This chapter discusses how to:
Set up SF merchants.
Set up institution sets.
Set up self service options.
Set up miscellaneous fees.
Set up self service payment messages.
There are a number of components that need to be set up in order for students to 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.
See Setting Up Business Units, 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.
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.
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 in PeopleSoft Campus Community or individually through Student Financials Security
See Also
Creating and Maintaining User Profiles
Page Name |
Object Name |
Navigation |
Usage |
INSTITUTION_SET_01 |
Set Up SACR, Common Definitions, Self Service, Student Financials, SF Institution Set |
Define basic institution set parameters. |
|
SSF_INST_SET_03 |
Set Up SACR, Common Definitions, Self Service, Student Financials, SF Institution Set, Electronic Payments |
Define parameters of electronic payments. |
|
INSTITUTION_SET_02 |
Set Up SACR, Common Definitions, Self Service, Student Financials, SF Institution Set, Business Units |
Define business unit parameters. |
Access the General Options page.
The selections made in the Self Service Options and the Account Inquiry group boxes determine what students see in the Make a Payment self-service component. For instance, if you clear the Display Pending Financial Aid check box, then the student's anticipated aid does not appear anywhere in the Make a Payment component of self-service.
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 Business Unit setup. |
Self Service Options
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 Business Units page. Selecting this option requires that you attach at least one SF business unit that is defined to accept self-service payments. |
|
Accept Miscellaneous Purchases |
Check to allow students to select and purchase items or services. This flag controls whether the Accept Miscellaneous Purchases option appears in the other financial dropdown in Student Center and whether the link appears at the bottom of the Account Inquiry page. |
Allow Payment Plan Enrollment |
Check to allow students to enroll in payment plans. This flag controls whether the Payment Plan option appears in the Other Financial dropdown in Student Center and whether the link appears at the bottom of the Account Inquiry page. |
Display 1098–T Self Service |
Select to display and to allow access to the 1098-T Self Service option for students in this institution set. This flag controls whether the 1098-T option appears in the other financial dropdown in Student Center and whether the link appears at the bottom of the Account Inquiry page. |
Display Student Permissions |
U.S. Department of Education regulations require that federal financial aid awards be used to pay only allowable charges for the period of enrollment covered by the aid year in which those funds were awarded. Regulations require schools to collect individual authorization from a student to allow funds to pay for non-allowable charges such as library fines and parking fees or for charges for the prior year immediately preceding the current aid year. Select this check box to allow access to the Grant Student Permissions option for students in this institution set. If the student wants to revoke permission, this can only be done by the administrator, not via Self Service by the student. |
Grant Student Permissions |
Select to display and to allow access to the Grant Permissions option for students in this institution set. This check box displays only if Display Student Permissions check box is selected. |
Account Inquiry
The selections made in this group box determine what students see in the Account Inquiry self-service component. For instance, if you clear the Display Account Activity check box, students do 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 system displays 6 months of activity by default. |
Display Charges Due |
Select to display the Charges Due page. There are four grids displayed on this page, three of which are optional: the Display Due Date Detail grid and the Display Charge Detail grid and Display Invoice Due. The first grid rolls up all charges by unique due date to be presented as a summary to the student. The Display Due Date Detail grid displays the details of all charges rolled up by unique due date. The Display Charge Detail grid displays the details of each charge. On this grid, the student has the opportunity to look deeper into charges containing multiple due dates. |
Display Invoice Due |
Select the Display Invoice Due check box to display details of charges by billing invoice ID/date |
Display Payment History |
Select to display the Payments page. You can also decide to allow payment drilldown. 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 Payments |
Select to display the student's pending payments on the following pages: Account Inquiry - Account Summary tab: What I Owe grid. Account Inquiry - Payments tab: Pending Payments grid. If cleared, then the student's pending payments do not appear anywhere in self-service. |
Include Pending Payments |
If selected, then the student's balance is reduced by the pending payment amount. This check box must be used in conjunction with the Display Pending Payments check box for the remaining balance amount to be reduced by any pending payments made. If selected, then the reductions are displayed on the following pages: The Total Due amount is reduced by the Pending Payment amount on the Account Inquiry - Account Summary tab: What I Owe grid. If cleared, then the Total Due amount is not reduced by the pending payment amount on the Account Inquiry - Account Summary tab: What I Owe grid. The remaining balance amount is not reduced by the pending payment amount. |
Display Pending Financial Aid |
Select to display anticipated aid as a line item on the Account Inquiry - Account Summary tab: What I Owe grid and the Account Inquiry - Pending Financial Aid page. If this check box is 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. If cleared, then the student's anticipated aid does not appear anywhere in the Account Inquiry component of self-service. |
Include Pending Financial Aid |
If selected, the student’s balance is reduced by the anticipated aid amount. This check box must be used in conjunction with the Display Pending Financial Aid check box for the remaining balance amount to be reduced by any anticipated aid. If selected, then the reductions are displayed on the following pages: The Total Due Amount is reduced by the anticipated (or pending financial) aid amount on the Account Inquiry - Account Summary tab: What I Owe grid. If cleared, then the total due amount will not be reduced by the anticipated aid amount on the Account Inquiry - Account Summary tab: What I Owe grid. The remaining balance amount is not reduced by the pending financial aid amount. |
Include Fin Aid in Payments |
Select to include financial aid disbursements with all other payments. If this check box is cleared, 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. |
Tuition Calc 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, the system displays a message 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 system processing resources, but account balances might not otherwise reflect recent changes. |
Days in future for 'due now' |
Based on the number of days you enter here, the system controls the Due Now and Future Due dollar amounts displayed on the Student Center page as well as on the Account Inquiry - Account Summary page. The formula used to calculate the due now amount is any charges incurred through the current date plus the number of days specified in this field. The formula used to calculate the future due amount is any charges incurred after the current date plus the number of days specified in this field. Any charges incurred through the current date plus the number of future days entered in this field controls both the amount due now and the future due amount. Enter the number of future days. |
Example of How the Days in Future Field is Calculated
This 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, 2006 |
1,000.00 USD |
Fee |
September 5, 2006 |
50.00 USD |
Room |
November 1, 2006 |
500.00 USD |
If the current date is September 1, 2006, and you enter 35 in the Days in future for 'due now' field, then the due now charges will equal 1,050.00 USD and the future due will equal 500.00 USD.
If the current date is October 1, 2006, and you enter 35 in the Days in future for 'due now' field, then the charges due now will equal 1,550.00 USD, and the future charges will equal zero.
Access the Electronic Payments page.
Note. Most of the fields on the Electronic Payments 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 Electronic Payments 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.
This is a display-only field that shows if Accept Self Service Payments has been selected in the General Options setup. This means that web credit card payments are authorized for this business unit. |
|
This is a display-only field that shows if Accept Miscellaneous Purchases has been selected in the General Options setup. |
Electronic Payments
Default Billing Address |
Select to make the address fields on the Make a Payment — Specify Payment Details page available for input. |
Default Telephone |
Select to make the telephone field on the Make a Payment — Specify Payment Details page available for input. |
Default Email Address |
Select to make the email field on the Make a Payment — Specify Payment Details page available for input. |
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. |
Make a Payment
Your selections here determine what students see in the Make a Payment self-service component. For instance, if you clear the Display Pending Financial Aid check box, then the student's anticipated aid will not be displayed anywhere in the Make a Payment component of self-service.
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. |
|
Real-Time Authorization and Real and Real-Time Settlement |
These boxes display setup options from the SF merchant IDs you select in the Credit Card Merchant ID and Electronic Check Merchant ID fields. The 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. |
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.
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. |
Set the parameters for the real-time posting of credit card transactions.
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). |
Your next selections determine what students see in the Make a Payment self-service component. For instance, if you clear the Display Pending Financial Aid check box, then the student's anticipated aid will not be displayed anywhere in the Make a Payment component of self-service.
Display Pending Financial Aid |
Select to display anticipated aid as a line item on the Make a Payment - Specify Payment Amount page in the What I Owe grid. With this check box selected, anticipated aid appears on the page 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. If cleared, then the student's anticipated aid does not appear anywhere in the Make a Payment component of self-service. |
Include Pending Aid — Payments |
Select to use pending financial aid to reduce the remaining balance amounts on the Make a Payment - Specify Payment Amount page. This check box must be used in conjunction with the Display Pending Financial Aid check box for the remaining balance amount to be reduced by anticipated aid. If this check box is selected, the student's total charges are reduced and they are informed of any anticipated aid. If Display Pending Financial Aid and this check box are both cleared, then the student's anticipated aid does not appear anywhere in the Make a Payment component of self-service. |
Display Pending Payments |
Select to display the student's pending payments on the Make a Payment - Payments page and the Make a Payment - Specify Payment Amount page. If cleared, then the student's pending payments do not appear anywhere in the Make a Payment component. |
Include Pending Payments |
If selected, then the student's balance is reduced by the payment amount. This check box must be used in conjunction with the Display Pending Payments check box for the remaining balance amount to be reduced by any payments made. If Display Pending Payments and this check box are both cleared, then the student's pending payments do not appear anywhere in the Make a Payment component of self-service. |
Miscellaneous Fees
Use these fields if your institution wants to set up separate Merchant IDs for miscellaneous purchases as opposed to regular Tuition payments.
Credit Card Merchant ID and Electronic Check Merchant ID |
Select a credit card SF merchant ID, an eCheck SF merchant ID, or both for Miscellaneous Fees. 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 the Credit 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 field, 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. For miscellaneous purchases, the set up on the Purchase Items set up component determine what items will be presented for purchase. Since these are optional purchases, they do not exist until the student (or user) elects to purchase these items. As these are paid for at the time of selection, charge priority rules have nothing to do with miscellaneous purchases. |
Access the Business Units page.
Note. Most of the fields on the SF Institution Set — Business Units 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 SF Institution Set - Business Units 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 include in this institution set. |
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). |
Payment Service Impact
Disable Internet Payment |
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 |
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. |
Accept Self-Service Payments |
This is a display-only field that shows if Accept Self Service Payments has been selected in the General Options setup. This means that web credit card payments are authorized for this business unit. |
Make a Payment
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 accept 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 charge 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 charge 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. |
Convenience Fee Item Type |
If you charge 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. |
Excess Payment Account |
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. |
Excess Payment 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. |
Payment Reversal
Select the negative service indicator code that the system attaches to student records when transaction authorizations fail and payments are reversed. |
Miscellaneous Fees
This set up allows different Payment Item Types and Convenience Fee Item Types to be used as opposed to the regular Make a Payment Item Types
Credit Card Item Type |
Enter the item type that the system uses for self-service credit card transactions entered for this institution set for paying for miscellaneous purchases. 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 to pay for miscellaneous purchases. Note. The payment item type you select must specify electronic check as a tender type. |
Convenience Fee Account Type |
If you are charging a convenience fee on credit card transactions for miscellaneous purchases, 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. |
Convenience Fee 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. |
This section discusses how to define self service options.
Page Name |
Object Name |
Navigation |
Usage |
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. |
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. |
Miscellaneous fees are charges separate from tuition which can be selected and paid for in one transaction. Students can select and purchase items or services, for example, parking or a health plan, in Self Service. The user does not need be a student (especially for non-term based fees).
This section discusses how to:
Set up a purchase category.
Set up purchase items.
Enable self-service miscellaneous purchases.
Page Name |
Object Name |
Navigation |
Usage |
SSF_PUR_CATEGORY |
Set Up SACR, Common Definitions, Self Service, Student Financials, Purchase Category |
Set up purchase category. |
|
SSF_PUR_ITEM_TBL |
Set Up SACR, Common Definitions, Self Service, Student Financials, Purchase Items |
Set up fee structure for purchase of miscellaneous items. |
Access the Purchase Category page.
Access the Purchase Items page.
Description |
Enter a description of the purchase item. This will appear in the Self Service component for Available Items. |
Long Description |
Enter a more detailed description of the purchase item. In the Self Service Purchase Miscellaneous Items component, the Long Description is what appears when you click on the link of the available item. |
Setup for |
Select from the list of values to determine what population can view miscellaneous items for purchase on self service.
|
Fee Set Up
Effective Date |
The start date. Prior to this date, the item is not eligible for selection in Self Service. |
Status |
Active or Inactive. |
Expiration Date |
The end date. The item will is not available for selection via self-service after this date. |
Term |
Appears only for Students Who Match Attributes and All Term Activated Student selections. This limits the item to a specific term and is used in conjunction with the Effective Date and Expiration Date which do not fall into the Start and End Dates of the Term. For fees that have overlapping Effective and Expiration Date ranges, for example supplemental Health Insurance, you may add multiple terms to cover the item for purchase. |
Purchase Category |
Select a purchase category. |
Account Type |
Use to classify the Charge Item Type. |
Item Type |
Define an item type for the charge. |
Amount |
Enter the amount to be charged for the item. |
Student Attributes
The Student Attributes group box does not appear if the institution selects All Term Activated Students or All Users in the Setup for field on this page.
If Student Group is selected in the Setup for field on this page, the Student Group field appears. Select a student group.
If Students Who Match Attributes is selected in the Setup for field on this page, select a value for each of the following attributes:
Academic Career
Primary Prog
Campus
Academic Load
Tuition Group
To enable self-service miscellaneous purchases, select the Accept Miscellaneous Purchases check box. This flag controls whether the Accept Miscellaneous Purchases option appears in theother financial drop-down list in Student Center and whether the link appears at the bottom of the Account Inquiry page.
See Setting Up Institution Sets.
See Pages Used to Set Up Institution Sets.
Self-service payment messages display to the student when an error is encountered when processing an ePayment transaction.
See Setting Up Self-Service Payment Messages.