Purpose

To create refund records of students' available credit from fees, for transfer to an External Financial System for payment

SubSystem

Finance

This process initiates checking of available credit for all students fulfilling the parameter criteria. For selected students, their total fees history is examined. Any credit accrues to the person, irrespective of Course Attempt, Fee Period or specific Fee. (Note, however, that this process does not consider that part of a student's fees for which a sponsor is liable. Sponsor refunds must be initiated in FINF6420.)

A credit amount always relates to the currency in which the debt was paid. It is possible that a student may have more than one credit amount, if different currencies are involved.

Credit amounts are determined by an examination of –

• The student's balance in core Callista, arrived at by calculating total 'payment' transactions less total 'debt' transactions;
• And, where applicable, their finance interface (COFI) balance, arrived at by calculating total unapplied payments less pending refunds.

Where a credit amount for a particular currency exists for a student, a refund record is normally created. A second record is not created if a PENDING refund record already exists for the same student in the same currency. A second record can be created for additional credit when an approved record exists.

Parameter selection determines whether this process automatically approves these refunds (status equivalent to the System Refund Status APPROVED is recorded) or whether the records are created as pending refunds to be authorised in FINF6420. Pending refunds are set to a status equivalent to the System Status PENDING.

With automatic approval, the current date is written to the record as the date of authorisation.

Run Details

Method

The job can only run in batch mode, through the Job Control & Scheduling Subsystem.

It is anticipated that this facility will be used with a low ceiling on the refund amount (see refund Range Parameters, below). Parameter selection also allows accurate targeting of specific student groups. All students selected will have all available credit approved for refund, with no further System validation.

If student refunds are approved in error, these records can be individually cancelled in FINF6420, as long as they have not already been notified to an External Financial System (i.e. their status has changed to an equivalent of APPLIED).

After successfully running the job, the refund records created for students can be seen in the form FINF6420, Maintain Refunds.

In order to identify newly created records in that form, it is advisable to note the refund group number assigned to all records created by a single run of this job. This number is given in the JBS job log file (form JBSF5301, accessed via JBSF5300).

Note that refunds for sponsors can only be created in FINF6420.

The Process Student Refunds block contains:

Parameters Tab

• Refund Status
• Payment Type
• Authorising Person ID
• Refund Range Lower
• Refund Range Upper
• Financial Period
• Fee Assessment Period
• Fee Category
• Course Code
• Person ID
• Person ID Group
  

  Buttons

  • Find Person
  • Find Course

More Tab

• Currency
• Comments

Rule/Notes:

Refund records created in this job are available for review or authorisation in FINF6420, and, once authorised, for transfer to an External Financial System. 

Required Parameters

• Select a Refund Status equating to either the System Status PENDING or APPROVED. All refund records created will have their status set to the selected value.
• Select the Payment Type (default is CHEQUE).
• If an APPROVED status has been selected, an authorising Person ID is Mandatory. Although the ID defaults to that of the person initiating the job, it is not a specific requirement for pending refunds.

Optional Parameters

Wherever possible, use parameters to control the numbers of students examined. With no parameters set, every person on the database is checked.

Rules/Notes:

If a parameter label is in blue typeface, the parameter can either be typed in or selected from the list of values.

Entering a refund range means that only students with credit within the range will be selected for a refund. This parameter might usefully be set for runs granting automatic approval, with the Currency also specified. One or both of a Lower and Upper limit (inclusive) may be set

Selecting any of the Financial Period, Fee Assessment Period, Fee Category and/or Course Code will narrow the range of students examined for potential refunds. However, for those students with Fee Assessment activity in the periods selected, or Enrolled in the category and/or course selected, any refund amount will be calculated on their Overall Credit, not just the credit earned in the period or Enrolment selected

If both a financial and Fee Period are selected, the Fee Period must be a subordinate of the Financial Period.

Enter a Person ID group to limit potential refund recipients to known students. This is a recommended option when granting automatic refund approval. Student candidates for refund can be constituted as members of a specific group using the form IDGF1100.

Selecting a Currency Code restricts refund recipients to those with credit in the specified currency. Use this parameter with a Refund range to ensure that a single currency is being targeted by the range. The currency of the available credit is determined by the currency of the amount overpaid

Any comments relating to the run can be recorded