1 Presented by: Julanne Brooks Institution: Joliet Junior College May 21, 2013 Student Refund Process How JJC processes in-house refunds w/an opportunity to discuss best practices

2 Session Rules of Etiquette Please turn off your cell phone/pager If you must leave the session early, please do so as discreetly as possible Please avoid side conversation during the session Thank you for your cooperation!

3 Introduction I offered to present this topic because I recently received inquiries from my peers at other institutions on how JJC handles student refunds. Also, I attended Ellucian Live in March and had hoped to gain insight from others on their processes only to find out the advertised session was geared towards Banner schools.

4 Agenda Slide Overview of JJC system set up as it relates to student refunds. Overview of how JJC processes student refunds. Q & A with time for other schools to share information and strategies for efficiency.

5 Overview of colleague set up at JJC

6 JJC accepts cash, checks (personal, cashier and traveler), money orders, Visa, MasterCard, Discover and NBS automated payment plan payments or sponsorship authorizations for tuition and fees charges. It is important to note that JJC made a decision at the beginning of time to set the colleague system to FA/CC hierarchy for refunding purposes. This means that a credit/debit card will automatically be refunded if the original payment was paid by credit/debit card. However, if the original payment was received via debit/credit card and then Financial Aid is awarded, a check would be created since our system is set to give FA priority before credit card refunds.

7 Overview of colleague set up at JJC It is our normal procedure to refund the monies via a check when cash, check and NBS payments are received as original payment. If payment is received via credit/debit card and a refund is due, we issue a credit back to the credit/debit card as mandated by our agreement with the credit card companies If the refund is due because of excess financial aid, a loan disbursement or a scholarship then a refund check is issued.

8 Overview of JJC student refund process

9 Overview of JJC refund process As daily transactions are processed, it becomes a necessity to provide refunds for various reasons. Examples include (but not limited to): schedule change sponsorship applied payment accepted in error Financial Aid awards (pell, scholarships, loans etc…)

10 Overview of JJC refund process JJC begins processing refunds for a term approximately 10 days after the semester begins (after add/drop period). We will process individual refunds prior to this time frame if requested by a student. Or when we receive payment from sponsor (third party).

11 Overview of JJC refund process On a weekly basis refund/balance due reports are generated (ARTB). We try to clean up all our miscellaneous refunds prior to Financial Aid moving loan funds to students’ accounts (which is usually 30 days into the semester) and excess title IV funds (which is at the 60% mark of the semester).

12 Overview of JJC refund process During the refund process we utilize several queries to identify specific types of refunds (SLCR)

13 Overview of JJC refund process We take those saved lists and run them through ARTB. Once we have our groupings, we verify the account credit is valid and analyze the account ensuring there are no restrictions or balances owed which would delay processing. We issue refund checks every Thursday and process credit card refunds on Fridays. An is generated to students who receive a credit back via credit/debit card.

14 Overview of JJC refund process This is an example of our check stub – we do not hold refund checks for students to pick up they all get mailed.

15 Overview of JJC refund process There are points in a semester where refund checks may include multiple Financial Aid awards (pell, loan, SEOG etc..) Customizing our check stub has eliminated the need to explain to student’s what their refund is for. We are diligent about communicating refund totals and types of aid being refunded as needed to our accountants and assistant controller to ensure we don’t have issues with cash flow. Our general accountants run TFAR weekly by award to tie to the GL in totals.

16 Summary Refunding is a never ending process. Timeliness and accuracy are essential. Communication between your Finance office, Financial Aid office and Student Account office is crucial.

17 Questions/Comments

18 Thank You! Julanne Brooks Manager, Student Accounts & Payments