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Fees/fines data

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Find instructions, a file template, and a sample record for formatting and sending your fees/fines data to OCLC.

Purpose

This site contains instructions for formatting and sending your fees/fines data to OCLC. If sending overdue items in your loan data file, do not send associated overdue fines from legacy ILS as WMS will calculate this for you based on the bill structure in the loan policy. Please discuss with your Implementation Manager if you have questions.

 Note: Circulation files are required to be UTF-8 encoded.

File template

File Description
Tab-delimited fines and fees template (Microsoft Excel) Contains 7 columns. Save as a tab-delimited file (an Excel file cannot be used to send data).

 Note: Required fields have red column headings.

Column rules

  • The text file must contain all 7 tab-delimited columns in the order listed in the table below.
  • The first row of the text file is the header and must contain column names separated by tabs.
  • Column header names are not case sensitive, but must be spelled correctly.
  • Each line in the tab-delimited file must contain 6 tab characters, which function as column separators.
  • All values in columns are strings (text string, numeric string, etc.).
  • If you have no data to put in a column, include the column header, but leave the rest of the column empty (do not delete the column header).
  • Values in columns cannot include tabbed data.

 Note: If columns are deleted, moved, or renamed, the file cannot be used to load data.

Filename rules

  • Filename cannot contain contain spaces or special characters (e.g., @, ?, *, #, !, &, %, $, ^).
  • Filenames can contain letters, numbers, periods, and underscores.
  • Tab-delimited files must have the .txt file extension.
  • If you are using a non-Windows machine, save the file as a Windows-formatted text file.
    Example: OCLCsymbol.feesfines.txt

Send fees/fines data

If sending overdue items in your loan data file, do not send associated overdue fines from legacy ILS as WMS will calculate this for you based on the bill structure in the loan policy. Please discuss this with your Implementation Manager if you have questions. Send your fees/fines data files via SFTP with your OCLC file exchange account.

Directory Use for
/xfer/wms/test/in/circdata/fees Loading fee/fine data to WMS

Fees/fines file format

 Note: None of the columns are repeatable.

Column number Column name Required Example Description
1 institutionId x 127968 The WorldCat Registry ID for the home institution of patron who has the fine.
2 patronBarcode x 1000124077 The barcode of the patron with the associated fine.
3 fineAmount x 15.00 The amount of the patron's fine. Number with 2 decimal digits. Do not use the dollar sign. Fine amounts must be greater than zero.
4 itemBarcode   123456789052 The barcode of the item with the fine if available.

If the item barcode is not available, it should be left blank.
5 currency x USD 3-digit character country currency code.
6 billReason x Overdue Configured in OCLC Service Configuration. WMS Circulation Bill Reason.

Character limit 30.
7 notes x Fines captured in legacy ILS Character limit 4,000.

Sample record

File Description
Tab-delimited fees/fines text file example (Text file) An example of a tab-delimited text file that results from saving the tab-delimited fines/fees data template as text. It contains sample data.

Questions

If you have questions, contact your OCLC Implementation Manager at WMSImp@oclc.org.