[Koha-devel] RFC: Modification to Fines System

[Walls, Ian]

Kyle,


Sounds good to me.

This suggestion seems like it could have some powerful long-term potential.  By modifying the system in the way you suggest, it would be possible to expand the kinds of payments patrons can make to include arbitrary services (like printing, ILL, class registration fees, etc.).  In essence, Koha could act as the financial front end for any pay service patrons are offered, and the money could be properly directed to whatever account it needs to wind up in at the end of the day/week/etc.


Ian Walls
Systems Integration Librarian
NYU Health Sciences Libraries
550 First Ave., New York, NY 10016
(212) 263-8687





-----Original Message-----
From: koha-devel-bounces at lists.koha.org [mailto:koha-devel-bounces at lists.koha.org] On Behalf Of Kyle Hall
Sent: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 10:03 AM
To: koha-devel
Subject: [Koha-devel] RFC: Modification to Fines System

Here is my problem, and my proposed solution.

One of our libraries is requesting a breakdown of payments by day, by
account type. That is, they want a report the gives the total amount
paid for Late Fees, for Damaged Books, and for Lost Books. Apparently,
they have separate money accounts for each.

In Koha as it stands, there is no direct way to connect a payment to a
particular accountline that was paid.

The least invasive idea I have is to add a new column to accountlines
( say, accountno_paid ) for payments. Each payment would then refer to
the fine or charge that it was paid against.

The largest difference, is that instead of one large payment that runs
down the amountoutstanding field for a number of charges, the total
payment would need to be broken down into a series of smaller
payments, one for each accountno paid on.

For example, suppose that a borrower has 3 items with and overdue fine
of $5.00 each, and the borrower is paying in full. The current version
would create a payment line of $15, and then set the amountoutstanding
to $0.00 for each of the 3 accountno's. The revamped system would
still set the  amountoutstanding to $0.00 for each accountno, but
would create three separate payment lines, one for each of the 3
accountno's, and the accountno paid on would be stored in
accountno_paid.

I don't think this would break any existing reports or functionality.

Does this sound like a reasonable solution? Or have I missed something
that may solve my problem without code?

Thanks,
Kyle

http://www.kylehall.info
Information Technology
Crawford County Federated Library System ( http://www.ccfls.org )
_______________________________________________
Koha-devel mailing list
Koha-devel at lists.koha.org
http://lists.koha.org/mailman/listinfo/koha-devel

------------------------------------------------------------
This email message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain information that is proprietary, confidential, and exempt from disclosure under applicable law. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure, or distribution is prohibited. If you have received this email in error please notify the sender by return email and delete the original message. Please note, the recipient should check this email and any attachments for the presence of viruses. The organization accepts no liability for any damage caused by any virus transmitted by this email.
=================================