ-AWAE514295771"
}
]
},
"result": null
}This is fairly strange, I would have expected for the fine to still…
21 votes -
Further define credits for patron fines
Fines often get exported through Bursar before a patron disputes them. Our lost item replacement fees and overdue fines get funneled into different accounts. The vague description for "credit" does not give our system any way to determine which account the credit should be adjusted from. (For example: A lost item replacement fee charge ends up in our materials budget once sent to the Bursar. The majority of credits are for materials returned after they were billed, so this is our default credit account. Since all credits are just defined as a "credit" when exported to the Bursar, credits for…
21 votes -
Receipt for waived fees
Customers sometimes want a receipt for waived fees. Currently that's not possible within ALMA.
20 votes -
Add Fine/Fee ID and Transaction ID columns to User Details Fines/Fees tab
In the Fines/Fees tab of the User Details screen add Fine/Fee ID and Transaction ID to the list of columns that staff can choose to display. Currently the Fine/Fee ID and Transaction ID is only accessible via an Analytics report and thus aren’t available until the next day after any updates to the user’s fine/fees occur. Our staff need these IDs when troubleshooting fine/fee problems which means that users are negatively impacted by the Analytics lag time.
15 votes -
Immediate notification of fine/fee when item is returned
Per Ex Libris documentation and techs, Alma can't currently send a fine/fee notification letter to a patron as soon as an overdue item is returned; this is only done on a scheduled job once per day. However, in cases where a patron can't return to the library on short notice, it would be helpful for them to be informed of any outstanding fines or fees as soon as possible in case they're able to resolve it during a visit when they returned such an item.
It should be a straightforward matter for Alma to immediately send patron notification letters when…
10 votes -
Process type "Lost and Paid" Should Not Be Added To Items After Waiving Their Lost Item Replacement Fees
We discovered that the process type "Lost and Paid" is applied to items whose Lost Replacement Fee has been waived by staff! This is misleading. It means that we have items marked as Lost and Paid where no money has exchanged hands. This can have financial audit/reconciliation implications if a report is generated on this process type without relying on other data to clarify past transactions.
I wonder if Alma could add an additional process type that would better distinguish between lost books that were actually paid for and those whose fee was forgiven by using, for example, "Lost and…
7 votes -
Ability to run a job on items already marked lost.
We would like the ability to run a job on lost items from other institutions, to receive a special block. This block restricts the user from placing anymore request and also (do to an app we built) blocks their electronic access. It is quite effective in getting the patron to return items the institution would then be billed for.
The problem is a block placed on the item prior to it going lost is removed when the item is marked lost and we are not able to run a job on the lost items that would actually apply the block.…
6 votes -
Overdue fine
Overdue fines should not only be configurable for a time period of 1 hour or 1 day maximum, but also for 1 week and 1 month.
6 votes
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