Patron membership

The Membership functionality makes it possible for the library to limit the validity period of patron accounts, for example if the library wants to get hold of patrons on a regular basis to check personal data, or the library charges a fee for its services. This functionality is enabled at the time of installation of Quria. When a membership expires, the patron cannot make reservations or check out items unless the membership is renewed.

User permissions control some of the membership functionality:

  • Patrons/Delete membership: Permission to delete memberships. The option is available by clicking the trash can when editing the Membership section on the Patron data tab of the patron details window.

  • Patrons/Edit membership expiry date: Permission to the edit expiry date of a membership. The option is available when editing the Membership section on the Patron data tab of the patron details window.

Prerequisites for the membership functionality

In order for the membership functionality to work, the following needs to be considered:

Setting Description Learn more
Patron membership types Must be set up

Membership types

Scheduled jobs

The job Update membership based on bank payments allows for patron memberships to be automatically extended. The library staff needs to download bank files for further handling.

The job Update membership based on manual payments is used to create debts that patrons pay to extend their membership.

If neither of these jobs are activated, patrons will be blocked when their memberships expire and the library staff has to reactivate the memberships manually.

Administration tools

Bank files

Bank payment

To use memberships based on bank payments, the following must be set up.

  1. On Authority level under Organisation settings:

    • Days before expiry: The number of days needs to correspond with the frequency of running the job Update membership based on bank payments. Otherwise, the job will only handle the patron memberships that expire the same day as the job is run. This means, that if you run the job once a week, the number of days before expiry needs to be at least 7.

    • Payment period: The number of days the bank needs to withdraw the amount from the patron’s bank account.

  2. Integration to SEPA.

Organisation settings

Integration settings

Adding a membership to a patron

After having configured membership types, a section for membership appears under Patron data.

1. Click Add membership.

2. Select membership type and payment method. Fill in banking details if Bank withdrawal is selected.

3. Click Save and activate.

The membership is now activated.

Note:
When a membership with manual payment is added or renewed, the expiry date is updated when the membership fee is paid.

See also: Patrons configuration

Membership expiry warnings

Messages sending out membership expiry warnings are possible to setup and activate.

The notification is only sent for continuous memberships with manual payments.

The following needs to be done to start using the new function:

1. Check and possibly modify the message texts in Message texts

2. Enter how many days prior to expiry the message should be sent in System settings

3. Activate the rule Patron control/Enable membership expiry warning in: Rules

4. Schedule and activate the job Generate membership expiry warnings in Administration tools: Manage scheduled jobs.