Purpose

A Fee/fine owner in FOLIO is the agent(s) or office(s) that manages fines for FOLIO transactions. Fee/fine owners collect fees/fines for FOLIO service points.

Libraries may name these in different ways, such as:

Individual service points (essentially duplicating their service point infrastructure, if each service point manages their own fines)
Library departments (e.g., "Undergraduate Library Business Services")
Staff roles (e.g., "Business Library Finance Assistant")

Overdue Fines

Given that fee/fine owners are not directly connected to locations in configuration, it can be confusing to understand how overdue fines accrue to a fee/fine owner, since most libraries will want it to accrue based on the item's location.

When an item circulates, it does so through the FOLIO circulation rules. If a fine should be charged if the item is not returned on time, it would need to be included in the circulation rule as an overdue and/or lost item policy.
The item that circulates has an effective location when it is loaned to the patron.
The fine is charged / accrued based on the effective location of the item that is loaned, even if the location tree is not one of the criteria in the circulation rule, or the effective location is not where the item was borrowed from.

Even though a service point is not located in the circulation rules, an overdue fine still connects back to the fee/fine owner, through the following logic:

Item effective location → primary service point for the effective location → Fee/fine owner for that service point.

Lost Item Fines

Lost Item Fines accrue to the fee/fine owner, based on the location checked in the following order:

If there is a set value, use the fee/fine owner who owns the service point for the item's Item location: Permanent value
If there is no value in Item location: Permanent, use the fee/fine owner who owns the service point for the item's Holdings location: Permanent value
If there is no value in Holdings location: Permanent, use the fee/fine owner who owns the service point for the item's Effective Location (this is unlikely to be the case for items that circulate - they should have a permanent value on either the Holding or Item level)

Permissions

One permission is applicable to this section:

Settings (Users): Can create, edit and remove owners

UX/UI

When configuring fines, fee/fine owners must be defined first, before other settings.

A fee/fine owner may be connected to one or more service points.
A service point may be connected to one and only one fee/fine owner.

Available fields:

Owner
- Required
- Will be the name that displays in FOLIO workflow
Description
- Optional
- Only displays in this section of FOLIO (in default behavior)
Associated Service Points
- Optional - but Fee/fine owners will not accrue fines unless Service Points are associated to them.

Searching

There is no search functionality built into this section of FOLIO.

Functional workflows

To Modify a Fee/fine Owner

From Settings → Users, open the list of Fee/fine Owners.
Click on the Pencil icon under Actions for the Fee/fine Owner you wish to modify.
Input Changes to the Fee/Fine Owner record.
Click Save on the end of the row to save the change.

To create a Fee/fine Owner

From Settings → Users, open the list of Fee/fine Owners.
Click New in the Top Right.
Type in a name for the Fee/fine Owner. The name must not already exist as a Fee/fine owner.
Type in a Description (Optional).
Associate the Fee/fine Owner to a specific service point or multiple service points (Optional).
Click Save on the end of the row to save the new Fee/fine Owner.

To Delete a Fee/fine Owner

From Settings → Users, open the list of Fee/fine Owners.
Click on the Trash icon under Actions for the Fee/fine Owner you wish to delete.
Click Delete to confirm deletion.

Reporting

There are no in-app reports in this section of FOLIO.

There is no personally identifying information in this area of FOLIO, unless a library chooses to include it.

Integrations

Most libraries will want to use this setting as part of integrations with reporting and external payment systems (like the University Bursar, or PCI credit card payment sites.) The project intends to produce a global export file of fine information, but individual institutions would need to customize that export themselves, for their own requirements.

Considerations for Implementation

There is no requirement that Fee/fine owners be named in certain ways. However, libraries should consider opportunities to consolidate fee/fine processing, if appropriate to their institution.
Libraries may also find it helpful to stick to the same conceptual idea when creating these - e.g., they are all service points, or all library departments - rather than mixing models.
If a library is intending to be able to charge fees and fines, Fee/fine owners must be implemented first.
Service points do not need to be implemented beforehand - however, fee/fine owners will not actually accrue any fines until service points are implemented and then associated to the fee/fine owners

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