Display both active (payable) AND accruing fines/fees at the main page and at the fines/fees tab of a user’s account
The current main page and the fines/fees tab of a user’s account do not show the balance of the accruing fines to the circulation desk operators. The fines/fees tab doesn’t include the information of the loans that have accruing fines on them, and this confuses both circulation desk operators and clients. Circulation desk operators should be able to see this information easily and they should be able to give exact information to the library patrons about their fines/fees. Now this information is on several lists of loans and returns and the operator cannot see the accruing balance anywhere. (see Figure 1)
We propose that the main page of a user’s account should display the active (payable) balance with the Pay button beside it, the accruing balance, and the total amount of fines/fees (see Figure 2). Furthermore, we propose that the fines/fees tab of a user’s account should include the accruing balance, the list of fines/fees should include the loans that have accruing fines and the operator should be able to filter the list by status “Accruing” if needed (see Figure 3). Please see the attached document with the screenshots.
[There are two relating ideas in Idea exchange: “Expand Scope of Active Balance” and “Display both charges payable and total charges owed”, but these two are not adequate as such from our perspective.]
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Katharina Wolkwitz commented
I too support this idea. I also would like this data to be available inside the FulOverdueAndLostLoanNotificationLetter.xml which we use to remind our users of their overdue loans. As we have certain notification-levels which lead to an increase of the item-based fine/charge at the moment all alma is willing to provided for summation is the difference in the amount between the levels not the actual charge per item of the current level (that is provided as a string including the currency which cannot be added up to the total for all items in the letter).
We're still in implementation-phase at the moment and have our Go-Live at the beginning of July.
I guess overdue-handling might be quite different here in Germany but I'm quite surprised this is not an issue yet.
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Olli Hiltunen commented
I wholeheartedly support this idea! Just recently there have been many situations where this feature would have prevented challenging customer service cases from happening.