01/24/08
Clio Software Hints:
Dealing with lost books on the lending side
Table of Contents:
Introduction 2
Previously Non-invoiced Requests 2
Invoice Billing 2
Account Statement Billing 5
Previously Invoiced Requests 7
Invoice Billing 7
Account Statement Billing 10
Final Step to accounting for Lost Book 13
Introduction
In Clio in order to account for material that was lent but not returned in Clio you can create an invoice to bill the borrower for the lost book. If an invoice already exists for the requests then proceed to the section entitled “Previously Invoiced Requests”, else start with the section below.
Previously Non-invoiced Requests
Invoice Billing
Creating an invoice for a library that was not charged for lending the material requires modification of the Lending Request before an invoice can be created.
In order to modify the lending request to create an invoice do the following…go to Lending Request Details screen which is displayed by going to Search Lending Requests then performing a search for the request, once found double-click on the ILL number. When the Lending Request Details screen appears select the Edit Record button. You will want to change the Billing Method from “None” to “Invoice” and the lending charge from “$0.00” to the amount of the lost material to be charged. In the Patron textbox enter a note before the patron’s name that will be printed on the invoice, e.g. **Lost Book** (the note should be less than 50 characters in length). In the LendingNotes textbox enter a note regarding the charge given, e.g. charges due to lost book.
After modifications the record should look something like this:
Once you have made the modifications you can close the Lending Request Details window. In order to create the invoice you will need to go to Billing section in Clio.
Billing:
Note: If you create monthly invoices you will need to wait until the end of the month to create the lost book invoice. If you attempt to create the invoice beforehand all of the requests that have been updated to invoice will be created and printed along with the lost book invoice.
If it is the end of the month or there will be no problems with printing the lost book invoice then you can proceed to click on the Create/Print New Invoices button. You should get an invoice similar to the one below:
Account Statement Billing
If your billing method is by Account Statement then you would follow the same steps to prepare the request as done with invoice billing.
Once the Lending Request Details screen had been modified then you would go to Billing and select the Create New Account Statement.
Note: If you print monthly account statements you should wait until the end of the month to print the lost book charge on the account statement.
Below is an example of the statement that is created:
Previously Invoiced Requests
Invoice Billing
In order to account for lost book charges on material that already has an invoice for delivery charges you will need to modify the lending request and the invoice for the request. Since you will need to modify the information in the Lending Request you can find the invoice number for the request at the same time.
To find the invoice number for the ILL request go to Search Lending Requests and perform a search by the ILL number or the title of the request. Once the request is listed then double-click on the ILL number. The invoice number is located in the Invoice Number text box, make note of this. On the lending request details screen you can enter in the Patron field a note that will print on the invoice, e.g. Lost Book. In the lending notes text box add a note to detail the reason for the added charge. Do not change the charge amount on the lending request details screen this will be adjusted on the existing invoice. In the example below a book entitled Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was lost. The lender was originally billed $10.00 for the delivery of the book. Below is an example of the adjustments made to the lending request.
Once the appropriate adjustments have been made to the Lending Request Details screen then you can proceed to Billing to modify the existing Invoice and add a note regarding the added charge.
In Billing select Review Invoices. Once the Invoice Search appears you can perform a search for the invoice by invoice number that was found on the request’s detail screen. Once the invoice appears you will need to add the extra charge to the invoice, in my example the lost book charge is $30.00. In order to add the extra charge you will need to bring up the Lending Billing Details window for the invoice. This is done by double-clicking on the Invoice number then double-clicking on the ILL request number. The Lending Billing Details window looks like the one below:
In regards to my example on the Lending Billing Details I would enter $40.00 that would include the existing $10.00 delivery charge along with the $30.00 lost book charge.
Once entered I would return to the Invoice listing then enter a note about the added charge in the note section.
Once these adjustments have been made then you can print the Invoice by selecting the Print Retrieved Invoices button.
Account Statement Billing
If you bill by account statement then you will need to adjust the Lending Request by going to the Lending Request Details screen. When adjusting the lending charge you will not need to add the previous charge into the lending charge text box just enter the lost book charge, e.g. If the previous amount is $10 and the lost book charge is $30 then enter $30. The account statement will still reflect the previous charge. In the account statement text box remove the account statement number. This will force Clio to create a new account statement. Enter in the Patron Note text box a note that will print on the invoice that the invoice involves a lost book. Enter in the Lending Note field the previous charge amount and the fact that the lending charge field was changed to reflect the lost book charge.
Before:
After:
When you go to billing a new account statement will print when you select the Create New Account Statements button.
In the image above you will see that the previous delivery charge is still active and the lost book charge has been added.
Final Step to accounting for Lost Book
When payment is finally received the request can be updated to Returned. In the Update Lending Request screen update the lending request to Returned. Requests that remain with a status of YesLoan cannot be archived. The Returned status gives notice that the transaction is complete.
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