Everything You Need to Know About Fines

How to change the daily/hourly fine amount for late books charges

• Go to "groups", edit the item group (click on the pencil icon) you want to change, then click on "circulation periods" and change how much you will charge per day or hour. After the finishing all changes, click APPLY

Fines on Missing Items

• • If a patron loses an item currently on loan, label that item "missing" by selecting the transaction and clicking on the dropdown menu to view the options; select "Lost". The system will apply an automatic "fine" to the patron:

  • The fine will be for the amount in the 852#9 field of the holding. If the item does not have a price in 852#9 and there is a maximum fine in the "item group", the fine will be equal to the maximum fine amount.

  • Transaction Fee: Some libraries charge a transaction fee to replace the item. This amount can be set in "circulation" - "OPTIONS (left Menu) - miscellaneous". The amount will be added to the fine automatically when an item is marked as lost.

PLEASE NOTE: If you do not have a maximum fine amount set in the "item group" and the item does not have a price in 852#9 of the holding record, the fine will be equal to the amount in the "Transaction Fee". If the transaction fee amount is zero, there will be no fine.

How to Create a Manual Fine

• Pull up the patron record from circulation by scanning barcode or typing in the last name.

• Hover the cursor over "select action" and select "payments."

• Now select "new fine", enter the amount of fine, enter a note (this is optional), and click "apply."

How to Make a Payment

• Pull up patron record from circulation by scanning barcode or typing in last name.

• Hover cursor over "select action" and select "payments."

• Enter either "payment" or "forgiven" to the amount of the fine; click "apply."

PLEASE NOTE: If a partial payment is made, the remaining balance will appear. When applying a full payment (or if the full amount is forgiven), the fine goes away. If the patron has an email address on record, an automatic payment receipt will be sent via email.

TECH NOTE: If the library policy is NOT to charge fines, there is a setting on the server that will stop the creation of fines. If for any reason fines are not being created, and that is not library policy, please contact Mandarin technical support to check your setting at global.ini reg file (\M3 Server\Registry\common).

[Fine Transactions]

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