Marking Items Lost and Claimed Returned

Lost Items
To mark items Lost, retrieve patron record and click Items Out.

Select the item. Click on Actions for Selected Items → Mark Lost(by Patron).

The lost item now displays in the Lost/Claimed Returned/Long Overdue field.

Important Notes:
Marking an item Lost will automatically bill the patron for the replacement cost of the item as recorded in the price field in the item record, and a processing fee as determined by your local policy. If the price field is blank, a default replacement cost as determined by the library is used. Based on the library’s setting, if the price is 0.00, the replacement cost charge may be 0.00 or the default amount. If there is no default cost, you may manually add the replacement cost portion to the bill. See the section called “Adding New “Grocery” Bills” for more information.

If the lost item has overdue charges, based on your library’s setting, the overdue charges may be voided or retained.

A lost-then-returned item will disappear from the Items Out screen only when all bills linked to this particular circulation have been resolved. Bills include replacement charges, overdue charges, and manual charges added to the existing bills.

The following are some common scenarios you may encounter:

• No payment has been made yet. When the item is returned, the lost bills are voided and there is no restored overdue charge. The bill and circulation record will be closed and the item will disappear from the Items Out screen.
• No payment has been made yet. When the item is returned, the lost bills are voided, but there are restored overdue charges. The overdue bill will be open. The item will be displayed on the Items Out screen under the category of Has Unpaid Bills. The item will disappear once the overdue charges are cleared.
• The lost bills have been paid already. When the item is returned, the lost bills are voided and there is no overdue charge or the restored overdue charges are less than the replacement cost. There will be a negative balance in the bill. A refund (see the section called Refund for more details) needs to be made to close the bill and the circulation record. Once the outstanding amount has been refunded, the bill and circulation record will be closed and the item will disappear from the Items Out screen.
• If you need to balance a bill with a negative amount and close the linked lost circulation record without making a refund (removing the item from Lost, Claimed Returned, Long Overdue, Has Unpaid Bills panel on the Items Out screen), you need to add two dummy bills to the existing bills. The first one can be of any amount (e.g. $0.01), while the second should be of the absolute value of the negative amount. Then you need to void the first dummy bill. The reason for using a dummy bill is that Evergreen will check and close the circulation record only when payment is applied or bills are voided.

  If your library chooses not to automatically void a lost item billing when it is returned, staff need to deal with the bills manually, as per your local policy.

  For all the above mentioned settings see the Local Administration Menu for more information.
  
  Claimed Returned Items
  To mark an item Claimed Returned, retrieve patron record and go to the Items Out screen.

  Select the item, then Actions for Selected Items → Claimed Returned from the drop-down menu.
  

  Claimed Returned pop-up window. Select a date and click Apply.
  

  The Claimed Returned item now displays in the Lost/Claimed Returned/Long Overdue field at the bottom of the patron record screen.
  

  Important Notes:
  The date entered for a Claimed Returned establishes the fine. If the date given is past, bills will be adjusted accordingly.

  When a Claimed Returned item is returned, if there is an outstanding bill associated with it, the item will not disappear from the Items Out screen. It will disappear when the outstanding bills are resolved.

  When an item is marked Claimed Returned, the value in Claims-returned Count field in patron record is automatically increased. But it will not be adjusted when the item is found and checked in. You may manually edit it according to your local policy.