How to use the Claim Returned function on Koha

How to use the Claim Returned function on Koha



It is possible to meaningfully record on the patron account items that are not on the shelf but that the patron claims to have returned. This document will outline the different options for enabling and formatting this feature.

How to enable the functionality

To enable this feature there are several system preferences that need to be set. Go to KOHA administration > Global system preferences and search for ClaimReturned. This will bring up the relevant system preferences.




There are four system preferences to consider when enabling this function:

ClaimReturnedChargeFee

This will determine if and how a lost fee will be charged for the item marked as Claimed Returned. The options are:

ask if a lost fee should be charged

This option will cause a message to appear when an item is marked as Claimed Returned asking the staff member to confirm if a fee should be charged

charge a lost fee

This option will cause a fee to be charge automatically when an item is marked as Claimed Returned.

don't charge a lost fee.

This option will mean no fee will be charged when an item is marked as Claimed Returned and there will be no option to charge a fee on a case by case basis.

ClaimReturnedLostValue

This will determine which of the LOST values defined in the authorised value area will be used as the Claimed Return option.


This system preference MUST be set for the Claim Returned function to be made available.

The content of this field should be the numeric representation of the value, as opposed to the description. Details on how to check the authorised value to add to this system preference can be found under the How to check the Claimed Returned status section of this document.

ClaimReturnedWarningThreshold

This option will generate a warning on the patron account if a patron has more than the specified amount of items marked as Claimed Returned. If this system preference is enabled and a patron has more items claimed returned than defined in this system preference, there will be a message in the Checkout and Details tab on the patron account, informing staff of the number of Claimed Returned items.


Appearance of the warning on the patron account:

CleanUpDatabaseReturnClaims

This option will cause any claims that have been resolved on the patron account to be automatically removed after a set period of time. Add the number of days a claim should be resolved for before it should be removed from the patron account to the system preference. 

This option requires the cleanup_database.pl cron to be running with the correct switches. Please contact Interleaf Technology directly to confirm if this feature is enabled on your site.

How to check the Claimed Returned status

Go to KOHA administration > Basic parameters > Authorized values.



This will bring you to a table of all authorized values categories available on your site. 


At the top of this table there will be a search box that can be used to find a specific authorized value. Searching for lost will narrow the table down to the LOST category. Click the word LOST in the Category column and this will open a new page with a table of the LOST authorised values.


Check the Description column of this table to see if there is a Claimed Returned status, or equivalent. Make a note of the number for the Claimed Returned status in the Authorized values column. This number will need to be added to the ClaimReturnedLostValue system preference.

If there isn’t a Claimed Returned status, one will need to be created, instructions for which are here.

Setting an item as Claimed Returned

Once the ClaimedReturned system preferences have been set a Return claims column with a button to mark items as such will appear in the patron account. 


Clicking the Claim returned button will cause a pop up box to appear. 

This box will include a space for adding notes:


There will also be the option to charge a lost fee if the system preference ClaimReturnedChargeFee has been marked to ask before charging a fee. If this system preference is set differently this option will not appear.



After these fields have been filled in as appropriate click the Make claim button. 


The item will remain on the patron account but the date it was marked as being Claimed Returned will populate the Return claims column.



How to resolve a Claimed Returned item

The Claims tab of the circulation table will now include the bibliographic information of the unresolved claims on the patron account.


Claims that have been resolved will be hidden by default. These resolved claims can be shown by clicking the Show all claims link at the top of the table. 
This will cause the the table to dropout and include claims that have previously been resolved.

To resolve a claim, go to the column on the right hand side of the Claims table. Click on the Actions button to the right hand side of the claim to be resolved. 

This will create a dropdown menu:

Click Resolve and a pop-up box will appear to add details about the resolution.


Resolution

This box contains options for why a claim is being resolved. The options under this dropdown can be edited under the authorised value RETURN_CLAIM_RESOLUTION. For more details about this, please check our Help Centre.

New item lost value

This dropdown menu will contain the different LOST values available under the LOST authorised values.

Select the appropriate options from the dropdowns under the two headings and click Resolve claim. 

The resolved claim will no longer show on the Claims table, unless the Show all claims option has been selected. 

Details of the resoluiton will appear under the Resolution column.



Version history




1.003/03/20Creating doc.Holly Cooper
1.127/03/20Addin detailHolly Cooper
1.202/04/20Addin detailHolly Cooper
1.303/04/20Addin detailHolly Cooper
2.017/06/20Migrating to ZohoHolly Cooper
2.115/01/21Adding TOCHolly Cooper
2.229/12/21Updating for new releaseHolly Cooper




















Retention policy: Permanant









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