Currently Koha in the circulation and fine rules only allow one "Fine charging interval" when putting fines on the Patron. The enhancement suggested here in this report is to allow Koha to enter a number of different day intervals between fines, i.e. define several "Fine charging interval" in sequence. The rationale is to distribute the fines unevenly to the Patron over time. E.g. with the new feature: First fine Patron after 2 days with 50 SEK then wait for 5 more days to add second fine with 50 SEK then wait for another 7 days with 50 SEK. If the total fined amount after the three fine periods above have not reached the "Overdue fines cap (amount)" then repeat the last specified fine charging interval, in this example 7 days.
It would be nice if at the same time we maybe could also allow for different amounts: First fine Patron after 2 days with 20 SEK then wait for 5 more days to add second fine with 70 SEK then wait for another 7 days with 100 SEK.
We have a number of customers who would want to have a graduated fining structure. For example, charge £0.25 as soon as item overdue and then increment this on a weekly basis. Neither a 1 or 7 day interval achieves this.
Do they add 0.25 each time or does the amount vary? We do a lot of weekly interval fines as it's very common in Germany. We are using OverdueNoticeCalendar and finesCalendar set to calculate in days the library is open. Then for a weekly interval use 5 if the library is closed on weekends. This way if there are no additional holidays, the fines are always incremented on the same day of the week and the notices can be timed to be sent out on that day too. Also set grace period to 0 and start at the begin of the interval!
Katrin - your comment above does go some way to achieving this but I have another scenario that has just come in today. Our customer have imposed new fining structures which do not increment at the same value on a weekly basis. Overdue items - 1 week £0.25 per item Overdue items - 2 weeks £0.50 per item Overdue items - 3 weeks £0.80 per item Overdue items - 4 weeks £1.00 per item Overdue items - 5 weeks £1.30 per item Overdue items - 6 weeks £1.50 per item Overdue items - 7 weeks £1.80 per item Overdue items - 8 weeks £2.05 per item Overdue items - 9 weeks £2.30 per item Overdue items - 10 weeks £2.60 per item Overdue items - 11 weeks £2.80 per item As you can see from this, week 1 and 2 would be catered for using the start of interval and 7 day interval but week 3 does not go up to £0.75 - it goes up to £0.80. Some development in this area to allow customers to create a graduated fining structure would be very welcome.
(In reply to Fiona Borthwick from comment #4) > Katrin - your comment above does go some way to achieving this but I have > another scenario that has just come in today. > > Our customer have imposed new fining structures which do not increment at > the same value on a weekly basis. > > Overdue items - 1 week £0.25 per item > Overdue items - 2 weeks £0.50 per item > Overdue items - 3 weeks £0.80 per item > Overdue items - 4 weeks £1.00 per item > Overdue items - 5 weeks £1.30 per item > Overdue items - 6 weeks £1.50 per item > Overdue items - 7 weeks £1.80 per item > Overdue items - 8 weeks £2.05 per item > Overdue items - 9 weeks £2.30 per item > Overdue items - 10 weeks £2.60 per item > Overdue items - 11 weeks £2.80 per item > > As you can see from this, week 1 and 2 would be catered for using the start > of interval and 7 day interval but week 3 does not go up to £0.75 - it goes > up to £0.80. > > Some development in this area to allow customers to create a graduated > fining structure would be very welcome. Hi Fiona, that matches what a lot of libraries in Germany do actually. I've a 'hack' in fines.pl that does a bit of this, but I've failed at imagining how we could implement this properly, especially the GUI. Probably a separate page? Pop-up from the issuingrules table? Maybe as it's a bit of a different problem (not about fine charging interval but about the actual fine) we should continue discussion on a different bug?
Happy to help work this into community with you Katrin.