Using Self-Service Student Financials

This chapter provides an overview of the Student Financials self service application and discusses how students can:

View outstanding charges, payments, financial aid, and refunds.
Create credit card or eCheck payment profiles.
Make a step-by-step payment toward outstanding charges using the payment wizard.

Understanding How to Use Self Service for Student Financials

Students use Student Financials self service to review account activity, create and store payment profiles, and make payments. What students see when they access Student Financials self service depends on what your institution has defined on the set up pages. For example, you can use Institution Sets to specify not only that students view their account activity by business unit, term or by charge, but you can also decide whether or not to display pending payments, financial aid totals, and charges due.

See Setting Up Institution Sets.

Viewing Outstanding Charges, Payments, and Financial Aid

This section discusses how to:

View a summary of the student's account, including outstanding charges and deposits, pending payments, pending financial aid, and total due.
View an account activity of all transactions posted to the student's account, including charges, payments, financial aid, and refunds.
View outstanding charge and deposit details.
View a history of posted and pending payments made.
View any anticipated or pending financial aid that has not been posted to the student's account yet.

Page Used to View Charges and Payments

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
Account Summary	SSF_SS_ACCT_SUMM	Self Service, Campus Finances, Account Inquiry	Students use this page to review a summary of outstanding charges and deposits, pending payments, pending financial aid, and total due.
Account Activity	SSF_SS_ACCT_ACTVTY	Self Service, Campus Finances, Account Inquiry. Click the Activity link or tab located on any page.	Students use this page to review all of the account activity that has transpired over a fixed period of time – activity that includes anything that has been posted to the student's account, including charges, cash, check, or credit card payments, financial aid, refunds, etc. Administrators can choose to suppress this page from being displayed to the student via the SF Institution Set setup.
Charges Due	SSF_SS_CHRGS_DUE	Click the Charges Due link on the Account Summary page. Click the Charges Due link or tab located on any page.	Students can review all of their outstanding charges and deposits incurred to date, including charge details. Administrators can choose to suppress this page from being displayed to the student via the SF Institution Set setup.
Detail by Charge	SSF_SS_CHRG_DUE_DT	Self Service, Campus Finances, Account Inquiry. Click the Charges Due link or tab located on any page. In the Details by Charge table, click on the Multiple link.	Students use this page to review the multiple due dates associated with a charge.
Payment History	SSF_SS_PMT_HIST	Self Service, Campus Finances, Account Inquiry – click the Payments link or tab located on any page.	Students use this page to review all of the payments that have been posted to their account. Administrators can choose to suppress this page from being displayed to the student via the SF Institution Set setup, whether or not Pending Payments will be displayed on this page, and whether students will be permitted to drill down on posted payments to see which charges were reduced by those payments.
Payment History - Charges Paid by this Payment	SSF_SS_CHRGS_PAID	Self Service, Campus Finances, Account Inquiry. Click the Payments link or tab located on any page. In the Posted Payments table, click on the linked amount.	Students use this page to view the charges that were reduced by this payment as well as any unapplied amounts.
Pending Financial Aid	SSF_SS_PEND_FINAID	Self Service, Campus Finances, Account Inquiry. Click the Pending Financial Aid link or tab located on any page.	Students use this page to review any pending or anticipated aid that has yet to be posted to their account. Administrators can choose to suppress this page from being displayed to the student via the SF Institution Set setup.

Viewing an Account Summary

Access the Account Summary page.

Charges Due

Click this link to go to the charges due page.

Due Now and Future Due

The amounts displayed here are based on the parameters set up in the Days in future for 'due now' field on the Institution Set 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.

Past Due Balance

This amount represents charges that were incurred through yesterday (current date minus 1).

See Defining Basic Institution Set Parameters.

What I Owe

The columns that appear in the What I Owe table are based on the allocation level you specified on the Institution Set page (meaning that the Pending Payments and Pending Financial Aid columns can be suppressed by the Administrator).

Remittance Addresses

The remittance address that displays is based on the Location you selected on the SF Business Unit page.

Viewing Account Activity

Access the Account Activity page.

Students can filter account activity by campus, and term for specific dates or a range of dates. Additionally, students can use Find to search for specific transactions.

Viewing Charges Due Details

Access the Charges Due page.

This page reflects three different views of the student's outstanding charges due, one table reflects the summary due by due date, and the other two tables reflects the outstanding charges in detail. Click the Details by Due Date or Details by Charge drop down to view detail charges.

Details by Due Date	Expand the Details by Due Date section to view charge details by due date. .
Details by Charge	Click the Details by Charge drop down to view charge details. Students can filter by campus and term.

Viewing Details by Due Date

Access the Details by Due Date page.

Charges are displayed by date within a term.

Viewing Details by Charge

Access the Details by Charge page.

Charges are displayed based on the selection in the View By field.

View By	Students can use these fields to filter the charges due by campus and by term.
Multiple	If a charge has multiple due dates, students can click this link to check those dates.

Viewing Detail by Charge

Click Multiple to view the Detail by Charge page.

Students can click Return to Charges Due to return to the previous page.

Viewing Payment History

Access the Payment History page.

Students can view all posted and pending payment activity and filter by date.

Paid Amount

Click to view the specific charges paid by this payment.

Viewing the Charges Paid by a Payment

Access the Payment History — Charges Paid by this Payment page.

Click Return to Payment History to return to the previous page.

Pending Financial Aid

Access the Pending Financial Aid page.

Students can view pending financial aid amounts by all terms, or specific terms.

Financial Aid

Click to access financial aid information.

See Using Self Service Financial Aid.

Creating Payment Profiles

This section provides an overview of self-service payment profiles and discusses how to:

Add and delete payment profiles.
View and edit payment profile details.

Understanding Payment Profiles

PeopleSoft Student Financials enables students to create payment profiles for their various eCheck (checking and/or savings) or credit card (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, etc.) accounts. By establishing payment profiles, students enter their eCheck and credit card information only once in the Payment Profile component. Then, when they make self service payments, students simply select the desired payment profile instead of having to enter their lengthy account information. In addition, if a student designates one of her payment profiles as preferred, the system selects that payment profile by default when the student makes a self service payment.

Pages Used to Create Self Service Payment Profiles

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
Payment Profile — Payment Profile Summary	SS_SF_ACCT_PROFILE	Self Service, Campus Finances, Payment Profile	Add payment profiles. If students have established profiles, they are displayed here.
Payment Profile — Edit Payment Profile	SS_SF_ACCT_PRFL_D	Click the Edit or Delete button next to the appropriate profile to edit or delete the details of the payment profile.	Edit or delete details for payment profiles.

Adding and Deleting Payment Profiles

Access the Payment Profile – Payment Profile Summary page.

If a student has not yet created a payment profile, the table will be empty. Students click Add A Profile to create a payment profile.

Payment Profile	Click a link under this heading to access a display-only version of the Payment Profile — Payment Profile Summary page.
Profile Type	Indicates whether the profile is for an Electronic Check or Credit Card account.
Edit Profile	Click to access an editable version of the Payment Profile — Payment Profile Summary page.
Delete Profile	Click next to the payment profile that you want to delete.
Add a Profile	Click to add a new payment profile.

View and Edit Payment Profile Details

Access the Payment Profile – Profile Detail page.

Preferred Account

Select to designate this payment profile (Edit mode only) as the one that the system selects by default whenever the student makes a self service payment. A student can have only one preferred payment profile per Profile (or payment) type.

Profile Type

Specify whether the profile is for an Electronic Check or Credit Card account. If you select Electronic Check, the eCheck group box becomes available. If you select Credit Card, the Credit Card group box becomes available.

eCheck

Specify whether the account you are defining is a checking or savings account and enter the appropriate routing and account numbers.

Credit Card

Select the credit card type and enter the credit card number and expiration date.

Making Self Service Payments

This section provides and overview of self-service payments and discusses how to:

Select payment method.
Specify payment details.
Specify payment amounts.
Confirm payment.
View payment results.

Understanding Self Service Payments

PeopleSoft Student Financials self service enables your students to access their account information and make payments over the internet. The self service pages can be accessed in different ways: from the Student Center, the Account Inquiry page, or the left navigation.

Self Service Account Review

Students often want to view their account information more than once a month when they receive their statements from the university. Using self service, students can view up-to-date information about their accounts at any time.

Total Due Charges Review

When students want to know how much money they owe to the institution, they may not want to sift through all their account activity for each term. Campus Finances self service provides a direct way for these students to see their due charges.

Self Service Payments

The Make a Payment self service component enables students to make electronic payments toward their account. Depending on whether or not your institution accepts both credit card payments and eCheck payment methods, the Make a Payment component provides students with an easy 4 or 5 step process also known as the Payment Wizard. Additionally, if you set up your institution set to allow it, students can allocate their self service payments to specific charges.

Messaging

PeopleSoft delivers a set of messages that accompany many of the self service pages. These messages are intended to help students through the self service experience. These messages are user-defined in Message Catalog, and can be modified by you. They appear at the top of most pages. For instance, if a student is paying with an eCheck, then she will get the following message about her PIN as a potential requirement for user authentication: “You will need your PIN in order to submit an eCheck Transaction.” Messages can only be changed by you as an administrator and not by students.

Prerequisites

Before students can access their accounts over the internet, you have to set up your PeopleSoft Student Financials system to allow them to do so by setting up an institution set and SF merchant IDs. The choices that you make when setting up an institution set determine what your students can see and do when accessing their accounts. Different fields and pages are available to your students depending on how you set up your institution set.

See Setting Up Institution Sets.

Pages Used to Make Self Service Payments

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
Make a Payment — Select Payment Method	SSF_SS_PMT_METHOD	Self Service, Campus Finances, Make a Payment (Step 1 of the Payment Wizard)	Depending on whether or not the institution supports both the eCheck and credit card payment methods, the student will choose the method by which to make a payment.
Make a Payment — Specify Payment Details	SSF_SS_PMT_CR_CARD	Make a Payment — Specify Payment Method, Next button (Step 2 of the Payment Wizard)	The student must specify either the credit card or eCheck payment details for the current transaction.
Make a Payment — Specify Payment Amount	SSF_SS_PMT_ALLOC	Make a Payment — Specify Payment Details, Next button (Step 3 of the Payment Wizard)	The student must specify the amount she wants to pay toward her outstanding charges.
Make a Payment — Confirm Payment	SSF_SS_PMT_SUBMIT	Make a Payment — Specify Payment Amount, Next button (Step 4 of the Payment Wizard)	The student must confirm the payment method, account details, and payment amount of the transactions she is about to submit for payment.
Make a Payment — Payment Result	SSF_SS_PMT_RESULT	Make a Payment — Confirm Payment, Submit button (Step 5 of the Payment Wizard)	The student uses this page to capture the transmission details of the transaction that was submitted.

Selecting Payment Methods

Access the Make a Payment — Select Payment Method page.

This page enables students to choose whether they want to pay by credit card or by eCheck. This page appears for students only if you enter a value in both the Credit Card Merchant ID and Electronic Check Merchant ID fields for the associated institution set. If you allow only one type of payment, this page does not appear. The payment method defaults to the only value available.

Note. The selection a student makes determines which of her charges are eligible for payment, according to the charge priority list you defined for the item type associated with the selected payment method. For example, if a student selects Electronic Check, the Payment Details page and the Payment Amount page display only the charges on the student’s account that are eligible for payment by the eCheck item type you defined.

Specifying Payment Details

Access the Make a Payment — Specify Payment Details page.

If a student has not created a payment profile before accessing this page, she will be able to create an initial one from this page, before being able to enter or confirm ePayment information.

Create New Profile, Use Existing Profile, Do not use Profile, Save Payment Profile

Students choose from these options, depending on whether or not they have already created a payment profile

Students can also use this attribute to update an existing Payment Profile as part of successfully transmitting an ePayment transaction.

Payment Profile

If a student has created a payment profile, she will be able to select it from the Payment Profile drop down.

Depending on whether the student chose credit card or electronic check, the following fields will differ.

Credit Card Details

First Name, and Last Name	Students enter the first and last name on the bank account.
Credit Card Type	Students select the type of credit card to use.
Credit Card Number	Students enter the credit card number.
Expiration Year and Date	Students enter the expiration year and date for the credit card.
Telephone	Students enter the telephone number.
Country and Address	Based on the Address Usage option and the student's address table, the system retrieves the appropriate address.
Edit Address	Students click this link to change their address for the current ePayment transaction.

eCheck Account Details

First Name, Last Name	Students enter the first and last name on the bank account.
Bank Account Type	Students select the type of bank account to use.
Routing Number	Students enter the routing number for the bank account.
Account Number	Students enter the account number for the bank account.
Telephone	Students enter the telephone number.
Country and Address	Based on the Address Usage option and the student's address table, the system retrieves the appropriate address.
Edit Address	Students click this link to change their address for the current ePayment transaction.

Specifying Payment Amounts

Access the Make a Payment — Specify Payment Amount page.

What I Owe

The columns that appear in the What I Owe table are based on the allocation level you specified on the Institution Set page.

Payment Amount	Students can enter different amounts for each of the different charges that are displayed.
pay all charges	Students click to pay all charges listed.
zero out amounts	Students click to zero out amounts in the Payment Amount fields.
calculate total	Students click to calculate the amounts in the Payment Amount fields.

Charges Due

The Charges Due table is based on what your institution defined in the set up. If the allocation level you specified on the Institution Set page is By Business Unit, the charge details will be grouped by business unit. If the allocation level you specified on the Institution Set page is By Term, the charge details will be grouped by term within business unit.

Multiple

If a charge has multiple due dates, students can click this link to check those dates.

Confirming Payments

Access the Make a Payment — Confirm Payment page.

This page confirms what payments students would like to submit. The information displayed in the Payment Summary reflects whether or not students made payments by credit card or eCheck.

change payment amount	Students click to change the payment amount.
change payment details	Students click to change the payment details.

Viewing Successful Payment Results

Access the Make a Payment — Payment Result page.

View Confirmed Payment

Students click to go to payments tab and verify the recently submitted transaction. This is only available following successfully submitted transactions.

Make Another Payment

Students click to start the make a payment process over from the beginning .

Viewing Declined Payment Results

Access the Make a Payment — Payment Result page.

Resubmit Payment

Students click to review and edit the retained payment data. If students want to start all over, click Make Another Payment.

Make Another Payment

Students click to begin the make a payment process from the beginning.

Preferred Account	Select to designate this payment profile (Edit mode only) as the one that the system selects by default whenever the student makes a self service payment. A student can have only one preferred payment profile per Profile (or payment) type.
Profile Type	Specify whether the profile is for an Electronic Check or Credit Card account. If you select Electronic Check, the eCheck group box becomes available. If you select Credit Card, the Credit Card group box becomes available.

View Confirmed Payment	Students click to go to payments tab and verify the recently submitted transaction. This is only available following successfully submitted transactions.
Make Another Payment	Students click to start the make a payment process over from the beginning .

Resubmit Payment	Students click to review and edit the retained payment data. If students want to start all over, click Make Another Payment.
Make Another Payment	Students click to begin the make a payment process from the beginning.