Finance User Group Meeting
Minutes
Meeting:
Date:
Finance User Group Meeting
August 16, 2006
Start Time:
Location:
Participants:
9:00 a.m.
St Cloud State University, Atwood Memorial Center Ballroom C
Dawn Belko, Dee Bernard, Ronald Blakesley, , Kathy Froysland, Dave
Lund, Jan Marble, Wendy Meyer, Bill O'Brien, Marie Peterson, Ron
Scherman, Tim Stoddard, Dave Thorn, Chris Vopatek, Jeff Wagner,
Teri Welter, Jerry Winans - Melissa Primus (morning)
Wednesday
9:00
TOPIC
RCFN Bad, Good, Best Practices
5/22/20071:20 PM
Chair: Marie Peterson
Recorder: Kathy Froysland, Lisa Liljedahl, Dave Lund, Teri Welter, &
Bill O’Brien
PARKING – Pick up your parking permit at the Public Safety Bldg
Not in attendance: Beth Buse, Margaret Jenniges, Karen Kedrowski, Mike
Kroening, Lisa Liljedahl, Wendy Meyer, Pat Nordick, Kent Smith,
DISCUSSION LEADER
Tim Stoddard
Page 1 of 6
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DESIRED OUTCOME/DISCUSSION
Items to bring to BPAC group
1. Mankato (134 students on drop list – Grad asst – pushed
employees to get waivers in; International student office worked
with international candidates; Consortium and Common Market
students were closely watched; looked at previous enrollment of
last fall or earlier to not drop at first drop; worked with first year
experience office; worked with athletics coordinator; made sure
all scholarships were updated. One problem they encountered is
that once their students are admitted they are admitted and may
just enroll for one course here and there and not be aware of the
new policy
2. Best Practice: Be strategic in using the No Drop Reason Code
vs. Deferment or some other safe harbor. Remember, when
using the No Drop Reason Code the student still sees the web
message that they have NOT met the criteria where with the
deferment that message will disappear.
3. Winona State University created cohorts for athletes to easily
identify them and pull reports to send to the athletic director,
coaches, etc. They plan to drop on 6th day and freeze registration
so other students can’t register for these spots and they could get
RCFN students back in their classes if necessary. Also have
laptops out and need to get them back.
RCFN Bad, Good, Best Practices
(continued)
Tim Stoddard
4.
5.
6.
Hibbing CC/TC is seeing more students making only a partial
payment where they used to pay in full. Students that never
attended are dropped up front. They do think this will help with
their collections in the end.
Bemidji SU had some problems with their seamless students.
St Cloud State University stated the opposite of Hibbing where
they are seeing more students paying in full than before. Go
figure.
Note: send FA flowchart over listserv
Needed Enhancements :
1)Drop reports – split into 2 reports update and view
2)New screen – identifies all criteria on one new query screen
3)New parameter on candidate list to run for currently on list only
4) Option to place registration hold after drop
Survey: Idea of statistics; What would change in your process?
5/22/20071:20 PM
Page 2 of 6
TOPIC
9:30
Oracle Update
DISCUSSION LEADER
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Gerry Rushenberg
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10:00
10:15
Break
NSF Electronic checks used fraudulently to
obtain Financial Aid monies
Dee Bernard
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DESIRED OUTCOME/DISCUSSION
APPL and REPL databases are in oracle. Campuses will be able
to connect to REPL. Winona SU, MSCTC and Metro SU are
connected to REPL. Current replicated queries are not secure.
CAP servers are going to be used to encrypt data. Some
campuses are moving away from Access.
New projects at Winona SU are being written directly to CAP
server only. Current SQL server projects and desktops will also
be moved to the CAP server.
Operational Data – If inst are downloading data to CAP servers
(behind Winona’s firewall) into their own database – security
access is controlled at the local level.
Value added tables will be added to REPL – tables currently in
the Warehouse.
Some campuses will not allow access to the REPL databases but
will download tables and grant security based on their own local
rules. This poses a normalization risk.
Why do we need access to this data? Why don’t our reports keep
up? Local needs that IT can’t keep up with such as LADE. Will
always need another layer of information to answer Management
questions, etc.
Student registers, applies for financial aid. Pays by e-check a day
before fin aid is disbursed. FA overage check is given to a student.
Watch for charges to come back on and pay again before next FA
disbursement.
NSF e-check took up to one week to get information back to campus.
Do we need another NSF hold?
• Stop E-payment, but still allow Credit Card.
• Pop up box to cashier
• Should prevent registration and transcript
If non-attendance figures were obtained earlier would this happen?
Per Dave Lund, to authorize the e-check up front is VERY expensive and
took away the benefit of doing E-check.
Group approved that it would be great to interrupt the student before
allowing them to make a payment on-line.
NSF hold can be made a higher priority that 1098T.
5/22/20071:20 PM
Page 3 of 6
11:00
TOPIC
ITS Priorities
• Review list in its current state
• BPAC priorities
• Seamless priorities
DISCUSSION LEADER
Dave Lund
Bill O’Brien
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DESIRED OUTCOME/DISCUSSION
PSEO Seamless Report needed – this has been sent to FA developers
NSF hold is a higher priority than 1098-T on web because of the
potential loss of funds.
Dave Thorn brought up the fact that LMS projects can be scratched
off because now we are going to ECSI. Dave knew that ECSI needs
some data, as did LMS, but was unsure how this was to be handled
post conversion to ECSI. Bruce Carlson has been involved with this.
Bill O’Brien will check to see where this is at.
TASK – Bill O will discuss with Sue Traaseth about anything still
needed to connect to ECSI. COMPLETE: Perkins Loan
disbursements are currently automatically updated to ISRS via and
automatic feed from Financial Aid. Loan disbursement amounts are
periodically transmitted electronically to update LMS. ECSI will
receive periodic electronic feeds from ISRS; this process was
included in the original conversion planning , scheduled to go
productive on September 30.
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Are there any seamless issues that need to be prioritized?
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What is the status of Batch Load of AR Charges? Being piloted by
SCSU and Mpls.
What are the impact items? $ Impact to students?
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Online 1098T: On the web, where will we “catch” the student? At
the point of registration. Ask them in Nov of ’06 for Jan of ’07? OR
Nov of ’07 for Jan of ’08? This will occur whenever we are appear
ready to go. My Account and View Your Account present the two
biggest opportunities to obtain student consent.
Kathy’s thoughts on this: My fear in signing up early is that I will
forget my login and password when the time comes. I want to be reassured that I am going to get an e-mail when the time comes so that I
know I can get my 1098T when the time comes.
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5/22/20071:20 PM
Page 4 of 6
Dee: What are our data practices with 3rd Party Vendors? How can
we give them student information? FACTS? MnDOR? (MCE)
What is the legitimate business interest? If we can’t give it to Law
Enforcement, how can we give it to other third parties? Currently we
need a subpoena.
TOPIC
11:30
Lunch
12:30
Equipment Reconciliation
12:45
RNT (RightNow) Review :
DISCUSSION LEADER
DESIRED OUTCOME/DISCUSSION
Al Finlayson
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New report - attachment from Al
Recommends not reconciling items prior to July 1, 2006 (FY7)
FY9999 items could end up on report.
Financial reporting needs to agree to July 1 date and to eliminate
‘Found Assets’ action code. Don’t look at equip before 7/1/2006
Dave Lund
Kathy Froysland
Kent Smith
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2661 – This has been changed and will roll to production in Nov
2664 – Batch load of info in AR Collections Activity – need to
evaluate for size of project
2665 – Allow students to record Direct deposit info via web portal
2666 – Duplicate
2671 – Comments Screen – Current screen is too small, need user id.
Use current AR1000UG if it can be enhanced. Otherwise we need a
new AR screen
2672 – Batch load comments into result of 2671
2589 – FA information to give to BO so they do not get charged a
late fee. Collections Phase II project will include charging late fees
which will define the rules. If FA User Group feels it is necessary
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1:15
Regional CFO Group Updates
1:45
Web screens - review of ‘new look and feel’ and
discussion of potential improvements
Ron Blakesley, Mike
Kroening, Wendy
Meyer, Pat Nordick,
Kathy Froysland
Teri Welter
Information or concerns to share – none reported this time.
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5/22/20071:20 PM
Page 5 of 6
Entry Screen – Each descriptive title should be a link – add a separate
link for prepays, breaking it away from the balance payments, and
one more link for payment plans (later piece is part of an existing
project).
Change Academic Term Detail to Balance by Term Detail.
Balance Due by Term Screen – Add link within the instructions for
online payment, along with payment plan link(s) and instructions.
Put payment plan(s) links on the following pages: Sign up for
Payment Plan or Review Your Payment Plan if you are already
signed up for one; Bills and Payments.
Print buttons should be included (are on older version) on detail
screens – review how these look and adjust to provide a more
professional appearance for student submission of document to
employers.
When the student is stopped from viewing the Balance Due by Term
screen, for reasons such as a negative balance in a term, change the
error message they receive to read:
“Your account is under review and cannot be displayed at this time”.
TOPIC
DISCUSSION LEADER
Next Meetings
Marie Peterson
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Campus Members:
Dee Bernard
Ronald Blakesley
Pat Nordick
Dawn Belko
Mike Kroening
Jan Marble
Wendy Meyer
Dave Thorn
Chris Vopatek
Ron Scherman
Jeff Wagner
Jerry Winans
Campus:
Minneapolis Community & Technical College
Hibbing Community & Technical College
Minnesota State Community & Technical
College
North Hennepin
Minnesota State College - Southeast Technical
Minnesota State University, Mankato
Anoka Technical College
Winona State University
Central Lakes College
Pine Technical College
St. Cloud State University
Bemidji State University
Office of the Chancellor Representative:
Tim Stoddard
Margaret Jenniges
Karen Kedrowski
Kathy Froysland
Lisa Liljedahl
Dave Lund
Marie Peterson
Bill O'Brien
Kent Smith
Teri Welter
Beth Buse
5/22/20071:20 PM
Title:
Assoc. Vice-Chancellor-Financial
Reporting
Director, Financial Reporting
Program Dir. – Budget
Finance Business Support Analyst
Finance Business Analyst – Development
Finance Business Analyst
Campus Assistance Representative - Chair
Finance Division
Finance Business Support Analyst
Finance Business Analyst - Development
Internal Audit
Page 6 of 6
DESIRED OUTCOME/DISCUSSION
Dates and locations for 2006:
o February 8 St Cloud
o May 16-17 Brainerd
o August 16th 9:00 St Cloud (1 day)
o December 5-6 St Cloud
Agenda items for next meeting