About emailing students their balance

You can use workflows and activities in conjunction with the Student Finder to send students emails letting them know about an outstanding balance. Once you set up the activity, you can use each each time you wish to send an email and Campus Cafe will populate the latest balance due.

To collect payment within Campus Cafe, you’ll need a third-party contract with Authorize.net or PayPal.

Prerequisites

• Set up Campus Cafe to relay email through your Google or Microsoft email service.

• Bill students.

Required permissions

Create email

You only need to create the email once if its overall content remains the same. You can tell Campus Cafe to merge into the email the student’s balance and other information like the student’s name.

To create the email, you’ll create a workflow and activity tracking template. You’ll later use the Student Finder to add the activity to student records and trigger the email.

1. Go to All Users > Activity Tracking Templates.

2. Choose a member. For example, Bursar because the email is sent by that office.

3. In Template Name enter a short description. For example Balance Due Email.

4. Click Add. A new screen appears.

5. Select Auto-create Workflow.

6. In Description enter text about the email. For example Balance Due Email to Student.

7. Click Save.

8. At the bottom of the screen under Added Workflows click the paper and pencil icon. A new screen appears.
   
   

   Open

   

9. In Type select Email.

10. In Category select Email.

11. In Mode select Email Sent on Add.

12. Under Actions select Email Tracked Person. Campus Cafe automatically selects Preferred meaning the email will send to the student’s email marked as preferred. Alternatively you can select Non-Preferred or All.
    
    

    Open

    

13. In Email Default Subject Text enter the email’s subject line.

14. In Editor Format optionally select Rich to support styling your text such as bold and italics.

15. In Email Default Body Text write your email. Click the double arrows to select a merge field. For example you may wish to use the AMOUNT_DUE merge tag to display the student's balance factoring in upcoming payment plan payments and non-disbursed financial aid. Alternatively, use the ACTUAL_CASH_BALANCE merge tag to display the student's balance without anticipated payment plan payments or non-disbursed financial aid.
    
    

16. Click Save.

Send emails

To send emails, use the Student Finder. This way you can select which students receive the email. For example, you may wish to exclude students without a balance or students in a special population such as those whose balance will be paid by VA benefits.

1. Go to Filters > Students.

2. Use filters to select your students.

   • Use Amount Due to limit to students with a specified balance. The Amount Due factors in upcoming payment plan payments and non-disbursed financial aid. To select all students with a balance, you’d set Amount Due > 0.

   • Use Actual Cash Balance to limit to students with the specified balance. The Actual Cash Balance doesn’t factor in anticipated payment plan payments or non-disbursed financial aid.

3. Next to the students to email, select the Selected checkbox.

4. Click +Add Activity > For All.

5. Next to Member:Template Name click the magnifying glass and select your balance due activity.

6. Optionally select the Semester associated with the balance or when you’re sending the email. If you don’t select a semester, Campus Cafe uses the default activity tracking template semester.
   
   

7. Click Submit. Wait for all activities to be added before leaving the screen.