Problem
Why aren't a patron's long overdue items moving to Lost?
Solution
Items automatically move to lost status only after they are billed and the setting found in "System Administration -> Parameters -> Patron Services -> Lost item charge options -> Overdues: Billed items set to Lost" is selected.
Common causes of this process failing are:
-- Bills are not set up in Administration -> Parameters -> Notification -> Notification options -> Overdue & Bill
The date set for billing is the total number of days from when the item became overdue.
***This is not added to the time periods from previous notices***
-- Patron does not have a preferred method of notification listed in their account
The setting to send notices based on the patron's preference is set in "Administration -> Parameters -> Notification -> Notification options". Each type of notice can be set to either patron preference or a set type of notice (if the library wants to force all Bills to be printed, this is how they would do that)
In order for a patron to receive a bill they must receive each overdue notice that is enabled prior to the bill being sent. If there is no preferred method of notification in the patron's record, then no notices will be delivered, and the items will not automatically move to lost.
-- Print notices are not posted to the database
Check your print notices by going to Utilities -> Reports and Notices -> Notices -> Overdues. If there are notices here, they must be posted to the database, otherwise the billing notices will not be generated as they are dependent on these being delivered first.
Also check to make sure your notices processing job has been running successfully by going into Microsoft SQL Server, logging in as Windows Authentication, expanding SQL Server Agent, Job Activity Monitor. Then right click on the Notices Processing job, and view history.