Bills and Payments

Circulation vs. Grocery Bills

There are two types of bills in Evergreen: Circulation bills and Grocery bills.

  • Circulation bills are system-generated charges such as overdue fines, lost item costs, and processing fees. The fine rates, replacement costs, and processing fees can be customized per organizational unit.

  • Grocery bills are manually created by staff. Grocery bill types can be shared by all libraries or created by an individual library. Default price can be attached to each bill type.

Making Payments

Bills can be paid by cash, check, or credit, or be resolved by forgiveness, work, or goods.

  1. Click on Bills tab.

  2. Select or de-select bills to pay. Oldest bills are paid first by default.

  3. Select Receipt On Payment and enter #Copies as required.

  4. Select the payment type from the drop down menu.

  5. Enter the payment in the Payment Received field and click Apply Payment.

  6. Details of the transaction are displayed.

Click Annotate to add a note to the payment.

Patron Credit

A credit can be kept in a patron account and used later to pay bills.

  1. To create or add a credit, select the payment method and enter the amount in Payment Received

  2. Select Convert Change to Patron Credit on bottom right.

  3. Click Apply Payment.

To use patron credit to pay bills, select Patron Credit as the payment type.

If your library does not use patron credit, you can turn it off through a library setting: "Disable Patron Credit".

Check out Patrons with Negative Balances for information on finding a directory of patrons with negative balances.

Adjust Bill Balance to Zero

This function sets any balance to zero, and is the easiest way to clear a negative balance from patron account.

  1. Click Bills in patron account.

  2. Select the bill line item and click Actions → Adjust to Zero.

  3. Click OK/Continue.

Voiding Bills

Staff with appropriate permissions can void bills, either entirely or in part. In many cases it’s better to use the Adjust Bill Balance to Zero function.

Voiding a Bill

  1. Click on the Bills tab in the patron’s account.

  2. Select the bill line you wish to void and click Actions → Void All Billings.

  3. Click OK/Continue. The bill will no longer display on the patron’s bill tab.

Voiding Part of a Bill

Sometimes you may wish to void part of a bill, such as overdue fines for a specific day or a processing charge for a lost item.

  1. Click on the Bills tab in the patron’s account.

  2. Select the bill line you wish to partially void and click Actions → Full Details.

  3. The bill will open on the Statement tab. Click the Details tab.

  4. Select the specific bill line you would like to void and click Actions → Void Billings.

  5. Click OK/Continue. The amount owing for the bill will be updated.

Voiding a Paid Bill

Sometimes you may need to void a bill a patron has already paid in order to process a refund.

  1. Click on the Bills tab in the patron’s account.

  2. Click History

  3. Select the relevant transaction and go to Actions → Full Details.

  4. The bill will open on the Statement tab. Click the Details tab.

  5. Select the bill(s) you wish to void and go to Actions → Void Billings

  6. Click OK/Continue. The patron will now have a credit of the amount voided on their account.

Adding New "Grocery" Bills

Create New Bill

  1. Click Bills in patron account.

  2. Click Bill Patron

  3. Click on drop down arrow and select Billing Type, enter bill amount, and any required note.

  4. Click Submit Bill.

Add Charge to Existing Bill

  1. Select the required bill from patron’s Bills screen and click Actions → Add Billing.

  2. Click on drop down arrow and select Billing Type, enter bill amount, and any required note.

  3. Click Submit Bill. The bill’s balance is updated.

Bill History

Bill History

  1. Click History in patron’s bills screen.

  2. View all bills, or bills from a specified time frame. Use the calendar widgets to choose the Start Date and End Date, and click Apply.

  3. For more information about a particular bill, select the line item and click Actions → Full Details.

  4. All transaction details are listed, such as time stamps, circulation dates, billing dates, amounts, staff identification, and item information

Payment History

  1. Click Payments on Bill History screen.

  2. View all payments, or payments from a specified time frame. Use the calendar widgets to choose the Start Date and End Date, and click Apply.

  3. For more information about a particular payment, select the line item and click Actions → Full Details.

Refund

Sometimes paid bills need to be voided, such as when lost and paid items are returned. A negative balance may be created once such bills are voided. To close negative bills, you can adjust the balance to zero, add a bill entry to the negative line item, or refund the balance amount.

  1. Click on the Bills tab in the patron’s account.

  2. Select the line for the refund and go to Actions → Refund.

  3. Click OK/Continue.

  4. Enter 1 in the Payment Received box. (There is currently a bug preventing the "Apply Payment" button from being used without a positive number in this box. The $1.00 payment won’t actually be applied.)

  5. Click Apply Payment.

  6. The payment has been refunded.

  7. If you go into History and look at the full details for the bill you will see it shows the payment has been refunded.

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