This process updates the database

Subsystem

Student Finance

Purpose

To create an individual payment schedule for a newly assessed student or amend a student's existing schedule after reassessment

Normally Run By

A fees specialist

Anticipated Frequency

Weekly during the fee assessment cycle

Update Process(es)

Creates/updates person payment schedules

Parameter Sample

Related/Dependent Jobs

May be run as a dependent job of the fee assessment routine (FINJ3500 or FINJ3001)

Update Process

This process accesses new transaction records created by the fee assessment routine.

• Where the transaction represents an initial fee assessment for a student, this process creates one or more 'person payment schedule' records for each assessed fee for which the student is liable. This personal schedule for a fee liability includes:

o        one or more payment dates for each fee type, based on the 'template' payment schedule for the fee type recorded in the form Define Payment Schedule, FINF2860. Dates based on offsets in the 'template' schedule are calculated from the notification date given as a parameter in this job

• the relevant amounts due at each date, taking into account discount information where applicable, and recording any sponsored amounts.

o                                Where the transaction represents an adjustment to a student's debt for a fee, the process amends the relevant amounts in the student's personal schedule.

• Assessment transactions accessed by the process are updated to include the notification date (see Job Parameters, below). In future runs of the job, transactions with a notification date are ignored.
• The records created and maintained by this process

• can be seen in the form, Maintain Person Payment Schedules (FINF3800)
• serve as input to the invoicing extracts (Statement of Account FINJ6120, Reminder Notice FINJ6121, Sponsor Summary Statement FINJ6130).

Run Details

Method

This job can only run in batch mode, through the Job Control & Scheduling subsystem.

It can be set up to run as a dependent job of the fee assessment routine either when run via FINJ3500 or FINJ3001.

Notable effects

• Since this process creates records with actual dates for payment, it is important that statements containing these dates should be created and sent to students and sponsors as soon as possible after it runs.

If there is a delay between running this job and creating or posting statements, a further job, Add Grace Period to Person Payment Schedules (FINJ6112) enables payment dates to be extended by a set number of days.

• For details in the Maintain Person Payment Schedule form (FINF3800) to remain up-to-date, this process needs to run frequently. However, be aware of the proviso about statements, as above.
• Entries shown in FINF3800 can be edited. However, the current job cannot then further amend these particular records.

Job Parameters

The job must be run for each fee period in which it is required to create or modify person payment schedules. Select the period from the list of active fee assessment periods presented in the first parameter.

The next three parameters control the range of students for whom schedules are created or updated. The % symbol indicates that all values should be included for that parameter.

• Enter a person ID if the job is to be run to create or update a single student's schedule.
• Select or type in a fee type and/or fee category to create/update schedules only for those students liable for a particular fee and/or those included in a particular category.

The next three parameters specify data required for processing.

Where offsets are used in the 'template' payment schedule, actual dates for payment are calculated from the notification date.

• Record either a notification date or a number of days to notification. The first sets an absolute date, while the second specifies the number of days to add to the run date in order to arrive at the notification date.
• When person payment schedules are created by this job, some calculated payment dates may not be business days. By setting the Schedule Next Business Day to Y, these payment dates are adjusted to fall on the next business day.

The final two parameters enable person payment schedules (PPS) to be initialised for increased or decreased debt or both.

Initialise Schedules on Increase in Debt

Set this parameter to N when the Notification Date is altered and an extra PPS entry for a particular fee type is required in the PPS to indicate an increase in debt.

Set this parameter to Y to initialise the PPS and create a new PPS entry for a particular fee type that includes the increase in debt. The original PPS entry for this fee type is then logically deleted. The result is a single PPS entry for this fee type that includes the debt increase.

If the Notification Date is unchanged and this parameter is set to Y a new single entry is created that includes the increased debt amount. The original PPS entry for this fee type is logically deleted. If the parameter is set to N, the relevant PPS amounts are updated.

Initialise Schedules on Decrease in Debt

Set this parameter to N to decrease the assessed amount of the last entry in a set of PPS entries for a particular fee type. Multiple PPS entries are set up in the payment schedule template (FINF2860). The ratio originally defined in the payment schedule template between each entry in the set is not maintained.

Set this parameter to Y to initialise the PPS and proportionally decrease the assessed amount of each entry of a multiple PPS entry set. The ratio originally defined in the payment schedule template between each entry in the set is maintained.

Exceptions:

• A HECS fee type debt is always represented as a single entry in the PPS. Therefore, the PPS will always be initialised for a change in the HECS debt regardless of the settings of these parameters. A new PPS entry is created that includes the increase or decrease in the HECS debt and the original HECS entry is deleted.
• If a manual edit has been made to an entry in a Person Payment Schedule in FINF3800 this entry will not be updated when this job is run. Any new entries are entered according to the original payment schedule template date. For decreases in debt this job will logically delete entries even if manually edited to maintain the level of debt. The latest entry will be deleted first