[Evergreen-general] How to refund a deposit
Cerninakova Eva
cernin at jabok.cz
Mon Feb 1 02:00:00 EST 2021
Hi Michele,
thanks a lot for your comments.
In the meantime, I also started testing the working procedure using the
Void billing option. This workflow has few advantages that I find very
useful and I believe this is the right way for us:
- The deposit record is retained and the refund of the fee is indicated
in the patron payment history, as you can see in the attached screenshot
(deposit - voided.jpg).
- It is not necessary to keep payments for the deposit separately from
other payments, because both the payment and the return of the deposit are
reflected in the cash reports.
- Payment of the deposit and its refund are also included in the
detailed list of cash payments in our recurring cash report output.
For those who are interested, I enclose a few details about the workflow:
When deposit should be refunded,
1. Go to *Bills* interface in the patron account,
2. Open the bill *History*,
3. Look up the deposit bill and open *Full details*.
4. Switch to *Details* pane
5. and choose the *Actions* > *Void Billing*
6. Once the deposit bill has been voided, a negative amount (that
corresponds to the amount of the deposit paid) is automatically charged to
the patron account.
7. Now it is possible to refund the payment in the patron *Bills*
interface. Just an additional note: It might be a good practice to add a
payment comment when refunding.
For the sake of completeness I still want to add, that I have found this
approach involves disadvantages too (none of this may be an unbeatable
problem, but it can still be a complication in some cases):
- The VOID_BILLING permission is required to void the deposit bill.
Considering that it may not always be desirable to grant this permission
to circulating staff, the possibility of adding manually a negative
amount to a bill would be probably an easier solution (this was possible
in the XUL client, as I remember),
- If Void billing is used, the "Change Given" information on the payment
receipt shows an amount that is twice the amount paid as a deposit (e.g. if
the $0.05 deposit has been paid, the receipt shows Change given: $0.10, see
the attachment "payment receipt.jpg"), which might be confusing.
Eva
Mgr. Eva Cerniňáková
vedoucí Knihovny Jabok
Jabok - Vyšší odborná škola sociálně pedagogická a teologická
+420 211 222 409 <+420+211+222+413>
cernin at jabok.cz <propagace at jabok.cz>
knihovna.jabok.cz <https://www.jabok.cz>
Salmovská 8, Praha 2, 120 00
[image: facebook] <https://www.instagram.com/vosjabok/?hl=cs> [image:
instagram] <https://www.facebook.com/vosjabok/>
pá 29. 1. 2021 v 15:03 odesílatel Morgan, Michele <mmorgan at noblenet.org>
napsal:
> Hi Eva,
>
> The "Prohibit negative balance on bills (DEFAULT)" setting prevents the
> system from allowing negative balances on patron records when billings are
> voided by the system.
>
> Rather than voiding the billings, it applies "Adjustment" payments to
> offset the billings.
>
> I believe the inability to create a negative billing outright has been
> disallowed in the client interface itself.
>
> To refund your deposits, one thing you could try is to void the deposit
> billing. That should create the negative balance so you can refund the
> money to the patron.
>
> I haven't actually tested this, but would be surprised if it didn't result
> in the negative balance you're looking for.
>
> Hope this helps,
> Michele
> --
> Michele M. Morgan, Technical Support Analyst
> North of Boston Library Exchange, Danvers Massachusetts
> mmorgan at noblenet.org
>
>
>
> On Thu, Jan 28, 2021 at 5:46 PM Cerninakova Eva <cernin at jabok.cz> wrote:
>
>> Hi Terran,
>>
>> Thank you very much for additional details.
>>
>> I have one more question, which is intended for everyone (not just
>> Terran) and concerns the possibility of adding a negative amount to the
>> paid bill for the deposit.
>> In the Library Settings Editor, I have found several settings related to
>> negative balance, particularly the one: "Prohibit negative balance on bills
>> (DEFAULT)"
>> I thought it might help me with my problem and allow the negative amount
>> to be added to the deposit bill according to the amount paid. I tried to
>> change the setting "Prohibit negative balance on bills" to "False".
>> Unfortunately, even after changing this setting to "false" it was still not
>> possible to add a negative amount to the deposit bill.
>>
>> Does anyone know if this particular setting could be related to some
>> other settings? Or does the settings allowing negative balance only apply
>> to system generated bills, not to those charged manually?
>>
>> Thanks
>> Eva
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Eva Cerniňáková
>>
>> vedoucí Knihovny Jabok
>>
>> Jabok - Vyšší odborná škola sociálně pedagogická a teologická
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> +420 211 222 409 <+420+211+222+413>
>>
>> cernin at jabok.cz <propagace at jabok.cz>
>>
>> knihovna.jabok.cz <https://www.jabok.cz>
>>
>> Salmovská 8, Praha 2, 120 00
>>
>>
>> [image: facebook] <https://www.instagram.com/vosjabok/?hl=cs> [image:
>> instagram] <https://www.facebook.com/vosjabok/>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> st 27. 1. 2021 v 16:59 odesílatel Terran McCanna <
>> tmccanna at georgialibraries.org> napsal:
>>
>>> Yes, that is correct. We set up that additional billing type locally.
>>>
>>> I think the deposit/refund process could definitely be improved, but I
>>> don't think anyone has put a lot of thought into rethinking how it should
>>> work better from either a staff perspective or from a software perspective
>>> yet. Only a few of our libraries are using deposits, and some of those
>>> aren't doing them through Evergreen, they are using local tracking
>>> processes.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Terran McCanna, PINES Program Manager
>>> ------------------------------
>>>
>>> Georgia Public Library Service | University System of Georgia
>>>
>>> 2872 Woodcock Blvd, Suite 250 l Atlanta, GA 30341
>>>
>>> (404) 235-7138 | tmccanna at georgialibraries.org
>>>
>>> http://help.georgialibraries.org | help at georgialibraries.org
>>>
>>> <https://www.facebook.com/georgialibraries>
>>> <https://www.twitter.com/georgialibs>
>>> <https://www.instagram.com/georgialibraries/>
>>> <https://www.twitter.com/georgialibs>
>>>
>>> Join our email list <http://georgialibraries.org> for stories of
>>> Georgia libraries making an impact in our communities.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Wed, Jan 27, 2021 at 10:03 AM Cerninakova Eva <cernin at jabok.cz>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Hi Terran,
>>>>
>>>> thank you very much. PINES documentation is a very useful source of
>>>> information because, in addition to the manuals for working with Evergreen,
>>>> it also contains several scenarios how the issue could be dealt with. When
>>>> thinking about various workflow options, it is very inspiring and helpful ☺.
>>>>
>>>> However, I would like to ask you about some details:
>>>>
>>>> In the documentation (in the section describing how to manage
>>>> deposit with Evergreen
>>>> <https://pines.georgialibraries.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=circ:bills:deposits#managing_deposits_with_evergreen>),
>>>> the following instructions are given:
>>>> "On the Bills > History screen, click Add Billing. Choose Billing Type
>>>> of “Refund: Deposit Item Returned” with an amount of zero (0)'"
>>>> However, I don't see a Billing type "Refund: Deposit Item Returned" in
>>>> our system. I suppose it is because it's not a billing type available in
>>>> Evergreen by default (i.e. this billing type has been set manually on your
>>>> system). Am I right?
>>>> And am I right to think that this procedure only serves to indicate
>>>> that the deposit has been refunded to the patron, but the refunded amount
>>>> will not be reflected in the staff client Cash reports or in cash payments
>>>> report outputs?
>>>>
>>>> Thank you in advance for additional explanation.
>>>>
>>>> Eva
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Mgr. Eva Cerniňáková
>>>>
>>>> vedoucí Knihovny Jabok
>>>>
>>>> Jabok - Vyšší odborná škola sociálně pedagogická a teologická
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> +420 211 222 409 <+420+211+222+413>
>>>>
>>>> cernin at jabok.cz <propagace at jabok.cz>
>>>>
>>>> knihovna.jabok.cz <https://www.jabok.cz>
>>>>
>>>> Salmovská 8, Praha 2, 120 00
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> [image: facebook] <https://www.instagram.com/vosjabok/?hl=cs> [image:
>>>> instagram] <https://www.facebook.com/vosjabok/>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> út 26. 1. 2021 v 18:29 odesílatel Terran McCanna <
>>>> tmccanna at georgialibraries.org> napsal:
>>>>
>>>>> Hi Eva,
>>>>>
>>>>> There may be better ways to do this, but this is what our libraries
>>>>> are doing:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> https://pines.georgialibraries.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=circ:bills:deposits#managing_deposits_with_evergreen
>>>>>
>>>>> I hope that helps,
>>>>> Terran
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Terran McCanna, PINES Program Manager
>>>>> ------------------------------
>>>>>
>>>>> Georgia Public Library Service | University System of Georgia
>>>>>
>>>>> 2872 Woodcock Blvd, Suite 250 l Atlanta, GA 30341
>>>>>
>>>>> (404) 235-7138 | tmccanna at georgialibraries.org
>>>>>
>>>>> http://help.georgialibraries.org | help at georgialibraries.org
>>>>>
>>>>> <https://www.facebook.com/georgialibraries>
>>>>> <https://www.twitter.com/georgialibs>
>>>>> <https://www.instagram.com/georgialibraries/>
>>>>> <https://www.twitter.com/georgialibs>
>>>>>
>>>>> Join our email list <http://georgialibraries.org> for stories of
>>>>> Georgia libraries making an impact in our communities.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Mon, Jan 25, 2021 at 1:02 PM Cerninakova Eva <cernin at jabok.cz>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Hi all,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I wonder whether there is a possibility to add a negative billing to
>>>>>> a deposit fee that has been previously charged and paid?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> We are about to start borrowing tablets in our library, and we want
>>>>>> patrons to pay a small refundable deposit when a tablet is being checked
>>>>>> out and refund it at check in. I am currently trying to make up checkout
>>>>>> and check in procedures. However, I am not sure how to refund a deposit.
>>>>>> When the item has been checked in, and I try to add a negative bill to a
>>>>>> transaction related to the paid deposit fee in the patron billing history,
>>>>>> Evergreen displays a warning that the *amount must be greater than
>>>>>> or equal to 0*.
>>>>>> Could this be caused by a setting in our Evergreen installation? Or
>>>>>> is it a general Evergreen feature?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> If the second option is true and adding a bill with a negative
>>>>>> amount is not possible to use in Evergreen to refund a deposit, what
>>>>>> procedures do you use in your libraries to refund a deposit payment?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Thanks a lot for your help.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Eva
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Mgr. Eva Cerniňáková
>>>>>>
>>>>>> vedoucí Knihovny Jabok
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Jabok - Vyšší odborná škola sociálně pedagogická a teologická
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> +420 211 222 409 <+420+211+222+413>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> cernin at jabok.cz <propagace at jabok.cz>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> knihovna.jabok.cz <https://www.jabok.cz>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Salmovská 8, Praha 2, 120 00
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> [image: facebook] <https://www.instagram.com/vosjabok/?hl=cs> [image:
>>>>>> instagram] <https://www.facebook.com/vosjabok/>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>> Evergreen-general mailing list
>>>>>> Evergreen-general at list.evergreen-ils.org
>>>>>>
>>>>>> http://list.evergreen-ils.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/evergreen-general
>>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>
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