The Payment button accesses the  Electronic Payment facility to allow payment by credit card.

 

Electronic Payments Application

The Electronics Payment Application (E-PAY) allows a student to initiate on-line payment of fees by credit card. This functionality relies on the existence of an interface to a bank’s ‘hosted payments’ service, and on the use of Callista Open Finance Interface (COFI), or an equivalent interface between the institution’s finance system and Callista.

Processing Outline

The application can be accessed directly from links in Callista Connect web pages. Alternatively, access is from a button in the Outstanding Balance Inquiry Application. 

In the Electronic Payment page, the student enters the amount they wish to pay, submits the request and is presented with a second page requesting confirmation. If not confirmed, the student is returned to the original page where the amount can be amended and the request re-submitted.

When access is via the Outstanding Balance Inquiry Application, the total amount owing is carried forward into the Electronic Payment page and shown as the default for payment. The student can choose to pay this amount, or enter a different amount before submitting the request.

Once the intended payment is confirmed, the student is transferred to the ‘hosted payments’ site of the institution’s bank to enter credit card details and initiate processing of the payment by the bank.

Information about the success or failure of this operation is returned for display to the user in the Electronic Payment page of Callista Connect, together with details of the transaction. Note that the Invoice Number serves as student identification, and is derived from an Alternate Person ID (refer to Maintain Alternate Person Identifiers form ENRF3010).

 

The payment is only shown in the Payment Received Inquiry Application once the institution has received notification of payment from the bank and  the details have been transferred to Callista through the Callista Open Finance Interface (COFI).

 

 

Person Payments Received Inquiry Application

The Person Payments Received Inquiry Application displays details of payment/s received by a student including date of transaction, reference code, the amount credited and the balance of the student's account. The details of all fees for a student are also displayed. Payments are matched against an amount for a fee type. Refunds are also displayed. If no payment is received, a warning explaining this fact is displayed.

Note: Payments made by sponsors are not displayed.

The Payments Received Inquiry Application is accessed from links in Callista Connect web pages.

This application triggers the Online Fee Assessment process. 

The link on: 

• The Fee Period accesses the Fee Period Inquiry Application (CAL-TYPE) to display the calendar instance details for the selected  fee period.
• Any Fee Type accesses the Fee Type Inquiry Application (FEE-TYPE) to display the explanation for the selected  fee type. 
• Any amount accesses the Fee Type Details Application (FEETYP-DTL) to display the financial details in the context of the selected fee type and  fee period.

 

Online Fee Assessment Process

The Online Fee Assessment process is triggered automatically whenever a user attempts to access the Outstanding Balance Inquiry or the Payments Received Inquiry Application providing a valid Cohort Process Window exists. This functionality is only available if the Callista Open Finance Interface (COFI) is installed. 

The process runs in three stages: 

Stage 1 - Fee Assessment

This part of the process checks if there are any unprocessed ToDo entries for the student of type FEE_RECALC. If ToDo entries exist it performs a fee assessment.  Note that FEE_RECALC entries are created whenever a course or student unit attempt is created or changed for a student. For example, if an additional unit is added or discontinued, change to a course location etc.

 Stage 2 - Person Payment Schedule

A person payment schedule is created if a student's individual person payment schedule does not exist. If a person payment schedule exists and fee types are without notification dates then the person payment schedule is amended.

Stage 3 - Invoices and Payment Matching

An invoice is created if a student has not had an invoice created previously or if the Person Payment Schedule changes. The process creates ToDo entries of the type INT_FININV.  If payments have been received then this process matches any non-matched payments made by the student. 

Information is also retrieved from the following forms: Student Course Fee Inquiry FINF9100, Direct Assignment of Sponsorships FINF4300 and Maintain Person Payment Schedules FINF3800.

The fee assessment process will not run for unconfirmed student course attempts; for those without an associated fee category; or, if a valid Cohort Process Window does not exist. 

See also
Understanding Student Finance  
COFI documentation 
Connect Technical Documentation 

 

Restricting Access to Finance Details

A Cohort Process Window may be created to restrict access to financial details.  A Cohort Process Window created for the process type FIN-INQ defines the type of students that can access the Fee Type Details, Outstanding Balance Inquiry (OUTSTND-BAL) or Payment Received Inquiry (PYMNT-RECV) Applications and when access is allowed. If no FIN-INQ Cohort Process Window exists, access to these applications is unrestricted. 

The Fee Assessment process may be restricted from running by creating a Cohort Process Window.  A Cohort Process Window created for the process type SSF-FEEASS defines the type of students that can access the Fee Assessment process via the Outstanding Balance Inquiry or Payment Received Inquiry Applications and when access is allowed. 

A restrictive cohort may be created to allow a fee assessment to be run only for a valid fee category or course during a particular period of time. 

If no SSF-FEEASS Cohort Process Window exists, the fee assessment process is run for all eligible fee assessable courses for the user whenever the OUTSTND-BAL or PYMNT-RECV Applications are accessed. 

If a Cohort Process Window restricts the running of the fee assessment process and access to OUTSTND-BAL or PYMNT-RECV is unrestricted then the student's financial details will appear; however they may not be updated.  For example, this may occur when an institution requires that fee assessments are not performed over the web. Instead the institution may wish to perform fee assessment, creation of person payment schedules and invoices via corresponding batch jobs.

See also Understanding Cohort Process Windows for more information on setting up Cohort Process Windows.

 

Last Modified on 4 September, 2003