With some systems, you're pretty much stuck with the format of the notices that the vendor builds into the program.  With others, you have to go through a complicated process to edit them, or it may be difficult to select exactly the group of patrons you wish to print notices for.  Not with Surpass!  Surpass Central makes it easy to get exactly the notices you need to the group of patrons you want to get them to.  You can even send them via e-mail.

Choose a base notice
Start by selecting a base notice such as Fines Notice, Overdue Notice, Fines Statement and others.  Surpass will prompt you with appropriate options for your notice type.

Use e-mail or print
All notices have an option of sending via e-mail.  Surpass has a built-in e-mail program, so you don't need to have Outlook or other e-mail client software on your computer.  After sending via e-mail you can tell Surpass to print the same notice for only those patrons which don't have an e-mail address on file, so there are no duplications.

For print notices you can choose to print up to three per page to save paper.

Choose which patrons to include and how to sort
You're in complete control!  The patron selection grid allows you select any group of patrons for your notices.  You can limit the report by putting conditions on any patron field.  For example, send only to a certain patron grade or type or only to those patrons in a specific homeroom or with a specific patron expiration date.  You can even send to user-created patron groups or select based on custom patron fields.  Multiple rows and columns are available for more complex selections.  The example below will run overdue notices for seniors (grade = 12). 

You can also choose to sort your notices by any field you select.  Simply add it to the selection table and set it as a sort field.

Customize your text
The text editing screen is just like a word processor.  Add, edit, and delete text so that your notices read exactly the way you want. 

The "insert field" buttion allows you to insert patron fields into the notice as well as special fields like "notice date" and "overdue amount".

You can save multiple versions of the notice text for each notice too.  So you might have different versions for different groups of patrons or for different purposes (like a first warning, second warning, and final warning).  Once you save your custom text you can recall it at any time, just like opening a file in a word processor.  You'll never have to re-edit the text again!

Preview and Print
You'll be able to preview the final notices before printing.

Conclusion
As you can see, the notices area of Surpass Central has been designed to be extremely easy to use, yet offers the options that will put you in complete control.

Related pages:

• Return to Surpass Central page
• Learn about Surpass reports
• Learn about custom reporting capabilities

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