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Managing Billing Accounts

A billing account is an optional, reusable payment reference — typically a grant, department fund, or institutional account that covers a patron's charges. Each account has an Account ID (a short code, up to 50 characters) and an optional Description. Once an account exists, staff can link it to patrons and attach it to individual requests, so charges flow to the right place without re-typing the account every time.

This page covers the account itself — creating it, renaming its description, and removing it. Linking accounts to users and selecting them on requests are separate workflows (see Associating Users with Billing Accounts and Billing Account Selection on Requests).

When you'll use this
  • A department or grant starts covering patron charges, and you need a new account for staff to assign — create it here.
  • You need to correct or clarify an account's description.
  • An account is retired and you want to remove it, after checking who still uses it.
Billing accounts are optional

Nothing in Aeon requires a billing account. They exist purely to make repeat payment processing simpler. A site that doesn't track charges against shared accounts can ignore this feature entirely.

Opening the Billing Accounts manager​

Navigate to Billing Accounts. The page opens as a split view:

  • The left panel lists every billing account, with each account's ID on top and its description beneath.
  • The right panel shows the details of whichever account you select, including its linked users and requests.

A search box at the top of the list (Search accounts...) filters the list as you type, matching against both the Account ID and the description. This is the fastest way to find one account among many.

Click any account in the list to load it into the detail panel on the right.

Permissions
  • Viewing the Billing Accounts manager — the list and account details — requires the View level of the Billing permission.
  • Creating and editing accounts requires the Edit level. Without it, the New, Save, and Delete buttons don't appear and the description field is read-only.
  • Deleting an account requires the Full level of the Billing permission. (See the warning under Deleting a billing account.)

Creating a billing account​

  1. In the list panel, click New (top-right of the Billing Accounts header).
  2. The New Billing Account dialog opens.
  3. Enter an Account ID (required) — for example, HIST-DEPT-2025. This is the permanent identifier; it can be up to 50 characters and cannot be changed after the account is created.
  4. Optionally enter a Description — for example, History Department Grant. This is the human-friendly label staff see alongside the ID.
  5. Click Create Account.

The new account appears in the list and is selected automatically, and you'll see a confirmation: "Account 'HIST-DEPT-2025' created successfully."

The Account ID must be unique and is permanent

Aeon checks the ID against existing accounts (case-insensitively). If you enter one that already exists, the dialog shows "An account with this ID already exists" and won't let you continue. Because the ID can never be edited afterward, choose a stable, meaningful code up front — only the description can be changed later.

Editing a billing account​

You can change an account's description at any time. The Account ID is fixed once created.

  1. Select the account in the list.
  2. In the detail panel, the Account ID field is shown but greyed out (it can't be edited). Edit the Description field.
  3. Click Save. A "Cancel" button appears next to Save while you have unsaved edits — clicking it reverts the description to its last saved value.

On success you'll see "Account updated successfully."

Switching accounts with unsaved edits

If you've edited the description but not saved, and you click a different account (or New), Aeon stops you with an Unsaved Changes dialog asking whether to discard them. Choose Cancel to stay and save first, or Discard to abandon the edit and move on.

Seeing who and what uses an account​

The detail panel shows two lists below the account fields, each with a count, so you can see an account's reach before changing or removing it:

  • Linked Users — every patron associated with this account. Each entry shows the patron's name, email (or username), and status, and links straight to that user's record.
  • Linked Requests — every request this account is attached to. Each entry shows the request's transaction number (for example, #12345), its current status, the item title, and the requesting patron. Click an entry to open that request.
Removing a user from an account doesn't strip past requests

If a patron is later unlinked from an account, requests that already carried that account keep it. The historical association on those requests is preserved, so the Linked Requests list can include requests for patrons no longer in Linked Users.

Deleting a billing account​

  1. Select the account in the list.
  2. In the detail panel header, click Delete.
  3. The Delete Billing Account confirmation dialog opens. If the account is currently in use, it spells out the impact — for example, "This account is linked to 3 user(s) and 12 request(s). Deleting it will remove these associations."
  4. Click Delete to confirm, or Cancel to back out.

On success you'll see "Account 'HIST-DEPT-2025' deleted," and the detail panel clears.

Deleting removes the account's links

Deleting a billing account also removes its links to users and requests. The patron and request records themselves are untouched, but they will no longer reference this account. Review the Linked Users and Linked Requests counts in the confirmation dialog before you delete — and note that deletion requires the Full level of the Billing permission, a higher bar than creating or editing.

Editor review — remove this callout (and the HTML comment below it) before publishing

A couple of things an SME should confirm on this page:

  • Where billing accounts live in navigation: confirm the route is surfaced under a "Billing" area / how staff reach Billing Accounts from the main nav (the code exposes it at /billing-accounts, gated by the Billing → View capability), and confirm the cross-links to the two companion billing pages resolve once those pages exist.
  • Screenshots needed: (1) the Billing Accounts split view with an account selected, showing Linked Users / Linked Requests; (2) the New Billing Account dialog; (3) the Delete Billing Account confirmation showing the in-use counts.

The full generation metadata — sources, files read, and verifications — is in the HTML comment directly below this callout. When this page has been reviewed and approved, delete both this callout and that comment; a page with no Editor-review callout is one that's done.