[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] How does your consortium handle money?

[Judy Daniluk]

How does your consortium handle money, when a patron pays a fine at one
library but the fine is owed to a different library?

In our North Texas consortium, all the libraries are separate entities, and
their governing bodies consider it important that each library receive its
overdue fines and payment for lost items.  Our policy is that patrons can
pay fines at any library, but the money for circulation fines goes to the
library that owns the circulating item.  When we set up the consortium, we
decided that we would transfer money between libraries every three months to
settle up.

Our process has been to run an Evergreen report showing all the payments
taken in during the quarter, manually identify the ones where circulation
fines were paid at libraries other than where the circulating item was
owned, and total up what each library pays and receives in the quarterly
settlement. Figuring out the amounts for the quarterly settlement turns out
to be a time-consuming process for the staff person that does it (me). Then
we have bookkeeping overhead for invoices and checks to each library.  As
the number of libraries in the consortium grows, the process is going to get
worse.

The last two quarters less than 2% of the payments have been involved and
the total money transferred (for all 14 libraries) has been between $600 and
$700.  The time involved to figure out the settlement isn't worth it, but
the local governments aren't likely to back down on the requirement.  Faced
with budget cuts and staff cuts, I'd love to find a way to eliminate or
speed up this process.

How have other consortia approached this issue?

Judy Daniluk

Technology Consultant,  North Texas Library Partners

6320 Southwest Blvd., Suite 101, Fort Worth, TX 76109

jdaniluk at ntrls.org     817-201-6778 (cell)     817-377-4440 (office)
www.ntrls.org
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