Setting Up Self-Service Student Financials

This chapter discusses how to:

Set up SF merchants.
Set up institution sets.
Set up self service options.
Set up self service payment messages.

Prerequisites

There are a number of components that need to be set up in order for students make payments through Student Financials self service:

An SF Institution Set must be assigned to students.
On all appropriate SF Institution Set parameters, the Accept Self-Service Payments check box must be selected.
At least one SF Merchant ID must be established per payment type (credit card and/or eCheck) that is to be supported by your institution.
For each SF Institution Set established, you must create a corresponding SetID and define the corresponding TableSet Control value, particularly for SF11_WEB (Internet Pymnts — INSTITUTION SET)
SF Business Units must be set up.
Charge priorities must be established.
Payment Overall Priorities must be established.
An SF Term Default must be established.

Setting Up SF Merchants

Setting up SF merchants enables you to set up unique credit card and eCheck processing rules for different departments in your institution.

Setting Up Institution Sets

This section provides an overview of institution sets and discusses how to:

Define basic institution set parameters.
Define self service ePayment rules for institution sets.

Understanding Institution Sets

An institution set enables you to define parameters for the PeopleSoft Student Financials self service pages, and for self service ePayment usage for one or more business units in an institution.

Institution sets hide the complexity of multiple business units from the student, and enable students to access information and pay charges toward multiple business units. Institutions with only one business unit can preserve their single-unit character by attaching only one business unit to their institution set.

You must set up an institution set and attach it to each student for any self service features to function. You attach the institution set to students through the User Profile process managed by staff using the PeopleSoft Campus Community application.

Pages Used to Set Up Institution Sets

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
Institution Set	INSTITUTION_SET_01	Set Up SACR, Common Definitions, Self Service, Student Financials, SF Institution Set	Define basic institution set parameters.
Institution Set 2	INSTITUTION_SET_02	Set Up SACR, Common Definitions, Self Service, Student Financials, Institution Set 2	Define business-unit-specific attributes for self service ePayment use for institution sets.

Defining Basic Institution Set Parameters

Access the Institution Set page.

Description

Enter a description of the institution set.

Accept Self Service Payments

Select to accept self service payments over the internet. This selection is specific to this institution set, not to the SF business units that are attached on the Institution Set 2 page. Selecting this option requires that you attach at least one SF business unit that is defined to accept self service payments.

Allocation Level

Use the allocation level to define how charges and payments are displayed on a self service page.

Allocation Level By Business Unit

This displays all charges that the student incurred by business unit on the Self Service Make a Payment component. Displaying charges in this manner forces the student to pay all or a portion of her charges by business unit. The Student Financials posting process invokes the appropriate charge priority and payment overall priority rules to the self service payments.

Allocation Level by Charge

This displays each charge that the student incurred individually by business unit on the Self Service Make a Payment component. Displaying charges in this manner permits the student to pay all or a portion of each charge. The Student Financials posting process bypasses the established charge priority and payment overall priority rules and uses the amounts that the student indicates during the self service transaction. The resulting effect is that the student can pick and choose which charges to pay, thus creating a scenario where older, more pressing charges may be ignored while newer charges can be reduced.

Allocation Level by Term

This displays all charges that the student incurred by term within each business unit on the Self Service Make a Payment component. Displaying charges in this manner permits the student to pay all or a portion of a term's charges—these charges are aggregated by business unit whereby the student cannot pay each individual charge. The Student Financials posting process invokes the appropriate charge priority and payment overall priority rules to the self service payments.

Note. In order for the Allocation Level by Term feature to work, you will need set 'Term, Payment Term First' for Sort 1 of the Charge Sort for Payment Overall Priority attribute for applicable ePayment Item Types.

Allow Excess Payment

Select to allow students to make ePayments in excess of their balance due.

Accept Admissions Deposit

Select to accept payment for admissions deposits by credit card over the internet. The application center does not accept payment by eCheck.

Credit Card Merchant ID and Electronic Check Merchant ID

Select a credit card SF merchant ID, an eCheck SF merchant ID, or both for an institution set. This determines which payment type is supported for this institution set: credit card only, eCheck only, or both.

If you select a value in both theCredit Card Merchant ID and an Electronic Check Merchant ID fields, the Select Payment Method page prompts students to select one of two payment types from the drop down list: Pay by Credit Card or Pay by Electronic Check, before they are permitted to enter self service payment information. If you select a value in only one of these two fields, then the system takes students directly to the Make a Payment — Specify Payment Details page because there is only one valid tender option for self service payment.

Note. Depending on the charge priority rules assigned to the ePayment item type, the student may not be presented with all charges to pay – she will only be presented those charges that are a part of the charge priority list that is associated with the ePayment credit card or eCheck item type.

Perform Real-Time

This group box displays setup options from the SF merchant IDs you select in the Credit Card Merchant ID and Electronic Check Merchant ID fields. These options are for your information only and cannot be changed on this page. Make sure to confirm the accuracy of the information in this group box before proceeding to set up your institution set.

Post in Real-Time

Set the parameters for the real-time posting of credit card transactions.

Payments Authorized Offline	Select to post transactions in real time, even though you authorize the transactions through a batch process. This field is available only if you do not select the Credit Card Authorization option on the SF Merchants page.
Post Unprocessed Authorization	Select to post credit card transactions that fail while performing real-time authorization due to a connection problem. If you clear this check box, the system only posts transactions with fully processed authorizations. Note. Consider the implications if transactions posted in real-time fail authorization when processed at a later point in time (such as payment reversals and discharge of service indicators).
Reverse Declined Authorization	Select to automatically reverse a posted transaction when a credit card transaction is declined. This option should always be selected if you choose to post transactions with payments authorized offline (see above).
Base Currency	Select the type of currency that you want to use for your credit card transactions. The default value for this field is determined by your selection of a base currency from SF Installation setup.
Enforce Daily Limit and Daily Limit	Select the Enforce Daily Limit check box to limit the number of self service payments a student can make per day to the value you enter in the Daily Limit field. For example, if you set up and institution set with both a Credit Card Merchant ID and an Electronic Check Merchant ID, and enter a daily limit of 4, this mean that a student can make any combination of eCheck and credit card transactions up to a maximum of 4 total transactions per day. If a student exceeds the limit, the system prevents them from making additional self service payments until the following day.

Default Options

Get Billing Address	Select to make the address fields on the Make a Payment — Specify Payment Details page available for input.
Get Telephone	Select to make the telephone field on the Make a Payment — Specify Payment Details page available for input.
Get Email Address	Select to make the email field on the Make a Payment — Specify Payment Details page available for input.

Include Anticipated Aid

Detail

Select to display anticipated aid as a line item on the Account Summary — What I Owe table and Make a Payment — Specify Payment Amount pages.

Note. With this check box selected, anticipated aid appears on the pages as a line item only and does not reduce the remaining balance amount. Students are informed of any anticipated aid, but their total charges are not reduced by the anticipated aid.

In Term Balance

Select to use anticipated aid to reduce the Remaining Balance amounts on Account Summary — What I Owe table and Make a Payment — Specify Payment Amount pages. This check box must be used in conjunction with the Detail check box in order for the Remaining Balance amount to be reduced by anticipated aid. With this check box selected, students' total charges are reduced and they are informed of any anticipated aid.

Account Inquiry Miscellaneous

Your selections here determine what students see in the account inquiry self service component. For instance, if you clear the Display Account Activity check box, students will not see the activity page. Check boxes that are indented below a check box refer to more specific options related to the display feature on that page.

Display Account Activity	Select to display the account activity page, including charges, payments, financial aid, and refunds for the student. The activity is controlled by filter options on the activity page – the default number of months being displayed is 6 months of activity.
Display Charges Due	Select to display the charges due page. There are three tables displayed on this page, two of which are optional, namely the Display Due Date Detail table and the Display Charge Detail table. The first table rolls up all charges by unique due date to be presented as a summary to the student. The Display Due Date Detail table displays the details of all charges rolled up by unique due date. The Display Charge Detail table displays the details of each charge. On this table, the student has the opportunity to drill down on charges containing multiple due dates.
Display Payment History	Select to display the payments page. You can also decide to Display Pending Payments or Allow Payment Drilldown. If a self service transaction has not be posted to the student's account, the student can see those Pending Payments on the Account Inquiry — Payment History and the Make a Payment — Specify Payment Amount pages if the Display Pending Payments check box is selected. For any successfully posted payments, the student can see which charges were reduced by those payments if the Allow Payment Drilldown check box is selected.
Display Pending Financial Aid	Select to display pending financial aid page. If the student has any anticipated aid that has not been posted to her account yet, it will be displayed on this page.
Days in future for 'due now'	Based on the number of days you enter here, it will control the Due Now and Future Due dollar amounts displayed on the Student Center as well as on the Account Inquiry – Account Summary page. The formula used to calculate the 'Due Now' amount is any charges incurred through today plus the number of days specified here. The formula used to calculate the 'Future Due' amount is any charges incurred after today's date plus the number of days specified here. Any charges incurred through the current date plus the number of future days entered here controls both the amount due now and the future due amount. Enter the number of future days. Note. See the example below for more information.
Tuition Calc Required (tuition calculation required)	Select to calculate tuition when a student inquires on their account using the Account Summary or Due Charges self service pages. The system calculates tuition only if required (Calc Required flag set to Y on the STDNT_CAR_TERM table). If this option is not selected and the Calc Required flag is set to Y, a message is displayed on the Total Due Charges page indicating that total due charges may not reflect recent changes to your tuition and fees for a given term. Consider this option carefully. Requiring tuition calculation uses a great deal of your system's processing resources, but account balances might not otherwise reflect recent changes.
Include Fin Aid in Payments (include financial aid in payments)	Select to include financial aid disbursements with all other payments. If this option is clear, financial aid disbursements appear in a separate Financial Aid activity line on the Payment History page. If your institution does not disburse financial aid, select this option to eliminate financial aid activity lines.
Include Pending Payments	Select to reflect that self service electronic payments that have not been posted (pending) reduces the Remaining Balance Amount on the Account Summary — What I Owe table and Make a Payment — Specify Payment Amount pages.

Example of How the Days in Future Field is Calculated

The following table is an example of how charges and payments are displayed, based on what you define in the Days in future for 'due now' field:

Charge	Date Incurred	Amount
Tuition	July 1, 2004	1000.00 USD
Fee	September 5, 2004	50.00 USD
Room	November 1, 2004	500.00 USD

If the current date is September 1, 2004, and you enter 35 in the Days in future for 'due now' field, then the due now charges will equal 1050.00 USD and the future due will equal 500.00 USD.

If the current date is October 1, 2004, and you enter 35 in the Days in future for 'due now'field, then the charges due now will equal 1550.00 USD, and the future charges will equal zero.

Defining Self Service ePayment Use for Institution Sets

Access the Institution Set 2 page.

Note. Most of the fields on the Institution Set 2 page are specific to each business unit in the institution set, not to the institution set as a whole. If you have multiple business units associated with the institution set, be sure to insert a row and enter the information on the Institution Set 2 page for each business unit. Also, if you have more than one business unit associated with your institution set, you must enter a priority ranking for each (see below). The exceptions to this are the service impact and service indicator codes, which are institution-set-specific, not business-unit-specific.

To control what charges the student can pay towards in self service, you must ensure that the item type contains the correct charge priority list. The charge priority list that you assign to the eCheck item type can differ from the credit card item type. In this way, you can control whether or not particular charges can be paid by one payment method versus another. Be sure to specify the correct tender category (eCheck or credit card) on the item type so that it is available to select here.

Business Unit	Enter the business unit that you want to be included in this institution set.
Accept Self Service Payments	This is a display-only field that shows if Accept Self Service Payments has been selected in the SF Business Unit setup. This means that web credit card payments are authorized for this business unit.
Credit Card Item Type	Enter the item type that the system uses for self service credit card transactions entered for this institution set. Note. The payment item type you select must specify credit card as a tender type.
eCheck Item Type	Enter the item type that the system uses for self service eCheck transactions entered for this institution set. Note. The payment item type you select must specify electronic check as a tender type.
Deposit Item Type	If you are accepting web credit card payments for admission deposits, select the item type defined for admission deposits.
Primary Business Unit	Select to designate the business unit as the one to which the system assigns ePayment transaction surcharges. Note. You can designate only one business unit per institution set as the primary business unit.

Convenience Fee

Account Type

If you are charging a convenience fee on credit card transactions, select the account to which the system posts charges resulting from a credit card transaction convenience fee.

Note. If you are charging a convenience fee, the payment item type used for credit card transactions must include the account type of your convenience fee item type on the account type page.

Item Type

If you are charging a convenience fee on credit card transactions, select the item type that the system uses when posting charges resulting from a credit card transaction convenience fee.

Note. If you are charging a convenience fee, the item type specified here must be included in one of the Allowable Charges tree nodes in the charge priority list used by the credit card payment item type. This charge priority list is specified on the item type miscellaneous page.

Contact Information

Location Code	Select a location code to display a remittance address on the Account Summary and Total Due Charges pages.
Contact	Select the ID of the individual assigned to be the contact person in the event of web credit card transaction problems.
Email ID	Enter the email address of the contact person.
Telephone	Enter the telephone number of the contact person.
Ext (extension)	Enter the telephone extension of the contact person (if applicable).

Excess Payment

If you select the Allow Excess Payments check box on the Institution Set page, all fields this group box are required.

Account Type	Select the account to which the system posts credit card payments in excess of customer balances. If it is different, this selection overrides the Payment Excess Account that you select in the Posting Setup 1 page of the SF Business Unit component.
Description	Enter the label you want to display for excess payments. This description overrides the description of the credit card payment item type and appears on the Allocate Payment page in the Future Charges section.

Disable Internet Payment Group Box

Service Impact

Select the negative service impact code that the system uses to disable a customer's ability to pay on the internet using a credit card. If the student has this impact on their account, they will be unable to access the Make a Payment page.

Override Daily Limit Group Box

Service Impact

Select the positive service impact code that the system uses to enable customers to bypass the daily limit for credit card payments. If a student has this impact on their account, they will be able to make credit card payments in excess of the daily limit.

Payment Reversal Group Box

Service Indicator

Select the negative service indicator code that the system attaches to student records when transaction authorizations fail and payments are reversed.

Setting Up Self Service Options

This section discusses how to define self service options.

Page Used to Set Up Self Service Options

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
SF Self Service Options	SS_SF_OPTIONS	Set Up SACR, Common Definitions, Self Service, Student Financials, SF Self Service Options	Define business unit labels for self service payment pages. The values you enter here are used in the View By drop downs and in grids on self service pages.

Defining Business Unit Labels

Access the SF Self Service Options page.

Business Unit Label

Enter the label that appears on all self service pages that reference the business unit: table headings, filters, column headings, etc.

Setting Up Self Service Payment Messages

Self-service payment messages display to the student when an error is encountered when processing an ePayment transaction.

Description	Enter a description of the institution set.
Accept Self Service Payments	Select to accept self service payments over the internet. This selection is specific to this institution set, not to the SF business units that are attached on the Institution Set 2 page. Selecting this option requires that you attach at least one SF business unit that is defined to accept self service payments.
Allocation Level	Use the allocation level to define how charges and payments are displayed on a self service page.