Purpose

To assess or reassess the Fees (and where applicable, tax) due from students or potential students for a particular Fee Period

SubSystem

Finance

Introduction

This function, and all other processes that call the Fee Assessment process (i.e. E-SOA, Outstanding Balance, etc), consider the Service Codes in Maintain Services (ENRF01Y0) related to the Fee Type Calendar Instance (FTCI) in Maintain Fee Types (FINF2100) and the Responses linked with the Fee Assessment Rates (FINF2853).

Update Process

This section gives a brief outline, in sequence, of the main processing involved in Fee Assessment as an aid to reading the Fee Trace Report.

It assumes a good understanding both of the general approach taken in the Subsystem and of the data structures for Fee Types, Fee Categories and Liabilities, Triggers, Calculation Data and Retention Schedules. (Please refer to Understanding Student Finance and the Specialist Overview.)

For commencing students, the System may use a Student’s Course Commencement Date as the Effective Date when processing a Student Course Attempt (SCA). See notes on Commencing Students Only, below.   

The Fee Assessment Routine:

• Checks the validity of parameter values at the parameter Effective Date given for running the routine - all subsequent steps described here take parameters into account to narrow selections

For each Financial Period specified by parameter,

For each Fee Category with a Fee Period valid at the parameter Effective Date (and in the Financial Period, if specified):

• Checks today is not past the Retro Date of the Fee Period.
• Finds Student Course Attempts with a Fee Assessable Status on the Effective Date (currently Course Attempt Statuses of DISCONTIN, ENROLLED, COMPLETED, INACTIVE and INTERMIT are Fee Assessable).

Students with a status of DISCONTIN, COMPLETED or INTERMIT may have been enrolled during some part of the Fee Period. The date on which a student discontinued Enrolment is checked to verify this, while a completed Enrolment is Fee Assessable if the Census Date of its Teaching Period falls within the Fee Period.

For predictive assessments only, UNCONFIRMed Course Attempts are also considered.

Important: For more information about the Fee Assessment rountine, see the 'Assessment and Invoicing' section in Understanding Student Finance.

For each ACTIVE Fee Liability in the category and Fee Period:

• Checks for a match between a Student Course Attempt and/or Unit Set Attempt and/or Unit Attempt and a trigger.
• For a Unit Trigger (including a unit within a Trigger Group), checks that the Student's Unit Attempt is Fee Assessable (Unit Attempt Status of DISCONTIN, ENROLLED, COMPLETED or INVALID).
• For a Unit Set trigger (including a Unit Set within a Trigger Group), checks that the Effective Date for the student’s Course Attempt is either the same as, or after, the Student Unit Set Attempt Selection Date and not after either the End Date or Completion Date (where set).
• Determines the appropriate Load Calendar.

For each unit for which load is incurred:

• If a Student Contribution Amount, checks that it is not an industrial experience unit (and therefore exempt from Student Contribution Amount).
• Determines the value of the Charge Elements represented by the unit in terms of the charge method for the fee, and keeps a running total of Charge Elements across units.

Additionally, for Student Contribution Amounts, the EFSTL for a unit is split by Discipline Group.

(Fee Assessable Statuses for student Unit Attempts are ENROLLED, INVALID, DISCONTIN and COMPLETED.)

• Calculates the assessed amount for the fee, taking into account that the rate may be determined by:
  • Different course attributes (Course Code, Version Number, Location Code, Attendance Type, Attendance Mode) or Student Status (Government Student Status as at Census Date, Discipline Band).
  • Element Range values.
  • A Contract Agreement with the student.
  • For Student Contribution Amounts, the calculation is based on the rate for each relevant Discipline Band if students are liable for differential Contribution Amounts. Discipline Groups match to particular Discipline Bands, and a running total of the Student's Contribution Amount across different bands is kept.

Or, for Predictive Assessments without Unit Attempts:

• Calculates the Charge Elements from the applicant's nominated Attendance Type for a Course Attempt (see ADMF3660) before the rate is determined, as above.

For Graduation Fees:

• Calculates fees based on the following charge methods:
  • CEREMONY - 1 charge element for each distinct graduand award ceremony the graduand is attending.
  • AWARD - 1 charge element for each award regardless of the attendance of ceremonies.
  • TICKET:
    • If the configurable field ticket_charge_for_requested indicator is Y the 1 charge element for each guest ticket allocated for each ceremony the graduand is attending.If tickets have not been allocated then charge on requested tickets.
    • If the configurable field ticket_charge_for_requested indicator is N then 1 charge element for each guest ticket allocated for each ceremony the graduand is attending. If tickets have not been allocated then the charge elements are zero.
• Graduands can only be liable for a fee if:
  • System defined graduand type = ATTENDING, INABSENTIA, or DEFERRED, and
  • System graduand status = ELIGIBLE, GRADUATED, or POTENTIAL, and
  • System graduand approval status = APPROVED or WAITING.

For each Fee Liability assessed:

• Writes an Assessment Transaction Record (representing the student's liability for this fee) to the database if this is a first time assessment.

Or, if assessments already exist for the Fee Liability:

• Checks the student's current debt situation:
• If a more recent assessment exists, the student's record is not updated. Otherwise, the Effective Date for the Student’s Course Attempt is written to the database. This ensures that the correct Enrolment details are accessed for statements produced after this run.

• If the last assessment was a Manual Fee Assessment no further assessment transaction updates are made for this fee.

Otherwise:

• If the current assessment is different from the previous one, a negative or positive adjustment is made and an assessment transaction record written to the database.
• If the adjustment is negative (i.e. the student's debt has been reduced) the Retention Schedule is accessed to determine if an amount over and above the new assessment should be retained, and a Retention Transaction Record is written to the database if required.

After any Fee Liability Assessment, adjustment or retention (including those manually assessed):

• Checks whether tax applies. If so:
• Calculates the tax due on the total assessment amount now stored, including any retention amount (rather than calculating on the individual transaction).
• If this tax balance differs from the previous one stored, a negative or positive tax transaction is written to the database.

Notes: The transaction records created by this process.

• Can be seen in the form Manual Fee Assessment (FINF3610) or the inquiry form FINF9120, accessed via FINF9100 or FINF9200
• Are the basis for ascertaining a student's assessed debt wherever used in the Subsystem.

VET and ADVSTND Fee Types:

For VET fees with a System Fee Type of VET and a Management Level of UNIT, the Fee Assessment rate is matched against values defined in the student's enrolment details, as follows:

• Funding Source is matched against the Student Unit Attempt Funding Source.
• Concession is matched against the Person Concession record as at the Unit Activity Start Date.

When a fee with a System Fee Type of ADVSTND is assessed, the new Fee Assessment rate is matched against values defined in the student's enrolment details, as follows:

• Funding Source is matched against the Student Course Attempt Funding Source.
• Concession is matched against the Person Concession record as at the Granted Date of each individual item of Advanced Standing.

When a VET fee is assessed for a unit, the process determines if capping should apply across the whole Fee Cap Period, and, if applicable, a Capping adjustment transaction is added to ensure that the student is charged the minimum or maximum charges applicable to them for the designated Fee Cap Period. To achieve this, the following processing occurs (Note: actual processing order may differ):

• Determines if the Fee Type can be capped (capping applies if the Fee Cap Indicator was checked in FINF2100), and determines the Fee Cap Calendar. (The Fee Cap period is the Fee Type Fee Cap Calendar Instance period that spans the Unit Enrolment Activity Start Date of the unit being assessed.)
• Determines the processing order of the units for which capping applies.
• Records the assessment in the Fee Assessment table and in the Trace Report, with applicable Fee Cap Calendar details.
• Determines if capping can be performed for the assessment. This can only occur if a Fee Cap is found for the Fee Type.
• Finds the cap thresholds (min and max amounts) and Fee Cap Concession overrides (min and max charges) for the Fee Cap period, and, if a concession exists, uses the Concession override amounts instead of the cap threshold amounts.
• Checks the total amounts assessed in the Fee Cap period and performs capping calculations. (e.g. this could include adding a Cap Adjustment record to the current assesment or not applying capping at all).

The Unit Activity Start Date is the first date found when looking at the following values in order:

• Student Unit Attempt (SUA) Enrolment Activity Start Date
• Unit Offering Option (UOO) Enrolment Activity Start Date Alias
• Unit Offering Pattern (UOP) Enrolment Activity Start Date Alias
• Unit Offering Enrolment Activity Start Date Alias
• Enrolment Calendar Configuration Enrolment Activity Start Date Alias
• Teaching Period Start Date

(Note: Performance of the capping process is improved if the Unit Activity Start Date is populated on the Student Unit Attempt table.)

When each unit is assessed and capping applies, the current applicable cap limit is used in determining the correct cap adjustment amount for the assessment.

Each cap adjustment is based on the Fee Cap minimum and maximum assessment amounts defined for the Fee Type at the time of the Unit Activity Start Date for the unit being assessed.

Note: Fees are assessed based on Fee Category fee liabilities. The processing of Fee Categories fee liabilities within the Fee Assessment job is not ordered as this has no consequence on the assessed amounts. The trace reporting does order Fee Category fee liabilities. If the job is run with the trace on, trace messages for transactions which cross Fee Category fee liabilities such as Institution fees and fee capping, may not appear in the trace in the order in which they were processed and as such may seem out of order.

Note: The following individual student Fee Assessment processes also process VET fees (and the same capping process will be performed at each of these points, where applicable): Record Enrolments (ENRF3000), processing applicants through the Admissions system (via ADMF3600), On-Demand Statement of Account (FINF6125), Process Fee Assessments from Student To Do Entries (FINJ3001), Advanced Standing (ADVF4200), Graduand Details (GRDF4200), and Callista Connect.

Commencing Students Only

Students are generally enrolled in units before the start of their course. For these students, fees may need to assessed and collected before the Course Commencement Date.  

As long as these students are due for assessment in a current Fee Period, the System will substitute the Student’s Course Commencement Date for the Effective Date of the Course Attempt (SCA) if the Effective Date entered by parameter falls before the Commencement Date. This ensures that correct Enrolment details are recorded for these students and used by subsequent finance jobs. In this scenario, the following applies:

• Assessment is based on units with an Enrolled Date on or before the new Effective Date (the Commencement Date). Units recorded with an Enrolled Date later than this are not assessed
• For students enrolled in more than one course, the latest of the Course Commencement Dates in the Fee Period is used
• For institution fees, the latest of a student’s SCA Commencement Dates in a relevant Fee Period is used. A relevant Fee Period is one where the institution fee is a liability
• When discontinuing units before commencement, the System ensures that students are only liable for retention amounts appropriate to the schedule in effect at the parameter Effective Date (if any)
• Once an SCA Commencement Date is past, it is not possible to retrospectively assess a student’s relevant Fee Liabilities before that date

Run Details

Method:

This job can be run immediately, in batch mode through the Job Control & Scheduling Subsystem, directly from the Course Attempt screen of the Enrolment form ENRF3000, or from ADMF3660 for predictive Fee Assessments.

For information on running in Immediate Mode, see the documentation on Reports. Note that the facility to run the Fee Trace Report directly to file is not currently available, but that running in immediate mode affords the opportunity to print screen output to file (through the Previewer) specifying a postscript printer, and then use third party software to view and distribute it electronically.

The job may be set up to run with the Maintain Person Payment Schedules (FINJ6111) as a dependent job. However, note that FINJ6111 sets the dates by which individual students should make payment of fees. It is therefore necessary to produce statements (Statements of Account and Sponsor Summary Statements) in a timely manner after running FINJ6111. Refer to documentation about Creating Person Payment Schedules for more information.

Note: It is strongly recommended that extensive testing of the data structures set up by an institution in this Subsystem should be undertaken against a comprehensive sampling of student records before committing to a live run.

Service Code

When an FTCI does not have a Service Code associated with it (see FINF2100 - Service T-List), the Fee Assessment remains unchanged (therefore, follow the Update Process below).

Where a FTCI does have an associated Service Code, an additional check determines if the student has a Response to the service question (the student response appears in Maintain Person Services (ENRF30C0). At this point, the student makes this response in Connect - PE-SERVICE, but remember, an administrator can also select this in ENRF30C0 . An effective response is defined as one where the Service Response Start Date (selected in Maintain Services - ENRF30C0) is less then, or equal to, the Fee Assessment Effective Date (selected in this job) and the Service Response End Date (ENRF30C0) is either NULL or greater than, or equal to, the Fee Assessment Effective Date (this job). If an effective response is not found, Fee Assessment will not attempt to find matching rates.

Once Fee Assessment has ben determined, an effective Response to the Service Question, it then attempts to find a matching rate (FINF2853). The effective response is used to match against the response attribute for each Fee Assessment Rate (FINF2853), associated with the FTCI. If a match is found, providing all the other attributes of the rate match the student (i.e. Location Code, Attendance Mode, etc) the fees are assessed at the defined Charge Rate (selected in Define Fee Assessment Rates - FINF2853).

Note: The assumption is that the above process will only work (i.e. a Service Code displayed), when the System Fee Type is 'OTHER' and the System Fee Trigger Category is 'INSTITUTN' in Maintain Fee Types (FINF2100).

See diagram of the above process in FININTR3.

The Fee Assessment block contains:

Parameters Tab

• Fee Assessment Effective Date
• Person ID
• Course Code
• Fee Category
• Financial Period
• Fee Assessment Period
• Fee Type
• Predictive Assessment check box
• Display Warnings Only check box
• First Time Assessment check box
• Test Run check box
• Trace On check box
• Process Advanced Standing Fee Assessment check box
• Process Enrolment Fee Assessment check box
• Prevent Fee Assessment After Loan Draw Down check box

Buttons

• Calendar Lookup
• Find Person
• Find Course

Rule/Notes:

Fee Assessment is the central process of the Student Finance Subsystem

This is one of two methods of running the Fee Assessment routine. The current job and the job that has as input the Student To Do entries (FINJ3001) are different 'front ends' to the same process.

The present job can be run in batch or immediately, allows great flexibility in parameter selection, can provide a detailed 'trace' report of the processing steps and outcomes for each student and fee, and can be run in test mode without updating the database.

Validations include:

• If a Service Code has been defined for a FTCI, the student must have a Response to the service question which is effective as of the Fee Assessment Effective Date.

When processing Advanced Standing it needs to be kept in mind that when a GRANTED SCA Advanced Standing Unit (ASU) or Advanced Standing Unit Level (ASUL) is changed to any other status, fees are reassessed. See Understanding Advanced Standing (ADVINTR3) for further information or Create Advanced Standing Details (ADVF4200).

Notes: Data values that have been closed will not appear in the list of values and cannot be typed in, but will be included where relevant if the 'all' option is selected.

Set an Effective Date, which must be after the Start Date (Date Alias) recorded for the required Fee Period, and normally not later than the Current Date (the default). The Effective Date can only fall within the Start and End Dates for the Fee Period. (See the documentation on Fee Periods for more information on dates, and the notes on the situation for commencing students.)

For Predictive Assessment only, the Effective Date can be after the Current Date. It is recommended that it not be set later than the Course Start Date Alias instance recorded for the related Admissions Period. This is so that, if applicants subsequently do not confirm Enrolment in a Course Attempt, their Predictive Assessments for that course can be removed.

Optionally:

• Enter a Person ID if the job is to be run to create or update a single student's Fee Assessment.
• Enter a course code, if required, to select matching Student Course Attempts.
• Select or type in a Fee Category to assess only those students included in a particular category.
• Select a Financial Period and/or Fee Assessment Period.
• Select or type in a Fee Type to assess only those students liable for a particular fee.
• Set the Predictive Assessment check box to Yes to include unconfirmed Student Course Attempts. This allows for assessments to be made for applicants pre-enrolled during the Admissions process.

Rules/Notes:

The Fee Assessment routine is the initial process in a Fee Period cycle. All other fee processes are consequent upon it.

It may be run with FINJ6111 (the job to create students' individual payment schedules) as a dependent job. To do so, however, has certain ramifications - see Dependent Jobs below.

The job FINJ3002 provides the facility to reproduce a full trace for a previous run of the current job, where this has been run with parameters specifying an abridged trace.

This job can also be run online from the Course Attempt screen of the Enrolments form ENRF3000, and for predictive assessments directly from the Admissions form ADMF3660.

The final parameters, which can be used in combination, specify processing requirements:

• Set First Time Assessments to Yes to confine processing to students not hitherto assessed in the Fee Period. This shortens processing time because re-evaluation of students for possible reassessment is avoided. Running the process from the front-end job accessing the Student To Do entries is a more efficient way to re-assess those students whose Enrolments have changed.
• The Trace On parameter is set to Yes to produce the trace report in full or abridged version. It is recommended that, in batch mode, the full trace be run only for individuals or small groups of students.
• Set the Display/Warnings Only parameter to Yes (with Trace On parameter also set to Yes) to produce the abridged trace, reporting only those messages designed as WARN or ERROR messages. This abridged trace is useful to alert staff to a problem with a particular student's assessment in an extensive run, though little context information is given.
• Set Test Run to Yes to run the process without updating the database.
• Set the Process Enrolment Fee Assessment check box to include these fees in this run.
• Set the Process Advanced Standing Fee Assessment check box to include these fees in this run.
• Set Prevent Fee Assessment After Loan Draw Down to stop automatic fee assessment after the loan draw down has occurred for a student.

Rules/Notes:

At least one of the following process indicators must be set for the job to run:

• Process Enrolment Fee Assessments
• Process Advanced Standing Fee Assessments
• Process Graduation Fee Assessments

The Prevent Fee Assessment After Loan Draw Down check box is used in those cases when operators wish to closely manage those students who have had variations in their debt after the census date. This may happen if a unit has to be added after the census date and after the loan draw down has occurred. In this example the student's debt must increase to reflect this new unit attempt. The fee assessment transaction will occur despite the loan transaction (caused by the loan draw down), EVEN IFthe checkbox is activated.

The Fee Trace Report

The full version of the Fee Trace report (when the parameter Trace On is set to Y, and Display/Warnings Only to N) gives extensive detail of the data used and decisions taken in arriving at a Fee Assessment or reassessment for a student.

The full report is at minimum approximately a page for each Fee Liability for each student. It can run to seven pages for a single student with two Fee Liabilities. It is therefore recommended that the full trace be run only for an individual or a small group of students when in batch mode.

Though complex, the trace is fully internally documented and follows this pattern:

• Financial Period (if selected by parameter) and Fee Period information is displayed.
• For each student, details of their Course Attempt in the Fee Category are given (with a summary at the top of each page thereafter).
• Next, a Fee Liability for the student is given, together with its associated data.
• Followed by the details of the processing for that fee as outlined in steps in the Update Process section.

Rules/Notes:

The following Fee Cap data for VET Fees is listed in the Trace Report for a student:

• VET Fee Types which were subject to capping.
• Units for which no Fee Type Fee Cap details exist.
• Person Concession details that are applicable at the Unit Start Date.
• Cap minimum and maximum amounts that apply to the unit assessment.
• Cap adjustments that were required (e.g if the assessment was below the cap minimum amount, above the maximum amount, or the cap adjustment amount was incorrect).
• Cap adjustments that were not required (e.g if the exiting capping transaction amount totals the required capping amount).
• Negative Cap adjustments where the negative amount is greater than the assessed amount.
• Assessments for which no cap adjustments were made because the assessment was not equal to or greater than the cap maximum and not equal to or less than the cap minimum.
• Capping adjustments that exist and were adjusted to zero.
• Units with existing Fee Cap period data for which the Fee Assessment amount was reversed/negated and recreated in the new Fee Cap period.
• Units for which a write-off transaction exists in the Fee Cap period and therefore the Fee Cap was not maintined/no longer exists.
• Any existing debt write-offs.

The following fields in the trace appear when fee capping applies:

• Cumulative Assessed Debt: This is the total of debt transactions (excluding any capping transactions) of all units assessed up to and including the assessment for the current unit.
• Cumulative Capped Debt: This is the total of debt transactions, including any capping amounts, of all units assessed up to the current unit, and the assessment (excluding capping) of the current unit.
• Cumulative Cap Adjustment required: This is the total amount of cap transactions required in the current Fee Cap period to ensure that the Cumulative Capped Debt is within the applicable cap range. This does not look at existing cap transactions, but instead tells us what the total needs to be.
• Unit Assessed Debt: The assessed debt, excluding any capping transactions, for the current unit.
• Existing Unit Cap Adjustment: The total of any existing capping transactiong for the current unit.
  

Trace messages for transactions which cross Fee Category fee liabilities, such as Institution fees and fee capping, may not appear in the trace in the order in which they were processed and as such may seem out of order.