Finance User Group
April 21st and 22nd, 1999
Location 4/21 - St. Cloud State University
Location 4/22 - St. Cloud State Technical College
MINUTES
PRESENT:
Lori Bates
Marcia Buekelman (for Lori Voss)
Mary Edwards (for Jill Bemis)
Jan Mahoney
Pat Nordick
Joan Rigdon
Gary Swenson
David Thorn
Jerry Winans
MNSCU PERSONNEL PRESENT:
Jay Folk
Al Finlayson
Kathy Froysland
Ted Heller
4/22 only
Melissa King
Marie Krey
4/22 only
Lisa Liljedahl
4/22 only
Tim Meath
4/22 only
Dave Lund
Alison Oftedahl
Teri Welter
Deb Winter
ABSENT:
Tony Bartovich
Karen Snorek
Lori Voss
GUESTS:
Housing User Group
On the second day, there was a joint
meeting with the Housing User Group.
STUDENT PAYROLL
Discussion and approval of new reports
The student payroll group gave a demonstration of the direct deposit process.
BOARD POLICIES
Campuses can define the drop/add period for short classes (those that are 3 weeks(21 calendar
days) in length or less)).
Board policy allows institution to keep certain fees, even if the student completely withdraws from
school, if they have incurred a cost or the student has received a service. Discussion as to whether
to make the refund at the student level, mark fees as non-refundable, or mark fees as nonrefundable after a certain date.
The commissioner can now negotiate credit card contracts for all state agencies. Agencies need a
waiver if they want an exclusion from the contract. Questions on this policy include:
•
•
•
•
•
•
How often will they re- negotiate contract
What happens to existing contracts?
What impact would this have on debit cards?
How will this affect the relationship with local banks?
Does MnSCU as a whole need a waiver, or would individual schools need waivers?
If you can negotiate a better deal, does that justify a waiver?
FORMS STANDARDIZATION across all modules
A new committee has been formed to address standards across all MnSCU modules.
Discussion on whether the buttons should be on every screen or eliminated. The majority of the
group likes the buttons, but would like the default changed to text instead of icons.
•
•
•
•
•
All dates will display MM/DD/YY
Leading zeros will no longer be required
Required fields will appear in white
Direct access capability for all forms
Discussed the use of color on forms
Version 7 of Uniface has a menu system similar to that of Windows Explorer.
CUSTOMIZED TRAINING
They would like to know, by Course ID, which students have paid and which have not. Possible
solutions include changing business practice to use the registration numbers to determine whether
to hold or cancel the class. However, there is still a need for a report showing those students that
have paid and/or those who have not.
Will there be an interface for conversion of historical data from Aceware to A/R?
ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE
•
FUNDS APPLIED
Continuing work on the funds applied process, and on finding missing transactions Modifications
to the process eliminate the problems associated with the re-shuffling of funds. The testing for the
new funds applied process will take place on Tuesday and Thursday, April 27th and 29th, at the
ETC office.
•
BANK RECONCILIATION
Demonstration of Access bank reconciliation queries. These queries will soon be available on the
web.
•
CREDIT CARD PAYMENTS/REFUNDS
Discussion on credit card refunds included institutions' desire to be able to give refunds back to
students on their credit card. Some would like automatic refunds instead of having it go the refund
screen. Would like to see refunds stemming only from dropped registrations or credit cards appear
on the AR0185UG screen. Would also like the system to stop and ask how the dollars should be
refunded - cash or credit to card?
•
NSF CHECKS
Discussion on eliminating the use of cash drawers for NSF checks. Will need to continue working
around problem issues as no changes are currently scheduled.
•
THIRD PARTY
Discussion on the need for a breakdown by student and payoff by student for third party awards.
Currently, if an institution needs to re-bill a third party, they cannot identify what student(s) the
remaining balance covers. Decision to modify the 119 screen to use SSN instead of Student ID #
by removing the UBIT and tax code fields.
Another third part issue is whether to send an invoice showing changes since the original billing,
or to send a statement. Currently the statement is not functioning properly, so all institutions
should continue with their current process.
•
MISCELLANEOUS
Problem reported with printing summer session I and II. Apparently, you cannot get just the new
activity. Supposedly this problem stems from the 48 date and may clear up after summer session.
To print all new invoices, leave the ----field blank (field choices are blank or Y).
•
REPORTING
Need four or five new queries for bank reconciliation process. Recommendation to use the
replicated database to obtain this information.
STUDENT HOUSING
Modifications will be made to allow institutions to pro-rate multiple meal plans (currently you can
only have one meal plan at a time).
Changes are currently in place so that A/R can accurately separate room and board charges.
The group would like a table where they can see housing codes and A/R codes together.
When a student withdraws, institutions charge an administration fee. Apparently, A/R is not
recognizing that flag. This affects "no-show" students the most. Developers will work to correct
this. Question: How do you refund a restricted deposit?
Would like conversion table for room charges so they can enter a term rate instead of a daily rate.
Then they can let the system calculate the daily charges when a student withdraws.
Need to modify the documentation on how the AR0139UG screen works. The enhancement to this
screen will allow a term rate and A/R will translate it to the daily rate.
Currently having problems with waivers and meal plan charges for Resident Assistants (RA) since
they are currently assigning a zero charge to the room. Possible solutions include assigning the RA
status to the person instead of the room.
Bills for students who withdraw are not rounding correctly.
Need AR0180UG to refund prepayments.
After using a certain percentage of a meal plan, students are responsible for the whole plan. If they
withdraw before that time, they are supposed to be charged 30%, but they haven't been able to do
this.
Will create a place for housing to enter a damage charge.
Move AR0190UG to be accessed through the menu rather then only through the AR0119UG
screen.
COST ALLOCATION
•
If text file is created for budgets, it can be loaded into the program.
Priorities
Bank Reconciliation process (will need training for this)
Funds Applied (re-shuffling is stopping the payment of other charges, such as old balances, unless
those funds are restricted.)
Fund Transfer
Cancelled Checks
MAPS Interface
Interfund Accrual Payoff
Charges in tuition and fees calculations must meet board policies.
Cost Allocation and Consumable Inventory
Financial Statements
Third Party billing, invoicing, etc.
To Do Items
•
Al will work on changing security for tuition and fees calculation. Currently, you can pull
up a bill or statement, but you cannot recalculate it if you do not have security rights. If you
have the correct security, the recalculation happens automatically.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Security for negative receipts is fixed, but still needs some corresponding reporting
(including something showing deposit totals).
Al can let each institution know what they need to fix as it relates to the funds applied
process and missing transactions.
Proposed creation of a jump from a cashiering session to the AC0450UG query screen to
see the last transaction.
Decision made to relax the edits when entering bank deposits by giving the ability to open
a cash session and back up the bank day up to 5 days
Write-off - need code table and then generate a transaction.
AR0155UG screen - currently grouped by term. Would like to have it do it in date order
with the most current on top.
Jay to make a change that allows set up of a $0 NSF charge.
Bring proposals for AR_01 security to June meeting.
Add AC0450UG to the AR0119UG drop down.
Poll campuses to see who is using the trading period and what their rules are.
AR0190UG - Need this in a query and to look more like the student bill.
Look at AR0118UG as a query
Need total on Student Balance Due report.
The help desk needs to send out a message saying campuses must get set up as an EFT
vendor in order the Interfund Accrual program to work.
Approvals
Functional spec AR000011 - Want the AR0155UG screen to sort by date order
Functional spec AR000012 - Modify Funds Applied Program
Functional spec AR000013 – Modify Query Screens to do tuition calculation if needed
Function spec AR000008 - Third Party Receivable Payoff Screen. Need to be able to see the
receivable by student
Next Meeting: June 9th and 10th in Brainerd