Loaner penalty management

In Hector, you have the option to record penalties for late loans or loans that involve damages.

Procedure to activate penalties

• In the Settings menu, select Loaners, then click on the Penalties tab.
• Choose a type of penalty other than None.

Depending on your selection, a different configuration will be presented to you.

Points

In this case, you will need to:

• Determine if you want your users to receive an email notification when they are blocked from accessing loans.
• Determine an initial number of points for your users.
• Choose an option for recovering lost points (manually or after a given period).
• Decide if the points are shared between stores. If they are not shared, the user will not be able to make a loan when their points are completely depleted in at least one store.
• Select how the penalty is calculated:
  • Occurrences – Based on the number of delays.
  • Schedule – Based on the duration of the delay.

Amount

In this case, you will need to:

• Determine if you want your users to receive an email notification when they are blocked from accessing loans.
• Set up a timer that will send an email to your delinquent users to inform them that they have an unresolved penalty (a minimum of one email per day).
• Determine an acceptable number of penalties before being blocked from requesting loans.
• Choose between one of the automatic methods for unblocking users or the manual option.

Calculation

Time Unit: Indicates the period used for calculating penalties, such as minutes, hours, or days. This unit determines the frequency at which penalties are applied.

Calculation Method:
Specifies the method used to determine the amount or points of the penalty based on the following criteria:

• Business Days (Monday to Friday):
  Penalty calculations only consider the days of the week from Monday to Friday, excluding weekends.
• Calendar Days (all calendar days):
  Penalties are calculated based on calendar days, meaning all days on the calendar, including weekends.
• Store Opening Hours:
  Penalty calculations may be based on your specific store opening hours. In this case, only business days and hours are used to determine the delay, and penalties are only applied during these periods.

Maximum fee: Defines the maximum amount that penalties can reach. This cap ensures that fees do not exceed a certain threshold, protecting users from excessive penalties.

Flat fee: Indicates a standard penalty amount that applies regardless of other factors. This fee is automatically added and constitutes a minimum amount due in case of non-compliance with return conditions.

Business Rules

Here is an example of a business rule that allows you to apply different penalty plans based on the value of the material and the duration of the delay:

Thresholds:
Thresholds define the scales that determine the limits of the value of overdue loans in order for them to be considered under this business rule.

In this example:

• If the value of the equipment is less than $500, the penalty applied will be $1 per business day for the first 10 days. After these 10 days, the penalty will increase to $5 per day until the equipment is returned.
• If the loan value is greater than $500, the penalty will be $10 per day for a maximum of 10 days. After that, it will increase to $25 per day until the equipment is returned.

Business Rule Calculation Method:
This method allows you to choose the type of penalty based on the specific needs and requirements of your business. The available options are as follows:

• Flat Fee:
  The penalty is set as a fixed amount, regardless of the duration of the delay.
• Per Unit of Time:
  The penalty increases progressively based on the duration of the delay (e.g., per day, hour, or minute). This allows for a growing penalty as the delay extends.
• Percentage of Total Value:
  The penalty is calculated as a percentage of the total value of the borrowed equipment, providing flexibility based on both the value of the item and the length of the delay.

Cumulative Penalty

It is also possible to configure the penalty calculation to be cumulative. In this case, all relevant lines of the business rule will be considered simultaneously to determine the total penalty amount to be applied.

Taking the business rule applied for an amount from $0 to $500 as an example, if the cumulative calculation option is selected, the penalty will be calculated as follows:

When a delay is detected, a penalty of $1 per day is applied for each day of delay during the first 10 days. Starting from the 11th day and until the equipment is returned, the penalty will increase to $6 per day, corresponding to the sum of the fees defined in line 1 and line 2 of the business rule.

Damaged

It is also possible to define a penalty in case of material damage. You have five options:

1. None: Do not apply a penalty, but it can still be recorded.
2. Fixed amount: Apply the same penalty for all cases.
3. Manual amount: Determine the cost of the penalty at the time the damage is reported.
4. Residual amount: If this option is available, the residual amount will be charged.
5. Percentage amount: Calculate the penalty based on the price of the damaged item.

Preview

We offer you the ability to test your business rules using the Preview section.

It is important to note the following points:

• To preview the current fee amount, leave the delay duration set to 0.
• It is not possible to test a penalty with a duration of 1 day/minute/hour. When using the preview, the delay duration will always be rounded up by one unit. Therefore, it is recommended to take this rule into account during your tests.

To use the penalty preview, simply select a warehouse, a loan, the desired time unit (day, hour, minute), and the delay duration. This will allow you to visualize the impact of the penalty, which will be calculated according to the applicable business rules.

Procedure to Use Specific Penalties

Penalties can be general or specific, depending on a store, category, item, or location. You can configure these options in the Settings > Loaners section for stores, categories, items, and locations.

In the figure below, penalties are enabled for a specific category, and the “Default Options” are the settings you defined during the penalty activation step.

Please refer back to the Calculation section of this document to configure the calculation of your specific penalties.

It is important to note that, to determine which consequence will be applied, the priority is as follows:

1. Location or Item
2. Category
3. Store
4. Global

Record a penalty

At the time of a damage report or loan return, if a penalty is detected, a window will open with the penalty report. On this page, you can manually adjust the amount or score of the penalty and will then need to choose an action based on the desired resolution:

Pending Resolution: This option allows you to keep the penalty in a pending state, indicating that a decision or action still needs to be taken. This provides time to review the situation before proceeding.

Resolve: By choosing this option, you confirm and apply the penalty. This finalizes the process and records the penalty in the system.

Cancel the Penalty: This option allows you to remove the detected penalty, thereby canceling its application. This can be useful if the penalty was set incorrectly or if mitigating circumstances justify its cancellation.

In the case of penalties related to material damage, it is possible to modify the selection of damaged entities. This step is mandatory for kits to provide the price, or for items with a lot size to determine the number of broken items.

Penalties Table

To resolve a penalty, you can access the user’s page or the store’s loans page, then select the Penalties tab.

Depending on the action selected for the penalty when completing the loan, the penalties displayed will have the following statuses:

• Pending resolution
• Active
• On hold
• Resolved
• Archived
• Cancelled

Several actions are available to you at this stage to facilitate the management of penalties:

Edit: Allows you to manually change the penalty amount and add an explanatory note.

Put the penalty on hold: Temporarily lightens the list of active penalties, while allowing you to return to it later to resolve or cancel it.

Calculate and update the penalty: Updates the penalty amount based on the current business rules.

Cancel: Removes the penalty and any actions taken against the user in violation.

Archive: Removes the penalty from the active list to simplify long-term management.