FAQs: Paying Bills

What’s the difference between entering an amount in the Payment field under Total Bills and Payments and entering an amount in the Payment field under Individual Bills and Payments?

An amount entered in the Payment field under Total Bills and Payments is applied to the total amount owed by the user. When the total includes more than one bill, the bills are paid in chronological order, starting with the oldest bill first.

An amount entered in the Payment field under Individual Bills and Payments is applied only to the one specific bill associated with the Payment field.

How do I accept a partial bill payment?

The Paying Bills wizard accepts partial bill payments in the Payment fields.

To make a partial payment on a bill

Click the Paying Bills wizard.

Scan the user’s ID.

Do one of the following.

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If you are making a partial payment toward the total bill—under Total Bills and Payments, enter a partial payment amount in the Payment box, and then select a payment type in the Payment Type list.

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If you are paying specific individual bills—under Individual Bills and Payments, enter the amount and select the payment type for each bill.

Click Pay Bill to continue with the payment process.

WorkFlows accepts up to 50 payments for a bill. If you see a message that partial payments are no longer accepted, you can create a new bill for the remaining amount and continue to accept payments. Go to What do I do when I see the “Partial payment no longer accepted” message? for more information.

How do I get rid of a bill that I created by mistake?

If you created a bill for a user by mistake, use the Cancel payment type to clear the bill. This payment type is delivered with the SirsiDynix Symphony system, and is typically used to clear bills that were created in error.

To clear a bill created by mistake

Click the Pay Bills wizard.

Scan the user’s ID.

Under Individual Bills and Payments, locate the bill that was created by mistake, and select Cancel from the Payment Type list.

Enter the bill amount in the Payment field of the bill you want to cancel.

Click Pay Bills.

How do I cancel a portion of a bill?

If you entered an incorrect amount in the Amount field, you can reduce the bill to the correct amount with the CANCEL payment type, which displays if the Paying Bills wizard property Allow Bills to Be Forgiven/Cancelled is selected. For example, if you entered $10 for the bill amount instead of $1, you can cancel $9 of the bill, which will leave the correct amount of $1.

To cancel part of a bill

Click the Paying Bills wizard.

Scan the user’s ID.

Under Individual Bills and Payments, locate the bill you want to correct, and then select Cancel from the Payment Type list.

In the Payment field, enter the portion of bill amount you want to cancel.

Click Pay Bills.

How do I forgive a fine?

Your library can choose to forgive a legitimate bill assessed to a user. To forgive a fine, use the FORGIVEN payment type, which displays if the Paying Bills wizard property Allow Bills to Be Forgiven/Cancelled is selected. The FORGIVEN payment type is typically used to clear legitimate bills that your library chooses to forgive.

To forgive a fine

Click the Paying Bills wizard.

Scan the user’s ID.

Under Individual Bills and Payments, locate the bill you want to waive, and then select Forgiven from the Payment Type list.

Click Pay Bills.

How do I display “archive information” for bills that have already been paid?

You can display information about bills the user has already paid using the Display User wizard and changing an option on the Bills tab. Bills will display until the Remove Bills report is run.

To display information for paid bills

In the Users group, click the Display User wizard.

In the User ID box, scan the user’s barcode.

Click the Bills tab.

Under Display Options, click Paid in the Bills list.

Notice that the item title, date the bill was paid, and amount still owed display.

Click the Owes glossary link for detailed information about the item and the paid bill.

How do I determine which library accepted payment for a bill?

The Bills tab in the Display User wizard and Item Search and Display wizard displays the Payment Library for each bill. Additionally, the bill glossaries in the Checkout, Renew User, Pay Bills also list the library that accepted payment for each bill.

Why can’t I see or pay bills accumulated by my patron at another library?

If your library is not included in the other library’s bill maintenance library group, the bills accumulated by your patron at the other library do not display in the Paying Bills wizard. You cannot pay bills at another library if your library is not included in the other library’s bill maintenance group.

Why can’t I see or pay bills that I created at my library for an item?

If you cannot pay a bill you created at your library, display the item record to view the name of the item’s owning library. If your library is not included in the owning library’s bill maintenance library group, you cannot pay the bill for the item at your library.

When I select a bill glossary for an individual bill, why do the Billed and Still Owes fields differ?

The Billed and Still Owes fields on the glossary may differ for the following reasons.

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The user may have already paid a partial amount of the bill.

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The bill reason used in creating the bill is configured to include tax on the billed amount.

If tax is included in the bill, you can display the selected bill reason in the Bill Reason policy and see the configured Circulation Tax policy. Depending on how the tax base currency in the Circulation Tax policy is configured, the amount of the tax can be rounded up to the next highest increment before being added to the bill total. You can display the associated Circulation Tax policy and see the configuration for the tax base currency in the Circulation Tax Wizard.

For example, if the tax rate in the Circulation Tax policy is 10.0 percent and the tax base is 5, a bill of $12.25 would be taxed at $1.25 because the calculated $1.225 value is rounded up to the next 5-cent mark.

What do I do when I see the Partial payment no longer accepted message?

WorkFlows allows up to 50 payments on a single bill. You can make up to 49 partial payments on a single bill; the 50th payment must pay the bill in full. If the 49th payment does not pay the bill in full, the Partial payment no longer acceptable message appears.

With the 50th payment, the patron must pay the bill in full, or you can cancel or forgive the remaining bill amount.

How can I pay bills with a user credit account?

In the Paying Bills wizard, you can pay bills from the patron’s credit account using the CREDITACCT payment type.

In the Pay Bills helper, you can also pay bills from the patron’s credit account using the CREDITACCT payment type.

Paying bills with a user credit account will be allowed if the following conditions are met:

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The user paying bills has a credit account with a balance that is sufficient to pay bills.

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The bill’s bill reason is listed in the Credit Rule policy as a bill reason that can be paid from a user credit account.

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The automatic payment defaults are configured in the Paying Bills wizard and the Pay Bills helper properties.

For more information, see FAQs: Credit User Accounts.

When using the patron’s credit account to pay multiple bills, if an error occurs (for example, a bill has a bill reason that does not allow payment with a credit account), a message displays. The wizard continues to pay the bills that it can pay until all of the bills are examined.

Why is the item ID missing from the bill's item information?

If the Deletion of Items with Bills feature is enabled and an item associated with a bill has been deleted from the catalog, the item ID field for that item will be blank.