Project Manager: Leslie Pinkston / Peg Godwin Date Created: 10/10/2011

Transcription

1 Title: Bookstore Charges to Student A/R Project Manager: Leslie Pinkston / Peg Godwin Date Created: 10/10/2011 Document Submitted by: Leslie Pinkston / Peg Godwin Date Modified: 11/10/2011 Date Approved: 11/30/2011 Approval Date Project Implementation Complete - Approval of Sponsor/ Key Stakeholder (Print Name) Rich Van Den Hul Sponsor John Lawson Sponsor Approved Denied Signature Steering Committee Process Owners Linda Beckman Teresa Mroczkiewicz Template Revised 9/20/2011 Page 1 of 5

2 1. Project Statement & Objectives Statement Integrate the Bookstore Sequoia system with the Banner Student Account system to enable all students to charge Bookstore items to their student account. A $600 limit per quarter for bookstore charges will provide the convenience students and parents expect while mitigating the risk of uncollectible accounts. Objective Accomplishment Objective Met Enable students on financial aid to purchase textbooks earlier. A total of $424,524 was charged, outstanding balance $78, as of 11/8/2011, the difference of $346, paid by financial aid and other miscellaneous payments types. Help Bookstore keep prices lower by reducing operating expenses and increasing/maintaining sales. Offer the same convenience Charge It program that is currently available at peer institutions in Washington State. There were 2,109 individual students used the system, but many with multiple transactions. Students were able to purchase books by charging them to their student account, decreasing the number of students paying at the bookstore by credit card. Therefore reducing the credit card expense and impacting the bottom line. Following are examples of peer Washington Institution currently offer a similar program for students: Central Washington University - $1,200 per term Central Oregon Community College $ per term Western is $ per term Increased security for parents giving credit card information to Bookstore for charges. Bookstore no longer accepts credit card information from parents over the phone, decreases the risk of fraud. Template Revised 9/20/2011 Page 2 of 5

3 Provide students and parents with easier payment and tracking of student educational expenses. Improved facilitation of returns process. Bookstore charges are now on the students statement along with tuition, fees, housing and meals, other miscellaneous campus charges. Bookstore returns now go directly to student accounts thereby reducing the amount of cash needed for returns. This money is available to students within 24 hours as compared to returning credits to debt and credit cards which can take 3-6 business day before they are available to the card holder. 2. Project Key Deliverables Deliverable Allow students to charge books and other miscellaneous items to their banner AR account for up to $ Allow students to charge bookstore online purchases to their banner AR account for up to $ Integrate Banner Export file with Sequoia system. Achieved? Comments (y/n) This program went live on 9/9/2011. EPOS site accessed on the web also went live on 9/9/2011. Export file: includes all students eligible to enroll for the term, if an AR hold exists, places a reason code of 50 on their account in Sequoia and alerts Bookstore staff that they need to pay outstanding AR charges before charging additional charges. Integrate Banner Import file with Sequoia system. Import file: a list of students that charged items at the bookstore, created in Sequoia, selected by import script and inserted into a western Banner table for daily batched loading. Template Revised 9/20/2011 Page 3 of 5

4 Deliverable Automate file loading into Banner table to be loaded by Student Accounts daily during the period students can charge to their AR account. Report from Sequoia that summarizes the total amount charged for banner import file Achieved? (y/n) N Comments Student Accounts receives a batch amount to be loaded from the Bookstore accounting office. If the batch totals match the charges are loaded to AR. If amount doesn t match then Bookstore Accounting reconciles the difference and a makes an adjusting entry to be loaded the following day. Totals currently verified by prior to loading charges to banner student account. See above. 3. Summary of Financial Expenditures Quantitative ($) COSTS - Budgeted $2,500 Sequoia $6,000 Qualitative Quantitative ($) BENEFITS - Estimated The team anticipated reduced credit card fees but did not have an accurate estimate. COSTS - Actual $ 3, Banner Programming Sequoia No Charge BENEFITS - Actual $ 9,500 lower credit card fee payment by the bookstore for the fall term as compared to last term. Qualitative Fewer emergency checks distributed by Financial Aid. Very positive reaction from students to this program. 4. Lessons Learned Lesson Learned Provide a more thorough training plan to staff to avoid confusion of the program at the time of the implementation. Communication and coordination of two separate systems is challenging and difficult. Take Away Tips When identifying stakeholder, request names of end user that could represent the front line staff of each office affected directly by the change. End user staff provides a much needed perspective to the project and would be valuable in training other staff members. Organized weekly team meetings provided the needed communication for a successful Template Revised 9/20/2011 Page 4 of 5

5 Lesson Learned Take Away Tips implementation. 5. Outstanding Tasks Outstanding Deliverables/Issues Next Steps Owner Automated Report from Sequoia, ed to Student Accounts to show batch totals that are ready to load onto the student account. Follow up with Sequoia to schedule completion of the report. Peg Godwin Template Revised 9/20/2011 Page 5 of 5