The Book Bag : Charges

Calculating Total Billing for the Upcoming School Year

Katie Infinger — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 13:36:00 GMT

Here's a post from Blackbaud Senior Educational Consultant Chuck Hays.

Did you know there's an easy way to calculate totals for next year's billing? Have you been using the Projected Charges Report to its full advantage? (Reports -> Analysis Reports -> Projected Charges Report). This fantastic tool can give you totals by product and billing item, breakdowns by grade or month, and show student detail! Remember, you're not limited to one report parameter; create as many as you need to satisfy your reporting requirements.

The Projected Charges Report can be used before, during, and after billing for next year. If you added bill codes to student records, but you haven't added billing schedules for next year, the report can still calculate what will be billed! If you've already added billing schedules but haven't generated charges, the report can calculate financial aid and advance deposits as well. In other words, you don't need to generate the charges and credits in order to have accurate totals for next year's billing.

Here's an overview of key settings in the report.

Selecting the billing time frame and student grade levels:
- On the General tab, use the Scheduled dates to select the correct billing cycle or data range for the final charges and credits.
- If you use grade-based billing, select the option to use next year's grade level if you haven't promoted the students or the "as of" date for the grade level if you use Registrar's Office.
Selecting summary totals or student detail:
- On the Format tab, Detail section, use the "Show records..." checkbox to add student detail.
- Also in this section, you can elect to use a breakdown by grade or month.
Grouping the report:
- On the Sort tab, you can group the report by Billing Item Type by adding the Break checkbox.
- Then a second level sort by Billing Item ID.

Student Billing State-of-Mind: Where's My Billing Item?

Jennifer Maroney — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 14:11:00 GMT

Here's the scenario: You have a list of charges or financial aid to enter. You're a pro at this process so you jump right in, but the Item/Description drop-down is blank or does not show the billing item. What do you do now? Well, there are many reasons why a billing item or fee may not be available including:

The billing item or fee is not valid for the transaction date. Only billing items set to be used during the transaction date are included in the drop-down list.
The billing item is marked as inactive.
The billing item type is different than the transaction type.

Ok, so now you know why the items can go missing, what do you? Follow these steps which take you through fixing the most common causes of missing items.

In Configuration, click Products and Billing Items.
Open the billing item that was not included in the drop-down list.
Verify the transaction date is within the Item can only be used from date range fields. If the date does not fall within the date range, create a new fee for the appropriate date range.
Verify the billing item's status is Active.
If adding a Fee Schedule and the fee was created as a manual fee, re-enter the fee in Configuration as an Automatic Item.

Talk to you soon!

Tips from a Troubleshooter: Generate Transactions Automatically

Sean Long — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 18:55:00 GMT

In Customer Support, I've learned once June rolls around, we start seeing more questions around one specific process - Generating Transactions Automatically. Here's a break down of the Generate Transactions Automatically screen:

This screen is divided into two main sections: The criteria and the Billing Schedule section. The criteria establish when you are generating transactions and what sort of transactions you are generating. In the Generate drop-down, there are several choices: Automatic Billing Schedules and Scheduled Charges/Credits, Automatic Billing Schedules Only, and Scheduled Charges/Credits Only. It's important to understand them.

Automatic Billing Schedules are sets of transactions that will appear on the Activity tab during the next year. A good example of this schedule type is a Tuition Payment Plan, when a parent might want to spread out payments over a long period of time. Scheduled Charges/Credits Only tells the system to read from the established Billing Schedules.

The bottom section is only available when you create Automatic Billing Schedules, as it simply defines what the Billing Schedule item, including the schedule's Transaction Date, and whether or not items without bill codes should be included.

Here are some troubleshooting tips:

Filters, they're your friends - Generate Transactions Automatically is a massive process. Whether you are generating transactions for the entire year in July or month-to-month, filter them into manageable groups. Use grade levels (if you're student-centric) or portions of the alphabet. This keeps the processing time short, and you'll be able to catch mistakes easier because you're not looking at large groups of records.
Pre-Generate first -It's very tempting to skip this if you're confident, but personally, I'd take a few extra minutes reviewing a Pre-Generation report rather than spend hours correcting records.
Know your options - If you're running Generate Transactions Automatically at the beginning of the fiscal year for all records and transactions, include Automatic Billing Schedules. If these schedules are already on the records, why make the system work harder (and longer) than it needs to? Run it for Scheduled Charges/Credits only and you'll save some processing time!
Save parameters - Once you invest the time in setting up the perfect monthly Generate Transactions Automatically parameter, save it! You can't select it again in Student Billing Processing, but you can select it any other way (for instance, through Administration > Generate Transactions Automatically).
Receive an exception? Check Knowledgebase - If you get an exception or other message you don't understand while running this process, search Knowledgebase. There are numerous solutions, including How To Troubleshoot Generate Transactions Automatically, so check it out!

I hope these tips help! Have any tips to share regarding this? Leave a comment or post on our Forums!

Student Billing State-of-Mind: Need to Add Billing Items?

Jennifer Maroney — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 15:10:00 GMT

Here is a quickie but goodie for new users and a reminder for you seasoned users. Throughout the school year new fees or charges are continually popping up. Whether it is for a field trip, class party, or new textbooks the process to create the billing item is the same. Here's how:

In Configuration or Records, select Products and Billing Items.
Select File, New, and select the appropriate billing item from the menu bar.
On the New [item type] screen, enter the item ID and description.
Select a Date option from the drop-down list, if applicable. The Date options vary depending on the item type selected.
Enter the remaining appropriate information. The available fields change depending on the billing item you are creating.
Save and close the record.

Now you are ready to add the billing item to records. You can either add them manually or add the transactions to a group.

Remember these blogs are for you. Is there a question you would like answered or a topic you would like to know more about? Let me know by leaving a comment. Talk to you soon!

Student Billing State-of-Mind: Invoices or Charges Missing When Entering Payments?

Jennifer Maroney — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 14:09:00 GMT

Let me set the stage. You've entered 665 payments and your last payment will not automatically apply. You've been reading Student Billing Statement , so you know how to manually apply it; however, the Student Billing Detail tab is blank. Now what? First off, dismiss any superstitions about the payment, most likely the payment owner is just not responsible for the charge. It's an easy fix, just follow these steps:

Open the Payment and select the Student Billing Detail tab.
Click Add/Edit Applications.
Click Select Additional Charges or Invoices.
Search for charge and click Open.
Mark the Apply? checkbox.
Click Save Applications and then Save and Close.

If the invoice or charge still does not appear in Select Additional Charges or Invoices, try running the SB Correct Balances utility.

Talk to you soon!

Student Billing State-of-Mind Time Saver: Enter Charges and Payments Fast!er

Jennifer Maroney — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 12:35:00 GMT

I wanted to share with you a little known, and extremely under utilized, feature in Student Billing that can save you hours of charge and payment data entry time. It's called Fast!. Using Fast! allows you to quickly enter a large number of charges or payments at one time using a customized datasheet, instead of opening each record individually. When you process the datasheet, Fast! automatically creates the group of new records.

The first thing you need to do is create the Fast! datasheet. Once the datasheet is created, it can be used over and over again to enter charges or payments. Follow these steps:

In Fast!, click New SB Charge or New SB Payment.
Enter a name and description.
In the Default set field, click the binoculars to select a saved or create a new default set (BB106328).
In the list of available fields, highlight the fields to include in the datasheet and click Select.
Notes:
- Fields appear in the datasheet columns in the order in which you select them. I recommend prioritizing the field order to speed data entry. For example, put rarely used fields near the end of the datasheet.
- If you add a field that causes other fields to become required, the program automatically adds the additional required fields.
Once all fields are selected, click:
- Save and Close to save the datasheet and return to the Fast! page.
- Save and New to save and close the datasheet and open a new one.
- Datasheet View to save the datasheet and begin entering charges or payments.

Once you create and save the Fast! datasheet, it's time to get to the data entry. Here's how:

In Fast!, open the datasheet, and click Datasheet View.
Notes:
- If you entered a default set, the values appear in the default row (D). If you did not assign a default set, click the binoculars to select a saved or create a new default set.
- Values selected to display in the default row will default based on the default auto-fill setting (BB351843).
Click Add Records By Query in the dark gray bar to automatically load a group of records into the datasheet, if appropriate.
Enter the appropriate data and press Tab to move through fields.
Click Save and then Commit Records to create the group of records.

For more information about Fast!, check out the Fast! Guide.

Enjoy your new found time . Talk to you soon!

Student Billing State-of-Mind: Incorrect Charges or Credits?

Jennifer Maroney — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:00:00 GMT

Here's a possible scenario: You just finished running statements and realized that there are charges on the wrong records. Now what? Well, I am glad to let you know that there is an easy fix for whatever your incorrect charge or credit scenario. All you need to do is delete the charge from the incorrect record and add it to the correct record if appropriate; this process also works for credits. To delete the incorrect charges or credits:

Open the Student record and select the Activity tab.
Select Activity from the View drop-down menu.
Highlight the charge and click Delete on the action bar.

If the charge or credit has been posted, you will be prompted to enter the date for reversing entries to post to General Ledger.

Talk to you soon!