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Meeting the Needs of Online Payments. Martha Myers, Administrative Computing Manager Columbia Public Schools Derrick Shy, Senior Account Executive Sallie Mae Campus Solutions. The Issues…. High Schools Not Able to Take Credit Cards For Major Purchases
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Meeting the Needs of Online Payments Martha Myers, Administrative Computing Manager Columbia Public Schools Derrick Shy, Senior Account Executive Sallie Mae Campus Solutions
The Issues… • High Schools Not Able to Take Credit Cards For Major Purchases • Hundreds of parents and students at Back to School night bringing cash and checks to purchase yearbooks, parking passes, activity passes, etc. • ECA secretaries responsible for taking money, securing the funds until able to deposit, and doing individual deposit entries into the district’s accounting software. • Wanting to make the Back to School process easier for everyone; and make it easier to purchase items and pay student fees by enabling an on-line payment process. • Superintendent wanted an easy way for people to make donations to the district, schools or programs.
Student Fees: The Example School… • Hickman High School ~ Columbia, MO • ~ 1900 students, grades 10-12 • Accepting credit card payments initially for: • Yearbooks • Parking passes • Activity passes • Course fees • Web interface will eventually add other student fees, such as: • Prom fee • Fees for activity travel (band trips, etc.)
The Data… • For Student Fees, each school controls what fees are published by using the Fee’s module in our student system, eSchoolPLUS by Sungard Public Sector. • Fees can be added/deleted as the school desires, on their timeline • When a fee is added, the Business Office is notified so that they can add the appropriate account code behind that fee for upload to the BusinessPLUS finance system (also from Sungard) after any fees are processed • The account codes are associated with each type of fee via a database table tied to the webpage. When an item is selected for purchase by a student/parent, the account code is passed over to Sallie Mae so that a report can be generated with each fee and account code. • The Business Office accountants use the Sallie Mae e-Tool interface to download the dollar amounts and account codes into a csv file. That file is then uploaded into BusinessPLUS to automatically create the appropriate deposit information. • The process is transparent to the individual making the purchase. • The Sallie Mae site creates a receipt page once the credit card or account information has been accepted. • For the Donations site, the Business Office controls the donation categories and GL accounts associated with those categories.
The Costs… • For Student Fees, none to the individual making the on-line transaction – the convenience fees are included in the price of the items. • For the Donations Site, the convenience fee can be paid by the person making the donation, or taken out of the total amount of the donation. • Fee to Sallie Mae for the creating and setup of the banking engine • Processing (internal and external) – the time spent in entering deposits and reconciling them to the GL accounts has been greatly reduced • Our secretaries and accountants are much more efficient, spending less time on the processing of student fees • One change in the normal process is notifying the Business Office when a new fee/account code needs to be added to the database tables • Once we have gone through an entire school year, most of the fee types and account codes will have been added – this will mean much less maintenance of that table going forward.
The Challenges… • Creating the back end to the website that will automatically populate the appropriate students to the appropriate parent/guardian. • CPS programmers were able to tie the students to the guardian by using the Home Access Center logins already in existence in eSchoolPLUS. • Students and/or parents must have a Home Access login in order to pay student fees via the on-line program. • Leveraging the Student Fees module in eSchoolPLUS to provide an easy way to maintain the fees at any point on the website • The ECA secretaries already use the eSchoolPLUS system, so training them to use the Student Fees module was very intuitive for them. • Bringing the transaction information, including account codes, back to the BusinessPLUS financial system • Inconsistent activity pricing across the two high schools using the on-line websites.
Making Processes Better… • Less actual money/checks coming in during Back to School nights • Much less data entry by the schools and the Business Office • Less chance of data entry error when the data is pulled automatically rather than hand entered • Ease of payment/ease of use for students/parents. • Less time spent in line during back to school night • Donations made to the district can be directed by the person/entity donating the money.
Updates and Changes • Started out with our two main high schools – will be adding our intermediate schools and third high school during the 2013-14 school year. • All the websites use the same Sallie Mae banking engine, allowing for consistency in their programming and the data the district pulls back. • The differences between the school sites/donation site are controlled by the CPS programmers who maintain the individual front-end websites that connect to the banking engine.
Industry Trends and Impacts Shifting of student/family needs and expectations: • Student populations are increasing • Staff reductions due to budget cuts • Stricter compliance requirements • Higher security risks • Emphasis on “going green”
Why use a hosted payment gateway? Unmatched attention to the management of data security and regulatory risk: To help you protect your funds, your data, and your reputation, an outsourced provider should use encryption software, provide multiple layers of firewalls, and operate on a fully redundant platform Be PCI-DSS certified (Sallie Mae is Level 1) and comply with relevant requirements of CISP I and II, FERPA, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, and Red Flag Controls If relevant, provide the necessary tools to remain compliant with Title IV regulations, the Truth in Lending Act, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, the Electronic Funds Transfer Act, and applicable state retail installment laws
Why use a hosted payment gateway? • The Electronic Payment Gateway is an efficient solution regardless of Institution size • The Electronic Payment Gateway can serve as a single point of service for all online payments via both credit card and ACH transactions • The Electronic Payment Gateway offers flexibility within departments. • Each department has the flexibility to choose which payment options to offer end-users (credit cards, debit cards, and ACH transactions). Each department can also choose whether to charge convenience fees (subject to the laws of your state) or pay the merchant fees
Why use a hosted payment gateway? • Your school can create multiple gateways to receive payments from • Students and families that need to pay for merchandise such as yearbooks and parking permits • Students who want to make electronic payments for event registrations • Alumni who want to make a one-time contribution or make payments on fundraising pledges • Anyone who wants to register to attend a conference or event within your District • The Gateway provides an archival record for your administrators. • Payment and transaction history is available online for 24 months. The system archives transaction data for seven (7) years.
