Alma
Your feedback matters to us. Help us improve Alma by telling us what you’d like to see using the message areas below. You can also can support something already posted.
We would love to be able to respond to every idea that is submitted, but this is not feasible. We are, however, committed to responding to the most popular ideas—those that have received the most points.
For more information please review our FAQ and guidelines. Thank you.
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Fine for failing to pick up request
We would like to have a fine automatically applied when a patron fails to pick up a request. The fine should be applied after the last pick-up date has passed if the request has not been picked up or cancelled. It should be possible to determine for which locations/user groups the fine will be applied.
137 votes -
Allow Reinstatement of Fines/Fees
Fines are occasionally processed in error or you might need to reinstate a fine payment taken on someone's account. We would like the ability to reinstate fines that have previously been paid or waived.
111 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.
60 votes -
Fines & Fees: add transaction type to the fines list
If fee was paid the status should indicate that (rather than 'Closed').
45 votesSubmitted by Ex Libris PM on behalf of our customers
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Make fine/fee text in color to stand out when a balance is owed
It would be helpful to have a visual indicator pointing our attention to the "active balance" line when an outstanding balance is present above $0.00.
I propose changing that field to a contrasting text color visible to color blind (i.e., orange), only when there is a balance above $0.00. This visible cue will make it very easy to identify the fine/fee balance and communicate that to our users in order to improve our communication of fees/fines to those who ignore the notifications via email.
25 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.
23 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.
22 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…
15 votes -
Dispute all or selected fines simultaneously
Allow a patron to dispute all or selected fines at once rather than having to dispute them individually on Alma, similar to waiving them.
11 votes -
Anonymize fines by fine type and fine amount
Add parameters to be able to anonymize fines and fees by the type e.g. can anonymize overdue fines but not lost items.
and by fine amount e.g. could anonymze fines/fees under $10.11 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.
11 votes -
Expand Scope of Active Balance
As new Alma users, we struggle with Alma’s use of the Fulfillment term ‘Active Balance.’ This is the balance owing that is displayed at the top of the Patron Services screen for each user. We find the term ‘Active Balance’ to be a bit of a misnomer because it only reflects fines/fees for closed transactions as listed under a patron’s Fines and Fees tab – leaving out currently accruing fines for overdue items (support case 00673063) and accruing fines for unpaid items declared lost (support case 00667631).
The current display puts front line circulation desk operators at a bit of…
9 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…
9 votes -
Be able to edit comment field of an active fine or fee posted to a patron's account
Sometimes, when posting a fine or fee to an account, the barcode gets scanned before entering info into the comments field requiring the removal of the fine and then having to re-post it into the patron's account. Would like an edit option in the ellipses to be able to go back into the fine and edit the comments field.
9 votes -
Option to turn fines off for a period
Recently one of our library is trying to look at the stocks, hence, they have sent out an announcement for all patrons at the specific to return their loaned items and we informed them that their fines will be waived for that fine free period.
But after raising a Salesforce case, we realised that Alma could not turn off fines for a certain period.
Would an option to turn the fines on and off be appropriate to be added to Alma?
8 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.
6 votes -
Assessed Fines Letter - Ability to Send a Letter Notifying Users That Fines Have Been Assessed
We need the ability to notify patrons at the point that fines are assessed on their library accounts. Some libraries use the Borrowing Activity Letter for this purpose, but we find that this approach causes confusion for our library patrons. The solution to these problems is to send a letter when fines are actually assessed on user accounts. The letter would be triggered either by the renewal of items resulting in fines or by the return of items resulting in fines. The existing Return Receipt Letter contains all the necessary data elements for this purpose. We request a similar letter…
5 votes -
Time Limit on Waive for Replacement Fees/Fines
Feature Requested:
The auto-waive functionality upon item return and ability to set the % to be refunded are wonderful features. To fully meet our needs though we need the % refunded to change after x period of time to a different % to be refunded.One possible solution could be to add a parameter that could be set to specify a time limit threshold for auto-waiving of replacement fees of a lost item upon return.
Use Case:
After a physical item has been lost for a year we have already bought a replacement and do not want to refund the…5 votes -
Fines not printing
When we try to print fines in the new UI, very little is printed and certainly not the information we need. We need to print title/barcode/due dates/etc. We can get the list up in Excel, but it doesn't include the patron information and there's too much information. It would just be nice to be able to print the screen and have everything at your fingertips.
5 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.
5 votes
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