Fine/fee Export
Fines and Fees Export
To export fines and fees from Alma to a bursar system, an integration profile must be defined. Institutions that have multiple bursar systems should define a separate profile for each bursar system. In this case, each profile should include information about the fines/fees that are handled by the relevant bursar system (see below What fines/fees should be exported? ).
Following is a list of the decisions that must be taken when defining a profile:
- What is the match ID? – The IT department and the library must determine the identifier that Alma and the bursar system have in common in order to provide a matching point when synchronizing the user fine/fee information in the bursar system with the exported data from Alma. This may be the primary identifier or any other identifier, unique cross-institution or cross-type (see Viewing user identifiers on Alma OLH).
For example, if your institution uses student ID as the user identifier in the bursar system, this ID type should be defined in Alma as a possible additional identifier. For example, the User Identifier Type code table (accessible to Ex Libris staff only) would be configured as follows:
In the Bursar integration profile, the student ID should be defined as the match identifier (by selecting it from the Match ID type drop-down list):
The export file XML will include this identifier for each user in the type field. The following is an example of the user part of an export XML file:
- What fines/fees should be exported? –The exported fines and fees should be determined by the population of fines and fees that is handled by the bursar system
| Fine/Fee Population | Considerations |
|---|---|
| User group(s) | There are institutions that handle only some of their users in a bursar system. Thus only fines and fees of the relevant user groups should be exported. |
| Fine/Fee to export | An institution can decide to export fines/fees of certain types only. |
| Institution-owned fines/fees; Libraryowned fines/fees | Each fine and fee in Alma is considered owned by the library or institution. The owner of each fine and fee is determined in the FineFeeTypeDefinition mapping table. There are institutions that handle each library’s users separately. hus only fines and fees of the relevant libraries should be exported. |
| Minimal amount for user | The institution can decide to export fines and fees only after the user has reached a certain level of debt, in order to avoid exporting many small charges. |
| Time before export | An institution can decide to wait a few days before exporting a fine or fee to allow for the waiving or correction of the amount before it is exported. |
Note: If a fine/fee is discovered to be mistaken after it is exported, create and export a credit fine/fee to the bursar system to correct the charged amount.
- Where will the exported XML files be stored? – Define an FTP location in which the export XML files are stored by Alma and fetched and processed by the bursar system. For more information, see Configuring S/FTP Definitions in the Alma Administration Guide. You must also define this S/ FTP connection as an allowed S/FTP connection for the institution. For more information, see Configuring Allowed S/FTP Connections in the Alma Administration Guide.
Since all the fines and fees that meet the profile definitions are exported in one XML file, it is recommended to specify the exact population of fines and fees to export
For more information regarding the Bursar integration profile, see Alma OLH.
Export Workflow
The export job checks each of the Alma users. If the user is part of the population that is handled by the bursar system (the user group matches the definition of the integration profile) and the user reached the minimal amount of charges to export, the user’s fines and fees are checked. Each fine/fee that matches the profile’s definitions is exported. The transaction type for exported fines and fees is set to Exported and Paid. If the import workflow back from bursar is configured, the transaction type for exported fines and fees is set to Exported. The following diagram illustrates the export workflow:
