Checking in or out items with Fees
Once an item has been checked out to a student, fees may be assigned to the student. This can be done both on an individual student basis or in mass. These processes work for both the Fees and Fines system as well as Aeries Financials. Depending on security set, users may see Aeries Financials pages or Fees and Fines pages. This article describes the process for Fees and Fines, however the process is similar for Aeries Financials, but data is stored in different locations.
Assigning Fees Individually ↑
Students can be charged fees for items that have been previously checked out to them.
To assign a fee to a student, go to the Student Asset Fees page, and click Add New Fee, then select the item to associate the fee with and click Add Fee. Note: If using Aeries Financials, navigate to the Financial Transactions page instead for a similar process.
After selecting the item to which the fee should be assigned, the following popup will appear with the following available fields:
- School - This gets populated with the student's school code
- Fee Code - Available codes come from the code table for FEE.CD.
- Fee Type - Fees are classified into two distinct types: Replacement (Lost) and Damaged. Select Replacement if the fee is for a lost item. This will trigger the system to default the Amount Charged to the Replacement Cost of the item, and it will also warn users when checking in or out the item. If Damaged is selected, the Amount Charged will default to the amount from the code table for the chosen fee code.
- Amount Charged - the amount to charge the student, which defaults as specified above. This can be adjusted if necessary.
- Date Charged - defaults to the current date
- Amount & Date Paid - If the student is paying a partial or full amount, these fields can be entered with the date and amount paid. Leave at 0.00 with no date if no payment is accepted now.
- Comment - A freetext comment may be entered.
Click Save to save the fee.
Once saved, the fee record is created, and is tied to the Asset. This fee is visible not only on the Student Asset Fees page, but also on the Fees and Fines page.
In the Fees and Fines (FEE) table, a few fields are utilized exclusively by District Assets:
- FEE.FT - Asset Fee Type (R = Replacement/Lost, D = Damaged)
- FEE.RID/RIN - These fields relate to the specific item in the DRI table where the barcode and other information is referenced.
Mass Assigning Fees ↑
In addition to entering individual fees, Replacement (Lost) fees can be entered in mass. An example of when to assign fees in mass would be at the end of the school year after all textbooks have been returned. A librarian may wish to bill students replacement fees for all textbooks which have not been returned. The Mass Add Checked-Out Items to Fees page is used for this process. It honors keep/skip queries to limit which students will be charged.
A date, fee code, and selected asset titles to include are available for selection. Click Mass Add Fees to add the fees to the students.
After the process is complete, the item will remain checked out to the student, and they will have a Lost/Replacement fee on record. This process will only assign fees for students who don't already have a lost fee for the item. There is no need to worry about duplicating fees.
Checking in or out items with Fees ↑
When checking items in or out, both unpaid and lost fees display. In addition, and audible sound will be made alerting the user. Fees where no amount has been paid may also be deleted from this page. The user may also click on the student's name to be taken to the Fees and Fines page for details on the transaction, where they could make appropriate adjustments such as refunding a portion of the fees paid.
When checking in an item, the user is also interrupted with a popup window preventing them from scanning without making an action. This same popup will appear on the check-in page in the near future.
Note: Currently validations for lost or unpaid fees do not occur when checking in an item from the Student Assets page by clicking the CheckIn button.