1. Using Student Management
  2. Student Credits

Student Credits

Credits are payments that are used to offset charges on student accounts. You can export and import credits from a source to a target environment.

Creating and posting credits to student accounts is pivotal for institutions that award external funds. There are often federal, state, or institutional guidelines that determine which type of fees certain types of financial aid can apply to. You can set up credit using various combinations of charge priority mapping and credit priority. You can configure mappings that apply credits to outstanding charges in different ways. For example, you can create a mapping that pays only a specific charge. The calculation and posting process uses the charge priority mapping and credit priority to determine how to apply the credit.

External Fund

External fund credits aren't tied to a specific calculation criteria. You determine the amount that you want to post to a student account.

For example, you could have two students who are eligible for a state scholarship. One is awarded US$250 and the other US$1,000. You can post an external fund credit for each student and specify the exact amount of the award.

Receipt Method

Receipt method credits are payment credits. They are a type of student payment that enables you to group various receipt methods in the same credit. The receipt methods adhere to the same payment rules and priority that's defined in the charge priority mapping you associate to the credit.

Here are a few scenarios illustrating the results that you might see depending on the priority you use.

  • Scenario 1: You created two student credits (SC1 and SC2) with different priorities: SC1 has priority "10" and SC2 has priority "50." This means that SC1 has a higher priority than SC2. You also configured SC1 and SC2 to use the same receipt method (RM1).

    You can use any of these credits to pay off the same fee.

    Now we have a student, John, and there's a charge (C1) in John's account.

    When you configured SC1 and SC2, the charge priority mapping you associated with each credit lets you use either one to pay off C1. Since both credits can be used to pay off C1, the payment application process will look at the priority you set for each credit. In this example, SC1 has a higher priority than SC2, so the process will use the credit SC1 to pay off C1.

  • Scenario 2: You created two student credits with the same priority. You configured them such that both credits can be used to pay off the same fees. In this scenario, the payment application process will choose a credit according to the alphabetic order of the credit name.

Sponsorship

A sponsorship credit is used in a sponsorship agreement and is unique to the agreement. This means you can associate this type of credit only once to an agreement. Sponsorship credits use specific criteria when applying payments and is closely tied to course enrollment.

Waiver

Waivers provide a convenient, consistent, and easily maintainable way of waiving or reducing tuition or fees. You can configure waivers to apply to specific academic periods, curriculum, or both. Waivers or reductions can be by a flat amount, a percentage of the fees, or an amount per unit.

Currently, waivers are applicable only to academic period fees, academic period course fees, or academic period scheduled course fees.

Credit Setup Scenarios

These scenarios illustrate how you could set up a credit.

Set Up a Credit for Tuition Only

Suppose you want to set up a credit that pays only tuition fees. To do so, you would create an external fund credit that pays only tuition.

First, on the Manage Fee Groups page, create a fee group—let's call it "Tuition-Only Fee Group." To this fee group, assign tuition charges.

Next, create a charge priority mapping using "Tuition-Only Fee Group."

After that, on the Manage Student Credits page, create the external fund credit, then select the charge priority mapping "Tuition-Only Fee Group."

You might also want to assign a credit priority. When you use this credit and post it to a student's account, the process follows the mapping rule and credit priority. Then the process applies the credit only to the tuition charges that are present in the fee group.

Set Up a Credit That Applies to Any Charge

What about if you want a credit that you can apply to any charge? You would create an external fund credit that uses a charge priority mapping that's set up to pay all charges.