How does the library fee payment integration with eServices work?
Answer
The Los Rios Libraries have an integration setup with the bursar system, PeopleSoft, which allows students to pay library fees through their self-service account in eServices or at the Business Services Office (BSO).
How are fees assessed and transferred to PeopleSoft?
Lost Item Replacement Fees are assessed by the Change-to-lost-type Overdue and Lost Loan Profiles in Alma. These profiles run once per day at 4:00 pm. Staff may also manually mark items as lost from Manage Patron Services.
Each day at 6:00 pm, Alma exports all active fees to a file on the library FTP server. When a fee is exported, its status in Alma changes from Active to Transferred. A district IT process retrieves the fee information from the library server and adds the fee to the student account in PeopleSoft (aka eServices).
How are fees paid in PeopleSoft and transferred to Alma?
Students may pay fees at any time via credit card using eServices. During business hours, they may pay via credit card, cash, or check at the Business Services Office (BSO).
- When in eServices, students must pay all fees listed (e.g. registration fees, library fees, etc.). When paying at BSO, staff will apply payments to any individual fees the student wishes to pay (e.g. registration fees only).
- When using eServices, students must pay the entirety of any given fee in addition to all other line items listed. When paying at BSO, they can pay in full or in part. Note: BSO does not accept credit-card payment over the phone. If students cannot visit in person, they may mail a check.
When a fee is paid, PeopleSoft sends that information to the library FTP server. Once per hour, Alma imports the files and updates patron records. If the payment is partial, the transferred balance is updated. If the payment is in full, the balance is set to 0 and the fee status in Alma changes to Closed.
How are fees waived in Alma and transferred to PeopleSoft?
Staff may waive fees from the Alma user account. Alma exports credits once per hour and the student's balance is updated in PeopleSoft (eServices).
Important: When waiving fees, the full amount (100%) of the fee must be waived in order to ensure that PeopleSoft (eServices) is updated properly. To waive a partial amount, first have the student pay the amount agreed upon at BSO. After Alma has been updated to show that payment, waive the remaining amount.
How are users credited when they return a lost item they were previously billed for?
When users return a lost item they were previously billed for, an automated process (webhook plus PHP script on our server) waives the fee and update any Alma blocks. In case this process fails, circulation staff receive a daily report of not-lost items with associated fees; if any are listed, staff will waive the fee manually. Once the fee has been waived, Alma will export the waiver to an FTP server monitored by a process that sends it to PeopleSoft; the patron's PeopleSoft account will be updated automatically to remove the library fees for the item. We can expect fees to be cleared from PeopleSoft within one hour of them being waived in Alma.