Circulation > Getting Started with Cash Management

Getting Started with Cash Management

This suite of functionality is not available on ISAM systems for SirsiDynix Symphony 3.4.1 Service Pack 5.

Cash Management Features

Cash Management is the implementation of a simple point of sale-style system within WorkFlows. The Cash Management suite of functionality is integrated with the Circulation module.

The Cash Management suite of functionality allows users to perform the following tasks.

Administrators can designate items of a certain Item Type as Saleable.
Administrators can associate items of a certain Item Type with a particular tax rate policy.
Patrons can purchase items from the library, such as books, pencils, Internet passes, and any other kind of item the library chooses to sell.
Staff users can make other essential types of point of sale transactions, such as refunds, voids, and no sale transactions.
Staff users can perform reporting on Cash Management transactions for the given workstation for the day (Till Summary Wizard) or for entire libraries for a given period of time (Cash Management End of Day Report).

A comprehensive overview of Cash Management functionality is available in the SirsiDynix Symphony Cash Management Guide.

While the Cash Management suite of functionality is available on WorkFlows clients for Macintosh, the use of cash drawer hardware with WorkFlows is not supported on Macintosh operating systems. Your library can use Cash Management functionality on Macintosh systems as designed, but the WorkFlows station will not automatically open or close any cash drawer hardware.

Cash Management Setup

Cash Management is enabled in your Library's policy. In the Library Wizard on the Cash Management tab, enable the Enable Cash Management attribute to turn on Cash Management functionality. Enable any desired override requirements for refunds, voids, no sale transactions, and item price changes, then save your changes.

For complete instructions for Cash Management implementation in your library, see the SirsiDynix Symphony Cash Management Guide.

Standard Workflow

Complete integration of Cash Management functionality consists of a basic workflow similar to the following.

Set up tax rates

If necessary, use the Circulation Tax Wizard to specify Circulation Tax policies to associate with items of a certain Item Type. Specify a Circulation Tax policy to associate with each Item Type policy in the Item Type Wizard. When making transactions, all items of that Item Type will be taxed according to the Circulation Tax policy specified in the Item Type policy.

Designate items for sale

Use the Item Type Wizard to designate items of a certain Item Type as saleable using the Item Type wizard's Saleable attribute within the Item Type policy. To place an item for sale, designate the item as being of a saleable Item Type.

Additionally, create new items to add to the library catalog for items that will be sold repeatedly, such as pencils and other supplies. Designate re-saleable items with an Item Type different from the Item Type for items that should only be sold once; you can then avoid selecting re-saleable items for deletion when you remove sold items from the catalog using the Remove Sold Items Report.

You can use the Global Item Modification Wizard or, if it is configured for your library, the Item Group Editor Wizard to modify the Item Type of multiple items at once.

Open shifts and perform transactions

There is no specific process for beginning a shift within Cash Management; just begin making transactions. Make Cash Management transactions from the Cash Management Wizard.

Close shifts

Before staff users leave the library workstation for the day, they should use the Till Summary Wizard to close the shift. The Till Summary wizard generates a summary of all the transactions that the staff user made during the shift. Closing the shift before another staff user begins to use the workstation ensures accurate reporting on each individual staff user's shift.

Report on transactions

Run the Cash Management End of Day Report to produce spreadsheet reports on all Cash Management transactions that took place at the specified workstations for a specified period of time. Cash Management End of Day report output includes detailed information on Cash Management transactions. This information includes but is not limited to the following:

Which items were sold and refunded
How much money went into and out from each till
How much tax was collected for each transaction
Which workstation handled the transactions
Which clerk performed each transaction

In addition to transactions made from the Cash Management wizard, any activity on patron credit accounts will also show in till summaries and Cash Management End of Day report output. Additionally, if your library has BLUEcloud Commerce functionality turned on, all BLUEcloud Commerce transactions will show in till summaries and Cash Management End of Day report output.

Remove sold items from the catalog

Run the Remove Sold Items Report to remove sold items from the catalog. If you created an Item Type for re-saleable items, be sure to avoid selecting that Item Type policy to avoid deleting those items from the catalog.

Remove transactions from the database

Run the Remove Daily Cash Transactions Report to remove Cash Management transactions and Cash Management End of Day report output from the SirsiDynix Symphony server. Consult with your system administrator on how often your library should run this report; depending on the number of items sold and your library system's space limitations, you may want to run this report on a frequent basis.

Remove Cash Management transactions and report output from the SirsiDynix Symphony server only after saving the output from the Till Summary wizard and the Cash Management End of Day report to a location on a local drive to ensure that all transactions are accounted for before deletion.

For more information on recommended workflows using Cash Management, see the SirsiDynix Symphony Cash Management Guide.

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