About billing charges
Billing charges allow you to assess students for costs such as tuition, course fees, housing, tuition insurance and student health insurance.
Because what you charge may change over time, Campus Cafe ties rules to semesters.
You can additionally charge different amounts based on the student’s academic program, residence hall, number of enrolled credits and more.
Prerequisites
Create transaction codes.
The semester for which you’re creating a rule must exist and be active in registration control.
If billing by academic program, create majors.
If billing by residence hall, create dorms.
If billing by student specific billing rules, create in STParm Parameter BIRULE your rule codes.
If billing by meal plan, create in STParm Parameter HOMPNO your meal plan codes.
Required permissions
Module | Number | Description |
|---|---|---|
Student Financials | 105 | Create or change a billing rule |
Required default rules
For students with a Resident Code of R on their session data, group billing won’t work unless a default meal (board) and housing plans are created. Even if these monetary charges are zero, these default charges must be created for each semester.
For the default meal plan rule create a billing rule (see below) and in the Charge Group enter DFM. For the rule to have no monetary charge, don’t associate it with a Billing Code. Leave the amount at 0. Set the Res Flag to R.
For the default housing rule create a billing rule (see below) and in the Charge Group enter HO0. For the rule to have no monetary charge, don’t associate it with a Billing Code. Leave the amount at 0. Set the Res Flag to R. Default rules for 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. bedroom dorm rooms should also be created. For example, create a billing rule and in the Charge Group enter HO1 and the associated amount for a default room charge for a single-occupancy dorm room. For a double-occupancy room enter HO2 and the associated amount. Repeat for as many occupancy levels as your institution offers.
M01 for a “Major” default billing rule can also be created but is not required as a “catch all” rule for when the system does not find a perfectly matching billing rule for a student it will bill the student with the M01 rule dependent on the billing site for the student. (e.g. M01, M02, M03 are for site 1, 2, 3)
Create billing rule
Go to Financials > Billing Rules.
Click New Billing Charge.
The Charge Group tells Campus Cafe which population of students to apply the charge. If you want to apply the charge to all students in a:
major, enter the major or concentration code. For example, if Accounting’s major code is ACC, the Charge Group would be ACC. The Session Row Major Code data will be considered when applying a major based charge group value for the term specified. If Session row Major code data is blank, Degree Row major code data will be considered when applying a major based charge group value for the term specified.
site, enter M followed by the site number. For example, site 1 would be M01. (The site number must always be two digits. For example enter site 1 as 01.)
dorm room(s), enter the billing rule code of the dorm room.
meal plan, enter the meal plan code. For example, if your meal plan Resident 21 Meals has a code of RML21 enter RML21.
tuition insurance group, enter the tuition insurance code that appears on the student session data.
health insurance group, enter the health insurance code that appears on the student session data.
Set the details of the charge and click Create.
Field | What it does |
|---|---|
Charge Group Type | Informational to assist in organizing rules. |
Charge Semester | Semester for which the charge applies. The semester must exist in registration control and the semester must be active. |
Billing Code | The transaction code associated with the charge. The transaction code connects to the general ledger account. |
Amount | The dollar value to assess. |
Begin Start Date | If this field contains a date, only students with a start date on or after the date entered will be charged. The Begin Start Date filter applies to either the students current degree start date, a billing start date override in the students current degree, or the students deposit date. By default the Students Current Degree Start Date is used. This can be overridden to either use the Admissions Deposit Date (Custom Control, BILLDEPST, Sequence 1, Parmeter 1=Y). This can also be overridden on the current degree with the degree billing start date. This is useful in situations in where the student has been grandfathered into an earlier start date cohort for billing purposes. |
End Stat Date | If this field contains a date, only students with a start date prior or equal to the date entered will be charged. The End Start Date filter applies to either the students current degree start date, a billing start date override in the students current degree, or the students deposit date. By default the Students Current Degree Start Date is used. This can be overridden to either use the Admissions Deposit Date (Custom Control, BILLDEPST, Sequence 1, Parmeter 1=Y). This can also be overridden on the current degree with the degree billing start date. This is useful in situations in where the student has been grandfathered into an earlier start date cohort for billing purposes. |
Min Credit For Fee | The minimum number of total credits a student must be enrolled in during the semester for the rule to apply. If the student’s total credits are equal to or greater than this value, the rule will apply. If you enter 0 a student’s credits won’t factor in determining if the student is billed. The rule won’t apply if the student is not enrolled and the rule is set as non-reversible. Not enrolled means zero total credits and zero enrollments. |
Max Credit for Fee | The maximum number of total credits a student can be enrolled in during the semester and still have the rule apply. If this field is left at 0 there is no maximum number of credits associated with the rule, therefore maximum credits won’t be a factor in determining if the student is billed. |
Full Time / Part Time | Not in use. |
Res Flag | Determines which categories of residents the rule applies to. If you leave blank, the rule applies to all students. A student’s residence status appears on their semester student session data. |
Blank Rule Code Testable | If this is not desired and should only apply to students who have no billing rule code defined, selecting Blank Rule Code Testable will make a blank rule code required for a student to be charged. |
Bill to Student Instead of Sponsor | This optional flag can be used if sponsored billing is set up to bill an assigned sponsor of a student, but a specific fee or charge needs to be billed to the student’s A/R Ledger directly instead of the sponsor. |
Rule Code | This field is used to specify a rule code which is associated with the charge. If the rule code is non blank, the student would have to have the associated rule defined in their Session Data Billing Rule Code in order to receive the charge. If the Rule Code in the Charge Group is blank, it is considered not defined and students who have a billing rule code on their session data can still be charged. If a billing rule code is selected, the rule applies only to students with that specific billing rule code set on their semester student session data. This logic applies to charges for tuition, housing (dorm and room) and meal plans. |
Process Type | Tells Campus Cafe how to execute the rule. See detailed information about process types. |
By Enrollment | Selecting this means the rule applies per a student’s individual course enrollment. For example, you may charge a $15 technology fee for each course a student is enrolled in. If you select this, in Per Credit Or Course you must select per credit or per course, or you must use the Process Type T, C or L. |
Frequency | Blank (semester): the charge is assessed for the semester. Annual: the charge is assessed once per year; a year is defined by the first four digits of the semester code, all semesters with the same four digits are treated as one year. For example, if you have an orientation fee an annual frequency and the student was billed in semester 201201, and the charge existed in your semester 201202 billing rules, the student wouldn’t be charged again. Once Per Lifetime: the charge is assessed once during the student's career; once a student has been billed an amount using the associated transaction code, the student won’t be charged in any subsequent semesters. |
Per Credit or Course | If you want the charge to apply for each course the student registers for, select per course. For example, if you charge a $15 technology fee for every course, you’d select per course. A student enrolled in 3 courses would be billed $45. If you want the charge to apply based on student’s credits, select per credit. For example, if you charge a $20 recreation fee for every 6 credits the student is enrolled in, you’d select per credit. A student enrolled in 12 credits would be billed $40. If the charge doesn’t relate to the number of courses or credits, select flat fee on all. |
Per Credit Over | This flag is used to indicate a charge that is to be applied to students based upon the number of credits they are enrolled in for the semester being billed. A U indicates a per credit charge that is to be applied up until a certain number of credits (min credit for fee field). An X indicates a per credit charge to be applied to any credits in excess of the min credit for fee. |
Course Count Min | A student enrolled a total number of courses equal to or less than the number in this field will not receive the charge. Blank or 0 means the number of courses the student’s registered for doesn’t matter. |
Course Count Max | A student enrolled a total number of courses equal to or greater than the number in this field will not receive the charge. Blank or 0 means the number of courses the student’s registered for doesn’t matter. |
Min Cred Per Enr | This field contains the minimum number of credits for a by enrollment charge to apply. Only by enrollment charges for courses with credits equal to or greater than this will be charged this fee. |
Max Cred Per Enr | This field contains the maximum number of credits for a by enrollment charge to apply. Only by enrollment charges for courses with credits less than or equal to this will be charged this fee. |
Not Reversible | This setting is used to specify a charge as not refundable, or to specify where refund rates are to be obtained. |
Continuing Ed Flag | Set to Y for the charge to apply only to students whose continuing ed code is set to Y on their Applicant Detail screen. |
For Freshmen | Select to apply the rule only to freshmen. Freshmen are students whose entering semester matches the semester billing rules semester and whose admission progress code equals P (deposited). |
Exclude Artificial Cred | Select so the rule doesn’t apply to students billed based artificial credits. Artificial credits are used when running group billing and billing unenrolled freshmen. |
Use Scheduled Hours | Select to indicate the Min Clock Hours applies to scheduled class hours instead of attended class hours. |
Min Clock Hours | If a number is entered, the rule will apply only to students who have attended at least this number of hours as indicated by clock hours recorded on course rosters or by hours entered on attendance history. Alternatively, if Use Scheduled Hours is checked and a number is entered, the rule will apply only to students who are scheduled to attend the entered number of hours as of when group billing is run. In both cases, attendance hours are calculated nightly or the hours may be recalculated on demand by navigating to Admin > Job Management and clicking Clock Hour Summary Processor. To use this feature, you must contact Campus Cafe support. |
Billing Site | The rule applies to students with this billing site on their semester student session data. |
Copy rules
You may bill the same charges every semester with only the amounts changing. For example, you always bill tuition but you’ve raised it 3%.
Copying the rules from semester to semester saves you time. Once copied, rules can be modified (e.g. if tuition increased), removed or otherwise changed.
Go to Financials > Billing Rules.
Click Copy Billing Charges.
In Copy From select the semester containing the existing rules.
In Copy To select the semester to duplicate the rules to.
To copy all rules, leave both Group boxes empty; to copy a single rule enter the billing charge group name in the Copy From Group box. Enter the name the rule should have in the new semester in the Copy To Group box
Click Submit.
