Student Accounting Workshop June 28 – 30, 2010

Day 3

Student Accounting Workshop

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Table of Contents 1. Incoming Payments, e.g. Cash Desk ...................................................................................................... 3

2. Processing Incoming Payment “On Account” and Impact on Account Display .................................... 7

Processing incoming payment “Immediate Clearing” and Impact on Account Display ....................... 8

3. Invoicing .............................................................................................................................................. 10

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1. Incoming Payments, e.g. Cash Desk Depending on the size of the institution and country-specific accounting rules, incoming payments can be posted to one GL Account or can be segregated by payment method. The approach might be useful if the institution has different valuation dates or uses SAP Treasury Management.

Scenario: The institution accepts cash payments but also allows students or sponsors to pay by check or credit cards. Cash is immediately available to the institution while it may an average of 3 days to clear a check or 1 day to clear the credit card payment depending if authorization is done in real-time. The institution may also want to collect statistics on how students pay.

Realization: Based on the institution’s requirements, define the type of accepted payment cards, document types with appropriate ranges and country-specific payment methods. Cross-Application Components > Payment Cards > Basic Settings > Assign Checking Rule

Maintain Payment Card Type

Note IMG view: Make Security Settings for Payment Cards *** Please consider encryption of card data ***

These are supplied by SAP but you can write institutional specific ones, too.

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Financial Accounting > Contract Accounts Receivable and Payable > Basic Functions > Postings and Documents > Document > Maintain Document Assignments>Document Types

Financial Accounting > Contract Accounts Receivable and Payable > Business Transactions > Payments > Incoming/Outgoing Payment Creation > Define Payment Methods

Example: Details for Payment Method 1.

Assign payment methods to the company code: Define Specifications for Paying Company Code

The master data required for the BP depends on the institution’s requirements. If a student pays by cash, the institution has the money. However, with an incoming check, you want to have the BP’s address on file in case the check is returned due to insufficient funds. If the institution works with bank collections then Bank Details are required, etc.

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When using cards, also configure relevant accounting information: Payment Cards > Define Accounts for Payment Card Institute

Finally, configure the Cash Desk in: Contract Accounting > Business Transactions > Payments > Processing Incoming and Outgoing Payments > Cash Desk/Cash Journal Maintain Specifications for Cash Desk/Cash Journal

Define Cash Desk Clearing Accounts

Define Document Type for Payment Category

This is just an example. Depending on how card payments are settled, interim GLs might be useful. When accepting payment cards at cash desk and biller direct, it might be useful to code FICA event 6130 to reassign the cash desk clearing account.

Activating Cash Journal provides more controls and reporting.

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Define Master Data for Cash Journal

Cash Journal: Define Accts for Exp./Rev. Diffs from Cash Payments

Cash Journal: Specifications for Posting Cash Desk Deposits and Withdrawals

Define Bank Clearing Accounts for Payment

Lots

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2. Processing Incoming Payment “On Account” and Impact on Account

Display SAP allows an institution to post incoming payments “on account” without clearing any open items. Some institutions prefer that because it speeds up the process for the cashiers and provides an explicit record of the payment, especially, when combined with coding appropriate FICA events. This is also useful when your open items are a mix of tuition related charges and other charges, e.g. Parking Tickets, which are unrelated to a specific academic term. Accepting a cash payment “on account”, the cashier needs to enter only the BP number and amount and click on icon “Post”.

The account display below shows 3 “on account” payments:

Note: If the institution accepts incoming payments in anticipation of future charges, i.e. an overpayment, then add a payment lock otherwise, the incoming payment may be refunded in the next outgoing payment run.

The above process requires that the institution regularly executes the Automatic Clearing. Normally, this is needed anyway to clear financial aid credits or tuition refunds. Account Balance Display

With appropriate configuration in “Open Item Management” the cashier doesn’t need to enter anything here.

A meaningful text can be shown here which facilitates answering student inquiries

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Processing incoming payment “Immediate Clearing” and Impact on Account Display

In the following example, a $10 cash payment is processed using the icon “Post Online”

The system presents the open items of $3,094.00:

Despite clearing, it is easy to see the incoming payments.

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The payment amount is immediately applied to the open item. Without drilling down to the document it is not immediately apparent what happened. Many end-users do not like drilling down.

Since the student only makes a partial payment the cashier has to adjust the “Cross Clearing” field before saving.

This is the $10 cash payment

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3. Invoicing

Scenario The institution wishes to send an invoice to the student. The invoice can be printed or sent as an e-mail attachment. SAP provides two sample forms based on Correspondence Type P004:

ZIS_HER_CM_INVOICE (Smartform) (Form Class: FMCA_INVOICE) ZISHERCM_SAMPLE_STUDENT_BILL (Adobe)

Example: This student was charged for a Program and a Meal Plan

Using the SAP supplied sample SmartForm, the invoice looks like this:

The correspondence tab of the Student File is also updated:

This is just an example. Some institutions prefer to use the Account Statement (Correspondence Type 0002) to show opening and closing balances.

Instead of showing the “Due Date”, the institution may want to show the Posting Date, especially, when billing monthly. In this case, you may want to change this text as follows: Please pay the total amount by July 15, 2010 to avoid late payment charges.

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The student’s Contract Account has to contain the appropriate parameters:

Configuration: *** there is not very much configuration required: Contract Accounts Receivable and Payable > Business Transactions > Invoicing Maintain Number Ranges for Invoice Creation (assuming you want invoice numbers)

Define Invoice Types

Note: For Sponsor Billing, the Correspondence Type can be used with a different Application Form. Each open item is associated with a beneficiary who could be identified on the invoice.

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4. Example Questions from Implementation Projects Scenario 1 A Contract Account has two open items with different due dates that are going to be included in the same invoice in Transaction FMCAM2. Is it possible to align the due dates of these open items while you run the program? Is there any Event available for this? Or, alternatively, to assign a deferral date that would align the date that the payment is expected for both open items?

Answer You can assign a deferral date to an open item as a manual process. In the Account Balance display, use the menu path: Environment>Document>Change

Scenario 2 How can I correct an invoice for a student?

Answer One place when you can correct an invoice is in the fee calculation process, when you generate the invoices one by one. There is a place where a manual adjustment may be made. That will generate another document if the adjustment changes the amount of the invoice.

Scenario 3 Can I show other charges and/or instalments on invoices generated through Transaction FMCAM2?

Answer The invoicing function is used to inform students of all receivables for which they are liable. All open items on the Contract Account will be included in the invoice including other charges and installments.

Scenario 4 Is it possible to modify the due date of the documents to be included in an invoice with Transaction FMCAM2? Is there an Event that can be used for this?

Answer The “Due Date” of a document can be changed within the Account Balance display. Select the relevant document and use the menu path: Environment>Document>Change