Long overdue settings

1. At how many days overdue should an item be marked long overdue?
2. Which specific lost status should the item be marked with at that time?
3. Should the patron be charged for the item when it is marked long overdue?
4. Should items be removed from the patron's list of checkouts when they are marked long overdue?

System preferences

1. DefaultLongOverdueChargeValue: This tells Koha whether or not to charge patrons for items that become lost via the longoverdue.pl cron. If a status is selected, this will charge the item's replacement cost from 952$v. If 952$v is blank, Koha will charge the item type default replacement cost if useDefaultReplacementCost is set to '[Use] the default replacement cost defined for the item type.'
2. DefaultLongOverdueLostValue: Select the lost status to which items should be set when they become long overdue. This should be the same status selected in DefaultLongOverdueChargeValue.
3. DefaultLongOverdueDays: This tells Koha how many days overdue an item should be for it to automatically be set to long overdue. Note that items are considered long overdue when they are overdue over this number of days.
   
4. MarkLostItemsAsReturned: While it isn't specific to the long overdue process, this determines what actions remove items from patrons' list of checkouts. For long overdue items, the selection would be 'from the longoverdue cronjob'.
   

In general, ByWater recommends using the same option (either all selected, or all not selected) for 'from the longoverdue cronjob', 'when cataloguing an item', and 'from the items tab of the catalog module' for MarkLostItemsAsReturned so that lost items are treated the same way no matter how they are marked lost.

1. DefaultLongOverduePatronCategories: Set if only specific patron categories should be addressed by the automatic long overdue process. If it's left unset, all patron categories will be addressed by the cron.
2. DefaultLongOverdueSkipPatronCategories: Set only if specific patron categories should be skipped by the automatic long overdue process. If it's left unset, all patron categories will be addressed by the cron.
3. DefaultLongOverdueSkipLostStatuses: Set if items that already have a specific lost status should be skipped when making items long overdue. For instance, if your library does not want items that have been claimed as returned to automatically go lost via the longoverdue.pl cron, the number corresponding to your library's Claims Returned lost status would be entered here. Use the number in the 'Authorized value' column for the applicable status(es) in Administration > Authorized values > Lost group.

Note that the longoverdue.pl cron must be running for those system preferences to have any effect. ByWater partners who aren't sure whether this is running for their site can submit a ticket, and we will confirm. You can also see whether it is running by going to Tools > Logs, selecting only the 'Cron job' module, and then choosing a single day for your 'Display from' and 'Display to' dates:

You can filter the results by starting to type 'longoverdue' in the Search bar in the Log entries table. 

Cron settings

There are circumstances where the system preferences above may be blank even though the long overdue process is running automatically, or where the behavior your library is seeing may not match what is set in your system preferences.

All of the options discussed above as system preferences can also be set directly in the longoverdue.pl cron, and some of them were not available as system preferences until more recent releases of Koha. This means that libraries who have been using Koha for many years may have set their preferences (long overdue lost status, number of days at which items go lost, patron categories to include or exclude etc.) directly in the cron. In these cases, those settings aren't visible in Koha, including in the cron log. ByWater partners in this situation are encouraged to send in a ticket - we will confirm your settings and can help you move them into system preferences when appropriate. 

The second circumstance could be that your library needs more granular control than is currently available in system preferences. For instance, if a library wants to charge patrons for long overdue items at 14 days with the lost status of Long Overdue (Lost), and then wants to change those items' statuses to Lost at 60 days without charging the patron again, this would be set in the cron as:

The longoverdue.pl cron can also be set to include or exclude specific item types, or to include or exclude specific branches. Those options are not currently available as system preferences and must be set directly in the cron. For instance, a library could want items to automatically go lost when they are over 60 days overdue with the exception of hotspots, which should go lost after 20 days. Or library could have items go lost at over 60 days except for one branch that wants it set to 45 days. The different timing for that specific item type (or branch) would need to be set directly in the cron. 

Billing for long overdue (lost) items

Libraries often want to use the third built-in overdue notice as a billing notice for lost items. The timing for overdue notices is set in Tools > Overdue notice/status triggers. However, lining up the timing for this notice and DefaultLongOverdueDays requires some consideration.

The timing set for your third overdue notice Delay will send a notice when items are that exact number of days overdue. So, if the Delay is set to 60, ODUE3 will send when items are 60 days overdue. However, remember that the longoverdue.pl cron marks items as long overdue when they are over the number of days set in DefaultLongOverdueDays (or directly in the longoverdue.pl cron). In practice, this means that if both the ODUE3 trigger and DefaultLongOverdueDays are set to 60, patrons will receive their ODUE3 the day before they are billed for the item by the longoverdue.pl cron. To reduce patron confusion, ByWater recommends phrasing your ODUE3 to indicate that items will be billed to their account (instead of has been billed). 

Note also that once an item is marked long overdue, Koha cannot send an ODUE notice for it even if it still shows as checked out to the patron (that is, it is not considered 'returned' by MarkLostItemsAsReturned). Thus, if a library sets their Delay to a higher number than what is set in DefaultLongOverdueDays, patrons will not receive ODUE3 for those items.

The final consideration is your library's OverdueNoticeCalendar setting. If this is set to 'Use calendar', Koha will skip closed days as set in Tools > Calendar when counting toward your Delay. However, there is no option to skip closed days for the longoverdue.pl process, so items may end up being automatically marked lost before the billing notice has a chance to send. For this reason. ByWater recommends that libraries who use ODUE3 as their billing notice set this to '[Ignore calendar] when working out the period for overdue notices.'

Tutorial video