Purpose

To specify the Date or Dates at which particular types of Encumbrance will apply if a Fee is unpaid

SubSystem

Finance

An introduction to setting up and managing Encumbrances and their effects is found in the section on Encumbrances in the Enrolments Subsystem. The place of Encumbrances in the general processing cycle is outlined in Understanding Student Finance. Schedules, of which the Fee Encumbrance form is one, are introduced in the Specialist Overview.

Encumbrance Schedules come into effect when the Process Overdue Payment Penalties job (FINJ6230) determines that a student has an unpaid debt for a fee after a Payment Due Date. In this situation, the job consults the Encumbrance Schedule to discover which Encumbrance should apply. It then creates a 'Pending Fee Encumbrance' record which is confirmed or cancelled by a Fees Administrator in the form Authorise Fee Encumbrances (FINF6311).

Schedule Entries

An Encumbrance Schedule consists of one or more records. Where there is more than one, the records can be set up to distinguish between:

• Different dates, after which the accumulated Encumbrance Effects up to that point will apply (effects of each succeeding entry will normally become more severe) and/or
• Different Encumbrances that can apply depending on the amount still to be paid at a single date.

Setting Up Entries

Entries can represent dates in one of three ways:

• With 'Fixed Dates' only. These are selected from instances of one or more Date Aliases which must already have been defined in the Calendar Subsystem
• As Offsets signifying a number of days after the Payment Due Date in a student's individual Payment Schedule (these can be seen in the Maintain Person Payment Schedules form, FINF3800)
• With Fixed Dates and Offsets used in combination in one entry. The recommendation in this case is that the Date Alias Instances follow those in the payment schedule for the corresponding Fee Liability, with an offset of one or more days.

The applicable Encumbrance is decided by comparing the entries in the schedule against the effective Run Date of the processing job, FINJ6230.

Levels and Overrides

Encumbrance Schedules can be specified at any of the three levels, with implications as discussed in the Levels section of Special Topics. But they can only be at two levels concurrently, as follows:

• At FTCI Level and FCCI Level concurrently, in which case the schedule at the FTCI Level overrides that at the FCCI Level for the corresponding fee only
• At FCCI Level and FCFL Level concurrently, in which case the schedule at the FCFL Level overrides that at the FCCI Level for the corresponding fee only.

In both these cases, fees without schedules at either FTCI or FCFL Level will have Encumbrances applied according to the Category Schedule at FCCI Level, even if they are in a group with other fees where an Override applies. However, note the important exception described under WARNING for Student Contribution Amount and Institution Fees below.

Where a fee is not covered by a schedule at any level, Encumbrance effects do not apply.

Student Contribution Amount and Institution Fees

For fees with a System Fee Type of COMSUPPORT (HECS) or a System Fee Trigger Category of INSTITUTN, Encumbrance Schedules must be at FTCI Level.

WARNING. For these two cases, the Fee Assessment routine takes no account of schedules at any other level. Lack of a schedule at the FTCI Level is taken to mean that no schedule exists, and therefore that no Encumbrance applies. This is so even where a category which includes the corresponding fees as liabilities has a schedule attached.

Level access

The form is accessed:

• At FTCI Level through (FINF2100), via the Fee Type Calendars button (bottom right) and then the Fee Encumbrance button (top button, bottom right)
• At FCCI Level through (FINF2800), via the Fee Encumbrances button (bottom button, 2nd from right)
• At FCFL Level through (FINF2800), via the Fee Liabilities button (bottom right) and then the Fee Encumbrances button (or FTCI Fee Encumbrance button) (bottom button, 2nd row from right).

The FTCI Fee Encumbrance button is displayed when a schedule exists at FTCI Level. The form can still be accessed from FCFL Level, but only to display the existing FTCI schedule.

Scenario

A payment of $300 is due on the 11/6/2005 and has an unpaid amount of $175.
Effective Run Date of the Process Overdue Payment Penalties job, FINJ6230 is 22/6/2005.

	Date Alias Instance	Offset Days (days overdue)	Minimum Overdue %	Minimum Overdue Amount	Encumbrance Type
1st entry		5		100	FEE-ENC1
2nd entry		10	50		FEE-ENC2
3rd entry		15		75	FEE-ENC3

The debt is 11 days overdue at the Effective Run Date, so the routine enters the schedule at the second entry. For both the first and second entry, the conditions apply (1^st entry, the debt is over $100; 2^nd entry, the debt is over 50%), so both FEE-ENC1 and FEE-ENC2 are created as pending Fee Encumbrances. In this situation the more severe of the two pending Fee Encumbrances would normally be authorised in FINF6311, and the other one cancelled.

If the debt had been assessed at $100 and the unpaid amount had been $55, only FEE-ENC2 would apply, since the outstanding amount would not meet the condition set in the first entry.

If the effective run date had been 14/6/2005, no Encumbrances would apply since this is less than 5 days after the Due Date, and so no entries would take effect.

The Fee Calendar Instance block contains:

• Calendar Type
• Start Date
• End Date
• Fee Type
• Fee Category
• Currency

The Fee Encumbrance block contains:

• Date Alias
• Date Value
• Offset Days
• Minimum Overdue %
• Minimum Overdue Amount
• Encumbrance Type
• Discontinue Enrolment check box
• Write Off Bad Debt check box

  Button

• Back

Rule/Notes:

The Fee Calendar Instances block identifies the Fee Period and level for which the schedule is relevant. For a schedule at FTCI Level, the Fee Category is blank. At FCCI Level, the Fee Type is blank. At FCFL Level, there are entries in both Fee Type and Fee Category fields.

The Currency is displayed if available to the calling form.

Use the Fee Encumbrance block to record one or more entries representing dates after which the corresponding pending Encumbrance applies.

Records can be entered as:

• All based on Date Aliases, with or without Offsets, or
• All based on Offset days from a date shown in the Person Payment Schedule (FINF3800), with no Date Aliases.

For each entry an amount, below which an Encumbrance will not apply for an overdue payment, can be specified as either:

• A proportion of the amount due using the Minimum Overdue Percentage, or
• A fixed amount, using the Minimum Overdue Amount field.

Alternatively, the amount fields can be left blank. An Encumbrance will then apply to any amount overdue.

Some Encumbrance effects require that a student's Enrolment is discontinued - these can be seen in the list of all Encumbrance Effects. For the appropriate Encumbrances, set the Discontinue Enrolment check box here, in order to alert staff authorising Encumbrances in FINF6311 that this is so.

The Write Off Bad Debt check box is provided in preparation for future functionality.

Rules/Notes:

Schedules for fees with a System Fee Type of 'COMSUPPORT' (HECS) or a System Fee Trigger Category of 'INSTITUTN' must be specified at FTCI Level.

A Date Alias Instance can be used more than once, as long as different Overdue Percentages or Amounts are given. This allows Encumbrances of different severity to be indicated for the same date, depending on the sum overdue.

Warning 'lamps' advising that exceptions exist at another level are shown at FCCI Level if, for any fee in the category:

• A schedule exists at any other level, overriding the FCCI schedule for that fee
• A Student Contribution Amount or Institution Fee is included in the category (see Student Contribution Amount and Institution Fees above)