Overview
The ‘Financial Arrangements for Book Charges: Do not include books already added in previous academic periods’ setting (Setting ID: FinancialArrangementsForBookChargesDoNotIncludeBooksAlreadyAddedInPreviousAcademicPeriods) is located in Financial Settings > General Settings > Arrangements Parameters, in the Special Settings sub-group.
What This Setting Does
This setting controls whether book charges from a previous academic period are automatically carried over and re-charged to a _Student_’s financial arrangement in a new academic period. When enabled, books that a _Student_ was already charged for in a prior academic period are excluded from being billed again in the current period’s arrangement.
Where It Is Used
This setting is applied automatically in the background when book charges are calculated. It affects the following area:
- Main Menu > Students > Students List > (open a _Student_) > Financial Data tab > New/Edit Arrangement – book-related charges added here for a new academic period are filtered by this setting to exclude books already charged previously.
Business Logic / Behavior
- When this setting is turned on, Classter checks whether a book was already charged to the _Student_ in a previous academic period and, if so, excludes it from the book charges applied to the new academic period’s arrangement.
- When this setting is turned off (the default), books may be charged again in the new academic period’s arrangement even if they were already billed previously, for example if the same book is required again.
- This primarily prevents duplicate billing for the same book across multiple academic periods, such as when a _Student_ retains a book they already purchased.
Example(s)
At Alpha Institute, Student Mr. Lopez was charged $85 for a chemistry textbook as a line item in his 2025-2026 academic period arrangement. When staff generate his financial arrangement for the 2026-2027 academic period and this setting is enabled, the same $85 chemistry textbook charge is automatically excluded from the new arrangement’s book charges, since Mr. Lopez already paid for it – reducing the book-related total on his 2026-2027 arrangement by that $85. If the setting were disabled, the $85 textbook charge could be added again in his 2026-2027 arrangement, resulting in him being billed $170 in total across the two periods for the same book.
When to Use
When to Enable
Enable this setting if your institution wants to avoid charging _Students_ twice for books they already purchased in a previous academic period, ensuring book charges in new arrangements only reflect newly required materials.
When to Disable
Disable this setting if your institution intentionally re-charges for books every academic period regardless of prior charges, for example when books are consumable, replaced annually, or repurchased as a matter of policy.
Notes
- Prerequisites: none; this setting functions independently and does not require Enable arrangement constraints/Enable_Arrangement_Constrains to be turned on.
- Related settings: Allow end users to delete a _Subject_ from a _Student_’s enrollments that are used in financial arrangements (Check_For_Financial_Installments_When_A_Subject_Is_Deleted in Financial Settings > General Settings > Arrangements Parameters > Special Settings).
This setting behaves the same regardless of whether Higher Education Mode (Enable Configuration for Higher Education/Xrisi_parametropoihshs_kolegiou) is enabled or disabled.
