Lori, I think the tl;dr answer is refunds are based on whether or not your system is configured to refund the original lost materials bill and reinstate any daily overdue bills that accrued prior to the mark lost/fines stopped date, and/or any subsequent OD bills that would have accrued between the fines stopped date and the checkin date (I don't know for sure if this is a setting or not). If yes, a "refund" line appears in the Bills list.
However. There is a host of other issues pertaining to lost-item-paid-then-returned items. So, if it may be relevant, here's the "too long" answer... Also, not sure what version you are working on - w e are live in 1.6 and currently testing 2.1 in a server set up to mirror our current configuration. Most of my practical experience with this is in 1.6, but on the whole, 2.1 is very similar - with exceptions noted down the line. When an item is marked lost by patron or by system (we have a trigger in place to auto mark lost when an item is 8 weeks overdue) the daily overdue fines are voided (system setting) and the lost materials bill applied. The circulation appears in the "Lost, Claimed Returned, Long Overdue, Has Unpaid Billings" part of Items Out until the circulation is closed, which is when the lost materials bill is paid or the item is returned and the overdue bill is paid. Miscellaneous transactions - like your hold scenario - can throw a wrench in the whole closed/not-closed thing. In my experience, those "misc things" are chaos on the hoof. If the item is returned and the bill is UNPAID, the lost materials bill is voided and the overdue bills (however many of them there may have been at the point the item was marked lost) will be reinstated. The item will continue to appear in the "Lost, Claimed Returned..." list until the overdue bills are paid, under the "unpaid billings" clause. If the lost materials bill is PAID and then the item returned, the system will "refund" the paid amount of the lost materials bill - which manifests as a negative balance total owed. Sometimes the item reappears in the "Lost, CR..." list - sometimes not, but I think this maybe something funky with our 1.6 test server, or setting up these scenarios in un-realistic short time frame. But the BILL reappears in the bills list with the negative balance owed. How much of this is related to system settings, I don't know, but, IMO, it's a nightmare. In general, other bills (existing or subsequent) are sort of subtracted from the negative balance. 6.1 includes a "refund" button on the bill, which doesn;t appear to do anything in our setup. 2.1 does not have that, but I haven;t yet figured out what exactly happens to those negative balances... how one might go about getting rid of them, etc. etc. etc. Getting rid of the neg balances in 1.6 is a kludgy mess. Sooooo. YMMV? Hopefully this was helpful. Lindsay Stratton Training Coordinator Pioneer Library System 2557 State Rte 21 Canandaigua, NY 14424 http://www.pls-net.org ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Lori Bowen Ayre" <[email protected]> > To: "Evergreen Discussion Group" > <[email protected]> > Sent: Friday, February 17, 2012 8:52:28 PM > Subject: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] lost items that are then found > If a patron has lost an item and paid a fine. What happens when they > then return the lost item? Is there a slick way to figure out how > much they should be refunded based on the fine assessed and the late > fee that would apply? > Lori
