Billing Defaults Configuration
Billing defaults are Aeon's fee schedule. Each entry says "for this billing category, a request with this format / service level / shipping option costs this much." When a patron submits a photoduplication request and picks, say, a JPEG (300dpi) format and Priority shipping, Aeon looks those choices up in the billing defaults to calculate the charge. The values you set here are what populate the format, service level, and shipping dropdowns patrons see, and what drives the automatic charge estimate on a request's Billing tab.
You set this up once during implementation and then revisit it whenever your pricing changes — a new copy format, a fee increase, a different tax rate, or a brand-new billing category that needs its own price list.
- During setup — populate the format, service level, and shipping options your institution offers, with their fees, so patrons can choose them and Aeon can price requests.
- When a price changes — edit a base fee, unit fee, or tax rate.
- When you add a billing category — give the new category its own set of defaults, often by copying an existing category's list as a starting point.
Billing defaults only matter if your site does photoduplication (digitization/copying) billing. They define the priced options on the request — they do not set a patron's billing category (that lives on the user record, see User Billing Category) and they are not where you build Service Packages.
What each billing default contains
Every billing default is one row in a fee table, identified by the combination of three fields. That combination must be unique — you can't have two entries with the same category, context, and type.
| Field | What it is |
|---|---|
| Billing Category | Which pricing tier this fee belongs to. Default and Exempt ship with Aeon; you can add your own (for example, a discounted rate for a partner institution). A patron's category comes from their user record. |
| Billing Context | The kind of option being priced. Aeon's three standard contexts are Format, Service Level, and Shipping Option. These three are special: choices a patron makes for them on a request feed the automatic estimate. |
| Billing Type | The specific option within the context — the actual dropdown value the patron sees. For example, under Format: Photocopy, JPEG (300dpi), CD, MP3 (audio). Under Shipping Option: Standard, Priority, Overnight, Download. |
| Base Fee | A flat charge applied once for choosing this option (for example, a $10 setup fee for a CD). |
| Unit Fee | A per-unit charge — typically per page. Combined with Per Page below to decide whether it multiplies by the page count. |
| Tax Rate | The tax applied to this charge, entered as a percentage. |
| Per Page | A toggle. When on, the unit fee is multiplied by the request's page count; when off, the unit fee is charged once. (In the underlying data this is the Is Unit Page Count flag.) |
On a request's Billing tab, Aeon reads the request's Format, Service Level, and Shipping Option, finds the matching billing default for the patron's billing category, and builds an estimated charge: (base fee + unit fee × quantity) × (1 + tax rate) — that is, the tax is applied to the base fee and the per-unit total together. Quantity is the page count when Per Page is on, otherwise 1. So a Format with a $0 base fee, a $0.50 unit fee, and Per Page on prices a 20-page request at $10.00 before tax.
Where to find it
Billing defaults live in the Customization Manager, under the Billing group, as Billing Defaults.
- Open the Customization Manager.
- In the Billing group, select Billing Defaults.
- The editor opens as a two-pane view: Billing Categories on the left, and the defaults for the selected category on the right.
Billing Defaults is part of the Billing configuration area of the Customization Manager. You need a role with the Billing configuration capability to open it. If your role doesn't include it, the Billing group won't be available to you.
Browsing the fee schedule
The left pane lists every Billing Category in your system. Select one — for example, Default — and the right pane shows that category's billing defaults as a set of cards. Each card shows the billing type and context (with the context also called out as a badge), plus its Base Fee, Unit Fee, Tax Rate, and whether Per Page is Yes or No. A running Total count appears at the bottom of the list.
Click a card to select it; the status badge in the header reads Viewing. Selecting a card is what enables the Edit, Copy to Category, and Delete actions. You can also move through the list with the up/down arrow keys.
Use Refresh in the header to reload the list if defaults were changed elsewhere.
Adding a billing default
- Select the Billing Category you're adding to (or you can change the category on the form itself).
- Click New in the action bar. The header badge changes to Creating and an entry form appears above the list.
- Fill in the fields:
- Billing Category, Billing Context, and Billing Type — each is a type-ahead box: pick from the existing values in the dropdown, or type a new one to create it. For example, choose context Format and type a new type
TIFF (600dpi). - Base Fee and Unit Fee — entered as currency.
- Tax Rate — entered as a percentage (it's stored as a rate, so 8% is a valid entry).
- Per Page — turn on if the unit fee should multiply by the page count.
- Billing Category, Billing Context, and Billing Type — each is a type-ahead box: pick from the existing values in the dropdown, or type a new one to create it. For example, choose context Format and type a new type
- Click Save.
If a default with the same category, context, and type already exists, Aeon refuses the save and reports that the combination already exists — adjust one of the three key fields and try again.
The Format, Service Level, and Shipping Option dropdowns on the patron request forms are populated from these entries. If an option a patron should be able to choose isn't priced here, it won't appear for them to select.
Editing a billing default
- Select the card you want to change.
- Click Edit (or double-click the card). The badge reads Editing and the form opens pre-filled.
- Change the fees, tax, Per Page toggle, or even the key fields, then click Save. (Save stays disabled until you actually change something.)
To back out, click Cancel. If you try to switch categories or navigate away with unsaved edits, Aeon prompts "Discard unsaved billing default changes?" first.
Updating requests already in progress
When you edit (or delete) a default whose context is Format, Service Level, or Shipping Option, Aeon may offer to fix up requests that already carry the old value. After you save, an Update Affected Requests? dialog can appear:
The format, service level, or shipping option fields of some requests may be affected by this change if they have not been invoiced. Would you like to update such requests?
- Click Update Requests to apply the change to matching requests in that billing category that have not been invoiced yet.
- Click Skip to leave existing requests untouched.
Aeon then reports how many requests were updated.
This sweep only updates requests that have not been invoiced. Anything already invoiced keeps its original values so historical billing stays intact. The prompt also only appears for the three standard contexts (Format, Service Level, Shipping Option) — editing a custom context won't trigger it.
Copying a category's defaults to another category
Setting up a new billing category is fastest by copying an existing one and then adjusting the prices.
- Select a billing default you want to copy.
- Click Copy to Category.
- In the Copy to Billing Category dialog, choose an existing target category from the dropdown or type a new category name.
- Click Copy.
Aeon reports how many defaults were copied. If the target category already has an entry for that same context and type, that one is skipped (not overwritten), and Aeon tells you how many were skipped. After copying, switch to the new category and edit the fees to match.
Deleting a billing default
- Select the card to remove.
- Click Delete.
- Confirm in the Delete this billing default? dialog. This can't be undone.
As with editing, if the deleted entry was a Format, Service Level, or Shipping Option, Aeon may follow up with the Update Affected Requests? prompt so you can clear that value from uninvoiced requests.
A few photoduplication billing settings that the legacy desktop client documented alongside this table are configured in other parts of the Customization Manager — for example, the default billing category for new patrons, and credit-card payment provider settings. Those are separate from the Billing Defaults editor.
A couple of points an SME should confirm on this page:
- Tax Rate entry format: the code stores tax as a rate (0–1) and the input is a percent control; I've described it as "enter a percentage (8%)." Confirm that matches what a customizer actually types in the field.
- Related-settings pointer: the closing note mentions default-billing-category and payment-provider settings living elsewhere in the Customization Manager (carried over from the V6 doc). Confirm those keys exist in the V7 web Customization Manager and, ideally, link the exact pages once they're written.
- Role link is unwired: the Permission required note used to link "Editing a Role: Configuration Capabilities," but that page (
customization/roles-permissions-staff/) hasn't been authored yet, so the link was removed to avoid a broken-link build failure. Add the link back once that page exists. - Screenshots needed: (1) the Billing Defaults two-pane editor with a category selected and the cards showing; (2) the create/edit form; (3) the Update Affected Requests? dialog.
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