The following procedure guides you through the process of creating a series of overdue notices.
To run a New Overdue Notices report
| 1 | Click the Schedule New Reports wizard. |
| 2 | If the Set Properties window opens, make any necessary changes to the defaults and click OK. |
| 3 | Select the Circulation group of reports. |
| 4 | For this procedure, you will run the report named “New Overdue Notices.” Double click New Overdue Notices or select the report and click Setup & Schedule. |
| 5 | Type a descriptive name for the report. This will remind you of the selections made in the report and will distinguish your report from others in the finished reports list. |
| 6 | Click the Charge Notice tab. On this tab, you will make the notice selections. |
Making Notice Report Selections
There are common selections to a notice report. The following steps increment notice counters so that a patron receives an increasingly stern message for each overdue notice.
To make notice report selections
| 1 | Select the Count as a Notice Sent check box. This option is used to send notices incrementally. |
Note: You can run your notice reports in “test mode” by clearing the Count as a Notice Sent check box.
If you are running a report in test mode, make sure when scheduling the report to clear the Auto Email to Recipients check box. Even if the report doesn't increment the notice counters via Count as a Notice Sent, e-mails can still be sent.
| 2 | Select the Combine Notices check box so that all user activity is reported on one notice, regardless of the owning or charging library. (This is useful for a site that has notices sent out from a headquarters office.) |
| 3 | Select the Library Address On Notice check box to print a return address on the notice. This can be defined as the library sending out the notices or the patron’s home library. |
| 4 | In the Select Sent From Library list, select the library sending out the notices. Or, you can select Use Library Address in Patron Record to use the patron’s home library instead. |
| 5 | Select additional check boxes as required, such as Salutation on Notice to include salutations (such as “Dear Mike Jones”), and User ID on Notice to include user IDs. |
Making Report Selections to Incrementally Notify Patrons
The New Overdue Notices report can incrementally notify patrons about returning items that are due. Remember that the Count as a Notice Sent check box needs to be selected in order for this incremented notification process to work properly.
To set up overdue notice increments
| 1 | In the Message 1 field, select the counter (=0) and select the notice file 1stoverdue. |
When a patron has an overdue item, and she has never been notified, she will receive a 1st overdue message like the following:
1ST OVERDUE NOTICE
The following Library materials are overdue. Please return them as soon as possible.
| 2 | In the Message 2 field, select the counter (=1) and select the notice file 2ndoverdue. |
When a patron has already received one message about an overdue item, she will receive a second overdue message like the following:
SECOND OVERDUE NOTICE
The following Library materials are still overdue, even though a notice was sent to bring this to your attention. Overdue charges are continuing to accrue. Please return these materials and pay the fines associated with these items. Thank you.
| 3 | In the Message 3 field, select the counter (=2) and select the notice file finaloverdue. |
When a patron has already received two messages about an overdue item, she will received a third or final overdue message like the following:
FINAL NOTICE
This is the final overdue notice; we have sent you several notices already.
If you don't return the following items we shall take your outstanding account to a collection agency for action.
To define when patrons get these messages
Date fields display to the right of the Message fields. These Date fields signify the due date of the items.
You will most likely run the overdue notices report at regularly scheduled intervals. To keep from changing the due dates each time the report is run, you can select sliding date ranges instead of fixed dates.
| 1 | Click the gadget in the first Date field. |
| 2 | Select a Start Date of when items were due. |
If you select the Since the Beginning of the System option, all patrons will qualify for the first overdue message if they have items due any time from the past, and they have never received a notice about them.
Important: Since the Beginning of the System could possibly take into account hundreds or thousands of charges because you were not notifying users regularly, or because you had included special users such as MISSING or DISCARD whose items were due long ago. This is not a desirable outcome. It is recommended that you exclude these special user profiles when running this report.
You may also want to specify a tighter date range. For example, select a start date for items due 9 days before the report runs, and select an end date for when these items were due that is 7 days before the report runs. This selection will focus specifically on items due 7 to 9 days ago and provides some leeway in case your notice report isn’t run daily.
| 3 | Select an End Date of when items were due. Click the Before radio button and select 7 for the number of days. |
| 4 | Click OK. |
You will return to the Charge Notice tab of the report. The new Date range has been applied and displays as :DE-7. This indicates that patrons whose items are at least seven days overdue will be sent the “1stoverdue” message (if they have not already received a notice).
The date range is dependent on when the report runs. In this example the system is searching, at the time the report runs, for items due at least seven days ago.
| 5 | Repeat the same steps for the second Date field. |
| 6 | Click the gadget in the second Date field, and in the End Date section, click the Before radio button and select 14 for the number of days. You will be sending the “2ndoverdue” message. |
| 7 | Click OK. |
| 8 | Repeat the same steps for the third Date field, but select 21 days in the End Date section. If you send notices a third time, after items have been due 21 days or longer, you will be sending the patrons the “finaloverdue” message. |
Other Things to Consider
| • | Changing Notice Text — It is possible to change the default notice text or create a new text file using the Notices helper. See the Notices Helper topic for more information. |
| • | Emailing Notices —For information about emailing notices, see the topic FAQs: Automatic Emailing and Printing of Notices. |
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