This article explains how to use the Financial Transactions page in Aeries to view and manage a student's financial transactions.


Users with appropriate permissions can access the Financial Transactions page for a student. The page is located under Student Data | Other in the navigation menu. For details about the permissions required, see the Security article for this feature.


Import Course Fees

The first time the page is loaded for a student, the system will look for Course Fees in the courses in which the student is currently enrolled. A pop-up will display all Course Fees.


Required Course Fees cannot be de-selected, but those that are not required can be de-selected if needed. When the selections are complete, click the Import Course Fees button to load the selected Course Fees into the Financial Transactions table.


Note: Once at least one Course Fee has been imported, the Student Course Fees pop-up will no longer display automatically when the page loads for this student. However, there is an Import Course Fees button on the main Financial Transactions page that can be used to select and import any remaining Course Fees at any time.


Transactions

Transaction records are at the heart of the Student Financial Transactions system. A useful analogy would be a bank statement or credit card statement. Each debit or credit is a separate transaction, and at all times there is a running balance. The transactions in Aeries work the same way.


Add a Transaction

To add a new transaction, click the Add Transaction button. The following window will display.


Enter the following information for the new transaction:

Amount
 Enter the amount of the transaction. A positive amount (greater than 0) represents a fee or charge to the student. A negative amount (less than 0) represents a credit to the student.
Required Next Payment
 Check the box if the full amount of this transaction should be applied to the next scheduled payment. Otherwise, the amount will be distributed across all future scheduled payments.
Tuition/Related Expense
 Check the box if this transaction is related to Tuition. This information is needed to facilitate the printing of Form 1098-T for students [COMING SOON]
Description
 Enter a description for the transaction.


Click the Add Transaction button to save the transaction, or click Close to go back.


Edit a Transaction

To edit a transaction, click the Edit button to the far right of a transaction. The following window will display.


The following information can be edited:

Grant
 Check the box if this transaction is from a grant or scholarship. At this time, this field is informational only.
Payment Type
 Select one of the options from the drop-down. The choices are Credit Card, Personal Check, and Cash. This field is informational only.
Check/Card Number
 Enter the check number or credit card number if applicable. This field is informational only. For security reasons, Aeries does not recommend storing the full credit card number in this field and suggests no more than the last 4 digits simply for reference purposes.
Status
 If needed, change the Status to "Canceled". Doing so will effectively cancel the transaction, so it will no longer be part of the student's balance.


Click the Update Transaction button to save changes, or click Close to go back.


NOTE: The amount of a transaction cannot be edited. Also, if a transaction is from Edbacker, or if the Status is already "Canceled", it cannot be edited at all. If a transaction was entered in error, it can be canceled or another transaction can be entered to offset the error so that the overall balance is correct.


Remaining Balance

As transactions are added for the student, the Remaining Balance displayed in the upper-right of the page will automatically update. Notice in the example below that the Remaining Balance is the sum of all the transaction amounts except the canceled transaction.


Payment Schedule

Aeries has the ability to schedule monthly payments for a student. To get started, click the Payment Schedule button.


The following window will display.


Enter the following information:

Start Date
 Enter the starting date for the payment calculator. The field will default to today's date.
Target Date
 Enter the ending date for the payment calculator. The field will default to the last day of the current school year.
Day of the Month
 Choose a day of the month for each scheduled payment. You can choose a fixed day (such as the 1st) or a day relative to the day of the week (such as 2nd Friday).
Schedule Every Other Month
 Check the box to schedule payments for every other month. Otherwise, payments will be scheduled for every month.


Click the Calculate Payments button to calculate a payment schedule. The details will display in this window and can be reviewed before saving. In the below example, payments were scheduled for the 3rd day of each month from June to August.


Payments are calculated as follows:

  1. Subtract all "Required Next Payment" transactions from the Remaining Balance.
  2. Divide the result by the number of payments. This is the "regular monthly payment"
  3. Add the total "Required Next Payment" transactions to the first payment

This way, certain fees are due sooner, and the others are spread across multiple payments.


Click the Save Payment Schedule button to save the changes, or click Close to go back.


Payment Schedule Report

After a Payment Schedule has been saved, it can be printed. Click the Print button.


The following window will display. Leave the box checked if you want a signature line to print on the report. Otherwise, de-select it. Then, click the Run Report button.


The report will run and automatically be sent to your browser's print command.