[Koha-devel] RFC: Modification to Fines System

[Wagner, Jane]

Not directly related to Kyle's idea, but one of the needs we've seen
relating to fines is a better description of what the payment is for.
Having Koha just say "Payment, thanks" doesn't tell staff two weeks
later what the payment was for.  We've been planning to look at
amplifying that description; maybe that idea could be incorporated here.

Jane Wagner
Library Systems Analyst
PTFS Inc.
Content Management and Library Solutions
6400 Goldsboro Road, Suite 200
Bethesda, MD  20817
(301) 654-8088 x 151
jwagner at ptfs.com


-----Original Message-----
From: koha-devel-bounces at lists.koha.org
[mailto:koha-devel-bounces at lists.koha.org] On Behalf Of Walls, Ian
Sent: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 10:41 AM
To: koha-devel at lists.koha.org
Subject: [Koha-devel] RFC: Modification to Fines System

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 )
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